Large military orphanage

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Large military orphanage in Potsdam

The Great Military Orphanage was an education and training facility for soldiers' children and military orphans in Potsdam . It is Potsdam's largest closed baroque ensemble .

The institution was a foundation of the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm I from November 1, 1724. Children between 6 and 16 years of age should be taught Christianity, reading, writing and arithmetic and then learn a trade. The foundation still exists today and promotes youth work projects.

The Monopteros, crowned by the golden figure of Caritas , on the baroque main building from 1771 is one of Potsdam's landmarks that can be seen from afar.

history

Students, 1932

Friedrich Wilhelm I visited the Francke Foundations in Halle an der Saale in 1713 and 1720 . He founded the Potsdam Great Orphanage Foundation and had the military orphanage built from 1722 to 1724 based on the model from Halle. It was intended to serve as a welfare facility for the children of fallen, deceased or impoverished soldiers. For this purpose, the king transferred lands such as the Bornstedt Crown Estate to the orphanage for food supply. Initially only intended for boys, from 1725 it also took on girls, a total of 600 children. It was the owner of the largest state-owned cloth and stuff manufacturer , the Berlin warehouse , and a mine in Bad Freienwalde . The children were also rented out to cloth manufacturers and rifle factories, where they worked up to 10 hours a day and around 200 of them died every year due to the heavy workload. At the beginning of the Silesian Wars in 1740 there were already 1400 male and 155 female "pupils". The orphanage was run strictly militarily. In 1802 the orphanage leased the Bornstedt Crown Estate to Oberamtmann Kähne, the owner of Petzow Castle . From 1747 (until 1811) the Torgelow (municipality of Falkenberg) and Soonenburg (Bad Freienwalde) farms were leased to the Great Military Orphanage . The alum works near Bad Freienwalde also belonged to the military orphanage.

With the training, the pupils should be given a basis for a later independent existence. These conditions enabled the children to receive care, upbringing and education that went beyond their means. The boys learned a trade after completing their schooling, while the girls were taught housekeeping. The teachers performed very well with their students. Some of the tried and tested teaching methods were also well received in other Prussian schools. In the course of the Enlightenment in the 18th century, reforms were carried out. The entire educational system was redesigned according to the ideas of the Brandenburg school reformer Friedrich Eberhard von Rochow . Large parts of the school books and teaching methods were renewed.

Due to the Peace Treaty of Versailles , the orphanage was under civil administration from 1919/1920. Not only the children of soldiers but also the children of Prussian state officials were accepted. The school system of the orphanage changed fundamentally as a result of the development of the educational reform. Everyday life and lessons in the orphanage became more modern and varied.

In 1933/1934 the orphanage was rededicated as a National Political Educational Institution and in 1937/1938 it was placed under the Wehrmacht . Shortly afterwards, an in-house high school was founded. After war damage in early 1945, the orphanage was restored in a simplified form.

The foundation existed until 1952. On April 1, 1952, the government of the state of Brandenburg dissolved the foundation and expropriated it without compensation. The entire property of the foundation was transferred to public property.

In the GDR , the building complex served as a children's home, later as an office building, including as the “House of Trade Unions”, and the boarding school of the Institute for Teacher Training in Potsdam. In 1992, the resolution to dissolve was repealed, so that the foundation has been in existence formally and without interruption since 1724. Since 1994 it has been able to finance itself again after the state of Brandenburg initially gave grants. A major source of finance is the leasing of the orphanage, including still to some unions, and other real estate.

Today the foundation is based in the neighborhood of the Great Orphanage and supports projects for youth work. Adapted to today's conditions, innovative projects in the upbringing of children and adolescents as well as the operation of care, educational and vocational training facilities for children and adolescents are to be promoted. One focus is also on looking after disadvantaged children and young people. The young people should be brought up to be cosmopolitan, responsible and tolerant personalities.

building

Photo from 1958; Original comment: Reconstruction in Potsdam. The House of the Unions .

The Great Military Orphanage is probably Potsdam's largest closed baroque building ensemble . It consists of the buildings Dortustraße 36, Lindenstraße 34 and the military hospital in Breiten Straße 9.

