Diakonie Freistatt
The Diakonie Freistatt was a diaconal organization for social institutions (workers' colony and educational homes) in Freistatt , Kirchdorf , district of Diepholz , Lower Saxony. The Diakonie Freistatt was merged with the Birkenhof Hanover in 2007 . This created the Bethel carrier in the north .
Today's Bethel facilities in the north in Freistatt include a senior citizens' home in the Heimstatt district further north and the assisted living facility in Deckertau in the moor .
The social institutions since 1899 were decisive for the development of the community of Freistatt.
History of the Bethel Complex
From the beginning in 1899 to the 1970s
Freistatt was founded in 1899 by Friedrich von Bodelschwingh as a Bethel branch in Wietingsmoor . After the land available in the first German workers' colony , Wilhelmsdorf in Sende , was no longer sufficient, new employment opportunities had to be found for the so-called migrant poor . By 1901, 1010 hectares of land were bought in the Wietingsmoor . Friedrich von Bodelschwingh's motto was “work instead of alms” - whoever wanted to stay in Freistatt had to commit to regular work and participation in church services, among other things. The aim of the employment was the reclamation of the raised bog, for this extensive work (including drainage, peat removal, cultivation, fertilization) was necessary. Deserved colonists should then receive their own piece of land in order to be able to start a family there independently. However, this goal was never achieved.
In addition to the "Tippelbrüdern", there was also the Moorpension in Freistatt since 1903 , as a home for "upper class gentlemen in need of leadership". The reasons why these people were sent or sent into care were varied (including homosexuality , alcohol or drug addiction ). These “gentlemen”, who often came from “good homes”, were also employed in the moor, in the garden and in the house. In 1969 the Moorpension became a specialist hospital , which it remained until 1994.
Since 1899, welfare children have also found accommodation in the Moorstatt house. After a new Prussian welfare education law was passed in 1900 - which now also allowed a preventive arrangement of forced upbringing - the need for home places increased rapidly; In 1901 a new home was built ( Moorhort ), in 1903 Moorhof and Moorburg followed . In 1922 young people between the ages of 14 and 16 were housed in the Moorhof , between the ages of 17 and 18 in the Moorhort and between the ages of 18 and 20 in the Moorstatt . The Moorburg was a closed institution for "particularly difficult to educate" and "relapses". The latter resembled a prison, with barred windows and single cells. Mainly those who had escaped from several homes or had committed criminal offenses were accommodated here.
post war period
After the Second World War , the employees in Freistatt not only followed government guidelines. Like all independent organizations, the church institutions were largely allowed to decide autonomously on educational practice. The youth welfare law valid in the post-war period even protected the homes against “interference by the state” in educational tasks. Responsibility for the practices in the ten Protestant children's and youth homes in their area, which also includes Freistatt, was and still is carried out by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover .
The young people had to work in the moor, among other things, cutting the peat , but were also employed in commercial production, agriculture and housekeeping. With its pressed peat production, with its metalworking shops and forges, Freistatt was conceived as a purely commercial enterprise from the start, with cheap labor. "Difficult to educate" young people were seamlessly integrated into this complex.
The young people brought in from all over Germany lived in up to six homes, each of which was run by the householder , a deacon of the Nazareth Diaconal Institute in Bethel. This was subject to other deacons and deacon students who had received little or no educational training.
For a long time, Freistatt was regarded as the “end of the line”, as one of the strictest homes in the Federal Republic of Germany. Among other things because the upbringing methods prevailing at the beginning of the century were continued here (but also in many other homes) until the early 1970s; Punishments and military management of the homes were the order of the day. The last punishment on record in Freistatt happened in 1973.
Many former pupils who are still alive today do not know why they came to the home, what they “had committed”. Peter Wensierski suspects that the “home solution” appeared to be “cheap” in the post-war period. However, he considers the corresponding economic calculation to be flawed.
Besides the men and women with social difficulties (women were only accepted from 1982 onwards), the welfare children and the retirees of the Moorpension, only the employees and deacons who had to move into houses or rented apartments with their families lived in Freistatt.
