Eberhard Koebel

Infobox Person
name = Eberhard Koebel


image_size =
caption = Eberhard Koebel. Ca. 1930
birth_date = birth date|1907|6|22
birth_place = Stuttgart, Germany
death_date = death date|1955|8|31
death_place = Berlin
occupation = Youth leader, writer, publisher, tent designer and Nazi resister.

Eberhard Koebel (also "Eberhard Köbel", "tusk"; June 22, 1907–August 31, 1955) was a German youth leader, writer and publisher.

Eberhard Koebel was born in Stuttgart on June 22, 1907. From the age of 13, in 1920, Koebel was a member of the Wandervogel. Koebel soon became a leader in the movement, inventing the Kohte, a tent design that consists of several smaller canvas panels that are carried by individuals and then assembled when they reach the campsite.

In 1926 Koebel joined the Deutsche Freischar, a fusion of Wandervogel and Scout organizations; a year later, he advocated the formation of a unified German youth association for boys. On November 1, 1929 Köbel established the dj 1.11.. In the beginning secret conspiracy within the Deutsche Freischar to renew and mobilize it, it later broke off, when the leader of the Freischar, Ernst Buske, no longer accepted a organisation within the organisation. As leader of the Jungenschaft Koebel designed the Kohte and a particular jacket, the Jungenschaftsjacke. With these and other elements as songs and writings he created a very influential style within the German Youth Movement. In the spring of 1932, hoping to make a more effective resistance to the Nazis, he resigned as head of dj 1.11. and joined the Young Communist League and the Communist Party of Germany.

On January 18, 1934, about a year after Hitler's seizure of power, Koebel was arrested for trying to infiltrate the Hitler Youth. After being severely maltreated in custody several times, he was released from Columbia Haus Prison in Berlin at the end of February 1934, and banned from future youth work. During the Night of the Long Knives of June 30, 1934, when Hitler not only purged the Nazi Party of leftists but settled other scores as well, Koebel narrowly missed being murdered by fleeing via Sweden to London. In England, Koebel kept in contact with the Free German Movement. Köbel returned to Berlin in 1948 and worked as a writer and author in East Germany until his death on August 31, 1955.

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References

*cite web|url=http://www.gdw-berlin.de/bio/ausgabe_mit-e.php?id=339|title=German Resistance Memorial Center, Biographies,Eberhard Koebel|accessdaymonth=22 August |accessyear=2007
*cite web|url=http://scoutmaster.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/04/kohte_german_sc.html|title=Kohte - German Scout Tent|accessdaymonth=22 August |accessyear=2007