Germany's juvenile justice policies have changed significantly in recent decades. These changes include a shift from institutionalization to deinstitutionalization and community-based programs and intermediate responses to juvenile delinquency, a shift from formal proceedings to diversion, and a shift from a welfare-based model to a justice model. In addition, the shift from advocating a unified juvenile welfare law to keeping a separate criminal law for juvenile and young adult offenders coincides with an increase in distrust of rehabilitation and education as major goals of juvenile welfare and juvenile criminal justice. The German reunification of 1990 means that the West German standards had to be established in the east of Germany. The costs have been significant. In addition, recent social and political trends have tended to be conservative as the country continues to support the justice model. This approach may lead to shortages and budget cutting for a certain period. The system's initial formation was influenced by developments in North America. It now may be timely to examine other foreign trends. The future challenge will be to address issues associated with chronic offenders, ethnic groups, reunification, and the accommodation of United Nations recommendations. These issues require study beyond the narrow framework of juvenile justice system reforms. Figures and 82 references