Karl Hugo Breuer

Karl Hugo Breuer (born July 21, 1924 in Porz am Rhein ; † April 22, 2009 in Bergisch Gladbach ) was a German social worker , pioneer of youth social work and director of the Heimstatt movement.

Life and education

Karl Hugo Breuer was born as the eldest son of the married couple Hugo Breuer and Luise, geb. Hackenbrocich, born in Porz am Rhein. Together with his two years younger brother Gerd, he grew up in a convinced Catholic family. Karl Hugo attended high school in Cologne-Deutz , where he passed his matriculation examination in 1942. From 1942 to 1945 he did labor and military service. After the Second World War he began studying history and political science, linguistics and literature, philosophy and education at the Universities of Cologne and Bonn . He completed his studies with a doctorate on The Young Marx. His path to communism from Theodor Schieder .

Act

In 1951 Karl Hugo Breuer began his career as state secretary and managing director of the Catholic Heimstatt Movement. Since it was founded in 1949, it has been serving the home and re-rooting of homeless, parentless and unemployed young people, a large number of whom had been expelled or fled from the eastern German territories and the former Soviet occupation zone . Hardly ever in German history has there been a time with such a mass of youth hardship as in the immediate post-war period. The Heimstatt movement has responded to this youth emergency in cooperation with youth welfare, youth associations and youth policy, employers' associations and trade unions by building up and offering youth-friendly living and providing vocational training and work that secures a livelihood. She called on the Catholic Youth and Caritas to play an active part in the crucial task of social and spiritual integration of youth. From then on, Karl Hugo Breuer devoted his entire life to the threatened and socially impaired youth, and during the early years of the Heimstatt movement he did energetic and groundbreaking development work. This is evidenced by his early publications in the newly created magazine Die Heimstatt, created in 1953 and edited by Cathedral Vicar Friedrich Eink, Diocesan President Paul Fillbrandt and Karl Hugo Breuer . This “specialist body of the Catholic Heimstatt Movement” did not see itself solely as an information sheet for the emerging organizations of youth social work in North Rhine-Westphalia, but also saw extracurricular education as a core task. Breuer helped found the Federal Association for Catholic Youth Social Work in 1954. In the same year, Karl Hugo Breuer married Mechtild Menzen. The marriage had six children, three sons and three daughters.

In 1957 Karl Hugo Breuer wrote the standard work for youth social work, which was published in four editions. Breuer understood youth social work as “job-related youth welfare” that builds bridges to the companies, to employment administration, to the vocational school system and to professional organizations. He saw them as an independent field of activity that was necessary in addition to youth welfare, youth care and youth protection (4th edition 1965, 62/63). It is realized in youth development services, youth development organizations, youth social and youth community organizations and youth residences. Breuer saw youth social work, which began to establish itself in the Federal Republic of Germany in 1950, as specific help for young people who were disadvantaged in their career opportunities. Karl Hugo Breuer has written other well-readable, well-founded and up-to-date books, practice-related essays and lexicon articles on various fields of action in youth social work, including the integration of young people who have been resettled and foreign young people. He was particularly interested in educational and professional development opportunities in youth residences, of which there were 634 in North Rhine-Westphalia in 1964 alone. He was the initiator, publisher and editor of the magazine Die Heimstatt (46 volumes up to 1998), the yearbook for youth social work (19 volumes 1980–1998), the series of issues Forum youth social work (24 issues from 1986 to 1997) and other series on youth social work and extracurricular education.

During this intensive publication activity it was helpful that he rose professionally and that his influence in North Rhine-Westphalia and in the Federal Republic of Germany steadily increased. On April 12, 1973 he became director and 2nd chairman of the headquarters of the Catholic Heimstatt Movement, which was later renamed the Catholic Youth Social Work Working Group in North Rhine-Westphalia. On February 25, 1991 he became its first chairman. In April 1958 he was co-founder and since then chairman of the Johann Michael Sailer Institute in Cologne, which was named after the great theologian and educator of the Enlightenment period. In 1960 Breuer also became a founding member of the first undergraduate college for extracurricular education, the Altenberg youth leaders' seminar. In Altenberg, he also organized work weeks for employees in youth social work facilities in North Rhine-Westphalia for many years. In these functions, Breuer was stimulating and promoting the socio-pedagogical education and training system. When social pedagogy and social work were raised to technical college level in 1971, he became a member of the administrative board of the Catholic University of Applied Sciences in North Rhine-Westphalia. At the federal level, he was deputy chairman of the Federal Association for Catholic Youth Social Work from 1988-1996.

