A-Infos (en) Britain, Anarchist journal - ORGANISE! #71 - THE SCHLURFS – youth against Nazism

Schlurfs, no, not little blue gnomes but young people in Austria who rejected what the Nazis had to 
“offer” – the whole package of militarism, the work ethic, authoritarianism and race hatred. --- In 
Organise! 59 we had an in-depth look at the French equivalent of the Schlurfs-the Zazous. We also 
looked at the German opposition among young people to Nazism – the Edelweiss Pirates (Organise!53). 
This article will build upon these. ---- The Schlurfs were working class youth who were not afraid 
to engage in street battles with the Hitler Youth, growing up in the streets as they had. Peter 
Treumann, a member of the Hitler Youth writes about clashes with the Schlurfs in his memoirs. He 
was shocked by their outlook, their refusal to perform well in school or work and contempt for 
“achievement”, their imitation of American styles of clothing and liking of American music, their 
antimilitarism.

“In his imagination Peter Treumann projected what he had warded off for himself on to the Schlurfs; 
apart from their consumerism and their refusal to perform in school or at work, it was above all 
their relations to girls and their liberal approach to sexuality which indicated their social 
inferiority. They embodied, so to speak, the negation of the Hitler Youth ideal and therefore 
appeared to be the natural enemies.” Sieder, ‘A Hitler Youth from a Respectable Family’ quoted in: 
Daniel Bertaux and Paul Thompson (eds.) ‘Between Generations. Family Models, Myths and Memories‚ 
Oxford 1993

The typesetter Fredy Pietsch described some Schlurfs in his reminiscences: “When we walked in there 
we saw a few Viennese men in the group, whom we called ‘Wiener Schlurf’... ‘Wiener Schlurfs’ wore 
their hair in a certain style very high in front, long hair, very high in front, to make the so 
called ‘Lahmwelle [in Viennese dialect] and at the neck, the ‘swallow tail’. The long hair was put 
on top of the other part, and greasy brilliantine was rubbed into the whole thing, so that the hair 
would keep shape. And there were about 5, 6, 7 of these so-called ‘Schlurfs’ with this hairstyle 
with us.

So we stood in front of this man with his patent-leather boots and all of a sudden he says, “I 
would like to introduce myself. My name is ‘Unterfeldmeister’ Wiawalla and I am a true Prussian and 
you are bloody Viennese wimps. We will teach you how to waltz.” And we were all completely silent 
for a moment and really almost shocked, and suddenly one of the ‘Schlurfs’ at the back says, “You 
know, you can kiss our ass.” (in Viennese dialect) – I’m sorry to say this so frankly, but 
(laughs), that’s how it was. We were all laughing because that was so to the point, this answer to 
his affected behaviour, he says, “You know... and so on.” But well, we didn’t laugh for that long. 
We didn’t laugh long and he (the Unterfeldmeister) didn’t even understand what the young man had 
meant and what he had said. Since he said it in Viennese dialect and so (laughs) fortunately the 
Unterfeldmeister didn’t get it.” This was when Fredy had been summoned to work for the Reich Labour 
Service (Reichsarbeitdienst) in October 1942, and where young Austrian workers experienced the 
authoritarianism and humiliating conditions imposed on them by the Nazis. As one Schlurf, Alexander 
Mejstrik was to comment: “Then it all started: being giving overalls and uniforms, getting a 
hair-cut. Our hair had to be cut to a length of three fingers wide, or two fingers wide above the 
ears. A cropped hairstyle—the ‘Lahmwelle’ and the ‘swallow-tails’ were gone of course.”

The origin of the word “Schlurf” can be traced back to the spoken word Schluaf , an old Viennese 
put down of boys and men who prefer fun to responsibility. The written word Schlurfe was used in 
official public documents for the first time in 1941. As early as the 1930s, there were 
apprentices, young auxiliary workers and schoolboys who showed a preference for the sharp clothes 
which could be seen in the new Hollywood movies, for a particular hair cut, for swing music and 
swing dance. All of these later became trade-marks of the Schlurfs, as they did with the Zazous in 
France. Young people who strived for this look used different means to look sharp, depending on 
their social background or moral outlook. Some might save for a long time to buy a sharp coat or 
shirt, whist others would be able to procure a stolen suit, whilst others had to alter their older 
brother’s clothes. Old hats were moulded to the desired shape by applying steam. Large 
single-breasted suits were converted to double-breasted versions by adding additional buttons. 
Plaid and pinstripe were the preferred patterns. White scarves were worn, as were thick-soled 
shoes. Schlurf women or ‘Schlurf kittens’

In 1941, the Nazis began to implement their social and cultural policies in Austria. This meant 
they had to pinpoint a group which would be the opposite of what they desired and to then persecute 
that group. The Schlurfs were defined as “immature youngsters whose way of being is deficient and 
who strive for superficial leisure, dance, jazz music and women”. This artificially created group 
combined a number of different practices or ways of behaving, seen as undesirable by the Nazis, 
into a unity. Whereas only one or two of these characteristics might be seen in the way of life of 
particular individuals, the Nazis combined all of these into a united uniform whole. All of these 
tastes involved fun, something that was anathema to the Nazis. So now the Nazis could use the 
artificial construct of the Schlurfs to develop their official policies . In fact they started a 
“campaign against the Schlurf menace”.

