Station Mission

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Employee of the station mission in Leipzig Central Station

The Bahnhofsmission ( train station social service in Austria) is a Christian aid organization with free contact points at 105 train stations in Germany. Other railway station social services with similar tasks exist in France, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and other European countries.

Offers of help

The station missions in Germany generally offer their help to everyone anonymously and free of charge, possibly also at times of the day when other social help is not available. The offer of help is low-threshold ; neither specific personal requirements nor specific problem situations are required for its use. Religiously motivated pastoral care is not always in the foreground, but rather practical handouts regardless of one's own worldview; nevertheless, the cross and the Bible can certainly be found in a train station mission. The range of help varies greatly and usually ranges from small aids (plasters, timetable information, help filling out application forms, coffee) to travel aids (for the blind , the elderly, the sick and disabled, people with prams, children traveling alone) to referral social assistance (mediation in therapy facilities, mediation to the responsible offices and authorities, mediation of accommodation). If given locally, single, homeless and destitute men in some cities (e.g. in Fürth ) can either stay overnight in the transit rooms of the station mission for up to three days through the city as cost bearers, or, if the requirements are met, at a cost of the administrative district stay there for up to one and a half years.

While individual train station missions have trained social workers and can offer appropriate help, other train station missions are only available to volunteer workers . Station missions in larger locations also employed employees as part of additional jobs, community work, a voluntary social year (FSJ) or the Federal Volunteer Service (BFD).

In addition to the assistance that is known to large sections of the population, some station missions make special offers, for example for street children , prostitutes and senior citizens or children traveling alone on the trains.

history

One of many entrance signs

History of the station mission in Germany

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.
The [now hidden] paragraph on the development since the 1990s seems a bit questionable or vague to me. Curc ( discussion )

The first evangelical station mission was founded in Berlin in 1894 by pastor Johannes Burckhardt . It was originally set up to offer protection and help to women who moved to the cities in the wake of industrialization . The women looked for opportunities to earn their living as workers in factories in the metal and sheet metal industry or as servants . Many girls and young women came across dubious intermediaries with dubious intentions, who assured them of support, which, however, often ended in exploitation and / or prostitution .

As early as 1882, women in Germany had been helping girls seeking advice in finding work and accommodation. These women had organized themselves along the lines of the " Friends of Young Girls " movement from Switzerland . In cooperation with local organizations, the first train station missions were founded on site to support young women and to combat trafficking in girls .

The sponsoring association of the Evangelical German Station Mission was the International Association of Friends of Young Girls under the protection of Empress Auguste Viktoria . The sponsoring association of the Catholic Station Mission was the German National Association of Catholic Girls' Protection Associations. The Jewish Women's Association was also active in this area.

Just a few years later, the station mission expanded the offer to include general assistance for travelers. During this time the Evangelical and Catholic Churches operated strictly separate train station missions. In 1897 the first Catholic-Protestant station mission opened in Munich.

Finally, in 1910, the Conference for Church Station Mission in Germany (KKBM) was founded, which strengthened the cooperation between Protestant and Catholic station missions. In this way the first and therefore oldest ecumenical structure in the field of open social work came into being. In 1911, however, the station missions advertised their work in the 3rd and 4th class compartments for the first time with joint posters. In 1912 there were train station missions in 90 German cities.

The First World War brought a turning point: international trafficking in women came to a standstill and Germany was no longer a transit country for these purposes. A new field of activity for the station missionary work was looking after the unemployed and women who were hired to work in other cities as ammunition workers. After the World War, the station missions looked after refugees, displaced persons and returning soldiers. For the first time, in addition to voluntary employees, who from now on received more advanced training, full-time workers were also deployed in the station missions. In the years before the seizure of power , it was rural workers, children traveling alone and unemployed young people who were the main focus of the station missions. Due to the fact that the aid organizations were brought into line and the work of denominational institutions was displaced during the Nazi era , the work of the station missions was severely restricted. In 1939 the station missions were finally banned during the Nazi era. The tasks were taken over by the National Socialist Women's Association .

Shortly after the Second World War , some train station missions resumed their work, often in temporary accommodation, for example in disused railway wagons on the station premises .

The second ban on station missions took place in the 1950s. It concerned the institutions in the GDR on charges of espionage for the West .

From the 1960s, the station missions expanded their range of assistance in the Federal Republic to include travel aids for older people, who often find it difficult to change trains on their own. During the 1970s, unemployed people were increasingly among the clientele of the station missions; they do not provide jobs , but offer help with a wide variety of consequences of unemployment (e.g. alcoholism , over-indebtedness ).

