Hugo Reich

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Johann Hermann Hugo Reich (born March 30, 1854 in Elberfeld (now part of Wuppertal ), † July 23, 1935 in Bad Kreuznach ) was a German Protestant pastor and founder of the Kreuznacher Diakonie-Anstalten (Stiftung Kreuznacher Diakonie) .

Live and act

Hugo Reich grew up in a religious family. His father was the head of the "Department for School Supplies" of the Elberfeld city administration; his mother was a granddaughter of the composer Johann Michael Bach . After the early death of his mother, Hugo Reich was soon given responsibility as the eldest. During the years of mourning, Hugo Reich began to show "the enormous seriousness of suffering and death", which was to motivate and accompany his later work. After graduating from high school in Elberfeld in 1876 , Reich studied theology in Bonn and Leipzig , where he was a member of the respective Wingolf association . has been. In 1881 he passed his first state examination in theology and became vicar to Gustav Schlosser in Frankfurt am Main, one of the leading men in the Inner Mission. In 1883 he spent a year at the Cathedral Candidate Foundation in Berlin. After passing the second state examination in theology, Reich took over a pastorate in Langenberg and was ordained there on September 11, 1884 . On September 20, 1884, he married Emma Schlosser, Gustav Schlosser's eldest daughter.

The activity as "agent" of the Rhenish Provincial Committee for Inner Mission was linked to the Langenberg pastor's office . Reich sat down u. a. for the posting of deaconesses to the parishes, where they would work in the sick and poor care as well as in the care of small children. Reich became a member of the action committee, which prepared the establishment of another deaconess mother house in the Rhine province in addition to the already existing one in Kaiserswerth . It was supposed to be built in the south of the province, whereby - also due to the difficult social situation of the rural population of the Nahe valley - the choice fell on Sobernheim . The 35-year-old Reich was entrusted with the founding of this Second Rhenish Deaconess Mother House in 1889. A second pastor's post was created in Sobernheim to support the project.

The Sobernheim rectory became the place where the nurses were trained, but it was soon too small because of the sick people they had taken in, so that Reich had an independent motherhouse built on the Hüttenberg near Sobernheim. At the same time, Reich, who had got to know the various forms of social hardship during his year in Berlin and during his work in the Association for Inner Mission in Frankfurt, realized that the initial goal of founding the parent company was too narrow. A first expansion of the field of activity presented itself to him when the Asbacher Hütte came into the possession of the parent company as a gift. The first home in the Rhine Province for mentally handicapped women and girls was built here. Since the number of sick people in Sobernheim was too low for a thorough training of the deaconesses, Reich soon thought about moving the focus of nursing and educational activities to Kreuznach. A first step was the establishment of an auxiliary hospital in a rented building in the city in 1890. Discussions with the city soon followed about the transfer of a large area on which the first building to be built was a hospital. The foundation for the Kreuznach Diakonie-Anstalten was laid. Now a larger motherhouse, a facility for the physically handicapped, an old people's home, a house for the promotion of slightly mentally handicapped girls, a housekeeping school and a kindergarten teacher seminar with a teaching kindergarten were built on the prison premises in quick succession. In 1901, Reich resigned his pastoral office in Sobernheim and moved with his family to Kreuznach.

With the facility for the physically handicapped, Reich wanted to recruit doctors who could apply the latest findings in orthopedics and prosthetics. Reich traveled extensively to “cripple institutions” to learn about modern medical techniques and exercise programs on site. The highest possible degree of independence should be achieved; that also meant professional training in the associated workshops. Brothers who initially came from older institutions such as Bethel , but were trained in Kreuznach themselves from 1910 onwards, were brought in to provide care and guidance . A characteristic of Reich's modern attitude was that in the middle of the institution was not the church, as is usual, but the boiler house, which supplied all buildings with light, heat and water. When the men's hospital in Kreuznach was completed in 1912, the Kreuznach Diakonie-Anstalten had acquired their form, which was valid for a long time. This included further outstations that Reich had acquired through purchase and had expanded, including two orphanages and the brother-supported workers ' colony Niederreidenbacher Hof near Idar-Oberstein , which was supposed to relieve the misery of the homeless and migrant workers. During the First World War, the Kreuznach Diakonie-Anstalten became a reserve hospital. The Reich loyal to the emperor, which nevertheless did not welcome the entry into the war, offered the district command to place the wounded in the care of its experienced sisters and doctors and to enable the permanently disabled to return to everyday life through active support for the disabled. A time of limited space and the highest demands followed for all prison residents. Some of the deaconesses slept on straw sacks on the floor, Hugo and Emma Reich cleared their rectory.

After the difficulties of the post-war years, in which Hugo Reich was also met personally - Emma Reich died in 1921 - there were years of consolidation and finally new building activity. When the aged supervisor, revered as “Father Reich”, resigned from his office in 1932, he could look back on the creation of an extraordinarily successful, widely ramified and financially secure work of Christian charity. Two of his daughters worked in the Diakonie-Anstalten - as a teacher and as a kindergarten seminar leader - and his son was soon to become a member of the board.

Hugo Reich died on July 23, 1935. The last of the founders of the Inner Mission was buried in the Kreuznach cemetery with great sympathy.

Honors

1904 Red Eagle Order IV class

1906 Knight of Honor of the Grand Ducal Oldenburg House

1917 Cross of Merit for War Aid

1920 Honorary theological doctorate from the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn

A street in Bad Kreuznach was named after Hugo Reich.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gustav Reich, Hermann Hugo Reich: 1854-1935, 50 Years of Diakonie-Anstalten Bad Kreuznach , Bad Kreuznach 1939, p. 38.
personal data
SURNAME Rich, Hugo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Reich, Hermann Hugo; Reich, Johann Hermann Hugo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German clergyman, founder of the Kreuznach Diakonie
DATE OF BIRTH March 30, 1854
PLACE OF BIRTH Elberfeld
DATE OF DEATH July 23, 1935
Place of death Bad Kreuznach