ABSTRACT

Youth and leisure are two concepts closely linked in contemporary history and in social research. The “scientific” discovery of youth and recreation occurs in the transition from the 19th to the 20th century: Thorsten Veblen published The Theory of the Leisure Class in 1899 and G. Stanley Hall published Adolescence in 1904. In the first third of the 20th century were born the major youth organizations aimed at educating children and youth in/from the free time: summer camps, boy scouts, and Wandervögel.