The Edelweiss Pirates ( German : Edelweißpiraten [ˈeːdl̩vaɪs.piˌʁaːtn̩] ) were a loosely organized group of youths opposed to the status quo of Nazi Germany . They emerged in western Germany out of the German Youth Movement of the late 1930s in response to the strict regimentation of the Hitler Youth . Similar in many ways to the Leipzig Meuten , they consisted of young people, mainly between the ages of 14 and 17, who had evaded the Hitler Youth by leaving school (which was allowed at 14) and were also young enough to avoid military conscription, which was only compulsory from the age of 17 onward. The roots and background of the Edelweiss Pirates movement were detailed in the 2004 film Edelweiss Pirates , directed by Niko von Glasow .
31-592: (Redirected from Tin Drum ) Tin drum and similar may refer to: The Tin Drum , a 1959 novel by Günter Grass The Tin Drum (film) , the film adaptation of that novel Tin Drum (album) , a 1981 album by the new wave/art pop band Japan See also [ edit ] Tyndrum , a town in Scotland Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with
62-462: A Polish black marketeer. There were also attacks against German women who were known to have been friends or been intimate with British soldiers. In a trial held by a military court at Uelzen in April 1946, a juvenile named as "Heinz D." was initially sentenced to death, for his "very active part in carrying out the nefarious schemes of the E. Piraten. An organization such as this might well threaten
93-583: A criminal youth gang (akin to the Edelweiss Pirates ). The Red Army soon captures Danzig, and Alfred is shot by invading troops after he goes into seizures while swallowing his party pin to avoid being revealed as a Nazi. Oskar bears some culpability for both of his presumptive fathers' deaths since he leads Jan Bronski to the Polish Post Office in an effort to get his drum repaired and he returns Alfred Matzerath's Nazi party pin while he
124-545: A group of youth who rebelled against the government's regimentation of leisure and were unimpressed by the propaganda touting Volksgemeinschaft (people's community). During the war, many Edelweißpiraten supported the Allies and assisted deserters from the German Army. Some groups also collected propaganda leaflets dropped by Allied aircraft and pushed them through letterboxes. Apart from gatherings on street corners,
155-486: A mental hospital during the years 1952–1954. Born in 1924 in the Free City of Danzig (now Gdańsk , Poland), with an adult's capacity for thought and perception, he decides never to grow up when he hears his father declare that he would become a grocer. Gifted with a piercing shriek that can shatter glass or be used as a weapon, Oskar declares himself to be one of those " clairaudient infants", whose "spiritual development
186-406: A neighbour, but he later fails to seduce her. During an encounter with fellow musician Klepp, Klepp asks Oskar how he has an authority over the judgement of music. Oskar, willing to prove himself once and for all, picks up his drum and sticks despite his vow to never play again after Alfred's death, and plays a measure on his drum. The ensuing events lead Klepp, Oskar, and Scholle, a guitarist, to form
217-641: A small number of Edelweißpiraten remained in the Antifascist Youth and the Free German Youth organizations, the majority turned their backs on these bodies as soon as they realized that, in the words of one member, "politics were taking centre stage again". For example, a group in Bergisch Gladbach disbanded when young people of communist orientation tried to form a majority in the group. The Edelweißpiraten's turning away from
248-465: Is a 1959 novel by Günter Grass , the first book of his Danzig Trilogy . It was adapted into a 1979 film , which won both the 1979 Palme d'Or and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1980. To "beat a tin drum" means to create a disturbance in order to bring attention to a cause. The story revolves around the life of Oskar Matzerath, as narrated by himself when confined in
279-455: Is being interrogated by Soviet soldiers. After the war Oskar, his widowed stepmother, and their son have to leave the now Polish city of Danzig and move to Düsseldorf , where he models in the nude and works engraving tombstones. Mounting tensions compel Oskar to live apart from Maria and Kurt; he decides on a flat owned by the Zeidlers. Upon moving in, he falls in love with Sister Dorothea,
310-428: Is complete at birth and only needs to affirm itself". He retains the stature of a child while living through the beginning of World War II , several love affairs, and the world of postwar Europe . Through all this, a toy tin drum, the first of which he received as a present on his third birthday, followed by many replacement drums each time he wears one out from over-vigorous drumming, remains his treasured possession; he
