Invalidenhaus Berlin
The Invalidenhaus Berlin (today Invalidenhaus Berlin Foundation ) is probably one of the oldest institutions of a kind of war victims' welfare in the German-speaking countries .
history
| Instruction from Frederick II for the commandant of the Invalidenhaus, 1748 |
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Invalidenhaus (1748–1938)
The first suggestion for the establishment of the Invalidenhaus Berlin as the forerunner of today's invalid settlement in Berlin-Frohnau goes back to King Friedrich I in Prussia, who in 1705 drew up the plan to build special accommodations for disused and war-disabled soldiers based on the French model. However, the project was only carried out a few decades later under the government of Frederick II , the Great, who, after the end of the Second Silesian War, issued the instructions for the construction of the “disabled houses” in Berlin and Stolp and made the necessary funds available. Engineer-captain Isaak Jacob von Petri was commissioned as architect with the construction. In 1748 the Invalidenhaus Berlin, which was located in front of the city gates to the west, was completed and was occupied on November 15, 1748. This date is considered the actual foundation day. When choosing the location of the baroque, three-wing, castle-like building complex, the main front of which faced the Berlin-Spandau shipping canal , which was later built , the king attached great importance to the proximity to the Charité .
According to the King's will, the Berlin house for invalids had, like the other houses for invalids, a decidedly military character. For the internal design and organization, the king issued the instructions handed down to the commanders of the house of invalids on August 31, 1748 .
The institution's task was to provide war-damaged officers, NCOs and men with accommodation, food, clothing and medical care free of charge. In order to finance the invalids' house, Frederick II the Great provided extensive land holdings (528 acres ) and endowments in cash; The craftsmen and traders working for the disabled also enjoyed freedom from taxes and duties so that they could sell their products to inmates at a particularly “cheap” price. In this way, the king wanted to ensure that the house of invalids could sustain itself from the existing real estate and property and would not be a burden on the state budget.
The building provided space for 631 people, including 13 officers and 126 women. Four unmarried soldiers and a married soldier and wife each lived in a room with a chamber. A self-catering kitchen was provided for every 30 residents. The organization was based on the relationship between superior and subordinate and modeled on a military unit. The invalids were divided into three companies, each consisting of 190 men, ten non-commissioned officers, one ensign and two lieutenants.
The entire house of invalids was under a commandant, and from 1847 a governor. All inmates were paid according to their ranks. They wore uniforms even outside of duty, had to do guard duty in the district of the invalid's house and take part in the Sunday church parade. The house had special clergymen of both denominations and had their own parochial law. The disabled also formed an independent community with their own civil and criminal jurisdiction.
The Invalidenhaus essentially retained this configuration until the end of the First World War, although certain changes occurred over time. In the 19th century, for example, their own jurisdiction was abolished and the disabled were later called “foster care”, and the number of soldiers housed fell in favor of larger families, so that the residential character came to the fore. The conditions for admission were summarized in a decree of the Prussian War Ministry from 1907.
Commanders / Governors of the Invalid House
- 1748–1768 Karl Adam Heinrich von Feilitzsch (1701–1768)
- 1768–1775 Georg Christoph von Daembke (1719–1775)
- 1775–1779 Michael Ludwig von Diezelsky (1708–1779)
- 1779–1788 Gottlieb Julius von Pelchrzim (1717–1788)
- 1788–1791 Otto Ernst von Reineck (1729–1791)
- 1791–1800 Curth Paulino Gottlieb Heinrich von Arnim (1735–1800)
- 1800–1807 Georg Heinrich von Valentini (1738–1807)
- 1807–1809 Bogislav von Eichmann (1731–1815), provisional
- 1809–1809 Friedrich Wilhelm Alexander von Tschammer and Osten (1737–1809)
- 1809–1819 Johann Friedrich Freiherr Schenck zu Schweinsberg (1750–1819)
- 1819–1827 Gustav Friedrich von Kessel (1760–1827)
- 1828–1846 Jacob Bogislaw von Puttkamer (1753–1846)
- 1846–1847 Ernst Gustav von Held (1766–1851)
- 1847–1848 Hermann von Boyen (1771–1848)
- 1848–1877 Ferdinand von Maliszewski (1790–1877)
- 1877–1884 Karl Rudolf von Ollech (1811–1884)
- 1884–1889 Georg Otto von Wulffen (1813–1889)
- 1889–1904 Ernst Wilhelm Karl von Grolman (1832–1904)
- 1904 Friedrich von Schele (1847–1904)
- 1904–1919 Ludwig von Hammerstein-Loxten (1839–1927)
New uses in the former disability house and construction of the disability settlement (since 1938)
Around 1900 the building complex of the Kaiser Wilhelm Academy (Military Medical Academy) was built immediately south of the Invalidenhaus on Invalidenstrasse , which was to have a considerable influence on the development of the Invalidenhaus in later decades.