As a result of his negotiating skills, his broad-minded personality and his socio-political commitment, his cooperation was also in demand in non-church and cross-agency organizations. Since 1951 he has been a member of the plenary assembly, the management conference and various committees of the Heimstatthilfe working group in North Rhine-Westphalia, which was renamed the North Rhine-Westphalia youth social work group in 1991. On January 15, 1970 he became the first and executive chairman of this state working group, which is important in terms of youth policy, and held this position for several decades. From 1951 to 1967 he was a member of the state board of trustees for youth hostel issues and in this capacity advised the North Rhine-Westphalian state government on legislative projects and implementation. Since 1965 he was a member of the board of directors of the Federal Association for Youth Development, which later became the Federal Association for Youth Social Work, of which he became 2nd chairman in 1985, and then in 1987 he became 1st chairman for three years. In his association work, he influenced the preparation and development of the Child and Youth Welfare Act of 1990 through public statements and a wide variety of literature.

On June 19, 1998, Karl Hugo Breuer was officially bid farewell as director of the headquarters of the Catholic Youth Social Work Working Group with a festival academy. Even after retiring from active employment, he remained a sought-after advisor who was able to give valuable advice to younger employees in the various fields of youth social work from his decades of experience. From his own memory and with the help of his extensive archive material, he wrote articles on the history of youth social work. In 2007 he presented the specialist public with the collection of Contributions to the History of Catholic Youth Social Work, which is indispensable for research into youth social work after the Second World War and is also valuable for the history of the Rhenish church. He has made a decisive contribution to the design, professionalization and qualification of youth social work and social work in general.

Honors

Karl Hugo Breuer has received numerous honors. Pope John Paul II appointed him Commander of the Order of Gregory because of his services . He was the recipient of the gold medal and the Lorenz-Werthmann-Medal of the German Caritas Association, the Maternus plaque of the Archbishop of Cologne and other awards. Several obituaries u. a. of the Minister for Generations, Family, Women and Integration of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, the BAG Catholic Youth Social Work, the LAG Youth Social Work NRW, the Archdiocese of Cologne honored him as Nestor and pioneer of Catholic youth social work in Germany.

Fonts (selection)

• The young Marx. His way to communism (= Diss. Phil.). Cologne 1954
• Youth social work - new field of youth welfare . In: Die Heimstatt, Vol. 4 (1956), pp. 513-526.
• Youth social work (= Catholic youth social work, series of publications by the "Heimstatt"; Vol. 4). 1st edition Cologne 1957, 2nd edition 1958, 3rd edition 1961, 4th edition 1965.
• Youth work as a career in life . In: Die Heimstatt, Vol. 8 (1960), pp. 189-193, 274-278, 352-358.
• Home - where to? A contribution to the present and future of youth residences (= Catholic youth social work, series of publications by the “Heimstatt”; Vol. 9), Cologne 1961, 2nd considerably increased edition 1965; 3rd completely renewed edition 1970.
• Partnership in home work . In: Die Heimstatt, Vol. 12 (1964), pp. 158–170.
• Extra-curricular education . Cologne 1965;
• Home manager: Outlines of a job description (= Catholic youth social work, series of publications of the "Heimstatt"; Vol. 14). Cologne 1966.
• Partnership in the home (= Catholic youth social work, publication series of the "Heimstatt"; Vol. 15). Cologne 1967.
• Youth residences in transition . In: Die Heimstatt, vol. 16 (1968), pp. 336–346.
• Home planning using the example of a youth hostel (= Catholic youth social work, publication series of the "Heimstatt"; Vol. 17). Cologne 1969.
• Youth social work in transition . In: Die Heimstatt, vol. 19 (1971), pp. 124-139.
• Youth unemployment - a challenge for youth welfare . In: Die Heimstatt, Vol. 34 (1986), pp. 36-48.
• Four decades of youth social work - a review , In: Karl Hugo Breuer (Ed.), Yearbook for Youth Social Work, Vol. X, Cologne 1989, pp. 149–162.
• Youth social work in the period after the Second World War (1945-1965) . In: Paul Fülbier / Richard Münchmeier (eds.), Handbook for youth social work. History, basics, concepts, fields of action, organization. Vol. 1. Münster 2001, pp. 67-83.
• Contributions to the history of Catholic youth social work. Norderstedt 2007.

literature

• Wolfgang Bisler / Dieter Herbertz: Karl Hugo Breuer. A contemporary witness of lived youth social work says goodbye . In: Jugendwohl, Vol. 79 (1998), pp. 371–372.
• Christian Hampel: A pioneer of Catholic youth social work in Germany: Dr. Karl Hugo Breuer . In: jugendsozialarbeit aktuell, No. 83 (May 2009).
• Manfred Hermanns: On the death of Karl Hugo Breuer . In: Social Work. Volume 58 (2009). H. 6, p. 236.
• Manfred Hermanns: BREUER, Karl Hugo, pioneer and nestor of youth social work. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon, Vol. XXXIII. Nordhausen: Verlag Traugott Bautz 2012, Sp. 175–186.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Dr. Karl Hugo Breuer passed away . Heimstatt eV Bonn. April 22, 2009. Retrieved September 20, 2016.