Editing East Germany (section)

==== Ernst Thälmann Pioneer Organisation ====
{{further|Ernst Thälmann Pioneer Organisation}}
[[File:Uniform of the East German Young Pioneers.jpg|thumb|Ernst Thälmann Pioneer Organisation uniform]]
[[File:Fotothek df roe-neg 0006436 010 Demonstrationszug - Pioniere, Fanfarenbläser, Tr.jpg|thumb|right|Ernst Thälmann Pioneer Organisation parade in 1953]]

The Ernst Thälmann Pioneer Organisation was a youth organisation of schoolchildren aged 6 to 14 in East Germany.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rodden |first=John. |title=Repainting the Little Red Schoolhouse: A History of Eastern German education, 1945–1995 |date=2002 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=0-19-511244-X |oclc=39633454}}</ref> In the 1960s and 1970s, nearly all schoolchildren were organised into "Young Pioneer" or "Thälmann Pioneer" groups, with the organisations having "nearly two million children" collectively by 1975.<ref name="plum">{{Cite thesis |last=Plum |first=Catherine J. |title=Antifascism & the Historical Identity of East German Youth, 1961–1989 |date=11 February 2005 |oclc=63683865 |institution=[[University of Wisconsin-Madison]]}}</ref> The group was a subdivision of the ''Freie Deutsche Jugend'' (FDJ), East Germany's youth movement.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wegner |first=Gregory |date=February 1996 |title=In the Shadow of the Third Reich: The 'Jugendstunde' and the Legitimation of Anti-Fascist Heroes for East German Youth |journal=[[German Studies Review]] |volume=19 |issue=1 |pages=127–146 |doi=10.2307/1431716 |issn=0149-7952 |jstor=1431716}}</ref>

The pioneer group was loosely based on [[Scouting]], but organised to teach socialist ideology to schoolchildren and prepare them for the FDJ.<ref name="plum"/> The program was designed to follow the Soviet pioneer program [[Vladimir Lenin All-Union Pioneer Organization]].<ref name="plum"/> Both pioneer groups would often have massive parades, honoring and celebrating the socialist success of their nations.

Membership was formally voluntary, but often expected by the state or by parents. In practice, admission of all students in a class came from the school. As the membership quota of up to 98 percent of the students (in the later years of the GDR) shows, the six- or ten-year-olds (or their parents) had to be independently active to ''not'' become members. Rarely, students were not admitted because of poor academic performance or bad behavior "as a punishment", or excluded from further membership.

The pioneers' uniform consisted of white shirts and blouses, along with blue trousers or skirts. A distinctive feature was the triangular [[neckerchief]].<ref name="plum"/> In contrast to the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries, a blue neckerchief was common in the GDR. On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the organization in 1973, the red neckerchief was introduced for the Thälmann Pioneers.