Hilde Wulff

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Hildegard, called Hilde, Wulff (* January 7, 1898 in Dortmund , † July 23, 1972 in Hamburg ) was a German special education teacher and founder of the foundation .

Life and work in Düsseldorf

Hilde Wulff was the daughter of the businessman Robert Wulff and his wife Caroline, née Malz. She had a younger and an older sister. The family was rich thanks to several coal mines. At the age of two, Hilde Wulff moved with her family from Dortmund to Düsseldorf . Due to polio , which she developed during this time, she was physically disabled for life. She was able to attend a private English school regularly for three years. Because of her illness, she subsequently spent time in the hospital regularly; however, her health did not improve. She obtained secondary school qualification through accompanying private lessons. Due to his own illness, Wulff made the decision to set up a facility for physically handicapped people. From 1920 to 1921 she trained as a curative teacher. She followed lessons at the Düsseldorf Social Academy in a wheelchair. In the same year, together with her father, she founded the Glückauf Foundation for Childcare Düsseldorf , for which she was involved in a managerial position. From 1927 to 1929 Wulff studied psychology and education at the University of Frankfurt am Main and the University of Hamburg .

Wulff, who had been an active member of the self-help association for the physically handicapped in Düsseldorf and Berlin since 1923 , founded Krüppelhilfe und Wohlfahrt GmbH on July 4, 1931 . She used her father's inheritance for this establishment, which is based in Düsseldorf. Wulff took over the management as the sole shareholder and pursued the goal of enabling "free help for cripples".

Move to Hamburg

Hilde Wulff planned a new building in Düsseldorf, but did not receive a building permit for it. She then got in touch with the city of Hamburg and in October 1931 bought a piece of land in Hamburg-Volksdorf . Since she was initially unable to maintain the Klöppersche Villa on it herself, she left the building to the Hamburg welfare authority for the pastoral care of children and young people. In October 1933 she founded the Neu-Westend children's home in Berlin-Charlottenburg , which she managed herself. The facility offered space for ten children who were disabled, in need of relaxation and socially problematic. After the lease of the Klöpperschen Villa in Hamburg expired in September 1935, Wulff and the children moved in there on October 1st of the same year. Because of the existing trees and their connection with nature, she called the facility “Im Erlenbusch”. In 1935 the Hamburg authorities recognized Wulff's facility as a private children's home, which was therefore eligible for state funding.

During the time of National Socialism , Hilde Wulff was able to ward off the influence of the National Socialists. The home accommodated 25 children and was therefore considered small. Nevertheless, the facility was threatened with confiscation in 1941 due to the destruction caused by the war. Through skillful behavior, Hilde Wulff managed to oppose this request. Since she did not want to endanger the children she cared for, who were viewed by the National Socialists as potentially "worthless lives" to be destroyed, she rarely expressed herself critically about the political circumstances. During this time she was in constant, binding contact with the authorities, even though her personal views were completely opposite to those of the National Socialists.

Gravestone in
the women's garden

Hilde Wulff hosted a. a. also children of parents who were imprisoned for communist beliefs. In addition, she put herself in mortal danger by helping Jewish emigrants and communist resistance fighters and enabling them to find new places to stay outside the German Reich. During this time she was remarkably in constant and binding contact with the authorities. In addition to children from Berlin, the facility gradually took in more needy people from Hamburg. In addition to children with intellectual disabilities and so-called "difficult to educate" children, the majority were children with physical limitations. In 1937 Wulff set up a home school with a state-paid teacher. The home “Im Erlenbusch” took on parts of the orthopedic department of the destroyed old oak facility for the disabled .

Hilde Wulff, who worked in the Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation in Hamburg after the end of the Second World War , managed the home until 1964. In April of the same year she handed the house over to the Martha Foundation, which was founded in 1849 by Wilhelmine Mutzenbecher. It also transferred all the shares in the Düsseldorf facility, which had been operating under the name "Krüppelhilfe und Fürsorge GmbH" since 1949. Hilde Wulff then expanded the Im Erlenbusch facility with an additional building which, after it opened in April 1968, could accommodate 40 more physically handicapped children. The new manager in Erlenbusch was Ruth Lüsebrink from 1964, who had worked in the house since 1957.

Hilde Wulff, who had been in a wheelchair since 1955 due to an accident, died in July 1972 in Erlenbusch, where she had a lifelong right of residence.

Her tombstone is in the women's garden at the Ohlsdorf cemetery in Hamburg.

Educational concept

Hilde Wulff's work was based on a Christian-humanist image of man. Their aim was to bring up the children individually so that they could get a good education and vocational training despite their physical limitations. Even in the early days of special schools for the physically handicapped, she called for handicapped and non-handicapped children not to be separated from each other and to teach together in public community schools. In this sense, she was a pioneer of inclusion in schools. Wulff attached great importance to independence, integration and tolerance. Their views were shaped by their own past, the bourgeois and left-wing women's movements at the beginning of the 20th century and, in particular, their Christian image of man.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Wulff, Hilde
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wulff, Hildegard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German special education teacher and founder of the foundation
DATE OF BIRTH January 7, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Dortmund
DATE OF DEATH July 23, 1972
Place of death Hamburg