Johanne Philippine Nathusius

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Johanne Nathusius, painting by Susanne von Nathusius (1850–1929), painted in 1905 on the occasion of the inauguration of the Johannenhof of the Neinstedter institutes

Johanne Philippine Nathusius (born November 18, 1828 in Althaldensleben ; † May 28, 1885 ibid) was the founder of the Elisabethstift, which later became the Neinstedter institute .

John's father was Johann Gottlob Nathusius (1760–1835), an important industrialist and large landowner in Magdeburg and the surrounding area, whose ancestors had lived in Upper and Lower Lusatia . Her mother was Luise Nathusius, b. Engelhard (1787–1875), daughter of the poet Philippine Gatterer . She was the eighth and youngest child of the family living in Althaldensleben and Hundisburg . When she was twelve she developed scarlet fever and typhus ; She suffered from consequential damage all her life. Until 1860 she lived mainly in Althaldensleben, from then on in Neinstedt. When her brother Heinrich von Nathusius's wife died in May 1876 , she moved back to Althaldensleben to look after his youngest children. She herself remained unmarried and died in 1885 at the age of 56. She was buried in the Nathusius family cemetery in Althaldensleben, the funeral speech was given by her nephew Martin von Nathusius , a theology professor from Greifswald .

Welfare work

Althaldensleben

At the age of 14 - still in Althaldensleben - Johanne Nathusius began to look after the needy. Girls were looked after in a sewing and knitting school. She got involved in the rescue house for girls founded by her brother Philipp von Nathusius , a refuge for the neglected and orphans. More and more, however, she began to be interested in the fate of the mentally handicapped. Her brother Philipp referred her to the institution for stupid people in Neuendettelsau , a home in Bavaria founded by Pastor Wilhelm Löhe (1808–1872), a pioneer of the social welfare movement in Germany. The writings of Pastor Julius Disselhoff (1827-1896), who in 1852 spent some time in support in the Neinstedter Brothers House of Philip of Nathusius, influenced their future development.

In 1858 she arranged for mentally weak children between the ages of 6 and 12 to be recorded (counting the cretins and nonsense) in the province of Saxony, the results of which two of her brothers - both members of parliament - presented to the Prussian provincial parliament , combined with an inquiry as to their future fate to be alleviated. As one of the first in Prussia, Johanne Nathusius publicly drew attention to the social neglect of the mentally handicapped. At that time, there was hardly any home for such disabled people. They almost always lived with their families, who were often completely helpless towards the disabled. In the Elisabethstift's annual report from 1867, for example, it says: “[...] SN is a very low-lying boy, as most nonsensical people outside of the institutions feel, already very depraved. When he was taken in, he smashed and spoiled everything like a wild animal; he screamed and raged, wanted to pull and hit the other children and polluted himself day and night in the most disgusting way. In the course of a year he had got used to calm, order and cleanliness […]. ”Johannes hope that the state would take care of the children and create suitable care and educational facilities, however, was not fulfilled. Rather, the state parliament declared that it was not responsible. Then she decided with the words “ If the state parliament fails, then it will be our job ” to begin caring for the mentally handicapped in what was then Saxony.

Althaldensleber rescue house around 1860, lithograph after a drawing by Johanne Philippine Nathusius
Elisabethstift, detail from the steel engraving Neinstedt am Harz by Ernst Bollmann, 1863
Detzel Castle in 2010

Neinstedt

As early as October 15, 1850, her brother Philipp von Nathusius had founded a boy rescue and brothers' house on a farm he had acquired in Neinstedt , the Lindenhof , which took in so-called welfare children. Johanne decided to also set up her handicap care in Neinstedt. After several attempts, she bought a farmhouse in Neinstedt from her own resources with a larger plot of land, which corresponded to her ideas. After renovation and furnishing, the new home for mentally handicapped boys was opened on January 3, 1861. The founder did not want to call the facility a stupid institution . As King Friedrich Wilhelm IV (1795–1861), whom she admired, had just died, she asked his widow Elisabeth (1801–1873), who was very committed to charity, to be allowed to name the home after her. This gave her approval after a year and thus became the namesake and protector of the Elisabethstift . In the first year 15 children lived here. This first, still very small building was the starting point for the disabled work of the Neinstedter Anstalten , which, founded as a private charitable organization, is today one of the largest disabled facilities of the Protestant Diakonie in Germany. The original Elisabethstift building was rebuilt and expanded many times over the next few decades, so that not much can be seen of the founding state (see photo opposite) and its half-timbered core.

