Swing Kids

The Swing Kids (also known as Swing Youth, German: Swingjugend) were a group of jazz and swing lovers in Germany in the 1930s, mainly in Hamburg and Berlin. They were composed of 14 to 18-year-old boys and girls in high school, most of them middle or upper-class students, but with some apprentice workers as well. They admired the British and American way of life, defining themselves in swing music and opposing the National-Socialist ideology, especially the Hitlerjugend ("Hitler Youth").

Name

The name "Swing Kids" is a translation of the German Swingkinder, which was a sort of parody of the numerous youth groups that flourished before the National Socialists. They also referred to themselves as Swings or Swingheinis ("Swingity"); the members were called "Swing-Boy", "Swing-Girl" or "Old-Hot-Boy".

Counter-culture

During the Nazi regime, many of the youth in Germany (ages 10 to 17) were encouraged to join the Hitler Youth. The leaders of this organization realized they had to offer some attraction in the area of social dancing in order to recruit new members. Instead of adopting the popular swing dance (because it was viewed as degenerate and tied to the "damnable jazz'), they resorted to the new-German community dances.

Swing Kids (soundtrack)

Swing Kids: Music From The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack from the 1993 film Swing Kids. The album combines swing music featured in the film with the film's original score by James Horner (Horner's tracks are in bold).

Track listing

Swing Kids (disambiguation)

Swing Kids may refer to:

Swing Kids (film)

Swing Kids is a 1993 American film directed by Thomas Carter, and stars Christian Bale, Robert Sean Leonard and Frank Whaley. In pre-World War II Germany, two high school students, Peter Müller and Thomas Berger, attempt to be swing kids by night and Hitler Youth by day, a decision that acutely impacts their friends and families. The film received mostly negative reviews.

Plot

In 1939 Hamburg, Peter Müller and Thomas Berger join their friends Arvid and Otto at a swing club called The Bismarck. They have a good time, dancing and enjoying the music.

Peter goes home to find his mother in an argument with a Nazi officer. Herr Knopp, head of the local Gestapo, arrives and curtly dismisses the officer. Herr Knopp begins asking Frau Müller questions about some of her late husband's friends. Herr Müller had been accused of being a communist, and was irreparably damaged by an interrogation at the hands of Nazi agents.

At Arvid's house, Thomas accidentally ruins one of Arvid's prized records. Upset, Arvid kicks Thomas, Peter, and Otto out. To apologize to Arvid, Peter and Thomas steal a radio (which Peter knows was stolen from a ransacked Jewish home) from a bakery. Thomas escapes, but Peter is caught. Herr Knopp, who is attracted to Peter's mother, intercedes for him; in return, Peter must enroll in the Hitlerjugend (HJ).