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Child, Family, State

Adoption in Germany, 1900-2021

Child, Family, State cover

Child, Family, State

Adoption in Germany, 1900-2021

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Pre-order. Available Sep 04 2025
$86.40 RRP $108.00 Website price saving $21.60 (20%)

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Description

This book explores how adoption evolved in Germany's turbulent twentieth century, experiencing both drastic changes and unexpected continuities.

The history of adoption in twentieth-century Germany has been dramatic and complex. The Weimar Republic's assumption of responsibility for children's welfare in 1922 empowered state authorities to regulate private adoption agencies, to set up their own public adoption offices, and to require prospective adoptive parents to prove their competence to social workers. These policies subsequently allowed nazis, communists, and democrats to frame adoption policies to match their social and political goals and values. Differing conceptions of the best interests of the child and the family, redefinitions of “family”, changing criteria for a family's or child's suitability for adoption, abduction, international adoption, and even European integration all came into play, empowering authorities to define, regulate and sometimes even forbid adoptive relationships to that end. The evolution of German adoption and German society reflected each other, showing both fundamental changes and unexpected continuities, and deepening our understanding of both.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Adoption in Germany Through the Kaiserreich
2. Adoption in the Weimar Republic, 1919-1933
3. Adoption in the Third Reich, 1933-1945
4. Adoption During the Occupation, 1945-1949
5. Adoption in the Federal Republic, 1949-Present
6. Adoption in the German Democratic Republic, 1949-1990
Bibliography
About the Author

Product details

Bloomsbury Academic Test
Published Sep 04 2025
Format Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
Edition 1st
Extent 304
ISBN 9781978759381
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

Roland Spickermann

Roland Spickermann is an Associate Professor of Hi…

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