From 1960 onwards, the “Pioneer Calendar” published annually by the Central Council of the Free German Youth (FDJ) and the management of the pioneer organization “Ernst Thälmann” was published by the children’s book publisher in Berlin. This publication was addressed to children in the fourth to seventh grades, while the “Calendar for Young Pioneers” focused on children in the first to third grades as a target group.
The pioneer calendars were printed for the years 1960 to 1990 and were between 200 and 250 pages long. In addition to the regular calendar function, which made it possible to record one’s own appointments, birthdays and record other events, these calendars also pursued ideological intentions. Anniversaries and memorable dates that were of interest to the socialist order were listed under the calendar pages, which were divided into one week. These included, for example, the birthdays of Thomas Müntzer, Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht, Ernst Thälmann and numerous other historical personalities. But founding anniversaries, anniversaries and holidays were also mentioned.
Cultural and social highlights were also remembered, such as International Women’s Day (March 8), the start of the Leipzig Spring Fair, World Theater Day (March 27) and Metalworker’s Day (the second Sunday in April).
Apart from the system-immanent character of the pioneer calendars, these printed products contained, to a large extent, general educational contributions that were useful for the personal development of children and young people, for example on the subject of sport, traffic regulations, behavior in the event of a fire, and the local flora and fauna About various professions and professional development opportunities, about interesting excursion destinations and much more.
Under the heading “Reading in the library!” In the 1990 edition, the readership was made familiar with behavior in a library and, as it were, encouraged to seek out this place of knowledge. The authors of the calendars were also introduced to the young audience with short biographies, including Alex Wedding, Benno Pludra and Ludwig Renn.
In the last calendar edition published in 1990 the. 45th anniversary of the end of World War II special attention. As in previous years, the young readership was informed about the horrors of war on the basis of eyewitness reports. The history of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) also took up a lot of space in order to educate the pioneers in the socialist sense.
Myth of the little trumpeter
In this context “the little trumpeter” was revered as a role model. The song of the same name, written by an unknown author and which many former GDR citizens should still be familiar with, also heralds him. The person behind the controversially discussed myth of the “little trumpeter” was Friedrich (“Fritz”) Weineck, born in Halle in 1897, who had learned the profession of brush maker after attending eight years of school. Since 1924 he was active in the Red Front Fighters League (RFB), a paramilitary task force of the KPD, and was a member of a marching band in which he is said to have played the trumpet. Because of his small size, he was nicknamed “the little trumpeter”.
On March 13, 1925, numerous workers met for an election rally in Halle, at which Ernst Thälmann was about to speak when heavily armed police officers broke into the assembly hall. Tumult-like conditions are said to have broken out suddenly and only a trumpet signal was able to bring calm to the crowd for seconds, according to the statements in the pioneer calendar of 1990. This moment was used to bring Ernst Thälmann to safety. At the same moment, shots are said to have been fired, injuring numerous people present and killing a total of ten workers, including Fritz Weineck, the calendar text says.
A short time later, the song of the little trumpeter became popular, which announced the courage of the protagonist, who through his decisive action had saved the life of the chairman of the KPD. At first the Red Front Fighters sang the lines at their gatherings before it became established as the song of the workers and pioneers in the GDR. But there are not only various inconsistencies surrounding the person of Fritz Weineck – he is said to have played the horn and not the trumpet, for example – but also the circumstances of death used for propaganda purposes clearly served to glorify and also raise doubts as to the complete correctness of the traditional circumstances.
Nevertheless, the pioneer calendars, with a strong emphasis on the ideological coloring of some texts, contributed in an entertaining and instructive way to the identification of children and young people with their homeland, its history, nature and culture.
Christel Gäbler is the director of the Gera City Archives. Opening times of the City Archives: Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
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