Abstract:
In summer 1981, the Hamburg Youth Welfare Services abolished secure provisions. Since then children and juveniles no longer can be locked up in educational establishments. This reform called ,,Menschen statt Mauern" (Personal Support instead of walls) caused a controversy between the authorities involved in the subject. The article presented intends to document and discuss parts of the conflict. As a typical problem in the field of youth welfare and police/law control it illustrates structural contradictions and vagueness of concepts. Fürther on the conflict permits to gain more knowledge concerning mutual (varying) perspectives on the subject. Consciousness and everyday knowledge (theories) of participants become clearer than usually. In that the controversy on the reform has a clarifying effect and enables to analyse on theoretical level. In the end spectators recognize an example of a „political didactic play“.