341-516: Is disappointed to find that the baby persists in growing up, and will not join him in ceasing to grow at the age of three. During the war, Oskar joins a troupe of performing dwarfs who entertain the German troops at the front line. But when his second love, the diminutive Roswitha, is killed by Allied troops in the invasion of Normandy, Oskar returns to his family in Danzig where he becomes the leader of
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#1732801377533372-645: Is willing to commit violence to retain it. Oskar considers himself to have two "presumptive fathers"—his mother's husband Alfred Matzerath, a member of the Nazi Party , and her cousin and lover Jan Bronski, a Danzig Pole who is executed for defending the Polish Post Office in Danzig during the German invasion of Poland . Oskar's mother having died, Alfred marries Maria, a woman who is secretly Oskar's first mistress . After marrying Alfred, Maria gives birth to Kurt, whom Oskar thereafter refers to as his son. But Oskar
403-527: The Ehrenfelder Gruppe , were publicly hanged in Cologne. Some of these were former Edelweißpiraten. The Edelweißpiraten hanged included six teenagers, among them Bartholomäus Schink , called "Barthel", former member of the local Navajos. Fritz Theilen survived. Nevertheless, government repression never managed to break the spirit of most groups, which constituted a subculture that rejected
434-517: The Gestapo as belonging to the various gangs were often rounded up and released with their heads shaved to shame them. In some cases, young people were sent to concentration camps specifically organized for youths, or temporarily detained in regular prison. On 25 October 1944, Heinrich Himmler ordered a crackdown on the group, and in November of that year, a group of thirteen people, the heads of
465-822: The Kittelbach Pirates of Oberhausen and Düsseldorf , and the Roving Dudes of Essen . According to one Nazi official in 1941, "Every child knows who the Kittelbach Pirates are. They are everywhere; there are more of them than there are Hitler Youth... They beat up the patrols... They never take no for an answer." Although they rejected the Nazis' authoritarianism, the Edelweißpiraten ' s nonconformist behaviour tended to be restricted to petty provocations. Despite this, they represented
496-673: The 1980 Academy Awards. In 1996 a radio dramatisation starring Phil Daniels was broadcast by BBC Radio 4 . Adapted by Mike Walker , it won the British Writers Guild award for best dramatisation. The Kneehigh Theatre company performed an adaption of the novel in 2017 at the Everyman Theatre located in Liverpool. The production features the story from Oskar's birth through the war, ending with Oskar marrying Maria. Edelweiss Pirates The origins of
527-776: The Allies had hoped, the Edelweißpiraten were neither pro-British nor pro-American. In the early days of the Allied occupation, they sought contact with the occupying authority to intervene on behalf of friends, and even to propose that they might go on patrol, as did the Wuppertal Edelweißpiraten. They were taken seriously and courted by various factions; the first known pamphlets of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), in July 1945, were directed at them. While
558-547: The Defense of the Polish Post Office, his grandfather Koljaiczek's fate, his paternal status over Kurt, Maria's son, and many others. The novel is strongly political in nature, although it goes beyond a political novel in the writing's stylistic plurality. There are elements of allegory , myth and legend , placing it in the genre of magic realism . The Tin Drum has religious overtones, both Jewish and Christian. Oskar holds conversations with both Jesus and Satan throughout
589-468: The Edelweißpiraten can be traced to the period immediately prior to World War II , as the state-controlled Hitler Youth ( Hitler-Jugend ) was mobilized to indoctrinate young people, at the expense of the leisure activities previously offered to them. This tension was exacerbated once the war began and youth leaders were conscripted. In contrast, the Edelweißpiraten offered young people considerable freedom to express themselves and to mingle with members of
620-954: The Edelweißpiraten engaged in hiking and camping trips, defying the restrictions on free movement, which kept them away from the prying eyes of the totalitarian regime. They were highly antagonistic to the Hitler Youth, ambushing their patrols and taking great pride in beating them up. One of their slogans was "Eternal War on the Hitler Youth". As one subgroup, the Navajos, sang: Des Hitlers Zwang, der macht uns klein, noch liegen wir in Ketten Doch einmal werden wir wieder frei, wir werden die Ketten schon brechen. Denn unsere Fäuste, die sind hart, ja – und die Messer sitzen los, für die Freiheit der Jugend, kämpfen Navajos. The force of Hitler makes us small; we still lie in chains. But one day we will be free again; we are about to break
