“The Desire for Peace is ‘Unconstitutional’ in Bonn”: The Free German Youth and Rearmament in West Germany, 1945–1952

ABSTRACT: Best known as the state youth organization of the German Democratic Republic, the Free German Youth (FDJ) operated widely in West Germany during the early Cold War era. This article provides a brief history of the West-FDJ, as it was known, and concentrates on its prominent efforts challenging Chancellor Konrad Adenauer’s rearmament policies in the early 1950s. While the decision to ban the organization in 1951 was justified by concerns about the fragility of the young democratic state, the Adenauer government’s strident response also served as a politically expedient strategy to undermine resistance to West Germany’s remilitarization.