Das Bewahrungsgesetz (1918-1967)

The purpose of the »Correctional Custody Law« was to commit »antisocial« persons (for example prostitutes) to closed welfare institutions. For the first time, Matthias Willing describes in detail the history of this repressive law in the Weimar Republic, during National Socialism, in the Western occupation zones and the Federal Republic of Germany until compulsory correctional custody was prohibited by the Federal Constitutional Court in 1967. In doing so, he shows that there was continuity in the fundamental directions which German welfare services took for socially disadvantaged persons in the 20th century.