Abstract
Between the 1850's and the 1920's the propaganda against alcohol changed in Sweden. At first the state was passive, but as time passed by the state took a great responsibility. In the 1920's almost all information about alcohol was sanctioned by the state. At the same time the strong temperance movement was involved in the propaganda. The message therefore was not only temperance but total sobriety. This connection to the temperance argument was however not debated.
The school was early recognised as an ideal place to inform the young citizens about a good behaviour. The pupils should not only learn not to drink alcohol, they should also learn that abstention was the behaviour of a good citizen. In the school it was also easy to reach the children of the working classes. The working class was often regarded as the main problem. They drank more and the problem with a heavy drinking was greater among them.
The gradually more intense information and propaganda can be connected to Nikolas Roses ideas about the advanced liberal state, where greater freedom is connected to more restrictions. In order to deserve democratic and liberal rights the citizens must know how to behave, which they learned in the temperence-education.