Israelite Institute for the Blind

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The Israelitisches Blindeninstitut was an education and training facility for Jewish blind people at Hohen Warte 32 in Vienna - Döbling . It was founded privately on the initiative of Ludwig August Frankl , Knight von Hochwart, with the support of the banker and President of the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien (IKG) Jonas Freiherr von Königswarter . When it was founded, it was the only Israelite education and training institute for the blind in Europe and existed from 1871 until it was gradually dissolved in 1938 and finally closed in 1942 during the National Socialist era .

The house at Hohe Warte 32 (before 1906)

history

Foundation and school building

Since 1869 there was a foundation to establish the institution, to which Friedrich Schey von Koromla , Anselm Salomon von Rothschild and Zacharias Königswarter were the first to donate large sums, which was followed by other funds from other donors. Jonas Freiherr von Königswarter undertook to pay for the costs of building and setting up a school for 50 children in a document dated March 10, 1870. After his death in December 1871, his son Moritz von Königswarter took on this responsibility. A board of trustees was formed which, in addition to Frankl himself and all board members of the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien, included the following people: Dr. Maximilian Engel, Moritz von Königswarter, the lawyer Philipp von Mauthner , the factory owner and then President of the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien Gustav Simon, Stephan Freiherr Schey von Koromla, Dr. Bernhard Wölfler, Amalia Benedikt, Amalia Mayersberg and Marie Tauber, b. from Hönigsberg.

The institute should offer blind Jewish children and adolescents through appropriate training prospects for a life of independence. Helping people in need to help themselves was a central concern of Jewish philanthropy, which is shaped by the principle of charity ( Zedaka ) . The establishment of workshops for learning to make a living therefore played an important role. On March 3, 1871, the formation of the association and the statute drawn up by the board of trustees were approved. The orientation of the institute was set out in § 1 of the statute: “ The Israelite Institute for the Blind is based in Vienna. The purpose of this is the intellectual, religious, moral, and industrial training of blind people of both sexes, in order to make them fit for a corresponding profession. "

The Hohe Warte 32 (2013)

After the purchase of a plot of 6060 m² in 1871, a three-storey institute building in the neo-renaissance style with a garden complex for around 50 students, including dormitories for 22 girls and 32 boys, four classrooms, a prayer room, a gymnasium and workshops was created on an area of ​​767 m² for brush making, basketry, rope making and our own laundry and printing shop for publications in Braille . Behind the two-wing building there was a long garden wing. The Jewish Viennese architect Wilhelm Stiassny was commissioned to plan the horseshoe-shaped building, which was completed in November 1872 .

High waiting 32

In the basement there was the doorman's bedroom, two living rooms for the housekeepers, the wood and coal depot, the heating room with the central heating stoves, bathrooms with showers, tubs and accessible bathing basins, toilets, laundry room, shortage and space, vegetable and meat depot with ice pit , scullery, the kitchen with dining elevator to the dining room on the ground floor, winter gymnasium and the institute's own book printer. The ground floor housed the porter's apartment, living quarters for the head teacher, toilets, the institute's office, four study rooms for girls, two study rooms for boys, a music room and a dining room. On the first floor there were two dormitories for girls and two for boys, washbasins, toilets, hospital rooms, classrooms as well as the examination and ballroom. On the second floor there were two additional classrooms, as well as a prayer room, toilets and hospital rooms.

All floors were provided with gas lighting , which was fed by gas pipes, the bedrooms and work rooms also had ventilation through floor and roof ducts, which were operated by means of drawers and blinds. The utility and drinking water supply was ensured by a well located in the garden, from which the water was pumped with a flywheel pump into a reservoir in the attic and from there it was distributed via pipes in the house to wash basins, bathrooms, showers, kitchen and toilets. The hot water was prepared centrally via a bath heater, from which pipes led to the bathrooms and kitchen. The toilets functioned according to the barrel or “barrel” system, in which rubbish was led through downpipes directly into transportable bins, which had to be emptied regularly. A high-pressure (hot water) heater in the basement was used to heat almost the entire house, which distributed the heat in the building through pipes partly in the floor or on the walls. Only the head teacher apartment and the sickroom on the second floor were heated by Swedish clay stoves, and some rooms in the basement were heated by iron long-burning stoves .

1872 to 1938

Reading with Braille book in the park of the Israelite Institute for the Blind

The institute was officially opened on December 1, 1872, and began teaching in January 1873 to 13 blind students under the senior teacher Leopold Österreicher. In 1913, 50 students attended the institute. As a result of the First World War , 80% of the 65 students in 1930 came from the poorest strata of the Jewish population in the war-affected countries of Eastern Europe, such as Poland, Hungary, Romania, "Victims of the war and post-war conditions, the pogroms and mostly without parents" .

