Youth welfare in the GDR

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Closed youth work center Torgau

The youth services in East Germany was under the 1949 founded Ministry of National Education , the Margot Honecker in 1963 led to the 1989th

History and organization

In the immediate post-war period in Germany, the majority of young people suffered from material and emotional hardship. Many were neglected and hungry. Crime, especially among children and adolescents, rose rapidly. There were fights for life and death, robbery, fraud, embezzlement, black market trafficking and prostitution. In this situation, the children and young people had to be accommodated, looked after and looked after.

In the Soviet occupation zone , youth welfare could initially only be built up and maintained with the help of anti-fascist citizens' committees, mainly made up of women and young people, people's solidarity and churches and parties . Because the number of homes was not enough, it was decided to set up new “more suitable” homes, in which the young people should be offered the opportunity to do an apprenticeship with sports, games and cultural activities in their free time. However, in the new homes there was a lack of furnishings and utensils, food, money and staff.

At first, the home stays of children and young people were short-lived. Meanwhile, the German Central Administration for People's Education , which became the East German Ministry of Education in 1949 with the founding of the GDR , developed more and more into the most important regulatory institution and thus also exerted more and more influence on children's and youth homes.

From 1963, the youth welfare facilities were under the sole responsibility of Margot Honecker, Erich Honecker's wife . She had full decision-making power there. The papers youth services / residential care, youth welfare committees and guardianship councils were at district level settled while on county level were committees of the same name at the "council of the district." At the local level, volunteers from the youth welfare commissions worked and had direct contact with those affected. About half of the youth workers came from educational professions, the other 50% were committed citizens who were assessed as "politically proven". Even informal collaborators were used. A total of around 5000 people were trained in six-month courses as home educators and managers.

theory

The aim of youth welfare in the GDR was the "creation of favorable conditions for the education of socialist personality of children and young people whose education, development or health were not guaranteed under the responsibility of the legal guardians". This was considered to be " re-education " and was defined by law: youth welfare includes timely corrective influence in the event of signs of poor social development and the prevention and elimination of neglect and lack of supervision of children and adolescents, the preventive fight against juvenile delinquency, the re-education of difficult to educate and delinquent minors as well the care for orphaned and family-separated children and young people .

In a textbook from the early 1970s, the translation of a Soviet work, the characteristics of a socialist person were described as follows: “Devotion to the ideals of communism , the developed awareness of being master of the country and its riches, the awareness of the dignity of the working people, optimism and determination, ... discipline, organization, firmness of principles, love of work, intellectual wealth, moral cleanliness, physical perfection, all-round education, high culture, developed aesthetic taste, physical strength. "The Federal Republic was considered the strongest enemy, and A strong emotional bond between the young people and the state was sought.

practice

Places of youth welfare were a total of 47 children's homes, special homes , transit homes and youth work centers . The closed youth work yard in Torgau served de facto as the central prison for children and young people of the GDR. 14 to 17-year-olds who "intentionally seriously and repeatedly violated the home rules in a youth work center" were admitted here. Other reasons for admission to Torgau were “sexual instincts”, “difficult to educate” or “deviant behavior”. Specifically, this could include truancy , attempted “ escape from the republic ” or “fascist provocation”, which means, for example, “defamation of the state” or “dirty pictures of our statesmen”. The unbearable living conditions led to a series of suicides and self-mutilation, the number of which has not yet been definitively established. The institution in Torgau was closed on November 17, 1989.

Measures against " bums ", who stood out because of their longer hair and "Western clothing" (jeans), consisted in the 1960s of arbitrary police force, occasionally forced demonstration at the hairdresser or in shortening the hair by regulatory groups of the FDJ . The People's Police were also happy to pick up scissors themselves, as can be seen from police files.

The youth welfare service was followed by the criminal justice system when it came to bringing people on the intended path through "re-education". A separate paragraph in the GDR Criminal Code was devoted to the prison service for young people, which described the goal: (1) The prison sentence for young people is carried out in youth centers with special consideration given to the young person's personal development. (2) The execution of the prison sentence should lead the juvenile offender to conscious social discipline, responsibility and work and secure him a place in the socialist society commensurate with his achievements and abilities through education and upbringing, professional qualification and cultural-educational influence.

literature

Sachse, Christian: The final touch. Youth welfare / home education in the GDR as an instrument of discipline (1945–1989). Editor: The State Commissioner for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania for the documents of the State Security Service of the former GDR. Schwerin 2011.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Deutschlandfunk: Children's homes in the GDR. December 28, 2015, accessed September 15, 2017
  2. ^ Law Gazette of the GDR, Part II, May 17, 1965, p. 359.
  3. ↑ §77 StGB of the GDR, version 1979, Berlin 1986, p. 30.

See also

Web links