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SUMMARY:&quot\;DU HAST DICH ALS ECHTER KÄMPFER\, ALS TAPFERER HITLER-JUNG
 E\, ALS BRAVER SPARTANER ERWIESEN!&quot\;: The importance of Sparta in nat
 ional-socialist elite education (a case study) - Helen Roche\, Classics\, 
 University of Cambridge
DTSTART:20101129T170000Z
DTEND:20101129T183000Z
UID:TALK25816@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Daniel Jonah Wolpert
DESCRIPTION:Praised by Hitler himself as ‘the foremost racial state in a
 ntiquity’\,\nancient Sparta was presented in national-socialist thought 
 as the\nideal of a totalitarian\, Aryan state whose defining characteristi
 cs\n(life in an ordered community\, enslavement of conquered races\, and\n
 permanent readiness for war) mirrored uncannily those of the new\nGermany.
 \n\n            Nowhere was Nazi admiration of Sparta more prevalent\,\nho
 wever\, than in the Third Reich’s elite-schools.  At the\nAdolf-Hitler-S
 chools\, boys had to study a textbook on Sparta entitled\n‘The Life-stru
 ggle of an Aryan master-race’\, which subordinated\nhistorical accuracy 
 to make Spartan history ‘fit’ National-Socialist\nideological tropes. 
  At the National-political Educational Institutes\n(‘Napolas’)\, boys 
 were also encouraged to identify themselves with\nyoung Spartans\, in orde
 r to promote the schools’ cardinal virtues\,\nsuch as unconditional brav
 ery and readiness for self-sacrifice in war.\n\n            This paper wou
 ld focus on the experiences of boys at the\nNapolas in general\, and at on
 e particular schooll\, Napola Naumburg\, in\nparticular.  From corresponde
 nce with a number of ex-pupils\, I have\nbeen able to reconstruct a vivid 
 picture of what exactly their\n‘Spartan education’ entailed.  Their se
 lf-identification with young\nSpartans was encouraged by a large proportio
 n of the teaching-staff\,\nand\, during the winter holiday of 1943-44\, on
 e class was made to\nmemorise a long text on Sparta\, which also contained
  (unknown to them)\na German translation of a poem by Tyrtaios (Fr.11-West
 ).  The way that\nthe rest of the (more ideologically-loaded) text frames 
 the poem\, and\nthe ways in which Tyrtaios’ poetry was used educationall
 y during this\nperiod\, are interesting in themselves – however\, my mai
 n aim would be\nto present as complete a picture as possible of the way th
 e Nazis’ use\nof Spartan ideology took practical shape at this particula
 r school.\nSince the evidence is based on eyewitness testimony which\nI ha
 ve only just been able to recover\, the paper’s content would be the fru
 it of completely original research\, which has never yet been presented or
  published in English.\n
LOCATION:Grad Seminar Rm\, 3rd Fl. Raised Faculty Bldg.\, Sidgwick Site
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