The funds for maintaining the facility consist of interest on the initial capital, the meal fees charged for the students, contributions from public funds, donations in the form of one-off payments, annual contributions or bequests. When the institute lost its financial resources due to currency devaluation and a lack of interest income during the global economic crisis and inflationary period, it was threatened with closure. The then director Altmann therefore publicly called for donations in 1922 and kept the business going by soliciting private donations. Karl Kraus , for example, supported the institute from 1923 to 1929.

The lessons, which corresponded to the curriculum of the elementary and middle school and included music, handicrafts and physical exercises, took place in an elementary, middle and final class, each of which comprised several school years until reaching the age of majority. After graduating from school, there was a craft training with repetition classes in commercial arithmetic, calculation theory, merchandise and shorthand, or preparation for a state examination, for which scientific knowledge was imparted in a training class. Initially, vocational training was only offered for brush making and rope making , later basket weaving , knitting, braiding, therapeutic massage and piano parts as well as training to become a watchmaker, translator, interpreter , organist and the state examination in music teaching.

Eminent teachers for the blind taught at the institute from the start. Simon Heller , director of the institute from 1873, added modeling and drawing to the curriculum, and his successor in 1922 Siegfried Altmann stenotype , law, philosophy and foreign language correspondence. Altmann oriented the lessons according to reform pedagogical and blind psychological approaches. “In numerous publications, this thematized the new directions of psychological research in their practical importance for the education of the blind. Altmann encouraged his blind students to take the path of self-help ”. Viktor Löwenfeld , from 1923 as an art teacher at the Hohe Warte, introduced two-week-hour modeling lessons. The art historian Ludwig Münz , who was a friend of the writer Karl Kraus, began researching sculpture works by blind children on psychological questions of creativity at the Institute for the Blind from 1928, where he and Viktor Löwenfeld organized a reorganization of art classes.

The training also enabled them to attend a university and study at law, philosophical and political science faculties. The lessons were strictly gender-segregated. Because of its good reputation and training opportunities, the institute was visited by pupils from all over Europe, far beyond the typical blind professions of the time.

In 1933, German blind Jewish students were also transferred from Berlin to Vienna.

1938 to 1945

After Austria's annexation in March 1938, the Jewish self-help organizations were incorporated into the Reichsdeutscher Blindenverband and the maintenance of the blind schools became the task of the regional welfare associations . From August 1939, the building began to accommodate destitute handicapped and old Jewish people, as well as blind, visually impaired or deaf Jews whose apartments were confiscated.

After the decision to dissolve the institute, which retroactively to May 15, 1939 became the property of the Aufbaufonds-Vermögensverwertungsgesellschaft mbH. After being instructed, the students were sent back to their parents as far as possible. In January 1941 the City of Vienna acquired the property including all inventory and accessories and in March 1941 concluded a lease on the property with the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien, in which the IKG had to undertake to use the house exclusively as a retirement home for "non-Aryan foster people with a special department for blind, deaf , dumb and crippled Jews ”. On October 1, 1941, 117 blind, 27 deaf and five Jewish people aged under ten to over 80 who were disabled for other reasons lived in the building, the majority of whom were first deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto . In October 1944, most of the blind people were ordered to be transported to Auschwitz . In August 1942, according to the instructions of SS-Hauptsturmführer Alois Brunner from July 1942, the house was completely cleared and handed over to the administration of the Reichsgau Vienna, Main Department E, Health Care, to accommodate a social women's school . The building was partially damaged during the bombing of Vienna in World War II .

1945 until today

In 1946, the City of Vienna, as the official owner, rented the property to the Vienna Federal Police Directorate , which set up the current Döbling Police Department there. After the judgment of the Restitution Commission at the Regional Court for Civil Law Matters in Vienna, the property went to the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Vienna in 1956.

Memorial plaque for the Israelite Institute for the Blind

On October 15, 2002, a memorial plaque was unveiled on the initiative of the Aid Community for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Austria, commemorating the history of the Israelite Institute for the Blind. It bears the inscription:

“This house was built in the years 1871–1872 on the initiative of Dr. Ludwig August Frankl, Knight von Hochwart, established as an Israelite Institute for the Blind.
From 1873 to 1938 this was the center of the Jewish blind education in Europe.
Until it was forced to close in July 1942, the building served the Israelite Community as a residential building for the disabled.
The majority of the Jewish blind were murdered during the Nazi tyranny. 2002 "

- Aid community for the blind and partially sighted in Austria
Memorial bust Ludwig August Frankl Hohe Warte 32

