273. In cases of child-rearing problems in Germany, you go to …

Answer options

1. to a physician.
2. to the public health office.
3. to the residents’ registration office.
4. to the youth welfare office.

Explanation

In cases of child-rearing difficulties, the competent authority in Germany is the Youth Welfare Office as the local provider of public youth welfare under Book VIII of the Social Code (the 1990 Child and Youth Welfare Act). It offers, inter alia, parental counseling (§ 28 SGB VIII) and assistance with upbringing (§§ 27 et seq.) and operationalizes the state’s guardianship function (Wächteramt) derived from Article 6(2) sentence 2 of the Basic Law—guided by assistance before intervention and the principle of subsidiarity vis-à-vis independent providers (§§ 4, 75 SGB VIII). Institutionally, Jugendämter are organs of municipal self-government (Art. 28(2) GG) at the district and independent-city level, complemented by Landesjugendämter at the state level. The system evolved from the 1922 Reich Youth Welfare Act and was comprehensively reformed in 1990.