Cultivating historical traditions and spreading enthusiasm for the great feats of the nation and its leaders was not the V. D. St.’s sole mission, however. The association took the lead wherever it was necessary to represent German popular traditions and customs or the students’ view of service to the fatherland. On July 15, 1884, the law student Raeck chaired a student meeting in support of the Prague petition for freedom of movement for medical students, which was sent to the universities of Austria and Switzerland. At the suggestion of A. H. Friedrich Naumann, who was working at the “Rauhes Haus”* at the time, the summer semester of 1886 saw the establishment of a committee of the Association for Voluntary Nursing.** The committee of representatives of the student body gave the V. D. St. the responsibility of convening a general student meeting, which took place on July 23. It was chaired by Richard Heinze, and speeches were given by Friedrich Naumann and Count Vitzthum, the chairman of the Saxon Regional Association for Home Missions. Participation in “voluntary nursing” has become an obligation for every member of the V. D. St. who is unfit for military service; additionally, everyone was asked to make a monetary sacrifice in the form of a semester fee of half a mark. The V. D. St. was also represented on the committee of the Protestant organization for field-based welfare work. On January 10, 1887, the theology students of the university followed the recommendation of the association in unanimously opposing the motion introduced in the Reichstag to exempt theologians from military service. The address delivered to the Leipzig student body on the occasion of the 800th anniversary of the University of Bologna in the summer semester 1888 was written by fellow association member Hilliger, and the student meeting convened by the V. D. St. approved his proposal that “the representative be required to speak German on official occasions.” Just as the V. D. St. had taken a stand against the excesses of the Czechs during its founding semester, the riots against students in Prague during the winter semester of 1897/98 prompted it to convene a student meeting chaired by fellow association member and history student Hoetzsch, with professors Lamprecht and Strohal as speakers. Let this suffice with regard to examples.
As was the case with the committee of the “Association for Voluntary Nursing,” the V. D. St. also sent permanent representatives to a number of national organizations, as long as they were not associated with political parties or founded corresponding local academic branches. In the winter semester of 1886/87, all V. D. St. members joined the German School Association. The association joined the Society for German Colonization that semester as well. During the winter semester of 1887/88, it joined the German Language Association. During the summer semester of 1891, several association members joined workers’ educational associations to acquire a better understanding of the social question through direct exposure to workers’ ways of thinking and feeling. In the winter semester of 1891/92, the association declared its membership in the General German Association***, and in the winter semester of 1894/95, it joined the Association of Trade Geography and Colonial Policy. In the summer semester of 1895, it founded the first local academic branch of the Association for the Promotion of Germandom in the Eastern Marks; fellow association member and law student Georgi become chairman. Starting in the winter semester of 1897/98, it had an official representative in the local branch of the Pan-German League. If membership in individual national associations and leagues increased or decreased from semester to semester, depending on the composition of the association membership, the association nevertheless expressed its ongoing desire to participate in national efforts and to expand the knowledge of its own members with respect to national questions.
* A home mission for at-risk male youths – trans.
** Original German name: Verein für freiwillige Krankenpflege – ed.
*** German: Allgemeiner Deutscher Verband. This organization was the predecessor of the Pan-German League (Alldeutscher Verband) – trans.
print version
return to list
previous document