Reconstruction of state intervention policies using the example of Salzburg oral files in the period from 1945 to 1970 with a focus on femininity and sexuality
Dissertation project by Vanessa Blaha MA
The period after the second world war was characterized by chains of responsibility behind the totalitarian, exclusionary and humiliating practice of welfare education from the 1940s to the 1970s. This practice, which can be observed throughout Austria, is also evident in the oral files of the Salzburg Provincial Archives. They reveal a certain interplay and interdependence between youth welfare offices, curative education institutes and homes, as well as the legal and political framework and attitudes of society as a whole. According to the legal regulations at the time, it was the task of the youth welfare office or district youth welfare office to impose “welfare education” if individual children and young people appeared to be suffering from physical, emotional, mental or moral neglect. Girls in particular were the focus of sexual and moral neglect – especially if their own mother led a lifestyle that was not normatively recognized. The protocols of the welfare officers are used to specify the control and objectives of the acting authorities and to standardize the gender ratio with full severity.
The dissertation project investigates the question of which legitimation structures of intervention in the family by youth welfare actors can be found and reconstructed in the file management. What social norms come into play and what role does the Heilpädagogisches Institut play in this? Special attention will be paid to the thematic focal points: femininity, maternity, sexuality, corporeality, generational transmission.
- Main supervision: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Birgit Bütow (University of Salzburg)
- Secondary supervision: Ass.-Prof. Mag.a Flavia Guerrini, PhD (University of Innsbruck)
