Busch, Max Ernst

Social education worker, head of the Wiesbaden prison

Born: 12.12.1922 in Nordhausen

died: 16.07.1993 in Höfen/Enz

Busch was drafted as a soldier in 1942 and became an American and then French prisoner of war, from which he was released in 1946. From 1946-51, he studied social education, history and philosophy in Tübingen and Frankfurt, graduated in 1954 and passed his state examination as a social worker.

Busch joined the prison service of the state of Hesse and was in charge of a special unit for young prisoners at Frankfurt-Höchst prison from 1954-59. In 1959, he took over the Dieburg adult prison. From 1963, he was head of Wiesbaden Prison (JVA).

With the construction of the new Wiesbaden prison, he built the first juvenile prison in post-war Germany, which reflected the implementation of the educational concept in the juvenile prison system. In terms of architecture, he implemented his modern prison concept: away from the traditional central building and towards individual pavilions in which the prisoners were to live in residential groups.

From 1954, he taught at the Higher Technical College for Social Work in Kassel, at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences (1959-63) and at the Faculty of Law at Heidelberg University.

He was particularly interested in the political and intern. dimension of social work. He was a co-founder of the "International Society for Home Education" and worked in numerous social and youth welfare associations, in particular in the "Federal Government's Commission on Juvenile Justice". There he was able to provide decisive impetus as a "law user on the ground" when the 1976 Prison Act was passed.

In 1974, he was appointed to the Chair of Social and Offender Pedagogy at the University of Wuppertal. After his retirement, he was involved in the reorientation of the juvenile justice system in the Free State of Thuringia. The University of Wuppertal honored him with a memorial publication on the occasion of his death.