There are quite a few people whose eyes light up when they talk about the good old days. Back then, they firmly believe, the world was still in order. If the apprentice didn’t work hard, he got a few slaps in the face. If the children didn’t get up as expected, mother brought them to their senses with a willow rod. If the daughter came home from the dance way after midnight, the leather strap was already waiting. At school, she had to be careful, or she would get a caning. Everyone knew their place in life. A master was a master and a maid was a maid.

But this impression is deceptive. The good old days are still very much alive in the minds of many people. IAnd they are still practiced in many homes. Maybe even in your immediate neighborhood. 

Several American states still steadfastly refuse to abolish corporal punishment. In many countries around the world, it still dominates everyday school and family life, and no one would think of questioning this tried and tested practice. And then there is religious fundamentalism, which is also becoming increasingly popular in the Christian world. Its followers take the Bible very literally and see it as their vested right to use the rod of discipline, at least in the domestic sphere. For them, law and order is a divine mandate, and they work energetically to make their relentless values the generally applicable standard.

In his book „Visions of Law and Order“, Wolfram Steffen takes on the role of a reporter who is granted an insight into an otherwise strictly shielded world. He moves among influential men who have dedicated themselves to the task of realizing their ideas of a new world order. Their children grow up in secluded boarding schools where the teachers have far-reaching rights and the cane is omnipresent. Their families live in settlements that are sealed off from the outside world and where the good old rules of discipline and order once again apply. Emancipation is a foreign concept here, because the woman knows her place and the man is the master of his house. His word is law, and anyone who does not abide by it must pay bitterly for it.

The book is a reportage that originated in the imagination, but certainly has references to reality. It describes a reality that has only been lost in the western world, while in the south and east of the world it has never ceased to determine people’s lives. A world that functions according to very simple principles: Women bear offspring, lovers are loved, children have to obey and servants are there to serve. Those who step out of line are put in their place, and those who are unruly are punished.