Auguste Mohrmann

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Auguste Luise Mohrmann (born March 1, 1891 in Essen , † April 1, 1967 in Berlin ) was a German nanny and elementary school teacher . Mohrmann founded the Reich Association of Protestant Kindergarten Teachers, Hortnerinnen and Youth Leaders in Germany eV which she directed until 1953. During the time of National Socialism she took over the management of the Diakoniegemeinschaft, under whose roof the Protestant sororities were represented in the Reich Student Council of German Sisters and the later Reich Association of Free Sisters . Despite her contribution to maintaining the greatest possible independence of the diakonia community she represents, her role in nursing under National Socialism is viewed critically in terms of nursing history because of its intellectual proximity to National Socialist ideology .

"Religious edification literature" published by Auguste Mohrmann, archived in the Ida-Seele archive

Advancement in child and youth welfare

Auguste Luise Mohrmann was born as the youngest child of the day laborer August and Wilhelmine Mohrmann on March 1, 1891 in Essen. In 1910 she began training as a toddler and elementary school teacher and as a youth leader at the Kaiserswerth teachers' seminar. In 1914 she returned to Essen and took over the management of the municipal kindergartens. She recognized the need for cooperation between the various child and youth welfare institutions and, in 1925, initiated the establishment of the Reich Association of Protestant Kindergarten Teachers, Hortnerinnen und Jugendleiterinnen Deutschlands eV. In this way, she strengthened the connections between the diaconal mother houses and, due to her competence as a toddler educator, became a consultant for the area of ​​child care and welfare in the Kaiserswerther Association of Protestant Mother Houses (KWV). A year later she was appointed executive director of the Conference on Christian Child Care . In 1929 she also took over the editorial management of the specialist journal Christliche Kinderpflege . Auguste Mohrmann was active as a writer. She published articles and a. for nursing, infant education and religious education.

time of the nationalsocialism

Mohrmann joined the NSDAP in spring 1933 . When the free trade unions were dissolved immediately after the " National Labor Day " and the National Socialist People's Welfare (NSV) was incorporated into the NSDAP, the previously independent, secular and denominational sister associations were forced to join the Reichsfachschaft Deutscher Sisters and Nurses . The Protestant sororities, previously represented by the Inner Mission in the NSV, joined the Reichsfachschaft as a newly founded diaconal community. In September 1933, Auguste Mohrmann, who has since been appointed to the Reich Ministry of the Interior as a member of the Reich Committee for Health Care, was entrusted with the management of the Diakoniegemeinschaft and the around 50,000 Protestant nurses. Although this was not a sanctified deaconess , she had the connections and experience in the administrative area necessary for the office and she publicly identified with the National Socialist ideology. Mohrmann's abundance of power in the 1930s as well as her often described high-handed demeanor earned her the nickname Empress Augusta among the deaconesses . In addition to the NSDAP, she also joined the National Socialist Women's Association , the German Labor Front , the NSV, the Reich Chamber of Culture and the Reich Air Protection Association .

Gravestone of Auguste Mohrmann in the Lichtenrade cemetery in Berlin-Lichtenrade

In her function, Mohrmann particularly fought against the attempted appropriation of the Protestant sister associations by the National Socialist health management under Erich Hilgenfeldt . For example, by founding the Union Sisters, she prevented the free sisters employed by the Diakonie, the so-called auxiliary sisters, from being taken over into the Reichsbund Free Sisters . On the training certificates she signed for senior sisters from her association, Mohrmann only mentioned the system-compliant teaching units attended, the theological seminars additionally offered were not mentioned. For these actions in favor of the Diakoniegemeinschaft, which did not correspond to her party affiliation, she was awarded the title of superior in 1939, although the formal requirements were lacking. This positive commitment to the evangelical sisters who report to her contradicts reports, for example, according to which Mohrmann gave no support to “non-Aryan” deaconesses like Margit Frankau and accepted their persecution through the racial ideology of the National Socialists without being contradicted. The nursing historian Wolff assumes that Mohrmann, as a Protestant Christian, found a number of points of contact in which her views partly coincided with those of the National Socialists; as well as between the Kaiserswerther Association and National Socialist ideas, strong similarities on social points were established and put on record.

Life after 1945

After her denazification, Mohrmann continued to work for the KWV in the Berlin office, and in 1946 she was entrusted with looking after the parent companies in eastern Germany. Her relationship with other influential personalities in nursing, such as the founders of the German Sisterhood , in particular Erna von Abendroth , remained difficult and tense in the post-war years.

Mohrmann was buried in the cemetery of the Deaconess Mother House in Salem , a special department of the Lichtenrade cemetery.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Historical nursing research ( Memento of October 24, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ^ Later renaming to the Federal Association of Evangelical Educators and Social Pedagogues eV
  3. ↑ Manfred Berger: Women in the history of the kindergarten: Sister Auguste Mohrmann
  4. ^ Heide-Marie Lauterer: Charitable activity for the national community. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1994, ISBN 3-525-55722-1 , p. 64.
  5. ↑ Kaiserwerther Verband 2016, p. 22
  6. ↑ Margit Frankau on Righteous People
  7. ^ Heide-Marie Lauterer: Charitable activity for the national community. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1994, ISBN 3-525-55722-1 , pp. 70-72.
personal data
SURNAME Mohrmann, Auguste
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mohrmann, Auguste Luise
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German child educator and head of the Diakoniegemeinschaft in the time of National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH March 1, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH eat
DATE OF DEATH April 1, 1967
Place of death Berlin