Evangelical aid to women in Germany

The Evangelical Women's Aid (EFHiD) was a women's association within the Evangelical Churches in Germany .

history

Building of the "Westfälische Frauenhülfe" in Soest

The association was founded on January 1st, 1899 under the patronage of Empress Auguste Viktoria . It goes back to the "Frauenhülfe" founded by Provost Hermann von der Goltz in 1890 as part of the Berlin local association of the Evangelical Church Aid Association (EKH). From 1916 onwards, Frauenhilfe “operated” independently of the EKH, albeit with the same chairman, as “Evangelische Frauenhilfe - Gesamtverein eV” and received an administration building in Potsdam , Mirbachstrasse 1, which was completed in 1918. From 1926, Gertrud Stoltenhoff (1878–1958) was the first woman to be chairwoman.

Under the pastor Hans Hermenau , women's aid was renamed "Reichsfrauenhilfe" in 1933. Hermenau saw himself as a National Socialist " German Christian " in church politics , but had to give up his office prematurely because of "irregularities in his administration". His successor from 1935 until his sudden death in 1941 was Pastor Adolf Brandmeyer, who was close to Pastor Friedrich von Bodelschwingh the Younger and the Confessing Church in his ecclesiastical political direction, which was negative for the German Christians . The aim was to continue an independent church women's work, which was theologically strongly influenced by Karl Barth, also through an affiliated publishing company.

In 1945 the Soviet military administration in Germany confiscated the association's office building in Potsdam. It was now in the Soviet "military town No.7" next to the empress' former boarding school, now KGB headquarters in Germany, and served as a KGB prison .

The association itself was renamed "Evangelical Women Aid in Germany" in 1949, divided into East and West and was only merged again in 1992 as EFHiD. In 1994 the association got its administrative building in Potsdam back, which is currently a museum.

From 2005 to 2008 the women's aid was organized in an umbrella organization together with the Evangelical Women's Work in Germany eV (EFD). He looked after 12,000 women's groups in 12 Protestant regional churches. Since March 2008, women's aid, women's work and 40 other evangelical women's associations have been amalgamated in the new umbrella organization of evangelical women in Germany (EFiD).

activity

When it was founded, Frauenhilfe offered women in the church the opportunity to get involved in society and to get together socially, while otherwise they were largely excluded from political and social life. The originally social and diaconal orientation of the women's aid associations, which actually offered help to others (e.g. through the involvement in mothers' convalescence works for women from poorer classes), has changed significantly today. The problem with the Relief Society today is the aging of its members and the lack of new blood. Nevertheless, women's aid work remains a focus of Protestant church work in Germany.

Help for women abroad, d. H. Disaster relief and development aid is provided by the non-profit and benevolent organization Frauenhilfe eV.

See also

• German-Evangelical Women's Association

Web links

• Evangelical Women in Germany eV (EFiD)
• History of the Westphalian Women's Aid
• The history of the Brandenburg Women's Aid (memorial and meeting place in Leistikowstraße)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ev. Luthergemeinde Spandau (ed.): 100 years of the Luthergemeinde in Neustadt, 1896–1996. Berlin-Spandau 1997, p. 40.