Hildegardis Association

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The Hildegardis Association e. V. is the oldest association for the promotion of women's studies in Germany. It was founded in 1907 by Maria Schmitz and other committed Catholics. With interest-free loans they offered Catholic young women the necessary financial aid without which an academic degree or vocational training and further education would not have been possible for many. Since then, the Hildegardis Association has continued to expand and update its funding offer.

With its work, the association pursues the goal of individually promoting women on their educational path and at the same time improving the framework conditions for women's education in Germany on a sustainable basis.

A particular concern of the association is the improved compatibility of education, family and work, the promotion of students with disabilities and the support of foreign students.

history

The association was founded in 1907 by the teacher and politician Maria Schmitz (1875–1962). Her idea was to use interest-free loans to offer young women financial support for academic studies or vocational training and further education. Until it was banned by the National Socialists, the Hildegardis Association was organized in individual local associations, in which the member women campaigned imaginatively for financial support for Catholic students. After the end of the Second World War, most of the local associations were destroyed, so that the Hildegardis Association was reorganized nationwide. Until the 1930s, the association was financed through membership fees from Catholic women. The National Socialists confiscated the property and destroyed these structures. Since the 1950s, the association has relied on its membership fees, donations and assets from wills.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the association used its assets to build numerous student residences, and support through student loans always remained a main task. Today the Hildegardis-Verein e. V. Women in various ways in their academic studies at German and foreign universities or in their vocational training and further education, both through loans and grants. The association promotes women of all disciplines and professional goals. With his biographical approach, he consciously promotes without age limit.

The chairwoman of the board is currently (2020) Charlotte Kreuter-Kirchhof , professor for German and foreign public law, international law and European law in Düsseldorf; Birgit Mock is the managing director of the association .

In 2019, the Else Mayer Foundation , which had emerged from the Erlöserbund , dissolved and transferred its assets to the Hildegardis Association, which used it to grant the Else Mayer loans .

aims

With its work, the association pursues the goal of promoting women's studies and sustainably improving the conditions for women's education in Germany. He faces current challenges in education in times of upheaval. The board of the association conducts this discussion both within its own organization and with other associations and institutions, which is reflected in statements and new projects. "Lifelong learning", "Compatibility of parenthood & training" and "Inclusion" - these are some of the educational policy challenges that the Hildegardis Association faces and on which it aligns its funding practice.

Funding offer

With interest-free loans, the association supports Christian women who are studying, training or further education in Germany or abroad, especially in advanced training phases or after career-related interruptions. Foreign Catholics who are studying or continuing their professional education in Germany are also supported. The association also grants loans for second and postgraduate studies. The funding should particularly benefit female students in financial distress. There are no age limits for an application. The association gives preference to female applicants who, in addition to their studies, are committed to their social environment and who take responsibility in church and society. A particular concern of the Hildegardis Association is to contribute to improving the compatibility of education, family and work for women along with their biography. For this purpose, the association has provided its own family support.

Projects

From 2008 to 2013, the association carried out the first nationwide mentoring project for students with disabilities, which was funded by the Contergan Foundation. The basis was a study with which the Hildegardis Association determined the support needs of students with disabilities in the European Year of Equal Opportunities in 2007. Each student participant in the program was advised for one year by a professionally experienced person with an academic degree in their life, study and career planning. In 2010 the project received an award in the innovation competition “ 365 Landmarks in the Land of Ideas 2010 ”.

From 2013 to March 2016, the association carried out the BMBF-funded project "The way of life included: Competence tandems for students with and without disabilities". In autumn 2015, in cooperation with the German dioceses and the German Bishops' Conference (DBK), he started the program "Church in Mentoring: Mentoring to increase the proportion of women in leadership positions in the Catholic Church."

Surname

The association is named after Hildegard von Bingen (1098–1179), one of the first comprehensively educated humanities and natural researchers in Germany. Hildegard recorded her visions and her studies in books and letters to kings and popes, bishops, religious and lay people. Hildegard brought movement into her church and society from the enclosure of her monastery and on extended trips. Their advice was sought, not always followed, and often feared. Her courage, her willingness to change, her judgment, her love for people and nature and her conscious work in her time can be seen as a style-forming and exemplary for the club named after her.

Memberships and cooperations

The association is a member

In these umbrella organizations, he represents the interests of Christian women and contributes to the internal church opinion-forming process on questions of education.

In addition, the association is represented in the University and Church Forum , which, as a national specialist organization, supports university pastoral activities in Germany. In the forum, the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Katholischer Hochschulgemeinden (AKH), ​​the Conference for Catholic University Pastoral Care (KHP) work together as an association of university chaplains, the church study funding agencies Cusanuswerk and Catholic Academic Foreigners Service (KAAD), the student associations and organizations of Catholic adult education.

Even when it was founded, the women of the Hildegardis Association were closely linked to the Catholic women's associations, often in personal union. This network still exists today. a. with the Catholic German Women's Association (KDFB), the Association of Catholic German Women Teachers (VkdL) and the Association of Catholic Women Academics (BkdA), which emerged from the Catholic female student associations.

literature

  • Hildegardis Association (Ed.): Education gives you wings: 100 years of the Hildegardis Association. Aschendorff, Münster 2007, ISBN 978-3-402-12746-9 .
  • Maria Schmitz: The idea of ​​the Hildegardisverein and its foundation. In: The Christian Woman. 46: 82-84 (1957).
  • Maria Schmitz: 50 years of the Hildegardis Association. In: Catholic women's education. 58: 682-685 (1957).
  • Rolf Zerlett: Hildegardis Association. In: Katholische Studentin 6 (1919), pp. 136-137.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Charlotte Kreuter-Kirchhof in an interview: Member of the Economic Council: Do not renounce the charisms of women, kathisch.de of August 10, 2020, accessed on August 14, 2020
  2. ↑ General funding
  3. ↑ Hildegardis Association e. V., mentoring program for female students with disabilities ( Memento from February 21, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ^ Church in mentoring