Happy Birthday, Freiwilliges Soziales Jahr

The “Voluntary Social Year” (FSJ) was first regulated by law in Germany in the FSJ Act passed by the German Bundestag on 17 August 1964 and is therefore celebrating its 60th birthday this summer. However, this form of voluntary service has been around since the 1950s, when a volunteer year was propagated under the slogan “Give a year” on the initiative of the Protestant Bishop of Bavaria, Hermann Dietzfelbinger, which later became the “Diaconal Year”. On 15 May 2024, in his speech to mark 70 years of the Diaconal Year and 60 years of the Voluntary Social Year, Federal President Steinmeier paid tribute to the commitment of volunteers and organisations and emphasised that voluntary services strengthen cohesion in our society. This focus on the 60th anniversary of the FSJ takes a look at its past and future. What developments and changes have taken place and are still taking place? What does this mean for the field of voluntary service support and for the fields of social work in which many FSJ volunteers work?