Friesenhof (facility for child and youth welfare)

Friesenhof describes a company in the field of child and youth welfare .

The company officially operates under the name of Barbara Janssen GmbH ( Pinneberg District Court , HRB 8117 PI) with its headquarters in Büsum ; previously it was entered in the commercial register as Johanna Janssen SO.R.GE GmbH and as a child and youth welfare organization Friesenhof Barbara Janssen GmbH & Co. KG . The owner is Barbara Janssen.

Locations

Facility	address	Operating permit from	location
Administrative headquarters	Werftstrasse 8, 25761 Büsum	-	54 ° 7 '41.2 " N , 8 ° 51' 57.9" E54.128123 8.866093
Charlottenhof	Koog Chaussee 11, 25761 Hedwigenkoog	04/28/2008	54 ° 10 ′ 37.2 " N , 8 ° 50 ′ 29.8" E54.177 8.8416
Nanna	Oesterstr. 5, 25779 Wrohm	08/16/2010	54 ° 12 ′ 45 " N , 9 ° 23 ′ 18.7" E54.2124925 9.3885219
Campina	Dammstrasse 18, 25764 Wesselburenerkoog	08/24/2011	54 ° 14 '37.4 " N , 8 ° 51' 59.5" E54.24373 8.86654

From 1999 to 2015, the company operated three locations for the accommodation of girls and young women in Wesselburenerkoog (“Campina”), Wrohm (“Girls' Camp Nanna”) and Hedwigenkoog (“Charlottenhof”) in the Dithmarschen district . The facilities were closed in 2015 due to child welfare endangerment.

accusations

The allegations were made public by the parliamentary group of the Left in the Hamburg Parliament at the end of May 2015. They published a letter from the State Youth Welfare Office.

The allegations included:

There are collective punishment imposed.
There were open letters and retained and uninterrupted telephone calls with guardians been denied.
The handles on the windows had been removed.
The young residents allegedly had to “strip naked in front of the almost exclusively male staff, hand in their personal clothing, and were sometimes photographed or filmed against their will”.

Employees of the Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) spoke to 20 former residents. They report beatings, days of isolation , sleep deprivation, and night sports lessons as punishments. Letters of complaint had been torn up. Contact with the outside world was prevented. The company management spoke of a "wrong perception" of the inmates.

The other allegations mentioned included:

"Sitting out", in which a group of girls had to sit together for hours until they admitted wrongdoing
Shout at
Insults
Wake up at night time
Ban on speaking
Food withdrawal
Compulsion to eat
Compulsion to wear certain clothes
"None of the girls [was] allowed to go to the toilet or shower alone, a 'godmother' always had to be there to prevent misconduct or escape"

On June 8, 2015, it became known that a caregiver was said to have had a sexual relationship with an underage girl whose exact age was not disclosed for data protection reasons .

Former employees had complained about the educational methods at the responsible youth welfare office, as reported by the state youth welfare office of Schleswig-Holstein. It criticized the situation on January 30, 2015. The Dithmarschen district had known problems for years. The Ministry of Social Affairs, Health, Science and Equality of the State of Schleswig-Holstein is said to have known about the alleged sexual relationship of a supervisor as early as mid-January 2015. Sabine Toffolo was most recently the department head of the ministry responsible for home supervision.

The first abnormalities occurred in 2007, 2009 and 2011, which were submitted to the state youth welfare office.

The company's owner, Barbara Jannsen, denies the allegations; she was able to “refute every single point” the decree of the state youth welfare office, in particular the girls “never had to strip naked! No way!"

closure

The facilities were closed by the Ministry on June 3, 2015.

The operator, Barbara Janssen, filed for bankruptcy on June 5th . The liquidator is loud announcement of the district court Meldorf of 5 June 2015, the Hamburg lawyer Christian home. At the time of the bankruptcy, the company had a total of 52 employees. The youngest girl accommodated was twelve years old. When it was broken up, some girls tried desperately to flee so as not to be taken to other facilities.

Work-up

In seven years, around 80 girls and young women from Hamburg were housed in the facilities. Michael Lindenberg , professor at the Evangelical University for Social Work & Diakonie , Hamburg, warned against not believing those affected.

The operator Barbara Janssen reported on her own qualifications. Unfortunately, she only trained as an educator and also completed further training in youth psychiatry: “I did not have the opportunity to study. But it was enough to meet the requirements for the sponsorship of an institution. "

The public prosecutor's office has been investigating the allegation of a sexual relationship between a carer and an underage inmate since January 2015.

On June 9, 2015 and June 11, 2015, special meetings of the Social Committee of the Schleswig-Holstein State Parliament took place. In particular, the Minister of Social Affairs Kristin Alheit ( SPD ) has been criticized. Alheit, on the other hand, holds that only six employees are available to control 1,800 facilities. In addition, she was not informed in good time about the grievances.

Wolfgang Dudda , member of the Schleswig-Holstein Pirate Party in the state parliament, criticized: “Anyone who opens a sausage stall must expect unexpected controls; Anyone who runs a youth welfare facility may complain about unexpected checks. "

The CDU also criticizes State Secretary Anette Langner.

At the beginning of July 2015, reports appeared that internal documents were supposed to prove that some employees of the ministry must have known about the grievances since the end of January or earlier, and there were first media reports about grievances as early as 2014. Minister Alheit filed a criminal complaint against unknown persons because of missing files.

In July 2015, the state parliament decided to set up a parliamentary committee of inquiry (PUA). The PUA Friesenhof was constituted on September 29, 2015, with Barbara Ostmeier (CDU) as chairman .