Before the Nazis came to power, the German youth movement consisted of a multitude of political, denominational, and “federated” organizations. Among other groups, the latter category included the “Pathfinder” and Wandervögel associations, which were largely based on romantic ideas about nature and in some cases also on militaristic and nationalistic ideas. They promoted a return to “homeland” [Heimat] and nature beyond the bourgeois adult world. By the end of 1933, almost all federated youth associations had been forced to disband. The general mobilization of the population behind the National Socialists meant that the education of young people was to be carried out solely by the Hitler Youth [Hitler-Jugend or HJ].