Hitler Youth Home Pasing

One of the measures taken by the National Socialists to gain the approval and enthusiasm of children and young people soon after coming to power was to pursue a ‘home procurement campaign’ for the Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls (BdM) which was controlled centrally from Berlin. Initially, the premises of the dismantled youth organizations were confiscated. Since there was soon far from sufficient space to accommodate the enormous number of youngsters who joined Nazi organizations from 1936 onwards, a Law on the Procurement of Hitler Youth Homes was passed in 1939.

As early as November 1935, the local newspaper Würmtal-Bote presented plans for a large Hitler Youth home in the Munich suburb of Pasing. Due to bureaucratic obstacles in the centralized organization, however – a ‘Working Committee for HJ Home Procurement’ first had to set out detailed guidelines for the design of the building – construction did not start until August 1937. It was almost another two years before the facility was completed. Following instructions from Berlin, the Pasing municipal authorities paid 160,000 reichsmarks, well over half of the total cost of the 88-meter-long, two-story building on Aubinger Straße; the Munich city authorities contributed another 40,000 reichsmarks after Pasing was incorporated in the city boundaries in 1938. In addition, Pasing residents were forced into doing 3,000 ‘community hours’ by the local SA ‘Storm’.

With the separate wings and entrances for the HJ and BdM, a central ‘Hall of Honor’ with Hitler memorial, a parade ground and a sports grounds, the building’s functional and prestigious elements reflected National Socialist ideals. It only fulfilled its actual purpose for a very short period of time, however, being converted into an auxiliary hospital as early as 1940. After the war it was used as a home for apprentices and schoolchildren, and later housed the youth welfare association ‘Just M’ run by the Munich youth welfare office.