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During the Weimar Republic, crucial initiatives in the field of youth welfare gave rise to the justified hope that the conditions under which adolescents grew up could improve. In the 1920s, legal regulations and social initiatives intertwined to advance reform processes. A broad consensus on these values indicated a solid foundation on which youth welfare and support services could build. This was supported by some social democrats, the Centre Party, and social and educational reformers who saw Weimar as a promising, forward-looking, social and cultural project. Before 1914, members of the youth movements had claimed autonomy for adolescents and had expressed excitement about the future and reform optimism. This optimism continued in the 1920s. In addition, multifaceted types of youth communities developed, which were expressions of the changed needs and expectations of young people in Germany during the inter-war period. However, excessive demands that were placed on young people contributed to a crisis of legitimacy of the democratic political system. Its representatives ultimately failed to secure broad support among the younger generation. The answers to social and societal youth issues thus proved to be a seismographic indicator of the stability or instability of the Weimar Republic.

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