Charlotte Dietrich (social worker)

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Charlotte Elise Dietrich (born November 22, 1887 in Leipzig , † August 4, 1976 in Berlin ) was a pioneer of social work in Germany.

Live and act

She studied German, French and history at the university in her hometown. She completed her studies on November 30, 1918 with a doctorate as Dr. phil off. The topic of her dissertation was: Metternich's political views .

After a brief collaboration with Hugo Gaudig , on February 1, 1920, she took over the management of the newly founded social school for women in the city of Breslau . There she taught psychology and education, among other things. Four years later, she was given the management of the kindergarten teachers' seminar in the city of Wroclaw , including the youth leader training course and nanny training. In 1925 she took over the management of the Social Women's School in Berlin until 1927 in personal union with Alice Salomon . In addition to her administrative duties, she taught psychology, pedagogy, women's issues and social literature.

When the National Socialists came to power , they ran the social training center in line with the Nazi ideology:

“Charlotte Dietrich supported the National Socialist seizure of power as a 'new beginning', a restoration of the beginnings. In doing so, she worked with the association's new Nazi chairman, Eduard Spiewok . At the beginning of April he gave her the provisional management of the PFH House I ( Pestalozzi-Fröbel-Haus ) and in February 1935 thanked her personally 'for the work done in the interests of the association last year', as stated in the minutes of the board meeting. "

In order to, as Charlotte Dietrich later said in retrospect, “save the school”, she joined the NSDAP in May 1937 ; it had membership number 5,916,653. Using the vocabulary of that time, she advocated the new job title "Volkspflegerin":

“When, after the change, the term welfare worker [...] was replaced by the term Volkspflegerin, it was not just a change of name, but an act of programmatic meaning [...] care requires that 1. a cause for worry, that is, a Emergency situation is present, 2. that the aid measures emanate from someone else and not from those who need it. People's care, on the other hand, emphasizes that the healthy national body can also be the starting point for measures. The term 'people care' emphasizes the superiority of the community over the individual. The aim of the measures is not the happiness and well-being of the individual, but the strength and power of the whole people, the community. "

After the collapse of the Nazi dictatorship, she left the Social Women's School as politically charged and was denazified on October 2, 1946 . She then worked in refugee and returnees welfare in Berlin. In 1947 she got a job with the Evangelical Diakonie Association and the Zehlendorfer Association for Evangelical Diakonia . She taught the deaconesses in pedagogy and psychology. In addition, she took part in the further development of the Diakonie schools in Kassel and Berlin, which later became the sister university of Diakonie , since 1994 the nursing / care management course at today's Evangelical University of Applied Sciences Berlin .

Charlotte Dietrich belonged to several committees and associations. Among other things, she was second chairwoman of the German Academy for Social and Educational Women’s Work , was a member of the school committee of the seminar for youth welfare from 1925 to 1933 , from 1933 second chairwoman of the Conference of Social Women's Schools in Germany and was elected to the board of the German Froebel Association in 1924 .

Works (selection)

  • Psychology and pedagogy in the welfare school. In: Ministry for People's Welfare (ed.): Basic questions on the training of state-recognized welfare schools. Berlin 1926.
  • The people's nurse as a people's educator. Training letter for public servants. Berlin 1943. ( PDF )

literature

  • Manfred Berger : Who was ... Charlotte Dietrich? . In: social magazine . 2003, issue 1, pp. 6-9.
  • Peter Reinicke (Hrsg.): From the education of daughters of owning classes to studying at the university. 100 years of the Evangelical University of Applied Sciences Berlin . Freiburg / Br. 2004.
  • Manfred Berger:  Dietrich, Charlotte Elise. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 22, Bautz, Nordhausen 2003, ISBN 3-88309-133-2 , Sp. 256-263.
  • Adriane Feustel and Gerd Koch (eds.): 100 years of social teaching and learning. From the women's social school to the Alice Salomon Hochschule Berlin. Berlin 2008.
  • Peter Reinicke : Dietrich, Charlotte , in: Hugo Maier (Ed.): Who is who of social work . Freiburg: Lambertus, 1998 ISBN 3-7841-1036-3 , pp. 140f.
  • Renate von Ulmen: Charlotte Dietrich (1887–1976). A forgotten pioneer of social work. Munich 2015 (private print)

Individual evidence

  1. Feustel / Koch 2008, p. 85.
  2. Mangold 2002, p. 35
  3. Berger Manfred: Who was ... Charlotte Dietrich? In: social magazine. 2003, issue 1, p. 8.
  4. Dietrich 1943, pp. 1-2.