Swing Kids

The Swing Kids (German: Swingjugend) were a group of jazz and Swing lovers in the Germany of the 1930s, mainly in Hamburg (St. Pauli) and Berlin. They were composed of 14 to 18-year old boys and girls in high school, most of them middle or high-class students, but some apprentice workers as well. They sought the British and American way of life, defining themselves in Swing music, and opposing the National-Socialist ideology, especially the Hitlerjugend.

See Also

• The Swing youth movement was the subject of a feature film, Swing Kids
• A musical, Swinging St. Pauli, was made out of the story of the Swing Youth of Hamburg http://www.tivoli.de/Info/Presse/2001/190901b.html
• History of subcultures in the 20th century
• Youth culture