Contents
1 General introduction: Sources
and methodology; The philhellenist background
2 Personal and
political appropriations of Sparta at the Prussian Cadet Corps: Historical
context; ‘The
Spartans of Lichterfelde’; Historical background: The aims and ethos
of the Royal Prussian Cadet Corps
3 Spartanerjünglinge, or the importance of being Spartan: How
to become a Spartan Youth; The endorsement of Spartanertum by Cadet-Corps
authority
figures
4 Creating
the Cadet-Corps’ Spartabild: Teaching, textbooks and the ancient sources;
The Spartan trope and the ancient sources; Cadet-school textbooks as potential
sources
for the Spartan trope
5 Of Spartans and Socialisation: The
function of ‘spartanern’; The anatomy of
the total institution; The Prussian Cadet Corps as a total institution;
The function of ‘spartanern’
6 The Cadet Corps and its critics: Education,
politics and the Prussian military; The Cadet Corps, politics and Spartanertum,
1840–1900;
Anti-militarist attitudes: Sparta as a byword for brutality in liberal
and socialist thought
7 Raging against the Republics: ‘Spartan’ self-definition
in the cadet-school Traditionsgemeinschaft, 1920–1995 Spartan Youth
versus the Spartacists: The contestednature of Cadet-Corps Spartanertum
during the Weimar Republic ; The afterlife of the
topos: ‘Spartan’ self-definition and nostalgia in the cadet school
Traditionsgemeinschaft post-1945; Conclusions
8 Personal and Political Appropriations of Sparta at the
Nationalpolitische Erziehungsanstalten: Historical context ‘Cadet Schools of
the Third Reich’? ;The aims and ethos of the Nationalpolitische Erziehungsanstalten
(1933–1945); Sparta and the creators of the NPEA
9 ‘Sparta’s Spirit Lives!’ Sparta’s role in ideology and everyday life
at the Napolas: ‘We demand firm, Spartan discipline!’ Racial ideology, textbooks, and
the Napolas’ nazified view of Sparta; Role-models of heroism and self-sacrificial
death: Memories of Spartan teaching at the Napolas; ‘Spartas Geist lebt! ’: Napola
pupils’ personal identifications with Sparta; Conclusions
10 Conclusion
Appendix: Instances of the Spartan topos relating to the Prussian
Cadet Schools, arranged
chronologically |