Amalie Raiffeisen
Amalie Justine Caroline Raiffeisen (born August 2, 1846 in Weyerbusch , † January 11, 1897 in Heddesdorf ) was an indispensable help from her father, the German social reformer Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen . Since he became almost blind at the beginning of the 1860s, she supported him in handling the correspondence to found the cooperative movement in the German Empire.
She grew up in a religious family and was brought up according to the role model at the time so that as a woman she had to submit to the wishes of her father even in adulthood. He forbade her to marry in order to have her with him as a support. After Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen died in 1888, she stopped working for the Raiffeisen movement . From 1892 until her death, she was the last member of the family to own shares in her father's company.
Life
Childhood and youth
Amalie Raiffeisen was born in the early morning of August 2, 1846 as the first of seven children of the then Mayor of Weyerbusch, Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen, and his wife Emilie. FW Raiffeisen was grateful to God for the birth of his daughter. In the first years of her life, her mother took care of the upbringing of the daughter and the children who followed. It was only when Amalie and her siblings were a little older that her father, who was under heavy workload, also took part. It was important to the parents to bring up their children in order and to follow a regular daily routine. As soon as she was able to do so, Amalie had to draw up a work schedule for the following day in the evening. In it she had to record all activities of the day, whereby she was allowed to keep the times set by the father free after completing the other activities. If she was not at home for one or more days, she had to make plans for those days as well. Her father made it very important that his children do all the scheduled work, whereby the children also had to take on activities that were normally only done by maids .
At the same time, Raiffeisen attached great importance to a solid and appropriate education for its daughters. Amalie visited after the elementary school , the Higher School for Girls . While attending school there, she also had to take care of other tasks and cleaning work for the maids and also help in the garden, especially with the cultivation of potatoes.
Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen strove to orient his lifestyle towards the commandment of Christian charity . His children, including Amalie as the oldest, had to look for a poor family in the vicinity, for whose upkeep and well-being they were then responsible. To achieve this, they had to collect benefits in kind and money from wealthier families and hand them over personally to the families they looked after.
Raiffeisen's family also lived in simple and frugal circumstances. The father's mayor's salary was barely enough to support the large family. Family life was also shaped by illnesses in both parents. Her father retired from the military in 1845 because of his eye problems. The eyesight deteriorated steadily in spite of regular spa stays and eventually led to blindness . Her mother suffered from chronic heart failure. After the birth of her last child in 1859, which died after a short time, doctors consulted ruled out that Emilie Raiffeisen would make a full recovery. Until her death on July 27, 1863, she remained sickly and weak. In a will drawn up in the same year, FW Raiffeisen feared that his children could become orphans at an early age, as he had not yet fully recovered from a severe typhoid attack .
Work in her father's Raiffeisen organization
After her mother's death, at the age of 17, Amalie, the eldest daughter, took over her household chores and the upbringing of her younger siblings. Her father's eyesight had deteriorated significantly as a result of typhoid fever. On September 2, 1856, District Administrator Friedrich Wilhelm von Runkel wrote to him that her father had office assistants and Amalia read his letters to him because he could no longer read. Since he can no longer see what he is signing himself, the district administrator retired on September 21, 1865. Due to the short period of service, Raiffeisen only received a low pension, which resulted in existential financial problems for the family, especially since it was not possible for him to build up reserves during his period of service due to the frequent spa stays and his willingness to help needy people in emergencies. To improve his income, he founded a cigar factory, which he gave up after a short time due to lack of profitability, and then a wine trade. In the daily business he was dependent on Amalie's help.
In 1864 Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen founded the "Heddesdorfer Loan Association". He published his experiences in connection with his previous work in Weyerbusch and the mayor's office Flammersfeld in 1866 in the first edition of "The Loan Fund Associations as a means to remedy the distress of the rural population as well as the urban craftsmen and workers". He dictated and Amalie wrote the 227-page book.
After her father had to go to a spa stay after the book was printed, Amalie was largely solely responsible for the household and the wine trade. In a letter in 1867, Raiffeisen wrote to his children about how much it burdens him to contribute so little to his income. He asked her to repay all debts if he died. As long as she was solely responsible for the household, Amalie continued to take care of the implementation of the cooperative idea. Her biographer Walter Koch assumes that she was often overwhelmed with this at a young age and that this was one reason for FW Raiffeisen's marriage to the widow Maria Penserot in 1868.
