Germany - German Democratic Republic of East Germany: Free Deutsche Jugend (FDJ - Free German Youth Organisation) Artur Becker Medal, 3rd Class in Bronze, 2nd type as issued between 1972 and 1985, in fitted presentation case, with accompanying ribbon bar.
To members of the FDJ for exemplary service. It was the organisation's highest award.
According to law, the FDJ was jointly responsible with the GST for pre-military training, particularly for political training. The FDJ was founded in 1946 and organized youth between ages 14 and 25. Even after members entered the service, the FDJ organizations in units oversaw their off-duty time and ensured they maintained proper socialist values. Political reliability was taught through participation in ceremonies and was incorporated in lectures and other events in the FDJ program. In 1980, FDJ members accounted for 80 percent of all NVA officers and long-term enlisted personnel. For those wishing to become officers in the NVA, an endorsement by their local FDJ organization was an unofficial, but nonetheless real requirement.
The Free German Youth organization – “FREIE DEUTSCHE JUGEND” (FDJ) was founded on 7 March, 1946 as a united antifascist and democratic youth organization. It sees itself is the successor to the German working—class youth movement, in particular the Communist Youth League and the organizations of young antifascists fighting Nazism, with its longstanding revolutionary traditions and progressive heritage. The FDJ made a valuable contribution towards helping to overcome the influence of fascist and Nazi ideology on the young generation and to mobilize it for the active participation in the antifascist and democratic transformations and the socialist revolution.
