Nationalpolitische Erziehungsanstalt - NPEA

The Nationalpolitische Erziehungsanstalt (officially: NPEA, also: Napola - Nationalpolitische Lehranstalt or Napobi - Nationalpolitische Bildungsanstalt) were boarding schools, which were founded after the National Socialist takeover in 1933 as "community educational institutions". Attending schools led to university entrance qualifications. Similar to the Adolf Hitler Schools (AHS) and the SS Junker Schools, these were elite schools for the training of the next generation of National Socialist leaders.

Until the beginning of the war, the Napolas served as a highly politically accentuated elite schools within the general higher education system; During the war they increasingly developed into junior schools for the SS and Wehrmacht. Organizationally, they were separated from the general school administration.

The schools followed the tradition of pre-military training. If there were cadet institutes in Prussia and in the Kingdom of Bavaria until 1918, these were continued as State Educational Institutions (STABILAs) after the First World War due to conditions imposed by the victorious powers. After 1933 it became Napolas, who were attractive to the children of Wehrmacht officers because they had to pay less school fees than other secondary schools. The teachers were also taken on. The students wore a uniform. Special emphasis was placed on sport: morning exercise before breakfast, athletics, handball, swimming, but also boxing, rowing, off-road sports in the forest with introductions to map and compass reading and military camouflage. Classes were run as a platoon; senior students received an honor dagger with the engraving "Mehr sein als scheinen" (To be more than appear).

In 1933 the first three national political educational institutions were founded in Plön, Köslin and Potsdam as state institutions and directly subordinated to the Reich Minister of Education Bernhard Rust.

Organizationally, from 1936 they belonged to the inspector of the National Political Educational Institutions, SS-Obergruppenführer August Heißmeyer, from 1939/1940 called Dienststelle Heißmeyer, and were thus under the direct influence of the SS. From 1940 until the end of the war, Otto Calliebe was the head of the NPEA Potsdam. Heißmeyer urged the teaching staff to actively join the SS and planned, for example, that the NPEA students and teaching staff would have to wear SS-like uniforms and rankings. An SS-Hauptscharführer would have become an NPEA-Hauptscharführer.

In 1941 there were 30 NPEA in the German Reich with a total of 6,000 students. Two NPEAs for girls were in occupied territory. At the end of the war there were 43 NPEAs; three of them were specifically for girls. The schools founded in Hubertendorf and Türnitz in Austria in 1938/39 and the one in Colmar-Berg in Luxembourg in 1941 are well known.

The structure and organization is shown using the example of the Oranienstein institution.

The institute near Diez was founded in 1934 and externally largely took over the tradition of the "Royal Prussian Cadet Institute", which was dissolved in 1919. This was made particularly clear by the clothing made of olive-green wool with blue epaulets to be worn inside the institution.

Decisive for acceptance into a Napola were first and foremost “racial”, secondly character and physical aptitude, and only lastly intellectual aptitude. The main focus was - similar to the selection process of the SS - on "Aryan descent", "hereditary health" and full physical performance. In the case of the children in question, particular attention was paid to characteristics such as courage, perseverance, bravery, ability to classify, but also to take on managerial tasks during the entrance exams.

The official name of the students was Jungmann (plural Jungmannen). During the holidays, there was compulsory service in the organizations of the Hitler Youth at home. Therefore, the general dress uniform of this youth organization corresponded to: 10–14 years old: Uniform of the German Young People, 14–18 years old: Uniform of the Hitler Youth. The ranks were the same. A Jungmann, age 12, was usually the “Jungenschaftsführer” at home and wore a red and white cord.

The institution was divided into eight platoons according to the class division of the upper secondary school. Internal ranks were Jungmann-Gruppenführer and -Zugführer.

The NPEA was (formally) subordinate to the SA, so the head of the institution was always an SA man. During the war, the faculty was different from that in peacetime. After 1942 there were almost no teachers left who belonged to the SA. Since, in addition to regular school, pre-military training was a focus of the NPEA, war-disabled officers of the Wehrmacht, who were high school teachers in civilian life, gave school lessons. But they were also responsible for extracurricular education and training.

The longer the war lasted, the earlier the older students were drafted into service with the Wehrmacht and the Waffen SS. A large part, however, entered voluntarily as officer candidates.