The second edition of Raiffeisen's book appeared in 1872 with a length of 352 pages. The complete revision was also written by Amalie according to her father's dictation. In the first Raiffeisen biography, which was written by the temporary employee Martin Faßbender , the daily routine at this time is described in such a way that one got up early and the first thing to do in a common house devotion was the daily motto of the Moravian Brethren . After a meager breakfast and a short walk, Friedrich Wilhelm did the correspondence with Amalie and devoted himself to reworking his book. Because of the more secretive daily paperwork, Amalie was referred to by her father as a "secret secretary" at the time. To relieve her and as a potential successor, he had his son Rudolf trained as a businessman . Thus, a lower workload for Amalie was foreseeable, although her sister Carolina married in 1872 and left the household.
However, Rudolf was called up for military service as a one-year volunteer on October 1, 1876 . The family was burdened with the cost of his stay in the barracks. Raiffeisen was forced to hire a managing director for its wine trade. A sale of the trade failed because the bids were too low. For reasons not yet explored, Rudolf had ruined his reputation during his military service and was unable to return home afterwards. Following Amalie's advice, he emigrated at the end of 1877. It was therefore not foreseeable that Amalie's workload would be reduced for the time being.
Amalie had pen pals as far as England. In a received letter from 1877, she writes about her love for children and the desire for her own. Her sister Bertha married on May 15, 1878 and left her parents' house. Amalie was left alone with her father.
In 1880 Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen planned to found a new company into which he wanted to bring all of his fortune. A family dispute arose when he asked his children to renounce their maternal inheritance. By October 1881 he convinced his three daughters, including Amalie as the first, of his plan. Rudolf and Bertha had meanwhile broken off all contact with him, which Rudolf continued to do in the period that followed. This made the problem of who should succeed in the family more pressing again. In 1880 Martin Faßbender , who later wrote Raiffeisen's first biography, was employed to become the spiritual successor of Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen. Faßbender resigned after two years because he saw no way of realizing his own ideas. Although it was an outwardly amicable separation, Faßbender later violently agitated against Raiffeisen.
For Amalie this was a major change in life. Faßbender later wrote about the family that although the father loved his daughter dearly, it was not possible for him to perceive her as a being with his own wishes and needs, so that this would greatly impair her happiness in life. Faßbender lived in the house of the Raiffeisen family and it can be assumed that he fell in love with Amalie and wanted to marry her. At that time there were already violent differences between Raiffeisen and Faßbender about the further development of the cooperative system and the father forbade his daughter to marry Faßbender. When he left, Raiffeisen had serious worries about losing Amalie and he realized how much he was dependent on her - he called her his "eyesight".
Another reason for the marriage ban could be seen in the fact that Raiffeisen was planning to convert its cooperative associations into an order of brothers that should act out of pure charity. The family lived according to the slogan of the Moravian Brethren and FW Raiffeisen knew non-denominational Christian communities. Catholic priests like the Swiss Johann Traber were also involved early on in spreading the cooperative idea of eliminating rural poverty. He himself was out of the question as a religious superior, as he had already been married twice and his basic concept provided for celibacy for the members of the order. Walter Koch assumes that he saw the future superior of the order in Faßbender, together with Amalie as the highest religious sister.
The correspondence Amalie had to deal with increased. In 1881, as in previous years, she was unable to visit her relatives. In a letter to her sister Caroline in November 1881, she complained that her work was becoming increasingly difficult, that she was permanently overtired and that her father forbade her to do anything. Her father's arguments at the same time with her siblings, Faßbender's departure and the extra work caused by the new 4th edition of Raiffeisen's book were so overwhelming that she sought a discussion with her father. Since he did not understand her needs, she completely resigned. Although it was difficult for her, she submitted to her father-dominated fate without fighting it again or even leaving home.
Last years and early death
At the end of 1887, her brother Rudolf returned from Spain to the house where he was born and declared that he was determined to continue his father's work and to work on it together. Friedrich Wilhelm went to work with renewed vigor and probably expected himself too much. He died suddenly and unexpectedly on March 11, 1888. Amalie inherited 7/24 of the inheritance from his private property and, as an advance legacy for her twenty years of service, the entire movable inventory of the house as well as two life insurance policies worth 1,000 thalers each . After the death of her father, she sorted out his correspondence as far as it was in her possession. She made a small part of it available to Martin Faßbender, while she burned most of it.
It is not known whether she continued to work as a secretary and typist after her father's death. However, she remained a partner in her father's last company "Raiffeisen & Cons" until the end of her life and tried to support her brother. In doing so, she had to witness how he was forced out of office for personal and economic power interests. Due to her upbringing and life story, as a co-partner, she did not resist the fact that her brother was ousted from the company on November 28, 1892.
Amalie lived in Heddesdorf until her death on January 11, 1897. Is at the Death of the community as a cause of death hydrothorax . With her death, the last member of the Raiffeisen family left the cooperative organization. She was buried in the old Heddesdorf cemetery in the same grave as her father.
Honors and memories
Amalie Raiffeisen had received the Prussian Cross of Merit for women and virgins .
