This drawing was made in 1928 in the guest book of a youth hostel in
eastern Germany, near the city of Jena. The hostel was housed in an
old castle called the Leuchtenburg so the setting was authentically
medieval.
As a (possibly) interesting historical note ... this hostel served as a
"Nest" for a youth group called the Sozialistische Arbeiterjugend
(SAJ), or Socialist Worker Youth -- an anti-Nazi group sponsored by the
Social Democratic Party (SPD), which remains one of the major political
parties in Germany today.
At the bottom of the picture the boys wrote the name of their own group
(which, on another odd note, borrows the name of a fictional Native
American created by the German writer Karl May) and signed their names.
In all likelihood, in that era, the boys would have been wandering on
their own without adult guidance or supervision (apart from a "hostel
mother" at the castle).
All these elements of the "Boy Thing" -- the medieval thread, the
Native American thread, the sense of rugged, boys-only self-sufficiency
also accurately reflect the spirit of the authentic Youth Movement of
those times.
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