Elvine de La Tour

Elvine de La Tour

Countess Elvine de La Tour, born Freiin Ritter von Záhony (* December 8, 1841 in Gorizia , Austrian Empire , † October 7, 1916 in Treffen am Ossiacher See , Austria-Hungary) established the non-profit Evangelical Foundation de La Tour (today Part of the Diakonie de La Tour ) in Treffen at the Ossiacher See.

Life

Maria Caroline Elvine Ritter von Záhony was born on December 8, 1841 as the second child of Julius Hektor Ritter von Záhony and his wife Amelie (née Rittmeyer) in Gorizia. Her father came from a family of large industrialists based in Trieste. In 1851, when Elvine was nine years old, her mother died at the age of only 33. After the death of her older brother Alfred in 1865, she was the oldest of the five siblings still alive.

Ludwig Schwarz was particularly important for the religious formation of the Elvine Ritter. He was a Protestant pastor of Gorizia and was later to become the founder of the Diakoniewerk in Gallneukirchen (Upper Austria). In her belief, which was also an essential impetus for her social work, Elvine Ritter von Záhony was deeply influenced by pietism. This belief becomes clear in numerous statements made by the Countess herself. This was characterized by a complete surrender to God's will, to the conviction that faith must show itself in an active, active neighborly love and this also combined with a certain missionary zeal.

At the age of 26, Elvine Ritter met Theodor de La Tour en Voivre, who was three years younger than him and came from a noble family in Lorraine whose roots stretch back to the 13th century. However, by this time the family had already become relatively impoverished nobility. The marriage was viewed with skepticism on both sides, because of the different characters and the so different economic conditions - but especially because it was a mixed-denominational marriage, which could be very problematic in those years and was not welcomed by both families. Despite these obstacles, the couple married on February 15, 1868 in Gorizia and subsequently moved into the Russiz winery (near the village of Capriva del Friuli, near Cormons), which Elvine had received as a dowry. A small castle was built on the winery as a residence. For the further biography of the Countess de La Tour, it was important that her husband acquired the Treffen castle estate near Villach in 1885. In the following years, the couple spent the summer months in meetings.

The marriage between Theodor and Elvine de La Tour seems to have not always been easy, not least because of the different characters of the two - although it was undoubtedly a love marriage. In any case, Theodor de La Tour supported his wife's initiatives, which sometimes brought him into conflict with the Catholic Church. The marriage, which had remained childless, ended with the early death of Theodor, who died in Carinthia in July 1894. The funeral brought with it a denominational controversy, as Elvine de La Tour wanted her husband to have a Protestant funeral, but who had never converted to Protestantism - he was finally buried first in Gorizia, before his last in 1898 near Russiz Castle Found rest.

In the years that followed, Elvine de La Tour devoted himself more and more to her social institutions in Russiz and in Treffen, with the factories in Treffen experiencing a considerable expansion. The countess's end of life was closely linked to the events of the First World War. During this time she got caught between the fronts in the truest sense of the word. Part of their work was in meetings, the other part around Russiz that was captured by the Italian troops. When Italy entered the war on the side of the Entente Powers in 1915, she hurried to Russiz, where in May 1915 the Italian military occupied and investigated the castle. The property was confiscated, numerous employees arrested and after being detained for a long time, Elvine de La Tour drove from Giassico to Switzerland at the beginning of October. In December 1915 she came to Stuttgart before she was able to return to Treffen in January 1916. In Stuttgart she was already seriously ill. A few months after her return, on October 7, 1916, Elvine de La Tour died.

