On November 6, 1936, the leadership of the German Student Body [Deutsche Studentenschaft or DSt] and the National Socialist German Students’ League [Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund or NSDStB] were brought together under a new organization, the Reich Student Leadership [Reichsstudentenführung]. As an NSDAP main office, the Reich Student Leadership was placed under the direct leadership of the party. Gustav Adolf Scheel (1907-1979) was appointed Reich Student Leader; he occupied this position until the end of the war but also held various other high-ranking positions at the same time. This photograph was taken on the occasion of the inauguration of the “Langemarck Studium” in Hanover. The program took its name from the Battle of Langemarck, which had claimed the lives of thousands of young German soldiers in 1914 and still loomed large in German cultural memory. The “Langemarck Studium” was a three-month college-preparatory study program for young workers, craftsmen, and peasants who lacked the high school diploma [Abitur] necessary for university admission. The professed aim of the program was to break the middle-class monopoly on university study and to propagate the Nazi’s ostensible ideal of equality. In reality, the program was reserved for candidates who were deemed racially “valuable” and politically reliable and the “education” consisted primarily of ideological indoctrination. This photograph shows Scheel and SA Stabchef Viktor Lutze (1890-1943) reviewing the honor guard.