Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

general of division Divisional general is a general officer rank who commands an army division. The rank originates from the French (Revolutionary) System, and is used by a number of countries. The rank is above a brigade general, and normally below an army corp ...

Carl

Freiherr (; male, abbreviated as ), (; his wife, abbreviated as , literally "free lord" or "free lady") and (, his unmarried daughters and maiden aunts) are designations used as titles of nobility in the German-speaking areas of the Holy Roman Empire ...

von Seckendorff was one of the founders of

Scouting in Germany The Scout movement in Germany consists of about 150 different associations and federations with about 260,000 Scouts and Guides. History Scouting in Germany started in 1909. After World War I, German Scouting became involved with the German You ...

, along with

Maximilian Bayer Maximilian Bayer (11 May 1872 in Karlsruhe – 25 October 1917 in Nomeny) was the founder of Scouting in Germany, along with Alexander Lion. During World War I, he built the 27th Royal Prussian Jäger Battalion, later the core of the Finnish ...

and Elise von Hopffgarten. He was the first "Reichsfeldmeister" (''fieldleader of the realm'') of the

Deutscher Pfadfinderbund Deutscher is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Alma Deutscher, British musician and composer *Drafi Deutscher, German singer and composer *Guy Deutscher (linguist) *Guy Deutscher (physicist) *Isaac Deutscher, British jou ...

after World War I. In February 1912, Bayer, von Seckendorff, Elise von Hopffgarten, and Alexander Lion authored "Pfadfinderbuch für junge Mädchen" (A Scout Book for Girls). In its effort to make young women more independent, it was free from patriotic or religious sentiment, and contained references to the

women's movement The feminist movement (also known as the women's movement, or feminism) refers to a series of social movements and political campaigns for radical and liberal reforms on women's issues created by the inequality between men and women. Such iss ...

Family

Seckendorff was born into the Seckendorff family, an old noble family of

Franconia Franconia (german: Franken, ; Franconian dialect: ''Franggn'' ; bar, Frankn) is a region of Germany, characterised by its culture and Franconian dialect (German: ''Fränkisch''). The three administrative regions of Lower, Middle and Upper Fr ...

. He had three daughters: Marianne, Ilse and Erika.

After World War I

With the end of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the Scouting movement in Germany strove to reintroduce a general structure, and reorganized the Pfadfinderbund in 1918. The first years of the newly formed Bund were marked by a recurring conflict about the orientation, between the "old" members that were active before World War I, and the "new" ones. While the old leading members almost all served in the German military during the war and wanted to rebuild the Pfadfinderbund in its old form, the new, progressive powers leaned more towards the

Wandervogel ''Wandervogel'' (plural: ''Wandervögel''; English: "Wandering Bird") is the name adopted by a popular movement of German youth groups from 1896 to 1933, who protested against industrialization by going to hike in the country and commune with n ...

as being more back-to-nature orientated and less nationalistic. This two main factions were the "jungdeutschen" (''young German'') and the "neudeutschen" (''new German'') Scouts. The latter adopted the so-called Prunner Gelöbnis (''Vow of Prunn'') in 1919, which became the German Scouts' epigraph. The first "Reichsfeldmeister" (''fieldleader of the realm'') after the war was Carl Freiherr von Seckendorff, chosen in

Eisenach Eisenach () is a town in Thuringia, Germany with 42,000 inhabitants, located west of Erfurt, southeast of Kassel and northeast of Frankfurt. It is the main urban centre of western Thuringia and bordering northeastern Hessian regions, situat ...

in 1919. While von Seckendorff was of the old leadership generation, both Scouting factions remained in the union.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seckendorff, Carl Freiherr von Scouting and Guiding in Germany 1874 births 1948 deaths