Bethanien Deaconess Foundation
| Bethanien Deaconess Foundation | |
|---|---|
| legal form | tax-privileged foundation |
| founding | 1998 |
| Seat | Frankfurt am Main |
| management | Uwe M. Junga, Commercial Director |
| Website | www.bethanien-stiftung.de |
The Bethanien Diakonissen-Stiftung is a non-profit foundation that arose from the merger of the two Evangelical Methodist Diakoniewerke Bethanien (founded in 1874) and Bethesda (founded in 1886). The foundation promotes diaconal work with people in various institutions and provides offers for sick and old people, children, young people, people with addictions and grieving parents.
organization
The seat of the foundation is in Frankfurt am Main . Uwe M. Junga is currently the commercial director (as of June 2020). It is supported by a 17-member advisory board.
The association's logo - cross , anchor , heart - symbolizes the three Christian virtues of faith, hope, and love , which are the basis of the foundation's diaconal work.
history
On July 8, 1874, four preachers from the Methodist Episcopal Church, Carl Weiß, Heinrich Mann, Jürgen Wischhusen and Friedrich Eilers, founded the Bethanien Verein with its headquarters in Frankfurt am Main on the sidelines of the annual conference (synod) in Schaffhausen . The name Bethany comes from the Bible and refers to a place near Jerusalem where Jesus often stayed.
Two years after it was founded, the first deaconess entered the service of the association. The deaconesses began their work in private care. A deaconess cared for a wealthy family and demanded so much pay that another deaconess could look after a poor family without pay. The number of Bethanien deaconesses grew steadily and they expanded their work to more and more cities, so that some new locations, so-called stations, were added.
In 1886 pastors of the Evangelical Community campaigned for the establishment of a motherhouse diakonia . When the association was founded, the Bethesda Association for General Nursing in Elberfeld already had over 70 members. The name Bethesda is also found in the Bible. It refers to a place with five porticos around a pond where Jesus healed a sick person. The first Bethesda deaconess received her training at the Bethaniennien Verein in Frankfurt. This work also expanded quickly and new locations emerged. The Bethany and Bethesda Deaconesses expanded their activities to some extent to the USA and Japan. Over time, the number of Bethany and Bethesda deaconesses rose to a combined total of nearly 1,000 women.
Establishment of hospitals and nursing homes
In Hamburg, the Bethanien deaconesses were able to support the people of the city during the cholera epidemic of 1892 so that the Hamburg Senate gave them the property for their own large hospital in Eppendorf as recognition . The new Bethanien Hospital was inaugurated in 1893. After starting out in private care, the Bethanien-Verein in Frankfurt acquired a house in Gaußstrasse in 1892 as a location for the motherhouse and hospital. Since the association already had over 200 deaconesses before its 25th birthday, new, larger rooms had to be created. On November 5, 1908, the Bethanien Hospital opened its doors on the examinee.
Also in 1908 the Diakoniewerk Bethesda opened a hospital on Dieffenbachstrasse in Berlin-Kreuzberg with space for 49 patient beds and 60 deaconesses. Bethesda had had its own station in Berlin since February 1887 and was able to lay the foundation stone for this house in November 1907. In the following years the Diakoniewerke Bethanien and Bethesda opened further hospitals and nursing homes in Frankfurt, Hamburg, Berlin, Stuttgart, Seehausen, Ulm, Wuppertal, Chemnitz, Unna, Wiesloch, Rudolstadt, Bad Blankenburg, Mauer, Kraichtal, Heidelberg and Plauen.
In 1977 around 80 deaconesses of the Bethanien Sisterhood in Frankfurt were still in active service, another 40 deaconesses were retired. For these deaconesses, the Mother Superior Martha Keller House was inaugurated on April 27, 1981. Over the years the house has been converted into a care facility. At the same time, it is still the motherhouse for the Bethanien Diakonissen in Frankfurt.
Expansion of the diaconal work areas
In order to transform the diaconal work of Bethanien into a sustainable legal form, the Bethanien Diakonissen-Stiftung was founded in 1998, which since then has continued the tradition and work of the Diakoniewerke Bethanien and Bethesda. In order to give Christian hospitals the opportunity to assert themselves in the face of increasing competition, the foundation founded the Agaplesion - gAG in 2002 together with other evangelical partners . 60% of the shares in the operating companies were brought into this company. The Bethanien Diakonissen-Stiftung now designed the further development of its facilities both as a co-partner at the local level and through the general assembly and the supervisory board of the Verbundgesellschaft.
In 2012 addiction help, youth welfare and work with parents of star children were defined as new fields of work . In 2013, work in addiction aid began by taking over the majority of the shares in the Klosterwald specialist clinic and establishing cooperation with the association Kommt ... Suchtkrankenhilfe Crottendorf eV , whose work was transferred entirely to the Bethanien Diakonissen Foundation in 2019 .
At the end of 2014, the foundation's first youth project, the open children and youth meeting basement26 , was inaugurated in Frankfurt. In the following years the youth centers in Chemnitz (2016), Berlin (2017), Karlsruhe (2018), Hamburg (2019) and Braunschweig (2020) were added.
At the beginning of the 2015 school year, the Bethesda- Kitain Wuppertal became the first day-care center to be sponsored by the foundation. This was followed by the takeover of other daycare centers in Solingen, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Wuppertal and Dreieich. In addition, two own daycare centers were founded in Gründau and Wuppertal.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b organs of the foundation / Bethanien Foundation. Retrieved June 17, 2020 .
- ^ History / Bethanien Foundation. Retrieved June 17, 2020 .