Hitlerjugend: An In-Depth History: 1949 - The HJ and the East German "Freie Deutsche Jugend" youth movements
by Arvo L. Vercamer

In the Western Allied sectors of Germany, though the HJ was not declared to be a criminal orgnization, the HJ movement was officialy dissolved. The internationally accepted Boy Scout and Girl Scout organizations resumed their pre-1933 activities. In the Soviet Occupation Sector of Germany, the HJ organization was also officially dissolved as it was in the western zones.

But after 1949 when the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) was established, many of the philosophies of the Hitlerjugend movement were quietly resurrected as the "Freie Deutsche Jugend" (FDJ) movement. The brown shirts of Hitler's SA and HJ were now exchanged for the blue uniforms of the FDJ. Instead of espousing the virtues of Nationalist Socialism, the East German FDJ carried large placards of Walter Ulbricht, Karl Marx and Josef Stalin. The new East German youth movement now championed the virtues of Communism and Socialism.

Only in 1989 and 1990, when East and West Germany unified, did the ghosts of the HJ movement finally come to rest as the East German FDJ movement was quickly and quietly dissolved by Bonn.