Shaping Futures in the 19th Century: Formerly Incarcerated Children and Their Trajectories Across German Borders

How to treat children after their release from prison? This paper reflects on a question that became central to the nineteenth century and explores the implications of labor and authority as forces in shaping the futures of formerly incarcerated boys and girls. Examining the complex interactions between these adolescents, their families, state institutions, and employers across the German territories brings to the fore how the reintegration of young people into society resulted from ever-entangled negotiations.

Through the trajectories of the children who were released from correctional institutions—ranging from asylums to workhouses to prisons—the paper traces how labor, framed as a moral, economic, and legal force, marked both personal lives and state-building. Reintegration, far from being a unidirectional process, materialized as an unstable and contested endeavor involving conflicting sources of authority: the family, the state, and private employers. These stories of girls and boys reflect a contestation of authority, often mediated through labor placements and professional apprenticeships, which were intended to restore social order while positioning individuals within national and imperial frameworks. An analysis of bureaucratic records, correspondence, and institutional reports illustrates how the continuous negotiation of layers of authority shaped notions of community and belonging: cross-border movements and the circulation of children were ever linked to broader attempts at creating social cohesion.