Current dissertations

Institute of History, Ethics and Philosophy of Medicine

Doctoral candidate

Patricia Kuhls

Working title of the dissertation

Youth and marriage counseling in post-war Germany and the early Federal Republic using the example of the German Association for Youth and Marriage Counseling

Abstract

The topic of this dissertation is youth and marriage counseling in post-war Germany and the early Federal Republic using the example of the German Association for Youth and Marriage Counseling (DAJEB), which was founded in Detmold on October 1, 1949. As a small working group, the DAJEB sought publicity relatively quickly, on the one hand in the form of early training courses for specialist staff, and on the other in extensive public relations work and contact with authorities and offices at state and federal level. From the very beginning, there was support and encouragement to establish marriage and family counseling centers throughout Germany and to train their counselors professionally. The DAJEB was one of the first organizations to make a significant contribution to the content and procedures of the new training courses for marriage and family counselling with the declared aim of working and training as comprehensively and interdisciplinary as possible with the involvement of Catholic and Protestant lecturers, lawyers, physicians and psychologists.

The biographies of people who were involved in the founding and early organization at board level and in the individual committees such as the working committee are examined in more detail, as are those of lecturers and members in the early years, objectives, content of training courses, lectures and funding. Of particular interest here are the communication structures of public relations work and publications in various media, member newsletters and literature recommendations.

The aim of this study is to investigate whether there are eugenic ideas that survive in the new Federal Republic and, if so, which people or training content contribute to this and whether modified but recognizable ideas from the pre-1945 period can be found in publications.

Of particular interest here are the topics of marriage and family counselling such as marriage recommendations, finding the right partner, family planning and reproduction, sex education, women and their role, abortion and sterilization.

In view of the current state of research, publications in specialist journals such as the Öffentlicher Gesundheitsdienst, the Deutsche Medizinische Wochenschrift, the hygienische Monatsschrift, the Deutsches Ärzteblatt and the Zeitschrift die Gesundheitsfürsorge regarding the above-mentioned issues, circulars, annual reports and, if available, minutes of the first training courses will be examined.

Finally, today's continuing education standards and contents of the DAJEB will be examined for recognizable changes in position and for possibly preserved ideas that have successfully established themselves in the general opinion and can be traced back to these beginnings.