Farmers in the vicinity of the Bethel complex are said to have received a bounty until the 1970s for bringing a fugitive pupil back to the home. Escape attempts were signaled by the siren on the roof of Haus Moorhort.
From the 1970s
As early as 1971, juvenile arrest sentences imposed by the judiciary could no longer be served in the “meditation parlor” of the educational home, as it was recognized that the home was not a correctional facility .
In 1973 the wooden church built in 1901 (and expanded in 1908) was destroyed by arson - two non-residents (the term used at the time) had set it on fire . This event was seen not only in Freistatt itself as a sign of the need for a fundamental restructuring of the social institutions.
After increased criticism of the outdated methods of home education at that time, youth welfare changed decisively, especially after Pastor Heinz Kämper took office as head of the reform home in 1974; Educational training for employees was just one component among many.
Today the facility follows the motto: "Children and young people need protection, support and orientation - for a fair upbringing!" The other areas of work in Freistatt also underwent a change in the decades around the turn of the millennium. In 2007 the Diakonie Freistatt merged with the Birkenhof Hanover. The establishment thus created is called Bethel in the North .
Work-up
The Bildungsheim Freistatt is discussed again and again in the course of reassessing the situation in German homes after the Second World War.
The feature film Das Ende vom Anfang was released in 1981 (director: Helmut Christian Görlitz, screenplay: Helmut Christian Görlitz, template: Michael Holzner (novel "Treibjagd")).
Peter Wensierski stated in 2006: “In 1970 300 people were still toiling in the moor. The 'housefathers' are still without pedagogical training. Behind the barred windows, the young people are locked in cell-like bedrooms at night. "In 1974," they celebrate their 75th birthday in Freistatt and it is calculated that exactly 92,716 people in care have passed through the Moorburg, all of them "deported uncomfortable people". "
The conditions, educational methods and living conditions appeared in 2009 by Matthias Benad, Hans-Walter Schmuhl, Kerstin Stockhecke the book Endstation Freistatt. Welfare education in the v. Bodelschwinghschen Anstalten Bethel until the 1970s .
In 2013, the EKD took stock of the situation in evangelical homes, also outside of Freistatt, in the post-war decades: “Many children and young people in the homes were victims of violence, humiliation and sexual abuse. These acts were often carried out by fellow pupils, but were often not prevented by the educators. Many of those affected report an atmosphere of emotional coldness when they were at home. Sources show that some of the educational staff were prohibited from loving the children. Friendships among the residents were also not welcome. Only a few young people in residential care had the opportunity to attend high school or other secondary school. Some of the young people no longer required to attend school completed an apprenticeship, but the majority of the welfare children were obliged to perform poorly qualified, often physically strenuous work in the home, most of which were not subject to social security contributions. This work in the home, regarded by many as forced labor, leads to absenteeism in the pension insurance. "
The film Freistatt was released on June 25, 2015 and won the audience award at the Max Ophüls Film Festival .
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.
Today's facilities
Today only children are housed as inpatients in Freistatt. The Janusz Korczak boarding school has a maximum of eight places for boys between the ages of six and 13, most of whom are of primary school age. The focus is on an intensive networking of school and residential unit in order to provide optimal support and encouragement to children and young people who have experienced uncertainty and discouragement due to disruptive influences in their previous relationship or reference systems between school and home. The boarding school is connected to the Janusz Korczak School. Heiner Thiemann, Head of Special Schools at Diakonie Freistatt, emphasizes: “The young people come voluntarily, at the request of their parents. They are young people who have recurring problems with themselves, their classmates and teachers. "
The aim of the educational concept of the special school is to return the children to the public schools as quickly as possible. The boarding school and the school were called "home special school for behavioral disorders " until 2004 . Today Freistatt is part of a school association in which special schools for emotional and social development ( educational assistance ) cooperate, as well as an evangelical school association. In Freistatt pupils with special needs can also be instructed in learning and intellectual development. At the local vocational school, the Comenius School, there is now a “ worker training” with increased practical experience for young people with increased needs after a year of vocational preparation .
Commercial enterprises
Bethel in the north now also runs businesses in which people with and without disabilities work, namely carpentry, gardening and landscaping and the rummage box (which is active in household liquidations and second-hand sales), an electrical engineering workshop and the Freistätter Markt with a café attached to it.