The facilities in Gorizia and Russiz

Countess Elvine de La Tour was very aware of the social misery in her immediate living environment, especially the problem of the numerous orphaned children. In particular, the lack of prospects of girls who had no access to education aroused their commitment. In 1873 she decided to found an "orphan's care and education association" in Gorizia, which was to be devoted to the education and training of orphaned girls. Regardless of her personal, decidedly evangelical position, the countess designed this association to be non-denominational. For the education of the children cared for by the association, a separate elementary school was set up in Russiz in 1875, which was also open to other children. In 1876 the orphanage had 15 residents. Due to conflicts over the educational principles, this association was dissolved again in 1878. In 1876 the countess began to expand the attic of her own property in Russiz in order to set up her own social work here. After her father's death in 1878, she finally had the financial means for this work - her father had left her a considerable amount especially for her welfare projects. As a result, a separate building was built in Russiz, which was repeatedly converted and expanded until 1910. The ongoing financing came increasingly from the operation of the winery on Russiz, which still exists today. In 1910, 57 girls were cared for in Russiz.

Development of the diaconal institutions in meetings

Soon after purchasing the Treffen estate in Carinthia, Elvine de La Tour began setting up social institutions there too. In the summer of the same year, 1885, the countess began an educational work motivated by Christianity: She began with “collecting the poor children from the area in a Sunday school. I also visited the more distant villages and found the children willing to accept my invitation (...) I got to know the misery and neglect of a people who were in many ways immoral and who had fallen away from God's word and command ”. In this quote the religious or pietistic motivation of the countess becomes clear. In any case, this became the impetus to do social work in Carinthia too.

As an essential part of the Protestant welfare organization of the Elvine de La Tour, the operation of a Protestant private school was started in Treffen in November 1891, which was initially housed in an outbuilding of the castle. At the beginning the school had 37 students. Due to the increasing number of schoolchildren, a new building was started in 1894, for the financing of which donations, but above all the sales proceeds from the Countess' private jewelry, were used. The two school classes that were housed in the new school building now already comprised 144 children. One difference to the school that was set up as part of the home in Russiz was that the school in Russiz was attended almost exclusively by those girls who were also cared for in the girls' home. The school in Treffen, on the other hand, took in children from all the surrounding Protestant communities. This was also due to the fact that there was no children's home at the time. In 1897 Elvine de La Tour applied for public rights for the school, which she was only granted in 1903.

Another focus of the work in Treffen was evangelism from the 1890s onwards. This “community work” was aimed at the diaspora situation in Carinthia and had the task of preaching the Gospel and spreading relevant writings among the population. From the point of view of the Countess de La Tour, the objective of this work was not least to influence the way of life of the rural population in this way and to counteract the moral decay she perceived. One had to rely on cooperation with the relevant parish, which was not always free of conflict. The evangelists' reports clearly show their motivation, which undoubtedly coincided with that of Elvine de La Tour: evangelism is absolutely necessary, which can be seen in the fact that “a large number are alienated from true Christianity. Evidence of this is provided by the abnormal rates of illegitimate births and the calamities that drunkenness does to and fro ”. The evangelism work had accommodation within the framework of the meeting facilities in the so-called “club house”. From 1920 the community work initiated by Elvine de La Tour continued its activity in the form of a separate association, the “Christian Missions Association for Austria”. From the annual get-togethers within the framework of the community work, the “parish preparation times” and finally the “parish prayer brotherhood”, which still exist today, arose.

