Abstinente Jugendliche im Höhenrausch : Nüchternheit, Leistung und gesunder Lebensstil in der Schweizer Abstinenz- und Lebensreformbewegung (1885-1978)

This article discusses the assumption that also historical actors of the youth and life reform movement being abstinent from alcohol and drugs strived for inebriation. Although these forms of inebriation allowed to exceed physical and mental limits, they had to be compatible with the performance-oriented and healthy lifestyle of the movements. During the 20th century, abstinent adolescents, Wandervögel and life reformers organized mountain hikes as a healthy leisure activity without alcohol and drugs. In their tour reports they described their experiences in the mountains as a state of highness which in contrary to the drug-based intoxication improves one's self-control and perception. By doing so, they tried to adopt inebriation as cultural technology, but connected it to their ideals of health. They influenced a sober and rationalized “regime of consciousness” that during the 20th century expanded in different spheres of modern, performance-oriented societies.