Frieda von Bodelschwingh

Frieda von Bodelschwingh (* February 20, 1874 in Bethel ; † May 28, 1958 in Bethel) organized her father Friedrich von Bodelschwingh's trips . She lived and worked in the von Bodelschwingh Foundation Bethel , where she looked after the handicapped and sick, as well as Volga-German orphans .

origin

Frieda von Bodelschwingh was born on February 20, 1874 as the only daughter of Friedrich von Bodelschwingh the Elder and his wife Ida von Bodelschwingh in Bethel near Bielefeld, where the family had moved on January 25, 1872. Her parents both came from the Westphalian nobility; Her father Friedrich von Bodelschwingh the Elder was pastor and head of the Bethel Foundation, a "sanatorium and nursing home for epileptics " and a deaconess mother house , which he took over in 1874 and expanded as a result. She had three brothers, Wilhelm, Gustav and Fritz, who later also became theologians . Four older siblings had died of a contagious infection with whooping cough and pneumonia before they were born.

Childhood and youth

As the only daughter Frieda von Bodelschwingh had to assert herself against her three brothers from an early age. Even when she was very old, there was a wall plate in her room, which her brothers had given her and which showed a hissing cat being pushed into a corner by three dogs. She received a higher education for girls at the Bielefeld Cecilienschule. After the mother died in 1894, she had to run the household for her father and accompany him on his travels. He completely relied on his daughter for the practical organization and planning.

Frieda von Bodelschwingh took a course as a freelance auxiliary nurse in the Sarepta motherhouse and in 1894 worked temporarily in the deaconess institution "Friedenshort" in Miechowitz / Upper Silesia with Sister Eva von Tiele-Winckler . She could not join the Sisterhood of Sarepta because, as the daughter of her famous father, she could not have been fully equated. On the advice of her brother Wilhelm, Frieda von Bodelschwingh therefore became a Johanniter nurse and worked in nursing . She cared for the wounded during the First World War .

Life

Activity in Bethel

After the death of her father in 1910, she took over the management of the hospital department in the Bethel dormitory in 1914 . After a trip to Mitau in Courland, in 1917 she reorganized an institution for released female welfare refugees in Elberfeld and in 1918 founded a home for ammunition workers in Rheda . After the First World War was over, Frieda von Bodelschwingh moved to Erkner near Berlin , where she founded a refuge for women without work or an apartment and now together with her long-time friend and helper, Sister Marie Horstmann, in a small house on Mühlenweg in Bethel, which she As a precaution, father had had it built and lived. In 1944 she created the “Christmas house”, where she for many years, among other things, prepared Christmas presents for the residents of Bethel and organized the distribution of donation packages.

From 1922 Frieda von Bodelschwingh looked after the Volga Germans arriving in Bethel and made it her task to look after Volga German orphans who found a home in Bethel after being deported from Bolshevik Russia.

to travel

Frieda von Bodelschwingh loved traveling. In 1913 she made a trip to the Orient with her brother Wilhelm.

In 1916 she traveled with several other St. John sisters to Mitau in Kurland to the Tabor institution, where 400 mentally handicapped, epilepsy and elderly residents were short of food and clothing due to the war situation. The deacons of the facility had been taken prisoner by Russia and the local staff had been called up for military service. The Sisterhood of Tabor consisted largely of young Latvian women, among whom there was much conflict, while the position of the leadership level was orphaned. Frieda von Bodelschwingh worked on bringing the sisterhood closer together and got the work of the institution going again.

In 1923 Frieda von Bodelschwingh traveled to the Polish border, where she and two representatives of the Red Cross and the Association of Volga Germans awaited a refugee train from the Volga Germans. She then looked after the orphans who had been through hardships in Bethel.

In 1925 she accompanied her brother Friedrich to an international conference in Stockholm ; as godmother of the missionary children, she traveled to the mission stations in Tanzania in 1930 and set out on a trip to the branches of the Bethel Mission in East Africa , from Tanga , the coastal city, to Wuga, for Ascension Day. In 1947 she went on collecting trips to Sweden and Switzerland , where she obtained the support of the deaconess mother houses there , which supplied wood for the reconstruction of the Sarepta mother house .

Death and naming

Frieda von Bodelschwingh spent the evening of her life in the house where she was born, Friedrich von Bodelschwingh's first Bethel parsonage on Jägerbrink. She died on May 28, 1958.

In what is now the foundation area of care for the elderly in Bethel, a residential home for assisted living is named after Frieda von Bodelschwingh. There is also a "Frieda-v. Bodelschwingh" room in the Sarepta house, which can be booked for seminars, training courses and lectures.

father	Friedrich von Bodelschwingh the Elder
mother	Ida Friederize Caroline Luise Wilhelmine von Bodelschwingh
Oldest brother	Wilhelm von Bodelschwingh
Middle brother	Gustav von Bodelschwingh
Youngest brother	Fritz von Bodelschwingh
Sister-in-law (married to Wilhelm vB)	Luise von Bodelschwingh, b. from Ledebur
Sister-in-law (married to Fritz v. B.)	Julia von Bodelschwingh, b. from Ledebur
Sister-in-law (married to Gustav v. B.)	Adelheid von Bodelschwingh, b. from Ledebur

swell

Estate of Luise von Bodelschwingh, Landesarchiv NRW, Westphalia department

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Bodelschwingh, Frieda von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Daughter of Friedrich von Bodelschwingh the elder
DATE OF BIRTH	February 20, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH	Bielefeld - Bethel
DATE OF DEATH	May 28, 1958
Place of death	Bethel