Figure 1.--Here we see a SAJ which managed to take a trip to Italy--note the palm trees. In this case they are all boys. Perhaps parents were concerned about trips as far as Italy for the girls. It is possible that there were all boy units within the SAJ. Note the knee socks. The boy sitting on the wall wears black long stockings with his shorts. This image was identified as a SAJ unit, but the uniform is different than some we have seen.

The SAJ engaged in many of the activities of traditional youth groups, although for a somewhat older age set, older teenagers. In fact they seem very similar to Wandervogel, perhaps described as a politically engaged Wandervogel. They seem to have led the same lifestyle and enjoyed the same activities and cammaraderie. Music seems to have been very important to the members. We do not have much information on the preferred music. We do know that like the Wandevogel, folkish music seem to have been particularly popular. I don't know to what extent they also went in for politically tinged songs. We often note the members with guitars and cisters. (In German and Dutch this instrument is called a Cister. I don't know the name in English It is a string instrument with a flat pear-shaped resonance box.) They came in different sizes. You can see an example here. We also notice a SAJ drum unit. We wonder if that might to enliven Socialist political rallies more than for their own entertainment. They also enjoyed hiking into the country. We assume the SAJ groups also camped in part because there are so many similarities with Wandervogel. At this time we only note the members staying at youth hostels. We do note the members taking excursions. Most of these excursions would have been within Germany, but we also notice trips to neighboring countries. We see a SAJ group of boys and girls in their late teens, ages 16-19 years roughly visiting tghe CzechoslovAkia. They are visiting Friedeberg, the German name then in use for the Czech village of Zulova in Silesia. The teens are shown in front of the youth hostel where they stayed during the trip and seem to be with their teacher, probably a man who shared their Socialist and free-spirited sentiments. He wears conventional adult dress--a dark suit with white shirt and tie. He was probably an academic who shared their values, presumably a a SPD member. And here we note a group which traveled to Italy (figure 1). We are not sure where they are in Italy, but the palms atest to the fact that they are south of the Alps. As is the case in many photographs, they have their instruments, but for some reason the girls did not come along. This group has a different uniformvthan we see in other images.