While Johannes brother August von Nathusius (1818-1884), a landowner in Meyendorf and Philipp von Nathusius, who was already head of the Lindenhof , held the official positions as directors of the Elisabethstift , Johanne shaped life in the monastery through her personality. She also organized the processes and kept the cash books. After the death of her brother Philipp in 1873 she was appointed a member of the board herself. Until her death in 1885, also from Althaldensleben, she actually headed the foundation.

Expansion of the Elisabethstift

In 1863 Johanne Nathusius was able to convince a friend of the queen's widow, Adolphine von Bonin, to leave her Detzel Castle (near Haldensleben) built by her father Herrmann von Bonin in 1844 and to give it to her later. Another institution was established in this building in 1864, the Schloss Detzel nursing home (for mentally handicapped girls), and this was attached to the Elisabethstift . In 1865 the Asylum Gottessorge was founded and also linked to the Elisabethstift . In 1877 Johanne bought a former sugar factory and converted it into a home for the needy, the nonsensical institution Kreuzhilfe bei Thale . In 1884 an institution for male epileptics, the Gnadenthal home (also in Thale), was opened. In 1883 a chapel was inaugurated in Kreuzhilfe Thale, and Johanne had contributed to the interior decoration. When Johanne Nathusius died in 1885, the houses she founded accommodated over 400 foster children. In 1906, a good 20 years after the founder's death, the new Johannenhof complex was inaugurated in Neinstedt , which houses various areas for the mentally weak and epileptics. The institutions she founded remained her property until John's death. Then they passed into the hands of the Elisabeth Foundation.

Idea and Legacy

An essential characteristic of Johanne Nathusius's commitment was the support approach still pursued today in helping the disabled - in contrast to the "preservation structure" that was largely still common at the time. She did not want to be satisfied with merely caring for the mentally handicapped people who found her home. The fosterlings should always be accepted as people who are enabled to live a life that corresponds to them. It was always important to find an individually meaningful job according to the disability of the person concerned. This effort of Johannes is considered to be groundbreaking in the handicapped accessible, supportive education, which later differentiated in specialized workshops and an auxiliary school for the mentally handicapped. Shaped by the religious commitment of her brother Philip and his wife, Marie Nathusius (1817–1857), she saw those who were sick and disabled on the outermost fringes of society as creatures loved by God, who cared for them and for whom they gave meaning to life through community tried to provide elementary education and employment.

Jesus in the manger , painting by Johanne Philippine Nathusius

Artistic work

Johanne Nathusius had a talent for painting. Various trips from 1846 within Germany, Switzerland and Italy served the artistic further education. Over the course of several years she created 28 panels painted in oil - depicting flowers and plants that belong together according to symbolism and etymology. To explain this, she wrote a book in which these tables were published in 1868 by the Leipziger Verlag Arnold. She also designed learning materials for the residents of the home as well as large-format pictures for the Kreuzhilfe chapel in Thale and in the dining room of the Elisabethstift in Neinstedt. In 1859 she was also involved in the painting (oil on wooden panel) of the simultaneous church built by her father in Althaldensleben.

Namesake for schools

  • Johanne-Nathusius-Schule , Lüneburger Heerstraße 22, 39340 Haldensleben
  • Johanne Nathusius special school , Hauptstraße 36a, 01561 Großenhain OT Skäßchen
  • Johannenschule , named after Johanne Nathusius, a special needs school in the Neinstedter institutes

Further honors

  • Cross of Merit for women and virgins
  • Johannenhof , named after Johanne Nathusius, opened in 1905 as part of the Neinstedter institutes
  • Neinstedt (regarding Marie and Johanne Nathusius) is 30th FrauenOrt (SAFIR / Ministry for Health and Social Affairs and the Ministry of Culture of Saxony-Anhalt), 2000
  • Traveling exhibition SchattenRisse (regarding Marie and Johanne Nathusius). Women's life between Altmark and Unstruttal (Institute for History of Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg / Ministry of Culture of the State of Saxony-Anhalt), 2005

