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SS-Junker Schools (German ''SS-Junkerschulen'') were leadership training facilities for officer candidates of the '' Schutzstaffel'' (SS). The term ''Junkerschulen'' was introduced by Nazi Germany in 1937, although the first facilities were established at
Bad Tölz Bad Tölz (; Bavarian language, Bavarian: ''Däiz'') is a Town#Germany, town in Bavaria, Germany and the administrative center of the Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen district. History Archaeology has shown continuous occupation of the site of Bad Tö ...
and Braunschweig in 1934 and 1935. Additional schools were founded at Klagenfurt and Posen-Treskau in 1943, and Prague in 1944. Unlike the Wehrmacht's "war schools", admission to the SS-Junker Schools did not require a secondary diploma. Training at these schools provided the groundwork for employment with the ''
Sicherheitspolizei The ''Sicherheitspolizei'' ( en, Security Police), often abbreviated as SiPo, was a term used in Germany for security police. In the Nazi era, it referred to the state political and criminal investigation security agencies. It was made up by the ...
'' (SiPo; security police), the '' Sicherheitsdienst'' (SD; security service), and later for the Waffen-SS. Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, intended for these schools to mold cadets for future service in the officer ranks of the SS.


History

As part of an effort to professionalize their officers, the SS founded a leadership school in 1934; the first one was at the Bavarian town of
Bad Tölz Bad Tölz (; Bavarian language, Bavarian: ''Däiz'') is a Town#Germany, town in Bavaria, Germany and the administrative center of the Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen district. History Archaeology has shown continuous occupation of the site of Bad Tö ...
, established under the leadership of SS-Colonel Paul Lettow. Thereafter, a second school at Braunschweig under the direction of then SS-'' Oberführer'' Paul Hausser was founded. Hausser's military experience and detailed knowledge as a retired army lieutenant general was leveraged by Himmler in developing the curriculum at both the Bad Tölz and Braunschweig training centers. To his staff, Hausser added other experienced military veterans and gifted officers to build a training regimen that became the foundation for the Waffen-SS. In 1937, Himmler rechristened the Leadership Schools to "Junker Schools" in honor of the land-owning Junker aristocracy that once dominated the Prussian military. Akin to the Junker officers of their namesake, most cadets eventually led Waffen-SS regiments into combat. By the time World War II in Europe was underway, additional SS Leadership Schools at Klagenfurt, Posen-Treskau and Prague had been founded. Himmler intended to use the SS-Junker Schools to help instill the SS ethic into Nazi Germany's police forces. To accomplish this, a percentage of SS-Junker School graduates entered the ranks of the Uniformed Police; in 1937, some 40 percent of Junker School-graduates joined the police, and another 32 percent were integrated into the police in 1938. Suitable members of the Hitler Youth were identified, as were students who had successfully completed their ''
Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...
'' (university entrance exam) for application into the SS-Junker Schools or they could elect to attend Nazi Germany's police officer candidate schools. Graduates and affiliates of the SS-Junker Schools were among those persons given the Hitler '' Sondergerichtsbarkeit'' (special jurisdiction), which freed them from prosecution for criminal acts. Also included in this extrajudicial group were the likes of the Gestapo, the
SiPO The ''Sicherheitspolizei'' ( en, Security Police), often abbreviated as SiPo, was a term used in Germany for security police. In the Nazi era, it referred to the state political and criminal investigation security agencies. It was made up by the ...
, and the SD.


Training

Created to educate and mold the next generation of leadership within the SS, cadets were taught to be adaptable officers who could perform any task assigned to them, whether in a police role, at a
Nazi concentration camp From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps, (officially) or (more commonly). The Nazi concentration camps are distinguished from other types of Nazi camps such as forced-labor camps, as well as concen ...
, as part of a fighting unit, or within the greater SS organization. Additional administrative and economic training was included at the behest of SS-''
Gruppenführer __NOTOC__ ''Gruppenführer'' (, ) was an early paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party (NSDAP), first created in 1925 as a senior rank of the SA. Since then, the term ''Gruppenführer'' is also used for leaders of groups/teams of the police, fire de ...
''
Oswald Pohl Oswald Ludwig Pohl (; 30 June 1892 – 7 June 1951) was a German SS functionary during the Nazi era. As the head of the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office and the head administrator of the Nazi concentration camps, he was a key figure in ...
and the SS Main Economic and Administrative Department. Pohl intended to shape future SS officers into effective and efficient managers of the SS economics industry and insisted that supplemental training in corporate operations was integrated into the curriculum. General military instruction over logistics and planning was provided but much of the training concentrated on small-unit tactics associated with raids, patrols, and ambushes. Training an SS officer took as much as nineteen months overall and encompassed additional things like map reading, tactics, military maneuvers, political education, weapons training, physical education, combat engineering and even automobile mechanics, all of which were provided in varying degrees at additional training facilities based on the cadet's specialization. Political and ideological indoctrination was part of the syllabus for all SS cadets but there was no merger of academic learning and military instruction like that found at West Point in the United States. Instead, personality training was stressed, which meant future SS leaders/officers were shaped above all things by a National Socialist worldview and attitude. Instruction at the Junker Schools was designed to communicate a sense of racial superiority, a connection to other dependable like-minded men, ruthlessness, and a toughness that accorded the value system of the SS. Throughout their stay during the training, cadets were constantly monitored for their "ideological reliability." It is postulated that the merger of the police with the SS was at least partly the result of their shared attendance at the SS Junker Schools. By 1945, more than 15,000 cadets from these training institutions were commissioned as officers in the Waffen-SS.


See also

*
Ideology of the SS The ideology of the ''Schutzstaffel'' ("Protection Squadron"; SS), a paramilitary force and an instrument of terror of the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, emphasized a racist vision of "racial purity", primarily based on antisemitism and loyalty to A ...


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* * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:SS-Junker Schools Nazi SS Nazi Party organizations Nazi culture Education in Nazi Germany