The movement was founded in 1947 inside its nowadays umbrella organizationUnion of the German Catholic Youth. In the first years, the name of KLJB was "Action of the rural youth". Main actions in the founding years were "rural seminars" to discuss rural formation and the social situation in the villages in rural areas. The members of KLJB developed five educational objectives in the 1950s and chose the association's patron Nicholas of Flüe. During the time, MIJARC was founded as international "Catholic Agricultural and Rural Youth Movement". KLJB was one of its founding members. In 1961, KLJB's umbrella organization BDKJ decided to built KLJB as independent federal association in Germany and to have it as one of the member organizations in BDKJ. The name of the former "Action of the rural youth" was finally switched to its today's name. In the 1970s, topics like democracy, social justice and peace were main issues, but also the merging of the men's youth and the women's youth of KLJB into one common association with a common federal board. Since that time, the boards on local, regional, diocesan and federal levels are elected due to gender parity. In the 1980s, KLJB focused on ecology and energy politics, but also on the formation of the rural areas. A big mile stone in the 1990s was the introduction of the campaign "eco fair wear" and the founding of the clothing brand LamuLamu, which was labeled as "highly recommended" by "Label online" concerning standards, independence, controlling and transparency.
Organization
With its 70,000 members KLJB is one of the biggest youth movements in Germany. The organization makes an effort in its 1,900 local groups for the rural youth' interests in church, politics and society. KLJB's members are especially youth people and young adults with 14 years or olders. In some of the diocesan associations of KLJB there is also the possibility for younger ones to be member. Starting at local level up to diocesan and federal level, over 5,000 young people are involved voluntarily in KLJB as leaders of the local groups, in activities organized by the movement and in the organs of KLJB. The federal office of KLJB is located in Bad Honnef-Rhöndorf in North Rhine-Westphalia. The association is connecting with political and religious institutions and also with other associations and organizations. It is known as an expert organization for young people in rural areas. The different local and regional groups in 20 different diocesan association are helping each other to reach the aims of the organization. KLJB is member in its umbrella organization Bund der Deutschen Katholischen Jugend, member of the Climate-Alliance Germany and advisory member in the German Agrarbündnis. Its European and global interest are represented in the internationalCatholic Agricultural and Rural Youth Movement At state level, there is a specificity in Bavaria, where KLJB with its 26,000 members is a recognized youth association in the Bavarian farmer's association – beside the protestant rural youth organization and the Bavarian young farmer's association. Patron is the national saint of Switzerland, Nicholas vof Flüe, whose saint's day is on 25 September. KLJB is working close together with the German CatholicRural People's Movement, which was founded by adult members of KLJB after their time in the youth movement.
