Publisher's Synopsis
This study examines social policy in Weimar Germany. The Weimar Republic gave German youth new social rights and a pledge of generous educational and welfare provision. Public social and welfare policies would, it was hoped, banish the spectre of delinquent and rebellious youth, and ensure that the future citizens, workers and mothers of Germany's new democracy would be well-adjusted, efficient and healthy.;But how far could the would-be architects of modern technocratic welfare realize their vision in the midst of the economic and political instability of the Great Depression? How did young people respond to policies supposedly in their best interests, but which contained an unmistakable dimension of supervision and control?;Elizabeth Harvey examines a wide range of policies implemented by central and local government, including vocational training, labour-market policies, reformatory schooling and the juvenile-justice system. Her analysis provides insights into the troubled development of the Weimar Welfare State and the crisis into which it was plunged by the depression. The book also adds to the debate over continuities in social policy between Weimar Germany and the Third Reich. Elizabeth Harvey is a co-editor of "Youth Welfare and Social Democracy in Weimar Germany: The Work of Walter Friedlander" with Jennifer Birkett, and the author of "Determined Women: Studies in the Construction of the Female Subject 1900-1990".
