Over 40,000 scouts and leaders from 150 countries have gathered this week in Chelmsford, outside of London to participate in the World Scout Jamboree that takes place every four years in a different country. This year, the 10-day celebration coincides with the 100th anniversary of scouting on Aug. 1.

"It's a bit like the Olympics here," said Michael Scholl, spokesperson for the German Scouting Association St. Georg (DPSG), Germany's largest scout organization.

Speaking from a campground in England, Scholl said seeing so many young people waving national flags and cheering for their country reminded him of the positive atmosphere at the world's largest sporting event.

But for others, it's exactly that outpouring of national pride that casts a shadow over scouting in Germany and makes some uncomfortable about the youth movement.

"Due to the political history in this country, German scouting is by nature different than in other countries," said Baldur Hermans, an historian and General Secretary of the International Catholic Conference of Scouting. "German scouts have in the past had to deal intensively with the notion of an organization that was founded by a military officer."

Tumultuous scouting history in Germany

British General and Lord Robert Baden-Powell first came up with the idea for a scouting movement for youths after observing interactions between boys from different social backgrounds at the summer camp he established on Brownsea Island in 1907.

His insights flowed into the basic tenets of scouting, which focus on developing personal and social responsibility.

In Germany, Baden-Powell's book "Scouting for Boys" was translated in 1909 by the military physician Alexander Lion, who came up with the word Pfadfinder (literally, "path finder) for "scout."

The first Pfadfinder groups emerged in Germany in 1911.

The German Youth Movement, which focused on educational and cultural renewal based on a love of the outdoors, had already been born back in 1896, however. One of the movement's groups -- the Wandervogel -- considered nature a refuge from "authoritarian" society.

The scouting movement, then, shared a youthful affinity nature with the Wandervogel and the Youth Movement as a whole.

Affected by the wars

As World War I's dramatic events began to unfold, the scouting movement had grown to about 100,000 members in Germany. At the same time political, paramilitary and sports clubs also began springing up all over the country, mixing and matching youth-group styles.

"But even the German scouting movement itself was fragmented at that time, a characteristic that continues to this day," Scholl said.

Some scout groups interpreted founder Baden-Powell's teachings differently; and some became Catholic or Protestant-based.

But the day grew dark for scouts with the rise of National Socialism. The Nazis forbade non-denominational scout groups in 1933 and Catholic and Protestant-based groups in 1938.

Yet the Nazis adopted many of the youth groups' features, and swallowed up the scouts into their dictatorial Hitler Youth organization, "although some scouts likely went more easily than others," Hermans said.

Other scouts went underground, meeting secretly until they were forced to enter the Nazi military.

Nazi after-effects

Scouting was revived after World War II in then West Germany, but it wasn't easy.

"West Germans had major reservations about scouting due to its earlier absorption into the Hitler Youth," Hermans said. "It was the British, actually, who managed to get scouting reinstated in West Germany. They even provided leadership seminars in England."

Following World War II, the West German scout groups voiced public support of the democratic German constitution and were admitted to the world scouting organizations for the first time ever.

The situation in East Germany was, however, a different matter as scout groups and other independent youth organizations were forbidden there.

Instead, the East German groups consisted of the state-controlled Pioniere and the Freie Deutsche Jugend (Free German Youth).

Even after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, scouting was slow to return to the GDR.

"The East Germans were extremely tired of uniforms," Hermans said.

Scouting today

These days, Germany has around 250,000 scouts.

"The number of members has been growing over the past few years," said scout leader Christian Schaubelt. "That shows scouting has survived the legacy of National Socialism."

Perhaps it's the movement's basic principles that attest to its tenacity.

"Scouting is life education and fosters tolerance," Scholl said.