Works

  • The world of flowers according to their names, meaning and interpretation, arranged in pictures, with 28 lithographic images. Arnoldische Buchhandlung, Leipzig 1868.
  • Ursula Schmiedgen: Garden of the Holy Scriptures. In: Magdeburg Biographical Lexicon.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ according to Matthias Puhle: The soul wants to fly. A woman's life between adjustment and departure. P. 109.
  2. ↑ In adulthood she also had periostitis, according to Pastor Richter, in: The messenger of the brotherhood of the Lindenhof. Volume 54, No. 1, February 1929, p. 4.
  3. ^ Ulrich Hauer : Of art gardeners and garden art. P. 75.
  4. ↑ Lilly von Nathusius: Johann Gottlob Nathusius and his descendants and his nephew Moritz Nathusius. P. 37.
  5. ↑ Neinstedter Anstalten 1986. Documentation of the press office of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Thuringia, p. 8.
  6. ↑ Matthias Puhle: The soul wants to fly. A woman's life between adjustment and departure. P. 108.
  7. ↑ Hans Fuhrman: Detzel Castle became the "Kreuzhilfe" house in 1864. Johanne Nathusius died 100 years ago. In an unknown newspaper, May 31, 1995.
  8. ↑ Neinstedter Anstalten 1986. Documentation of the press office of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Thuringia, p. 27.
  9. ↑ Lilly von Nathusius: Johann Gottlob Nathusius and his descendants and his nephew Moritz Nathusius. P. 39.
  10. ↑ according to Order journal (PDF; 861 kB). Issue No. 8, 2007.

literature

  • Working group (ed.): 125 years of Neinstedter institutes. For the 125th anniversary on October 15, 1975. With the participation of Hans Fuhrmann, Werner Krause and Paul Meis, Evangelische Verlagsanstalt Berlin, Berlin 1974, pp. 21-25.
  • Neinstedter Anstalten 1986 (= literature of the press office of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Thuringia). Compiled by Rolf Löffler. Evangelische Verlagsanstalt Berlin, Berlin 1986, pp. 7-10, 26-27.
  • Ulrich Hauer: Of art gardeners and garden art. The gardeners and gardens of the Nathusius family in Althaldensleben and Hundisburg. KULTUR-Landschaft Haldensleben-Hundisburg eV and Museum Haldensleben, Haldensleben-Hundisburg 2005, p. 75.
  • Eva Hoffmann-Aleith : Johanne. Evangelical Publishing House, Berlin 1980.
  • Eva Hoffmann-Aleith: Paths to the Lindenhof. Evangelical Publishing House, Berlin 1967.
  • Elsbeth von Nathusius: Memories of Johanna Nathusius. Gebauer-Schwetschke, Halle on the Saale, 1907.
  • Wilhelm von Nathusius : Johanne Philippine Nathusius. Communicated from her life. n.d., n.d.
  • Cultural landscape Haldensleben-Hundisberg e. V. (Ed.): "With eternal grace I want to have mercy on you". Social engagement in Althaldensleben in the area of ​​tension between church and economy. With contributions by Ruth Stummann-Bowert, Sieglinde Bandoly and Bernd Schacht. Haldensleben-Hundisburg e. V., 2000, ISBN 3000060715 .
  • Meyer's Large Conversation Lexicon. Volume 19, Leipzig 1909, p. 451.
  • Lilly von Nathusius: Johann Gottlob Nathusius and his descendants as well as his nephew Moritz Nathusius. Ms., Detmold 1964.
  • Matthias Puhle: The soul wants to fly. A woman's life between adjustment and departure. Marie Nathusius (1817-1857). Mitteldeutscher Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-89812-466-9 , p. 107 ff., 135.
  • Johannes Steinwachs : Aunt Hannchen and the Neinstedter Elisabethstift. Publishing house of the Neinstedter Anstalten bookstore, Neinstedt 1912.

See also

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Nathusius, Johanne Philippine
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Founder of the Elisabethstift, which later became the Neinstedt institute
DATE OF BIRTH November 18, 1828
PLACE OF BIRTH Althaldensleben
DATE OF DEATH May 28, 1885
Place of death Althaldensleben