As a result some young people began to actually identify with this “bad” role as defined by the 
Nazis. They accepted the definition and reclaimed it as their own developing it on the streets, in 
cafes and through their dress and social activities-dances, gatherings in flats, but also in their 
street opposition to the Hitler Youth, their slang and nick names, and their use of the black 
market to dress in their preferred style.

“BdM (Nazi organisation for young women) and HJ (Hitler Youth) watch out for your lives. When the 
Schlurfs wake at night and come out of the Zweites café. They will swing their knives and St. Louis 
Blue will sing his songs again. Police, Filth, stop shaving our heads bald” – Schlurf song recorded 
in a Nazi archive.

The Schlurfs began congregating at weekends at the bar-restaurant-cafe the Zweites Kaffee in the 
Prater district of Vienna, where they drank, smoked, and listened to live music (practices that 
were forbidden for young people under the Nazi regime). As noted earlier they were predominantly 
working class, and they began to attract many apprentices and young armaments workers to their 
ranks, as well as “misfits”; those rejected by the draft because of disabilities. Above all, there 
were the weekends in the Zweites Kaffee, at least as long as it was not raided. In this 
bar-restaurant-café located in the Prater, the largest entertainment area of the city, the 
youngsters could dance to live music, drink and smoke even though at times it was forbidden. The 
Schlurfs were predominantly working class, but class did not matter to them, those most respected 
were they who could look the sharpest and be the most laid back.

In the Prater district itself street clashes broke out between the Schlurfs and the Hitler Youth. 
It was compulsory for young people to attend Hitler Youth meetings but they subverted this through 
absenteeism or open mockery. Concerts of Nazi ‘folk’ music were disrupted by the Schlurfs. Planned 
attacks on Hitler Youth units took place, with the response of police raids and Hitler Youth 
attacks. In November 1941 the Gestapo arrested 3 Schlurfs who were destroying an HJ poster which 
depicted caricatures of young men and women drinking, smoking, dancing and generally having fun, 
which had the slogan ‘We Reject These’ above it. On one occasion in 1942 50 Schlurfs attacked a HJ 
house. As with the Vichy youth organisation attacks on the Zazous in France, where Zazous had their 
hair forcibly shaved, so too did the HJ forcibly shave Schlurf scalps. The Schlurfs replied with 
attacks on the HJ, ripping and shredding their uniforms. The police tried to plant spies and the 
Schlurfs responded with the daubing of pro-Schlurf slogans on walls.

The Nazis wanted to educate the youth in a “Völkisch” manner, that is, their concept of what a good 
German should be. This combined indoctrination in the school with indoctrination in the family to 
produce a youth with “Charakter”. One of the instruments used to impose this upon Austrian youth 
was by means of the HJ. However, the more there was a fightback against these impositions, the more 
the Nazis turned to stricter policies, the more the youth fought back, leading to the final 
collapse of these social policies in 1944. The Nazis tried to eliminate the pleasure principle from 
everyday life. For them the concepts of “duty”, discipline and efficiency were in direct opposition 
to the search for variety and fun in order to chase away boredom and monotony. The Nazis saw the 
slack behaviour of young workers as a threat to the imposition of their social and cultural 
policies. The Schlurf phenomenon, as with the French Zazous and the German Edelweiss Pirates, was a 
herald of the counter-cultures that were to develop in the post-war period, not just in Western 
Europe but around the world, counter-cultures that implicitly challenged the old order and its 
discipline and work ethic. The word “Schlurf” was used as an insult for several years after the end 
of the war against young workers who refused work discipline and authority, a sign that this kind 
of behaviour was as unacceptable to the new “Free World” as it was to the Nazis. The newspapers of 
the new Austrian democracy denounced the ‘weed’ of the Schlurfs that threatened the healthy tree of 
Austrian democracy. It appears that the police continued their repression against the Schlurfs.

Read the AF pamphlet Resistance to Nazism for more about the Zazous and Edelweiss Pirates.
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