Jugendweihe

It originated among the secular societies in the 19th century as an alternative to confirmation by the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches, and was especially widespread in East Germany, where state atheism was encouraged under the GDR.

[1] Today the term Jugendfeier is increasingly popular since the Humanistischer Verband started to use it instead of Jugendweihe in around the 1980s to mark that participants would not be consecrated but should experience an unforgettable step into adulthood.

[2] Before the ceremony the youngsters can attend specially arranged events and courses, in which they work on topics like history and multiculturalism, culture and creativity, civil rights and duties, nature and technology, professions and getting a job, as well as lifestyles and human relations.

The Nazi regime tried to establish its own initiation rite for the whole German youth named Nationalsozialistische Jugendleite.

For a year before the actual Jugendweihen, "youth courses" were held, which mostly consisted of visits to workplaces, lectures on sexuality and politics, balls or similar social pursuits.

Until 1974 the state gave every young adolescent the book Weltall Erde Mensch (Universe, Earth, Man), which contained general knowledge in addition to propagandistic sayings.

The final alteration, in 1985 (four years before the fall of the Berlin Wall), was minor in comparison, adding a paragraph in which the attendants pledged to respect and help one another, and extending the closing address, emphasising the "heavy responsibility" conferred on the newly come-of-age.