During a memorial event on January 26, 2006, the long-lost bust of the founder Ludwig August Frankl was unveiled again. The black marble bust made by Heinrich Hahn was set up on the occasion of Frankl's 100th birthday in 1910 in the front garden of the Israelite Institute for the Blind. The administration of the Reichsgau Vienna, Department E, Health Care, had transferred the bust to the municipal collections on May 18, 1943 , which was given to the IKG Vienna as the legal successor to the Israelite Institute for the Blind Hohe Warte on the recommendation of the Vienna Restitution Commission in 2003. On the base is the inscription:

“In memory of
the founder of the Jewish
Institute for the Blind in Vienna,
Dr. Ludwig August Frankl
Ritter von Hochwart
1810–1894
municipal secretary , writer
and philanthropist "

  • Memorial plaque for Mina Hübler, Jeanette Beer and Dr. Simon Lewit.jpg
  • Memorial plaque for Mina Hübler, Dr. Simon Lewit and Jeanette Beer in Braille.JPG

On September 12, 2014, the Stones of Remembrance Association installed two commemorative plaques on the goal post, and Mina Hübler, Jeanette Beer and Dr. Simon Lewit, who were deported from Hohe Warte to Theresienstadt and murdered. The text in black and braille reads:

“The Israelite Institute for the Blind with an attached boarding school was located here from 1872–1939. The Nazis closed the school, most of the Jewish blind students were deported and murdered. The house was used as a dormitory for old and disabled Jewish people until 1942. We remember the 219 Jewish women and men who were deported and murdered from here by the Nazis in 1941/42. 2014 "

Personalities

  • Ludwig August Frankl (1810–1894), founder of the institute, writer, general secretary and archivist of the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien
  • Simon Heller (1843–1922), director from 1873, was considered one of the leading educators for the blind in Europe, published numerous textbooks for the blind, founded an institute for later blind people, and on his initiative modeling and drawing lessons were introduced at schools for the blind
  • Oskar Baum (1883–1941), Bohemian writer, was a student at the institute
  • Siegfried Altmann (1887–1963), from 1907 to 1921 lecturer and professor at the Israelite Institute for the Blind, interrupted from his military service during the First World War, during which he was active in helping the war blind, from 1922 to 1938 its director, co-founder of a home for the blind Mädchen 1925, founder of the Jewish Institute for the Blind in Warsaw 1930, Consultant of the City of Vienna for the Blind 1924 to 1934, President of the World Council for Education of the Blind 1929 to 1938
  • Ludwig Münz , art historian, did research at the Institute for the Blind from 1928 onwards on psychological questions relating to the creativity of blind children and organized a reorganization of art classes
  • Viktor Löwenfeld (1903–1960), from 1923 as an art teacher at the Hohe Warte school for the blind, where he introduced two-week modeling lessons
  • Michael Stone (1922–1993), Austro-British journalist
  • Robert Vogel, founder of the Aid Community for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Austria , who was trained as a blind youth at the Israelite Institute for the Blind

literature

  • Dietrich Hakelberg: Tactile texts. In: Yearbook of the German Schiller Society . Alexander Honold, Christine Lubkoll, Steffen Martus, Ulrich Raulff, Sandra Richter (Eds.), Volume 62, De Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2018, ISBN 978-3-11-057816-4 , pp.  33–60
  • Barbara Hoffmann: Between integration, cooperation and annihilation . StudienVerlag, Innsbruck, 2012, ISBN 978-3-7065-4979-0 . Online edition
  • Shoshana Duizend-Jensen: Jewish communities, associations, foundations and funds: "Aryanization" and restitution . Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2004, ISBN 3-486-56787-X online edition
  • Restitution report 2003 : Fourth report by the incumbent City Council for Culture and Science on the transfer of ownership of art and cultural objects from the collections of the museums of the City of Vienna and the Vienna City and State Library in accordance with the municipal council resolution of April 29, 1999 . Vienna, November 10, 2003, pp. 73-78.
  • Michaela Feurstein, Gerhard Milchram: Jewish Vienna: city walks . Böhlau, Vienna, 2001, ISBN 978-3-205-99094-9 , pp. 197-198.
  • Ludwig August Frankl: The Blind Institute on the Hohe Warte near Vienna: monograph together with scientific and biographical contributions; ... dedicated to the First European Congress of Teachers for the Blind . From the Curatorium des Israel. Blinden-Institutes, Vienna, 1873. Online edition, University Library of Goethe University, Freimann Collection, Frankfurt am Main, 2012

Autobiographical writings

  • Oskar Baum: Life in the Dark . Axel Juncker, Stuttgart, 1909
  • Michael Stone: The Institute for the Blind: Fragment of a Youth . Fischer-TB.-Vlg., Frankfurt am Main, 1995, ISBN 3-596-12676-2
  • Robert Vogel: Between light and dark. Experienced and retold . Publisher: Aid Community of the Blind and Visually Impaired, Vienna, 1982