Also from the 1970s onwards, repatriates and asylum seekers joined the clientele.

The opening of the inner-German border posed a particular challenge in looking after travelers, especially at former border stations. As a result, offices were set up at important stations in the new federal states, while they were mostly closed at the border that no longer existed.

History of the station missions / station social services in Austria

The station mission was founded as the oldest institution of the Tyrolean Caritas at the beginning of the 20th century. She had to stop her service in the First World War. After the war, the station missions resumed work.

As in Germany, the focus of the work at that time was the protection and care of young women who came to the city from the countryside in search of work and who needed accommodation and support.

As a Catholic institution, the station missions had the same fate as the station missions in the rest of the German Reich after the National Socialists came to power - they had to close in Austria too.

In 1946 the Caritas Socialis sisters rebuilt the station mission. The consequences of the war determined the work pattern (overnight stays, distribution of food, help for women at the train station, etc.). In the 1950s, girls' work became less and less important. In contrast, work with the homeless, job seekers and travelers came to the fore. In 1975 the station mission was renamed the Station Social Service (BSD).

As a result of savings, the station social service had to restrict its availability around the clock. The remaining stations at Innsbruck Hbf and Salzburg Hbf are now only available during normal business hours.

Organization in Germany

The station mission is run jointly by the Protestant and Catholic Churches with their organizations Diakonie , Caritas and IN VIA as well as their regional and local sub-organizations.

The station missions in Germany are organized in the following associations :

  • Conference for church station missions in Germany (nationwide, ecumenical)
  • Federal Working Group of Catholic Station Missions in Germany (nationwide, Catholic)
  • Association of the German Evangelical Station Mission eV (nationwide, Protestant)
  • Diocesan / regional associations IN VIA Katholische Mädchenozialarbeit eV or diocesan Caritas associations (regional, Catholic)
  • Regional groups of the Evangelical Railway Mission (regional, Protestant)

financing

The work of the station missions is mainly financed from regional and municipal grants, church funds and direct donations . At the regional level, for example, some train station missions are financially supported by the government district in which the respective train station mission is located (e.g. the Central Franconia district for Nuremberg ). In addition, Deutsche Bahn supports the work of the station mission u. a. through the free provision of rooms.

The Bahnhofsmission is the only institution with the right to collect donations at train stations in Germany without major administrative effort.

The wide range of work and the sometimes extended opening hours of the facilities primarily require the use of volunteer workers , who provide around 90 percent of the more than 2,000 people nationwide who help in the station missions.

In 2013, Deutsche Bahn marked luggage lockers in eleven main train stations as well as two Berlin train stations under the motto Just donate , the proceeds of which were to be used entirely for the station mission.

Partner and sponsor

literature

  • Bernd Lutz, Bruno Nikles, Dorothea Sattler (eds.): The train station. Place of lived church . Matthias Grünewald Verlag, Ostfildern 2013, ISBN 978-3-7867-2995-2 .
  • Bruno Nikles: Social help at the train station. On the history of the station mission in Germany (1894–1960) . Lambertus, Freiburg im Breisgau 1994, ISBN 3-7841-0738-9 .
  • Wolfgang Reusch: Station Mission in Germany 1897–1987 . Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1988, ISBN 3-631-40547-2 .
  • Wolf-Dietrich Talkenberger: Charity at the train station. On the history of the station mission in the Soviet occupation zone (SBZ) and the GDR . Wichern-Verlag, Berlin 2003.

Web links

Wiktionary: Bahnhofsmission  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Theodor Schober: Bahnhofsmission . In: Helmut Burkhardt and Uwe Swarat (ed.): Evangelical Lexicon for Theology and Congregation . tape 1 . R. Brockhaus Verlag, Wuppertal 1992, ISBN 3-417-24641-5 , p. 170 .
  2. ↑ Railway station mission. Retrieved June 18, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Conception. (PDF) Bahnhofsmission Munich, March 2009, accessed on February 25, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Station mission at the main station at the limit. Merkur.de, May 2, 2014, accessed on February 25, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Bahnhofsmission: Press Release of December 9, 2013. Accessed December 13, 2013 .
  6. ↑ Deutsche Bahn donates income from lockers to Bahnhofsmission. bahnhofsmission.de, December 19, 2012, accessed on February 26, 2017 .