651-612: The Rhine River Three jazz band. They are discovered by Mr. Schmuh, who invites them to play at the Onion Cellar club. After a virtuoso performance, a record company talent seeker discovers Oskar the jazz drummer and offers a contract. Oskar soon achieves fame and riches. One day while walking through a field he finds a severed finger: the ring finger of Sister Dorothea, who has been murdered. He then meets and befriends Vittlar. Oskar allows himself to be falsely convicted of
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#1732801377533682-472: The book. His gang members call him "Jesus", and he refers to himself as "Satan" later in the book. Initial reaction to The Tin Drum was mixed. It was called blasphemous and pornographic by some, and legal action was taken against it and Grass. However, by 1965 sentiment had cemented into public acceptance, and it soon became recognized as a classic of post-World War II literature, both in Germany and around
713-437: The chains. For our fists, they are hard; yes – and the knives sit ready; for the freedom of the youth Navajos fight. The Nazi response to the Edelweißpiraten was relatively slight before the war, because they were viewed as a minor irritant and did not fit in with the policy of selective terror. As the war went on, and some Pirates' activities became more extreme, so did the punishments meted out. Individuals identified by
744-455: The late 1930s in western Germany, comprising mostly young people between 14 and 18. Individual groups were closely associated with different regions but were identifiable by a common style of dress with their own edelweiss badge and by their opposition to what they saw as the paramilitary nature of the Hitler Youth. Subgroups of the Edelweißpiraten included the Navajos , centered on Cologne ,
775-510: The murder and is confined to an insane asylum , where he writes his memoirs. The novel is divided into three books. The main characters in each book are: Oskar Matzerath is an unreliable narrator , as his sanity, or insanity, never becomes clear. He tells the tale in first person , though he occasionally diverts to third person , sometimes within the same sentence. As an unreliable narrator, he may contradict himself within his autobiography, as with his varying accounts of, but not exclusively,
806-509: The norms of Nazi society. While the Edelweißpiraten assisted army deserters and others hiding from the Third Reich, they have yet to receive recognition as a resistance movement (partly because they were viewed with contempt by many of their former Youth Movement comrades because of their "proletarian" backgrounds and "criminal" activities), and the families of members killed by the Nazis have as yet received no reparations. Contrary to what
837-709: The opposite sex. This was unlike Nazi youth movements, which were strictly segregated by sex, the Hitler Youth being for boys and the League of German Girls ( Bund Deutscher Mädel ) for girls. Although predominantly male, the Edelweißpiraten consisted of both male and female members. The Edelweißpiraten used many symbols of the outlawed German Youth Movement , including their tent (the Kohte ), their style of clothing (the Jungenschaftsjacke [ de ] ), and their songs. The first Edelweißpiraten appeared in
868-609: The peace of Europe." The sentence was commuted the following month to a prison term. In the Soviet Zone, young people suspected of being Edelweißpiraten were sentenced to a virtually obligatory 25 years in prison. Controversy surrounded the claims that the group were Widerstandskämpfer (resistance fighters) after one member, Fritz Theilen, published his memoirs in 1984, leading to several legal battles that Theilen won. In April 2011, Cologne's mayor, Jürgen Roters , presented Theilen and four other survivors, including Gertrud Koch ,
899-752: The re-authorized political youth groups forced them into the role of social outcasts and brought them into conflict with the Allies. The headquarters of the American Counter-Intelligence Corps in Frankfurt reported in May 1946 that Edelweiß activities were known throughout the British and American Zones . Groups identifying themselves as Edelweißpiraten conducted many violent attacks against Soviet Russian and Polish displaced persons . Author Peter Schult witnessed such an attack against
930-619: The title Tin drum . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tin_drum&oldid=949451838 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages The Tin Drum The Tin Drum ( German : Die Blechtrommel , pronounced [diː ˈblɛçˌtʁɔml̩] )
961-499: The world. A translation into English by Ralph Manheim was published in 1961. A new 50th anniversary translation into English by Breon Mitchell was published in 2009. In 1979 a film adaptation appeared by Volker Schlöndorff . It covers only Books One and Two, concluding at the end of the war. It shared the 1979 Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or with Apocalypse Now . It also won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film of 1979 at