Jugendweihe
Sign in to savethumb|Jugendfeier of the Humanistischer Verband Deutschlands|Humanistischer Verband in Berlin 2011
~7 min read
Encyclopedic overview
8 sectionsContents
- ''Jugendweihen'' and ''Jugendfeiern''
- Origin and history
- Repression since 1933
- After the Second World War
- Political instrumentalization in East Germany
- References
- Further reading
- External links
thumb|Jugendfeier of the Humanistischer Verband Deutschlands|Humanistischer Verband in Berlin 2011
Jugendweihe ("youth consecration") or Jugendfeier ("youth ceremony") is a secular coming of age ceremony for German 14-year-olds. 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 SED.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Jugendweihe” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.