The Free German Youth (Freie Deutsche Jugend, FDJ), founded in 1946 under the leadership of the SED party, was the only youth organisation permitted in the GDR. The FDJ had no concrete precursors in German history. Rather, it was modeled on the Soviet youth organisation Komsomol (Skyba, 2022, p. 207). The FDJ's target group was 14- to 25-year-olds (ibid., p. 205). Its members primarily included pupils, students, and conscripts. Trainees from vocational training were organised in the FDJ to a lesser extent (Mählert, 2001, p. 56). In general, members of the Pioneer Organisation joined the FDJ almost automatically after a formal inauguration ceremony into adolescence (Jugendweihe). By the end of 1949, the FDJ already had almost one million members, accounting for approximately one-third of the young people in the Soviet occupation zone (Sowjetische Besatzungszone, Ohse, 2009, p. 76). By the mid-1960s, membership had grown to 56 percent. By the 1970s, 70 percent of adolescents were registered as members in the association’s statistics, and by the 1980s, this figure had risen to 80 percent (Mählert, 2001, p. 56).

The FDJ was considered the "party's fighting reserve" (Ohse, 2009, p. 76). Like the pioneer organisation, it combined responsibilities in the areas of education and leisure. Its goal was to educate young people in the spirit of socialism. This included recruiting young people for urgent tasks and economic projects (cf. Skyba, 2022, p. 205): Young people were encouraged to participate in large and small projects to build socialism, be it whether through the construction of oil pipelines, road networks, or housing (Mählert, 2001, p. 30).

The basic organisational structure of the FDJ was established by 1952 and remained intact throughout the history of the GDR, with only minor adjustments. The delegate assembly (Delegiertenversammlung), which convened at intervals of several years, was intended to legitimise the hierarchical structure as a seemingly democratic one. As the formal representative body, the central council (Zentralkommittee) granted additional authority to the leadership's decisions. However, the actual power lay with the secretaria of the central council (Sekretariat des Zentralrats), which was exclusively staffed by SED members and had a comprehensive administrative apparatus structured according to areas of responsibility. All fundamental decisions of the secretariat had to be authorised or mandated by the SED leadership before they could be adopted (see Skyba, 2022, pp. 209f.).

For FDJ organisers, it was a challenge to reconcile this political involvement and the associated projects and demands with the genuine interests of young people. "The partial integration of the interests and needs of their clientele", as Skyba puts it, "became an indispensable prerequisite for organisational commitment and thus for the responsiveness and mobilisability of the target group" (ibid., p. 206). This situation escalated in 1953, for example, after it became clear that young people were disproportionately represented among the demonstrators and insurrectionists of June 17 (Skyba, 2000, pp. 243ff.). Accordingly, from then on, the interests of young people were intended to be given greater consideration and the young people themselves were to be granted more freedom to shape their own lives. Thus, choirs, amateur theatre and dance groups were founded; the world festival (Weltfestspiele) was held at various intervals from 1964 onwards; and in the same year, the radio station DT64 was founded. In the 1980s, attempts were also made to influence young people through leisure activities that were considered particularly attractive to them – such as concerts by major pop and rock artists from West Germany, Great Britain, and the USA (Skyba, 2022, p. 223).

The "tension between the execution of youth policy directives of the SED leadership on the one hand and the integration of young people's interests on the other" (ibid., p. 206) had an impact, in various degrees and phases, throughout the GDR’s entire history. The FDJ played an important role in some GDR citizens' biographies, as membership and participation in activities made community building and education possible. Nevertheless, the organisation was also viewed critically because it imposed constraints and propagated political messages.