Armgard von Alvensleben
Armgard "Aja" von Alvensleben , b. von Knebel Döberitz, div. von Strbensky (born January 13, 1893 in Friedrichsdorf, Dramburg district , † September 14, 1970 in Celle ) was abbess of the monastery Stift zum Heiligengrabe in Heiligengrabe (Brandenburg) and chief executive of the Evangelical German railway station mission .
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family
She came from Western Pomerania , where she grew up on her parents' estate in Friedrichsdorf. Her parents were the Prussian Rittmeister Edgar von Knebel Döberitz and Isidore, nee. from Biel . On April 4, 1913, she married the Prussian lieutenant in the reserve Joachim von Alvensleben from Neugattersleben , who fell on August 6, 1914 when Liège was conquered. They had a daughter, Anna, who was less than six months old when her father died.
On June 2, 1924, she married Rudolf von Strbensky in her birthplace. However, this marriage was divorced after almost a year on February 16, 1925, whereupon she again took her widow name von Alvensleben.
Life
The untimely death of her first husband and the unhappy second marriage changed her life completely. She trained as a nurse , worked for a few years as a sister in the deaconess mother house in Köslin and then devoted herself to social work in Berlin, where in 1938 she took on the role of managing director of the Evangelical Station Mission in Berlin. However, she only did this for a short time, because in the same year she was appointed abbess of the Stift zum Heiligengrabe monastery in Heiligengrabe (Brandenburg), where she was also responsible for the well-known church boarding school. As such, it was able to prevent the National Socialists from converting the school into an SS home school, but in 1942 the school and boarding school were placed under the supervision of the home school inspection. At the end of April 1945 she fled to what would later become the western zones. In Hanover, with a small staff, she rebuilt the Evangelical German Railway Mission, which after a short time developed a beneficial aid activity in 170 railway stations in the Federal Republic. Armgard von Alvensleben headed this facility as general manager for many years into old age. For her work she received various awards as thanks and recognition, including the Wichern plaque of the Inner Mission and in 1959, the first woman in Lower Saxony, the Great Federal Cross of Merit .
literature
- Freda Niemann: Armgard von Alvensleben in: Housekeeping as a test of the Christian faith . Dedicated to Ludwig Geißel on the occasion of his 65th birthday. Edited by Theodor Schober. Verlagswerk Diakonie 1981, pp. 331–335.
- Gerlinde Strohmaier-Wiederanders: History of the monastery Stift zum Heiligengrabe . Monumenta Brandenburgica, Volume 3, Berlin 1995.
- Evangelical women's monastery in Heiligengrabe . Editor: Association for the Promotion and Preservation of the Evangelical Monastery Stift zum Heiligengrabe eV, 2nd edition Berlin 1999.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Alvensleben, Armgard from |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Alvensleben, Aja von; Knebel Döberitz, Armgard von (maiden name); Strbensky, Armgard von (during their 2nd marriage from 1924-25) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Abbess of the monastery Stift zum Heiligengrabe in Heiligengrabe (Brandenburg) and general manager of the Evangelical German Railway Mission |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 13, 1893 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Friedrichsdorf (Dramburg) , Dramburg district |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 14, 1970 |
| Place of death | Celle |