Boys' home "on the pit"
Coordinates: 46 ° 55 '15.5 " N , 7 ° 22' 57.9" E ; CH1903: 595743 / 196654 The boys 'home' on the pit " , commonly known as just " pit " or Bernese German " Gruebe " called, was from 1825 to 2012, a children's home for boys in Niederwangen , near the Swiss city of Bern . In the 20th century it was one of the carriers of the “ compulsory welfare measures ”, whichhave meanwhile been recognized as injustice, with which the Swiss authorities took away the children of poor or socially unadjusted parents.
Home operations were stopped in 2012 after allegations of abuse. The school home Ried in Niederwangen has existed as the successor institution since 2013 . In 2020, the “pit” hit the headlines again because a former home manager had a book about the home's history destroyed and locked in libraries.
history
19th century
In 1825 members of the pietistic awakening movement founded the "rescue center for poor abandoned children and orphans" in order to raise the children to be "good-natured poor" through field work. Its foundation was one of the measures taken by religious circles to combat widespread " pauperism ".
The home was initially operated on an estate in Oberbottigen and in 1833 moved to the "Auf der Grube" estate between Niederwangen and Köniz . The files from the 19th century bear witness to the sparse or poor equipment in the home, frequent changes in the management of the home and little school education for the children. Above all, they had to work, which was understood in the home as an “excellent custody against frivolous thoughts and sinful aberrations”.
In the second half of the 19th century, the home aimed primarily at economic self-sufficiency , but the Bernese upper class was increasingly making generous donations. In 1882, the institution founded another home in the Brünnen estate, which continues today as the Dentenberg residential school.
20th century
Since the Civil Code came into force in 1912, the "Grube" no longer only took in poor children and orphans, but also "neglected" boys. The new guardianship authorities took these away from parents if they endangered the children, but also if the family did not correspond to the bourgeois ideal.
From 1946 self-sufficiency and donations to finance the "pit" were no longer sufficient, and the home was now also financially supported by the cantonal authorities, but hardly monitored. In 1947 Ruth Flühmann described amateur educational methods in a diploma thesis: "Socio-educational quality is made impossible by financial scarcity and compensated for by trust in God."
The “Grube” was still well known in the canton of Bern - the band Stiller Has sang in the song “Käthi” by the “Gruebebuebe”, the boys from the pit - and sometimes feared. "If you are not doing well, you have to go to the pit," Bernese children often heard. The referring authorities also rated the “pit” as “strict and cheap”.
The educational methods differed according to the changing head of the home, whom Fredi Lerch describes as "pioneers and educators, idealists and sadists, bigots and princes". According to Pestalozzi's model, which has long been widespread in Switzerland, the home was run by a married couple as "house parents" until 2005. The more recent history of the home was shaped by Paul and Lotti Bürgi-Gutknecht (directors from 1966 to 2000), who ran the home in an authoritarian manner, were proud of rejecting the spirit of the 1968 movement and, for example, adhered to corporal punishment. The well-connected Bürgi effectively presented his home to the authorities and the citizens of Bern as a model institution; Federal councilors , government councilors and other celebrities were present at the anniversary celebrations .
In 1990, the Federal Office of Justice canceled the federal subsidies it received from the “pit” because only 11 percent instead of the required two thirds of the staff had socio-pedagogical or therapeutic training and there was also too little staff. The Federal Supreme Court confirmed this decision on appeal. Home manager Bürgi stuck to his “conservative” concept, which demanded strength of character from the staff instead of training, and compensated for the loss of income through the increased collection of donations - around half a million francs in 1997.
Allegations of abuse and the end of the "pit"
When Hans-Peter and Renate Hofer-Hagmann succeeded the Bürgis in 2000, they quickly came into conflict with the cantonal authorities, who now also demanded compliance with professional educational standards. In 2002 a fire broke out on the "pit" and an anonymous letter of confession accused the home management and staff of sexually and physically abusing the children. After around a dozen people had made similar allegations, the cantonal authorities commissioned former High Court President Ueli Hofer with an investigation. He exonerated the Hofer-Hagmann couple, but came to the conclusion that corporal punishment was commonplace under Paul Bürgi and that there was a frightening climate of psychological pressure in the home. The board of trustees did not care about the well-being of the children, but about the reputation of the "pit".
In 2003 the institution was renamed "Schulheim Ried" as a reaction to the loss of its image, but according to Lerch it remained a "barrack-like institution" under the rule of a "householder". After continued conflicts between the home management, the board of trustees and the authorities, the board of trustees and the home management were completely renewed in 2005, the “home parenting model” was abandoned and the home made more professional.