After the First World War , the Invalidenhaus lost its military character. When the Reich Ministry of Labor took over care of the war disabled on the basis of the ordinance of October 5, 1919, the supervision of the houses for the disabled, which until then had been under the Prussian War Ministry, was also transferred to the labor administration. Despite the redesign of the conditions in the house for invalids, the original purpose was fully preserved. Only severely disabled people who had stood directly in front of the enemy could be accepted.
With the beginning of rearmament and the re-establishment of the Wehrmacht in the Third Reich , the military character of the house of invalids became more prominent again. On April 1, 1937, the Invalidenhaus was withdrawn from the supervision of the Reich Ministry of Labor and placed under the Reich Ministry of War, later the High Command of the Wehrmacht. When the Military Medical Academy was expanded in 1938 and the building of the Invalidenhaus was used for this purpose, the Wehrmacht erected the Invaliden settlement in Berlin-Frohnau to compensate for the inmates . It was transferred from the Reich Treasury (Army) to the “Invalidenhaus Berlin” foundation. The Reich Treasury received the necessary building site of 18 hectares from the board of trustees of the Fürst Donnersmarck Foundation as a donation. In 1938 the inmates moved, who at the time were reluctant to part with the invalids' house in the city center.
Today, the parts of the Invalidenhaus that have been preserved - the former Kaiser Wilhelm Academy - are part of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy .
The last commandant of the Invalidenhaus was Colonel Wilhelm Staehle since 1937 . Staehle was the contact person of the resistance fighters of July 20, 1944 for the Dutch resistance movement. He was arrested and on April 23, 1945 by the SS in the cell prison Lehrter Straße wie u. a. Albrecht Haushofer murdered.
With the end of the Second World War , the Invalidensiedlung experienced the second demilitarization . The administration office for former imperial estates took over the supervision of the settlement. In 1952, a letter from the Federal Minister of Labor on April 18 gave rise to a review of the settlement's legal relationships. Finally, after lengthy negotiations, the settlement was transferred to the former Senate Administration for Labor and Social Affairs by a Senate resolution of June 29, 1953, which in turn, according to the legal status, from 1920 to 1937 the State Supply Office Berlin, later State Office for Central Social Tasks, now State Office for Health and Social broadcast. The formal takeover took place on May 16, 1953. The board of directors of the foundation is the respective head of the named authorities.
After the border was drawn in 1945, the settlement was surrounded on three sides by barbed wire and cut off from its natural connection to the neighboring town of Hohen Neuendorf . The associated burden on residents was increased considerably by the construction of the Berlin Wall .
It was urgent to counteract the negative consequences of this isolation and to support rehabilitation with all available means beyond economic provision. It was therefore one of the first measures to restore the heavily damaged ballroom in the parish hall and thus create a cultural center for the around 600 residents of the settlement. Church services were held regularly in the ballroom.
Todays situation
The housing estate (address: 13465 Berlin, Staehleweg 1–53) consists of 51 houses with 180 apartments in 49 apartment buildings, a community house, a disabled sports hall and ancillary buildings. The total area of the settlement is almost 14 hectares .
The Invalidenhaus Berlin Foundation is a non-profit foundation under public law . It has the task of providing war disabled persons entitled to a pension or persons with a subsidiary disability within the meaning of the Severely Disabled Persons Act in the Invalidensiedlung, which is particularly suited to the needs of the residents due to its location, spaciousness or other equipment. From time to time cultural and social events take place in the ballroom and in the adjoining so-called “Bauernstuben”.
literature
- Laurenz Demps : The Royal Invalid House in Berlin. History and development of its site . Sandstein, Dresden 2010, ISBN 978-3-940319-43-2 .
- Wolfgang Hanne: Laeso et invieto militi - the old Prussian invalid system . In: Zeitschrift für Heereskunde . 373 (July-September), 1994, ISSN 0044-2852 , pp. 86-91 .
- Wolfram Sternbeck: The Invalidensiedlung in Berlin-Frohnau - A forgotten legacy of Prussia . 2007, ISBN 978-3-86680-209-4 .
Web links
- Views of the disability settlement
- Wolfram Sternbeck: The Berlin Invalidenhaus . ( Memento from February 17, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) Military Museum Brandenburg-Prussia
- Homepage of today's disability settlement Frohnau. Retrieved November 13, 2015 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Walter Fandrey: Cripples, idiots, lunatics. Silberburg-Verlag, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-925344-71-3 .
- ^ Weinert, Sebastian: 100 Years of the Fürst Donnersmarck Foundation 1916–2016. Berlin 2016. pp. 43–44.
Coordinates: 52 ° 31 ′ 48 ″ N , 13 ° 22 ′ 23 ″ E