Born the son of a privy councillor in
Kassel, Mahraun became a career soldier with the
Prussian Army when he enlisted in the
Prussian Infantry Regiment No. 83 in 1908. He served with distinction on the
Eastern Front during the
First World War, earning "high decorations". Like many of his contemporaries he became involved in
Freikorps activity after the Armistice, forming his own group, the Officers' Company
Kassel (
Offizierkompagnie Kassel) in January 1919, though he left this group in 1920, then founding the Young German Order in March of that year. And by 1921 Mahraun could call on 70,000 followers. And at its peak Mahraun's movement could call on up to 300,000 followers. After the Presidential election of 1925 and the victory of
Paul Von Hindenburg, the Mahraun began to take on a more pro-republic stance. This ideological shift led to the
Stahlhelm and other anti-republican right wing organization to denounce him and the Jungdo for its "march to the Left". Mahraun responded by calling these critics "reactionary pawns of plutocratic interests". Mahraun was motivated in this change by a belief that Germany would be best served by the foreign policy of
Gustav Stresemann and not by any particular love of the republic. Mahraun entered the political arena in 1928 when he formed the
People's National Reich Association (
Volksnationale Reichsvereiningung) as an electoral arm of his movement, merging it with the
German Democratic Party to form the
German State Party in 1930 due to the alarming rise of radicalism after the
1929 stock market crash. However the new party was not successful and it performed very poorly in subsequent elections.The Young German Order will arise again at a later date. It will then be the bearer of the ideas of the Young German doctrine. Anyone who has ever been a Young German with all his heart has seen the level on which the great saving deed that fate imposes on all German contemporaries must take place. He has seen from afar the political homeland in which the German nomads of the intellectual mass migration are to be settled again.He was briefly associated with a group called the
Nachbarschafts-Bewegung (
English: Neighborhood Movement) after the war, but apart from a few speeches at assemblies, he limited himself to writing. His literary output is extensive, though because he
self-published them they failed to circulate pass his limited number of supporters. They covered a wide range of topics including:
political commentary,
poetry, and
political theory. He died in
Gütersloh in 1950. == Politics Positions ==