As part of the Treffen evangelistic work, the work to combat alcoholism was created in 1912. The framework for this was provided by the “Blue Cross Association”, which had already been established in Switzerland in 1877 and whose Treffener branch was founded in 1913. The task of the association was to rescue drinkers from drinking addiction in accordance with the statutes and to protect "endangered non-drinkers" from it. In this context, Elvine de La Tour was also exposed to the accusation of double standards, in which she was committed to the fight against alcoholism on the one hand, but on the other hand achieved considerable income from viticulture on her estates in Russiz. She herself countered this by saying that wine production only serves to finance her social works and that this in turn should be seen as a gift from God. In 1923 the Blue Cross Association for Carinthia became the still existing association “Blue Cross Austria”, which is still in close cooperation with the addicts care in meetings as part of the Diakonie de La Tour. In addition to the children, it was also the elderly who were still severely affected by poverty and misery in the late 19th century. In particular, the so-called "depositors" were the ones that the Countess de La Tour took on. In 1902 a house of their own was acquired for this purpose, in which a depository asylum was set up under the name “Herrnhilf”. However, the establishment of this home went differently than planned, because even before the first depositors were accommodated, the Countess de La Tour took two half-orphans into the house at the request of the Protestant pastor of Villach at the time, Johannes Heinzelmann. So - without this having been planned - another facility was created. A solution was finally found in accommodating the weaker depositors in the club house and leaving those with better health in "Herrnhilf" in order to create enough space for the children. In the medium term, as a boys 'home, Herrnhilf became a counterpart to the girls' home that still exists in Russiz. From 1905 the house "Elim" in the building of the neighboring courtyard was to be adapted as a kind of hospital for the elderly. After this plan turned out to be impracticable, mainly because of the high costs, “Elim” was initially a residence for the evangelists, then a home for the elderly, and from 1910 a second boys' home. Organizationally, these facilities were based on the house parents' model. In 1908, the Gienger couple was won over as house parents for Herrnhilf - a family that shaped the Treffener Anstalten in the following decades. In the wake of the so-called “Lot of Rome” movement in the early 20th century, the interdenominational disputes over social work also escalated in meetings. Elvine de La Tour had already experienced such disputes around her work in Gorizia and Russiz, where she as a person and her Protestant social work formed an enclave in a predominantly Catholic environment, even more than in Carinthia, where there are at least a considerable number Protestant congregations gave. The main allegation that was raised against the institutions in meetings was that the children and adolescents cared for there were being pressured, if not compelled, to transfer to the Evangelical Church. The Catholic side tried hard to get the Catholic children out of the care in the institutions of the Countess de La Tour. This reproach had a real basis in the fact that the (pietistically tinged) Evangelical-Christian upbringing was a core element of the care, which should also be uncompromisingly maintained. In addition, the representatives of the Catholic Church found the Countess de La Tour to be a very unyielding counterpart, she “adhered conscientiously to the regulations and laws imposed on her in the context of denomination. However, it only made concessions to the Catholic Church to the extent that their demands were actually legally stipulated ”.

The period of the First World War marked a dramatic turning point for diaconal work in Treffen. This initially concerned the loss of the possessions - and thus the social works - in Russiz in 1915 caused by the Italian war profits, a loss that hit the Countess hard personally. On the other hand, it was the fact that Elvine de La Tour only survived this loss for a short time, she died on October 7, 1916. It should prove particularly difficult that the existence of the Treffener works on the person and the assets of Elvine de La Tour was instructed, but you found yourself in the situation that there were several versions of a will, none of which were legally binding. So it was to take a few years before the Countess's wish expressed in the wills to set up a foundation for the works in Treffen could be implemented.

The de La Tour Foundation in the years following the Countess's death

In order to meet the Countess's wish to set up a foundation led by a board of trustees, the Central Association for Inner Mission in Vienna was approached, which, as an umbrella organization, was able to establish a board of trustees and establish a foundation with the authorities. The first meeting of the Board of Trustees took place during the war, in March 1918. Richard Roth was appointed as the first rector in Treffen, until then pastor in Fürstenfeld. Approval of the letter of foundation and the board of trustees by the Carinthian provincial government was still a long way off in 1931. From an organizational point of view, the course was set, but the financial situation was still to be clarified. In the agreement between Austria and Italy of 1926 it was stipulated that the Russiz possessions would become the property of the Kingdom of Italy and that the newly created foundation would receive compensation of 625,000 lire in return. The implementation of the individual provisions of the contract lasted until 1927/28 and this agreement could not change the fact that the foundation had lost around 90% of its assets as a result of the war.

