Käthe Mende

Käthe Mende (born December 2, 1878 in Frankfurt an der Oder ; † August 9, 1963 in Berlin ) was a German economist, sociologist and pioneer of social work .

Live and act

She was the youngest daughter of a wealthy Jewish banking family. Attending theater and concerts, cultivating music and traveling extensively determined family life. Her mother died when she was 18 years old.

Dissertation by Käthe Mende

The gifted girl would have liked to go to high school, but her father was strictly against it. He insisted that his daughter take a teacher exam beforehand. Only then was she allowed to take her Abitur as an external student at a high school in Charlottenburg. From 1897 Käthe Mende studied political science and philosophy in Freiburg im Breisgau , Berlin and Munich, and later also law. In the latter city she did her doctorate in 1912 with the Kathedersocialist Lujo Brentano . The topic of her dissertation was: Munich youthful shopkeepers at home and at work, based on a survey . This scientific work, which, as Lujo Brentano noted, was characterized by a sharpened and, with all the warmth of the heart, ripe intellectual judgment through scientific study , is considered to be one of the first sociological studies in Germany.

After graduating, Käthe Mende moved to Berlin. There she worked as a child welfare worker at the German Center for Youth Welfare . From 1923 she headed the newly founded German Archive for Youth Welfare and was the editor of the magazine Die Jugendfürsorge . Furthermore, since 1919 she was a member of the management committee of the youth care school of the Social Working Group Berlin (East) . In her responsible role, she played a key role in the reform discussions about the Reich Youth Welfare Act.

When the Nazis came to power, Käthe Mende was removed from all offices. From then on she was involved in Jewish organizations, including a. in the Jewish Women's Association (JFB) and as an unpaid employee in the Reich Association of Jews in Germany . As a member of the JFB, she also worked with Bertha Pappenheim . The latter asked Käthe Mende to write a scientific paper on Jewish homework and upbringing. The result of this was the publication that was widely acclaimed in Jewish circles and appeared in 1936: The Occurrence and Fate of the Illegitimate Among the Jews in Germany. Preliminary experience of a survey . Bertha Pappenheim thanked her with the following words:

Dear Miss Dr. Mende! Hannah Karminski must have already told you how good and beautiful I found your work on illegitimate people when she read it to me .

September 1942 Käthe Mende was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp . In August 1945 she was able to return to Berlin and immediately took on leading tasks within social work. She was u. a. Managing Director of the Working Group for Free and Public Welfare in the American Sector and helped found a neighborhood home in Berlin-Schöneberg . She was also a member of the German Association for Juvenile Courts and Judicial Aids. V.

Works

• Young women in Munich at home and at work, based on a survey, Stuttgart 1912
• Munich young women shopkeepers. With an outline of the protective legislation and technical training for saleswomen, as well as a statistical appendix: The saleswoman in the German goods trade, Stuttgart / Berlin 1912
• The Occurrence and Fate of the Illegitimate Among the Jews in Germany. Preliminary results of a survey, Frankfurt 1936
• Three hundred cases of juvenile court assistance in Berlin-Neukölln 1948 and 1953, Hamburg 1958

literature

• Doris Bonk: Käthe Mende and her contribution to Jewish social work , Munich 2003
• Beate Bussiek: Mende, Käthe , in: Hugo Maier (Ed.): Who's Who of Social Work . Freiburg: Lambertus, 1998 ISBN 3-7841-1036-3 , pp. 390f.
• Mende, Käthe , in: Joseph Walk (ed.): Short biographies on the history of the Jews 1918–1945 . Munich: Saur, 1988, ISBN 3-598-10477-4 , p. 262

Individual evidence

1. ↑ cit. n.Bonk 2002, p. 19
2. ↑ cit. n.Bonk 2003, p. 87