The year 1911 marked a major inflection point in the trajectory of the youth salvation campaign. That year both the tendencies and developments characteristic of the campaign to save working-class youth since 1900 reached a culmination, and at the same time there was a sharp break from the campaign's previous direction and activities. In the first place, the Prussian state assumed a considerably expanded role as the motor force, steering mechanism, and coordinating center of youth activity. The drive for centralization undertaken by the administrative bureaucracy led to the subsumption of much local initiative under central state direction and resulted in far greater uniformity in youth policy. Because of the secular character of state policy, it also diminished the role of the Catholic Church in shaping youth welfare measures. Second, in response to prodding from the army, youth work underwent a pronounced militarization, with emphasis placed on building paramilitary formations like the Jungdeutschlandbund (Young Germany League). Third, as we have already seen in part in the previous chapter, these shifts were accompanied by a far more aggressive attack on the Socialist youth movement.

The major source of impetus for the new course was the proclamation of the Youth Cultivation Edict by the Prussian Ministry of Religious, Educational, and Medical Affairs on 18 January 1911. Even the date of the proclamation underscored its importance, since it coincided with the fortieth anniversary of the founding of the Empire. Another clue to its importance was indicated by the neologism Jugendpflege (youth cultivation) coined to replace the previously standard Jugendfürsorge (youth welfare).