Web links

Commons : Hohe Warte 32  - collection of images
  • Center for Jewish History : Israelitisches Blinden-Institut Hohe Warte in Vienna (The Hohe Warte Jewish Institute for the Blind, Vienna) Photograph albums . Photos of the institute building, the school lessons as well as the craft and music training.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Evelyn Adunka : The changes in the Viennese Jewish community in the interwar period 1918 to 1938 ( Memento of the original from January 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Lecture manuscript, p. 15 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.misrachi.at
  2. ↑ a b c d Gerhard Milchram: Israelitisches Blindeninstitut Hohe Warte . In: Lexicon of Austrian Provenance Research , January 24, 2019. Accessed June 4, 2020
  3. ↑ a b c d Dietrich Hakelberg: Tactile texts. The Israelitisches Blindeninstitut with blind printing and publishing house . In: Yearbook of the German Schiller Society . Alexander Honold, Christine Lubkoll, Steffen Martus, Ulrich Raulff, Sandra Richter (Eds.), 62nd year, De Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2018, ISBN 978-3-11-057816-4 , pp. 40–41
  4. ^ Ludwig August Frankl: The Blind Institute on the Hohe Warte near Vienna: monograph together with scientific and biographical contributions; ... dedicated to the First European Congress of Teachers for the Blind . From the Curatorium des Israel. Blinden-Institutes, Vienna, 1873, pp. 5-9
  5. ^ Ludwig August Frankl: The Blind Institute on the Hohe Warte near Vienna: monograph together with scientific and biographical contributions; ... dedicated to the First European Congress of Teachers for the Blind . From the Curatorium des Israel. Blinden-Institutes, Vienna, 1873, pp. 29–34
  6. ^ Ludwig August Frankl: The Blind Institute on the Hohe Warte near Vienna: monograph together with scientific and biographical contributions; ... dedicated to the First European Congress of Teachers for the Blind . From the Curatorium des Israel. Blinden-Institutes, Vienna, 1873, pp. 35–37
  7. ↑ a b c BIZEPS INFO: Michael Krispl: The Israelite Institute for the Blind in Vienna . October 2002
  8. ^ A b c d e f Johann Werfring: The Israelite Institute for the Blind . In: Wiener Zeitung of October 14, 2002. Accessed June 4, 2020
  9. ↑ a b Dietrich Hakelberg: Tactile texts. The Israelitisches Blindeninstitut with blind printing and publishing house . In: Yearbook of the German Schiller Society . Alexander Honold, Christine Lubkoll, Steffen Martus, Ulrich Raulff, Sandra Richter (eds.), 62nd year, De Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2018, ISBN 978-3-11-057816-4 , pp. 51–52
  10. ↑ a b c Dietrich Hakelberg: Tactile texts. The Israelitisches Blindeninstitut with blind printing and publishing house . In: Yearbook of the German Schiller Society . Alexander Honold, Christine Lubkoll, Steffen Martus, Ulrich Raulff, Sandra Richter (eds.), 62nd year, De Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2018, ISBN 978-3-11-057816-4 , pp. 55–57
  11. ↑ BIZEPS INFO: Shoshana Duizend-Jensen: Jewish Disabled People in Austria during National Socialism . April 2003
  12. ↑ Documentation archive of the Austrian Resistance: Herbert Exenberger : Address on the occasion of the unveiling of a memorial plaque in memory of the Israelite Institute for the Blind, which was located in Haus Hohe Warte 32 (today Döbling's Commissariat) . October 15, 2002. In: DÖW Mitteilungen, volume 159, December 2002, pp. 10-11
  13. ↑ Hans-Eugen Schulze : In memory of the Jewish education for the blind . In: horus - Marburg contributions to the integration of the blind and visually impaired. 2003, H. 1, S. 69 (PS) / S. 22 (SS), Ed .: German Association of the Blind and Visually Impaired in Studies and Work V. and Deutsche Blindenstudienstalt e. V., Marburg / Lahn
  14. ↑ BIZEPS-INFO: Memorial plaque for the former Israelite Institute for the Blind . October 2002
  15. ^ Louise Hecht: Ludwig August Frankl (1810-1894): A Jewish biography between Occident and Orient . Böhlau Verlag, Cologne / Weimar 2016, ISBN 978-3-412-50471-7 , p. 318
  16. ↑ BIZEPS INFO: Michael Krispl: A bust returns home . January 17, 2006
  17. ↑ Three new stones of memory in Döbling. In: mein district.at. Retrieved December 15, 2015 .

Coordinates: 48 ° 14 ′ 51.5 ″  N , 16 ° 21 ′ 21.7 ″  E