HJ Gebietsführerschule Retzhof in Austria (Gebiet 30 Steiermark)

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Hello everyone!

Great list Garry!
does anyone know where i could get more Information about the gebietsführerschule Retzhof (Reichsgau Steiermark) which is also listed above?
where did you get the Information to compile this list from?



Admin edit: this discussion of Retzhof was previously in the thread at the above link. I subsequently moved them to create this new discussion.
 
Hello, welcome to the forum. The source for Retzendorf is shown in the post:
Garry said:
What follows is a transcript of the schools list (by Gebiet) from the 1944 SHAEF report. This list contains errors and the aim is to correct these and confirm the other entries in the list. Corrections will be added in red.

That SHAEF document can be downloaded in the members area but it is also available on a couple of other militaria sites. Google will point the way. There's general information on Google about this Gebietsführerschule too. I don't know whether you found that. Do you have a particular interest in Gebiet 30 Steiermark?
 
Yes, i have Special interest in the Gebietsführerschule Retzhof in Gebiet 30 Steiermark as I am researching the ideological/educational history of this Castle in the 20th century as a whole. All documents in the regional archives have been destroyed or got "lost" and the Berlin and Freiburg archives couldn't help me either. so i am a Little on a dead end here. I had found the SHAEF document before, thanks. could you help me with any other possible sources i did not yet manage to stumple across?
 
Hi,

By "ideological" I assume you mean the period 1938-45? I only ask because prior to and for some time after that period the castle was a residence as you know. It now has a different purpose and I assume that this is what you mean by "educational". To be honest, I'm still a little unsure of the exact nature of your enquiry. As far as the Hitler Youth is concerned do you want to know the content of the leadership courses that were held there and who took part in them/was eligible to take part or is there something else entirely that you are specifically looking for?
 
by ideological i do not only mean the period between 1938 and 1945 but i look at the "ideological"/programmatic orientation of the educational activities (of any sort - be it hitler youth, illegal national-socialist meetings, youth education from 1948-1964 or adult education) up until now. the term "ideological" is therefore used in order to designate that there are always certain positions (call them "world view" or attitudes if you like) of the involved agents that influence this orientation in one or another way - always in a reciproc relationship to societal developments. this is what i basically look at.
and therefore yes, it is the contents and the structure of the programmes that i am most interested in.
 
Well, the previous century seems clear enough. It was a residence between 1900 and some point shortly after the Anschluss when the Hitler Youth began to use it as a leadership school. In 1945 the Knapp family reclaimed their home and moved back in. What happened in the remaining years of the last century seems clear which is why I assumed that you registered here to discuss the period 1938-45.

Using a period publication that I have here I could tell you the structure, content and administration of a course at a Gebietsführerschule, which ranks were eligible to attend, exactly what they were required to learn and how the content differed according to which branch of the Hitler Youth the personnel came from. It's a lot of information going over many, many pages that I couldn't really precis whilst still doing justice to it. In any case, none of it is specific to the Gebeitsführerschule in Schloß Retzhof. It was implemented in all leadership schools within the Reich territory. This is what I meant when I said I was unsure what you specifically wanted to know. I really need to know what you have already discovered and whether I or the other members can help you with specifics related to the period where the Schloß was in the hands of the Hitler Youth.
 
concerning the years between 1942 and 1945 when the HJ was occupying Retzhof - that is basically all I know (besides the Name of the leader, one Picture of him with Party officials (unknown source, unknown date) and the contract between knapp and the nsdap). So this publication you talk about might help me to get an insight in what might have been going on in the retzhof gebietsführerschule as well. could you give me some more Details? - and this is why i registered for this Forum :)
(btw, the Knapp Family never moved back into Retzhof after 1945, right after the russians left it became a british lazaret and was later on taken into custody by the government of styria and rented to private persons until 1948 when the government established a continuing education facility for Commercial youth there)
 
Ah okay. My apologies. I got the Knapp thing from an official but clearly badly researched .at site about Retzhof. Would you be happy to share information? If you could tell us what you know about the HJ involvement at Retzhof I can give you what you need. This forum would then be richer for your info and we can help you. Sound good?

PS: do you read German? I'm guessing that you do.
 
no problem! yes, the retzhof homepage will be updated once i finished the research project and therefore does not correspond with the current state of knowledge. The problem is, that based on the sources available to me i could get hardly any information about the hj at retzhof. i only know that they've been there from 1942 to 1945 and that it was a gebietsführerschule. nothing about who went there or what exactly happened there and therefore i need information about daily practices at gebietsführerschulen or maybe a hint to private sources not registered anywhere.
and yes, i do read german :)
 
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