FW Raiffeisen described her in a letter in 1884 as his "strong, loving support, as his advisor in worries and troubles of all kinds and as his consolation in troubled times. Whose life fills his heart with thanks to God and to her".
Apart from a brief biographical note in the Raiffeisen cooperative calendar from 1950, there was no comprehensive research on the life of Amalie Raiffeisen, although her importance for the successful implementation of the cooperative idea was expressly emphasized in all the biographies of her father. Walter Koch published it for the first time in 1995 about her in his own publishing house. In the same year the text, shortened by a few quotes and documents, was published by the Frauenbüro Neuwied in a collection of biographies. Koch called FW Raiffeisen dependent on Amalie, who felt his wishes but was in great mental agony. In particular, renouncing marriage was very difficult for her.
Werner Abresch named Amalie in 1968 in his book FW Raiffeisen, Future Gaining, A Great Life in Pictures and Documents, the second self of her father. She identified with his life's work and was an advisor and confidante. "You yourself have demanded the many sacrifices, which she was happy to give".
Michael Klein wrote that Amalie's happiness in life was sacrificed by her father for the movement.
The Amalie-Raiffeisen-Saal is located in the Neuwied adult education center .
In 2013, the local history researcher Hans-Georg Holzhauer from the Westerwald had a portrait of Amalie and her father made together. In view of the in his opinion insufficient appreciation of her life, in the same year he presented the then President of the Bundestag Norbert Lammert with a petition to use this double portrait as a motif for a stamp on the 200th birthday and 120th anniversary of the death of Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen in 2018. The proposal was not implemented.
literature
- Walter Koch : Amalie Raiffeisen (1846–1897) , in: Frauenbüro Neuwied (ed.): From woman to woman. In search of the buried stories of important women in and around Neuwied. Part II. Verlag Peter Kehrein, Neuwied 1995, ISBN 978-3-9803266-5-0 , pp. 43-61.
- Walter Koch: Amalie Raiffeisen - A life for the Raiffeisen movement. , Self-published by Walter Koch, Fürstenfeldbruck Sudetenstrasse 2) 1995, DNB 96325278X
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Walter Koch : Amalie Raiffeisen (1846–1897) in Frauenbüro Neuwied (ed.): Von Frau zu Frau, Part II , Verlag Peter Kehrein, 1995, ISBN 978-3-9803266-5-0 , p. 43 .
- ↑ a b c d From woman to woman, Part II , p. 45
- ↑ a b From woman to woman, Part II , p. 46
- ↑ a b From woman to woman, Part II , p. 47
- ↑ From woman to woman, Part II , p. 48
- ↑ From woman to woman, Part II , p. 49
- ↑ From Woman to Woman, Part II , pp. 50–51
- ↑ a b From woman to woman, Part II , p. 51
- ↑ a b From woman to woman, Part II , p. 54
- ↑ a b c From woman to woman, Part II , p. 55
- ^ René Roca: Significance of Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen for the cooperative movement of the 19th century , Zeit questions , No. 11 of March 11, 2013
- ↑ a b From woman to woman, Part II , p. 56
- ↑ a b From woman to woman, Part II , p. 57
- ↑ a b From woman to woman, Part II , p. 59
- ↑ Martin Faßbender: FW Raiffeisen in his life, thinking and working , Berlin, 1902, p. 9 (quoted from From woman to woman, part II , p. 61)
- ↑ a b c From woman to woman, Part II , p. 60
- ↑ Werner Abresch, Friedhelm Kaiser: Win the future. Steinbock-Verlag, Hannover 1968, p. 137
- ↑ List of medal winners on ordensmuseum.de
- ↑ From woman to woman, Part II , p. 58
- ↑ Amalie Raiffeisen - A life for the Raiffeisen movement in the Rhineland-Palatinate Bibliography
- ^ Walter Koch: FW Raiffeisen's concept of cooperative society as a cooperation model in modern industrial society , Creator, 1991, ISBN 3-89247-049-9 , p. 93.
- ↑ Werner Abresch, Friedhelm Kaiser: Win the future. Steinbock-Verlag, Hannover 1968, p. 58
- ^ Andreas Nentwich: Raiffeisen or Die Christenpflicht on wgzbank.de, 2012, pdf
- ↑ Amalie-Raiffeisen-Saal ( Memento from July 6, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Silvia Patt: Idea: Raiffeisen postage stamp with daughter Amalie. In: Rhein-Zeitung , May 24, 2013
- ^ Website of the publisher
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Raiffeisen, Amalie |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Raiffeisen, Amalie Justine Caroline |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German social reformer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 2, 1846 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Weyerbusch |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 11, 1897 |
| Place of death | Heddesdorf |