Mental disabilities and addictions
The integration assistance area is now managed from Freistatt. Help for people with mental disabilities and / or mental illnesses , especially addictions , is coordinated from Freistatt and offered throughout the Diepholz district. Clients can live in Freistatt in the Fernblick , Neuwerk and Seerose houses .
Homeless assistance
Aid to the homeless is still a focus of work in Freistatt. Today, people cared for by the Freistatt homeless person live in several smaller houses as well as the Platane house, which has been expanded with apartments (the former “Moorpension”, which was a specialist hospital for alcoholic men until 1994).
Elderly care
The Heimstatt Elderly Care Center takes care of the elderly with day care .
Web links
- Photo gallery of the Freistatt youth institution
- Movie about the youth institution Freistatt
- Website about the history of Freistatt in Wietingsmoor
- YouTube video (Frontal 21) about the problem of forced labor for children in the home at the time
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bethel in the north: The institutional church communities in Freistatt and in the Birkenhof ( memento of the original from July 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Martin Mitchell: Freistatt
- ↑ Uta Gensichen: Children in care should be compensated . taz . December 21, 2008
- ↑ Peter Wensierski: The suffering of the early years . The time . February 9, 2006
- ↑ Patricia Block: Beatings in the Name of the Lord. Interview with Peter Wensierski ( Memento of the original from July 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . this side . Edition 2/2006. P. 17
- ↑ Freistatt film premiere in Diepholz ( Memento of the original from September 22, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Freistätter Online Newspaper . June 29, 2015
- ↑ Freistatt - evangelical forced education work in the moor . www.ruhrbarone.de. June 22, 2015
- ↑ Ulrich Tatje: “A burden we have to live with” ( Memento of the original from July 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Syker courier . March 18, 2006
- ↑ Bethel im Norden: Jugendhilfe Bethel im Norden ( Memento of the original from July 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Peter Wensierski: Heimkinder-Schicksale: "Like beaten dogs" . The mirror . February 11, 2006
- ↑ Peter Wensierski: Strikes in the name of the Lord: The repressed history of the children in the Federal Republic , Goldmann Verlag, 2006, ISBN 978-3-442-12974-4
- ↑ Matthias Benad, Hans-Walter Schmuhl, Kerstin Stockhecke: Endstation Freistatt. Welfare education in the v. Bodelschwinghschen Anstalten Bethel until the 1970s , Verlag für Regionalgeschichte, 2009, ISBN 978-3-89534-676-7
- ↑ Michael Häusler: Former home children want their files . In: Association of Church Archives in the Working Group of Archives and Libraries in the Protestant Church: From Protestant Archives . 2013. p. 12f.
- ↑ Bethel in the North: The Janusz Korczak Boarding School ( Memento of the original from July 15, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Bethel in the North: The Janusz Korczak Schools ( Memento of the original from July 15, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Klaus Derke: Promoting social development - Janusz Korczak school started in the former EWE district administration . Northwest Newspaper . July 22, 2011
- ↑ Evangelical School Association North: Lower Saxony
- ↑ Lower Saxony Ministry of Culture: Educational courses in independent vocational schools - vocational preparation year (BVJ)
- ↑ Insight into the "worker" training in the Freistatt school association. More practice, less theory . District newspaper . June 16, 2015
- ↑ Bethel in the north, aid for the homeless: Moorhort memorial inaugurated ceremoniously ( memento of the original dated August 31, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Bethel in the North: The Freistätter Production Companies ( Memento of the original from July 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Bethel in the North: The ETW Freistatt ( Memento of the original from July 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Bethel in the North: The Freistätter Markt and the Cafe ( Memento of the original from July 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Bethel in the North: Integration Aid ( Memento of the original from July 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Bethel in the North: Stationary Living ( Memento of the original from July 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Bethel in the North: Aid for the Homeless ( Memento of the original from July 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Bethel im Norden: Altenhilfezentrum Heimstatt ( Memento of the original from July 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
Coordinates: 52 ° 37 '24.6 " N , 8 ° 39' 9.6" E