In 2011, the Board of Trustees decided to discontinue home operations in the “pit” due to the remote location and the burdensome history of the place. The board of trustees wrote in the home history of 2013:
“Whether and in what way injustice happened to the children and adolescents cannot and can no longer be answered conclusively. The Board of Trustees cannot and does not want to rule it out. This book is therefore dedicated to all those who did not experience what they were entitled to on the «Grube» and in the Ried school home: protection, appreciation, benevolence and physical and psychological integrity. The current Board of Trustees expressly apologizes for the injustice suffered and endured. "
As a successor institution, the Board of Trustees founded the Ried school home in Niederwangen. The “Auf der Grube” estate, now called “Landgut Ried”, is now the seat of a Tibetan Buddhist center.
Dispute over the book on home history
In 2011, the Board of Trustees commissioned the journalist and author Fredi Lerch to review the history of the home as part of a book published by the Foundation at the end of the «Grube», which was published in 2013. The former director of the home, Hans-Peter Hofer, sued Lerch and the foundation because of the book that Hofer considered to be reputational because it misrepresented his work. In 2017, the parties involved agreed in a settlement that there should be no new edition and that all copies not yet sold should be handed over to Hofer; he destroyed the books. Lerch later regretted having agreed to the settlement.
In 2020, Hofer also caused the Bern libraries and the National Library , citing the settlement, to no longer make the copies still available there to the public. Jurists and historians judged this to be wrong or questionable in relation to the “ Bund ”. Willi Egloff took the view in "Journal B" that Lerch's account of Hofer's work was correct. "Journal B" made the book available on the Internet in protest against the "book burning". The libraries then reversed the decision to block the book.
literature
- Bernhard Kuonen, Fredi Lerch et al .: Gruebe . Ed .: Schulheim Ried Foundation. EigenART edition, Bern 2013, ISBN 978-3-909990-27-6 ( journal-b.ch [PDF; accessed on July 24, 2020]). u. a. with the contributions:
- Bernhard Kuonen on behalf of the Board of Trustees: Foreword (p. 7 ff.)
- Fredi Lerch: From the rescue facility to the school home: 188 years of boy education “Auf der Grube” in Niederwangen (p. 13 ff.)
Web links
- Literature from and about Knabenheim "Auf der Grube" in the bibliographic database WorldCat
- Landguet Ried (Gruebe): patrician seat, educational institution for the poor, center for Buddhism , municipality of Köniz
Individual evidence
- ↑ That was the name until 2003. Before that, the home was also called “Poor Educational Institution on the Pit”, “Poor Educational Institution for Boys in the Pit”, “Boys Educational Institution‹ old pit ›” and “Boy Educational Home on the Pit” (Lerch, p. 14). From 2003 it was called “Schulheim Ried” (see below in the text).
- ↑ a b c d e f g Selina Grossrieder: Forced care in the "Gruebe" - a dark chapter in social history. In: The Bund . July 14, 2020, accessed July 24, 2020 .
- ↑ Lerch, p. 14
- ↑ Lerch. Pp. 16-21
- ↑ Lerch, p. 23
- ↑ Lerch, p. 25
- ↑ Lerch, p. 38
- ↑ a b c d e Kuonen, p. 7
- ↑ a b Lerch, p. 44
- ↑ Lerch, p. 13
- ↑ Lerch, p. 17
- ↑ Lerch, p. 41 ff.
- ↑ Lerch, p. 47
- ↑ The perpetrator was identified in 2015. He had no relationship with the "pit" but grew up in a different home and acted out of dislike for such institutions. See: Arson resolved in Knabenheim - 13 years later . In: The Bund . ISSN 0774-6156 ( derbund.ch [accessed on July 25, 2020]).
- ↑ Lerch, pp. 48-51
- ↑ Lerch, p. 52
- ↑ Lerch, p. 52
- ↑ Kuonen, p 8
- ↑ Buddhist Center - Landguet Ried, Center for mindful living. Retrieved July 24, 2020 .
- ^ Georg Häsler Sansano: Bern summer dispute over a pulped book. In: NZZ. July 14, 2020, accessed July 24, 2020 .
- ^ Bernhard Ott: Controversial book - «I have betrayed my text». In: The Bund. July 23, 2020, accessed July 24, 2020 .
- ↑ Selina Grossrieder: Forbidden book about children's homes - When libraries are allowed to censor books. In: The Bund. July 16, 2020, accessed July 24, 2020 .
- ↑ Willi Egloff: Against the burning of books. In: Journal B. July 18, 2020, accessed on July 24, 2020 . Archived version of the book: Gruebe. July 23, 2020, accessed on August 21, 2020 .
- ↑ Naomi Jones: Censored Book - Libraries Choose the Gruebe Book. In: The Bund. Retrieved August 27, 2020 .