The founding building was built as a half-timbered building between 1722 and 1724 . In 1737 the orphanage received an organ from Joachim Wagner . Increasing numbers of children required several extensions. King Friedrich II had the military orphanage rebuilt from 1771 to 1778 according to plans by Carl von Gontard . A four-storey building in the Prussian late baroque style was created. Gontard placed a 26 m high Monopteros over the main staircase in the central projection. For its dome , Rudolph Kaplunger created a gilded figure of Caritas with an olive branch and a burning heart in his hands.

The Great Military Orphanage also served as a film set: Part of the film Girls in Uniform (1931, director: Leontine Sagan ) was shot there, including the scene of Manuela von Meinhardis ( Hertha Thiele's ) suicide attempt in the stairwell .

During the Second World War, parts of the building complex suffered severe damage from the air raid on April 14, 1945 . The dome of the Monopteros caught fire on April 26, 1945 by Soviet artillery fire. She got lost with the figure of Caritas. The damaged column wreath was removed in 1950, the rest of the main building was restored in a simplified form by 1950. The northeast wing (Dortu corner Spornstrasse) was demolished in 1960. The south-east wing (Breite- and Dortustraße) was blown up in May 1966 in order to be reconstructed in the years 1971 to 1981.

During the latest restoration, all the details of the dome, the columns, the capitals , the vases and the putti had to be remade. In the 1950s, some elements were already poured in, but these were made of concrete and sometimes not very well equipped with wine glasses. Thanks to detailed photos, most of these elements could be restored. However, the Caritas figure caused more problems. It could only be seen out of focus in many photos and was a great challenge for the sculptor Andreas Hoferick. The restoration was completed in 2004, and the 3.75 meter high figure is back on its 46 meter high temple tower in Lindenstrasse. The costs of 4.2 million euros were borne by the Great Military Orphanage Foundation in Potsdam , the City of Potsdam and the State of Brandenburg , the population and the German Foundation for Monument Protection .

  • Destroyed Monopteros

  • Reconstructed Monopteros with golden charity

  • Facade on the Breite Straße and Dortustraße

  • Entrance hall on the ground floor

  • View into the interior of the dome in the entrance area

people

Directors and educators

The respective Prussian war minister was the head of the directorate .

Known pupils

literature

  • Volker Schobeß: The Royal Great Military Orphanage and its military students. In: The war craft of the Germans. Prussia and Potsdam 1717-1945. Trafo Verlag, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-86464-055-1
  • Paul Sigel, Silke Dähmlow, Frank Seehausen and Lucas Elmenhorst: Architectural Guide Potsdam . Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-496-01325-7 .
  • The history of the Royal Potsdam Military Orphanage, from its creation to the present day . Published for the establishment's centenary celebration in November 1824. Ernst Siegfried Mittler, Berlin and Posen 1824 ( full text ) (E-Book: ISBN 978-3-941919-74-7 , Potsdam 2010)
  • History of the Royal Potsdam Military Orphanage from its creation to the present day . Berlin and Posen, by Ernst Siegfried Mittler, 1824, reprint hardcover, ISBN 978-3-88372-014-2 , Potsdam 2012
  • Schmitz, Frank: Large orphanage in Potsdam . Stadtwandel Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-937123-95-4
  • Military weekly paper: independent magazine for the German armed forces , volume 60, 1875, p.535

Individual references and sources

  1. ↑ Thomas Philipp von der Hagen: Description of the city of Freyenwald of the Gesundbrunnens. Berlin, 1784 Online at Google Books (p. 31)
  2. ^ Frank Schmitz: Great orphanage in Potsdam . Stadtwandel Verlag, Berlin 2006, p. 54.
  3. ^ Heinrich Ludwig Manger: Building History of Potsdam , Friedrich Nicolai, Berlin-Stettin 1789, Vol. 2, pp. 359/360
  4. ↑ Unofficial trailer with part of the stairwell scene on YouTube ; Complete film on YouTube (staircase scene from 1:18:29 h)
  5. ^ Götz Eckardt: Fate of German Monuments in World War II. A documentation of the damage and total losses in the area of ​​the German Democratic Republic. Vol. 1 . Henschelverlag, Berlin 1980, p. 156 f.
  6. ↑ Hans Berg: The lost center of Potsdam . Self-published by Hans Berg, Berlin 1999, p. 33

Web links

Commons : Great Military Orphanage  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 52 ° 23 '46.8 "  N , 13 ° 3' 5.7"  E