The economic hardship of the 1920s then also affected the diaconal institutions in meetings; In order to cover their financial needs, at least a quarter of the plants were dependent on donations, mainly from Germany and Switzerland. The political conflicts between Germany and Austria in the 1930s, in particular due to the foreign exchange freeze imposed by the German Reich, represented an additional hurdle. Rector Gienger died in 1936, and housefather Gienger was temporarily appointed as his successor. The years of Nazi rule meant a painful turning point for the diaconal works in Treffen. Soon after the “Anschluss”, it became clear that the works would be taken over to a greater or lesser extent by the NS-Volkswohlfahrt, the NSV. As early as the beginning of 1939, the individual facilities were inspected by a delegate from the NSDAP and a takeover was announced. About half of the work was confiscated and, by decision of June 30, 1939, the de La Tour Foundation was deprived of all child and youth work. What was left was the care for the old and the sick and the drinking sanctuary.

In the period after 1950 there was an expansion of the work areas. This included, among other things, the refugee work, the establishment of a boarding school in Villach or the establishment of a special hospital in place of the former “Friedensheim” drinking sanctuary in 1983. The school, which was confiscated in 1939, was not reactivated. It was not until the 1970s that the building was again available to the diaconal institution, when the former school was named "Lindenschlössl" and became a care facility for mentally handicapped women. A corresponding home for men was set up in the "Meierei". In 1962 a leisure home was opened near "Herrnhilf". In 2002, the merger of the two diaconal organizations in Waiern and Treffen was finally initiated, the Diakonie Kärnten, which was created at that time, now exists under the name of the founding of the works in Treffen: Diakonie de La Tour. 

meaning

One of the peculiarities of the social work of the Countess de La Tour is that in the context of her time she not only wanted to make superficial improvements with monetary donations, but also wanted to address the problems at their roots. This social commitment, which ultimately continues to this day, was already a tradition in her family. She also found support from her husband Theodor, even if the marriage became increasingly difficult over time. In the area of ​​social welfare, which at that time hardly existed at the state level, she did downright pioneering work, which was a deeply personal concern to her - which is clear on the one hand in her own testimony of faith, but also in the fact that her institutions were very important throughout her life kept alive financially through personal means. 

See also

• Diakonie Austria

literature

• Friedrich Gienger: Give me your wealth! A picture of the life of Countess Elvine de La Tour. Evangelical Foundation de La Tour, meeting, 5th edition, 2004, DNB 1021526533
• Anna Katterfeld: Elvine de La Tour. Out of love for God and the children. Revised new edition. Hänssler, Neuhausen-Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-7751-2953-7 .
• Michaela Sohn-Kronthaler : Elvine Countess de La Tour (1841-1916). In: Adelheid M. von Hauff (ed.): Women shape diakonia. Volume 2: From the 18th to the 20th century. W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-17-019324-4 , pp. 351-367.
• Heidrun Szepannek: Elvine Countess de La Tour. (1841-1916). Protestant, visionary, cross-border commuter (= The Carinthian State Archives. Vol. 38). Publishing house of the Kärntner Landesarchiv, Klagenfurt 2010, ISBN 978-3-900531-77-5 .
• Mecenseffy:  La Tour en Voivre Elvine Gfn. de. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 5, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1972, p. 40.

Web links

• Lieselotte v. Eltz-Hoffmann: Foundation de La Tour. God is there for everyone - the life's work of Countess Elvine de La Tour ; Website of Diakonie Kärnten; last accessed on August 10, 2011 (pdf; 51 kB)
• Jochen Bendele: Countess Elvines worship on people . Kleine Zeitung , November 11, 2010 issue, accessed August 10, 2011

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Heidrun Szepannek: Elvine Countess de La Tour (1841-1916). Pp. 47-68, 113-124.
2. ↑ Heidrun Szepannek: Elvine Countess de La Tour (1841-1916). Pp. 80-86.
   Friedrich Gienger: Give with your wealth .
3. ↑ Heidrun Szepannek: Elvine Countess de La Tour (1841-1916). P. 87.
4. ↑ Heidrun Szepannek: Elvine Countess de La Tour (1841-1916). P. 95.
5. ↑ Heidrun Szepannek: Elvine Countess de La Tour (1841-1916). P. 151.
6. ↑ Heidrun Szepannek: Elvine Countess de La Tour (1841-1916). Pp. 86-108.
   Friedrich Gienger: Give me your wealth , pp. 48–84.