Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject Social Work, grade: 1,3, Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences Berlin AS, language: English, abstract: I fully agree with the following quote from Zeller: "A study of social work and social pedagogy that is taught without history, that is, that does not ask about its roots, remains largely only on the surface of its professionalisation." Because I find the history of social work very important for understanding social work today. In my opinion, the historical development of social work/social pedagogy is the basis for a professional self-understanding. In order to make it clear to myself which profession I choose, I have to know the history of this profession, why it exists at all and why in this form. Looking at the historical lines of development makes it clear that social work/social pedagogy on the one hand is to be understood from history until today, on the other hand that it is also a history of terms and their interpretations. In part, the same words are used to describe new contents - which also leads to misunderstandings.