Children's rest home of the Zion Lodge UOBB

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The children's rest home of the Zion Lodge UOBB was a Jewish charity on Norderney , which was primarily intended to benefit children from economically weaker circles. The facility was administered by the lodge in Hanover and was therefore called the children's rest home UOBB Zion-Lodge XV in full . No. 360 Hanover .

The Hanoverian Zion Lodge

The unusual name of the facility is explained by the affiliation to the Jewish lodge B'nai B'rith (or Bnai Brith ).

Members of the Hanover Jewish community founded the UOBB Zion-Lodge XV on March 14, 1886 . No. 360 . The lodge belonged to the 8th district of the Grand Lodge Berlin of the independent order B'nai B'rith . As in other cases, the purpose of the lodge was to promote charity, spiritual development and sociability.

Around 1900, the Zion Lodge in Hanover supported the establishment of the girls' house in the Israelitische-Erziehungs-Anstalt zu Ahlem , and during the First World War, extensive donations were made to equip a hospital train.

The establishment of a children's home on Norderney

Around 1900 there were various considerations within the Grand Lodge for Germany about the establishment of a children's asylum on the North Sea, and at the same time the Zion Lodge in Hanover had already founded a committee for the care of children in need of health care and care, which was already taking health care stays during the summer months had organized. The long-term goal was to set up an own lake hospice. In April 1902 the lodge brother and physician Leo Catzenstein gave a lecture at the Northwest German Lodge Day in Hanover about the "establishment of a children's sanatorium on the North Sea". At a lodge delegate meeting in February 1910 in the rooms of the Hanover Lodge, the physician Dr. Heinrich Strauss, at the same time also President of the Zion Lodge, once again talked about lake hospices and children's sanctuaries and then also came to talk about the plans of the Zion Lodge. This intended to set up a hospice with 50-60 beds on Norderney in the medium term, which should be operated during the four summer months. They wanted to start in 1910 with a rented house with space for 20 children. In fact, it was possible to rent a small villa on Norderney with space for 25 children near the beach and in close proximity to what is probably the most famous lake hospice of the time, the Kaiserin Friedrich lake hospital . The local spa doctor could be won over to provide medical care. The success of the first summer, "the successful attempt [..] to let Jewish children in their own home partake of the blessings of their stay at the North Sea", was so overwhelming that the initiators decided to buy the rented house, a neighboring property and to buy an extension. On July 9, 1911 the inauguration of the children's recreation home UOBB Zion-Lodge XV took place. No. 360 Hanover takes place, which according to the will of its initiators "should not only be a rest home for the Zion Lodge, but a sea hospice for the entire 8th district, which should be open to all lodges in the 8th district to accommodate their wards".

The children's home in the 1920s

The early outbreak of the First World War led to the closure of the home, which could only be reopened on June 15, 1919. Two years later, the function was expanded: the home became a training facility for young women. For this purpose, another neighboring villa was acquired, which was then named Ottohaus . It had the purpose of "giving school-leaving young girls practical and theoretical training in the things that are necessary for a modern housewife and mother". 10 girls between the ages of 16 and 19 were admitted in 1921, preferably daughters of lodge brothers, and received an education “1. in nursing and educational work with children, 2. in the household, 3. in cooking and working in the large kitchen. In addition to handicraft lessons, the girls also received theoretical instruction in a wide variety of subjects. "

As early as 1920, Gertrud Urlaub took over the management of the facility, which in the following years, in addition to its management function, also ran a kind of dual training for itself.

Winter operation was also introduced in 1924, for which central heating first had to be installed. The money for this came from the Central Welfare Office of the Jews in Germany , which in return had stipulated the right to train 12 young girls in the Ottohaus in the winter months as young workers for care work in the Jewish community in Berlin and elsewhere.

In 1927 the home was expanded again. New day and accommodation rooms are added as well as a bathing establishment for cold and warm sea and fresh water baths. Year-round operation is now ensured. The children's home advertises with a ritual kitchen, its baths, an artificial sunlamp and lessons by a state-certified teacher, which ensures that the children do not suffer any disadvantages at school as a result of the spa stay. The children's home developed into an important training facility for kindergarten teachers and youth leaders. It cooperated with well-known training centers in Berlin. These included:

After completing their training, many graduates of these institutions returned to the Zion Lodge's children's recreation home to work as kindergarten teachers, after-school teachers or youth leaders. In the mid to late 1920s, around 450 children a year had the opportunity to spend four to six weeks on cure in the children's home. A large number of them came from poor families and stayed on vacations or at greatly reduced costs.

The 1930s

On February 1, 1931, the contractual relationship between Gertrude Urlaub and the children's rest home of the Zion Lodge UOBB ended. She parted by amicable agreement and agreed to continue helping the home if necessary. A few months later, in April 1931, she opened her own facility near Potsdam, the Caputh Jewish children's and rural school home .

Many employees in Caputh had previously worked in the children's rest home of the Zion Lodge UOBB on Norderney. In April 1933, those in charge of the Zion Lodge could not yet foresee how the situation for the children's home would develop. As a precaution, however, the employment relationships have already been terminated. However, the home was reopened in July 1933 with little occupancy. In August 1933, the Zion Lodge learned that the Norderney congregation had passed a resolution that Jews were no longer welcome in Norderney. However, the mayor assured that the children who were still in the home would not have to expect harassment, but that further Jewish spa guests were not welcome. At the beginning of 1934 the bathing administration declared Norderney to be Jew-free. After that, the lodge saw no more possibility of continuing the operation of the home and looked for ways to sell the Norderneyer property. An original asking price of RM 150,000 soon turned out to be unrealistic, so that they were finally ready to accept a sales price of RM 70,000. But there was no deal, which is why the lodge decided to lease the home for one year, from April 1, 1936 to March 31, 1937. At the end of 1936, an agreement was reached with the tenant, the “German Recreational Home for Children and Young People eV”. RM 63,000 was agreed as the selling price, of which RM 25,000 was immediately transferred as a deposit. The remaining RM 38,000 was entered in the land register as a residual claim. In the notarial deed of sale dated April 7, 1937, the unit value for the property to be sold was determined to be RM 98,900.

Reparation

Since 1949, the B'nai B'rith, as the legal successor to the Zion Lodge , has been pursuing reparation proceedings and demanding that the land and buildings be transferred back to Norderney. The Jewish Trust Corporation got involved in the proceedings in 1956 and, through a ruling by the Chamber of Reparation at the Osnabrück District Court, achieved that the legal successors of the association “German Recreational Homes for Children and Young People eV” were obliged to pay the refund. The new owner was the Jewish Trust Corporation for Germany in London, which sold the property in 1958 to a Catholic youth institution of the diocese of Münster. Today the house operates as Haus Thomas More in Benekestrasse on Norderney.

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Unless other sources are named, the following is Ingrid Pauluhn's book Ingeborg Pauluhn: Jüdische Migrantinnen und Migranten ... , here: Ingeborg Pauluhn, p. 39.
  2. ↑ Ingeborg Pauluhn: Jüdische Migrantinnen und Migranten , p. 39
  3. ↑ Ingeborg Pauluhn: Jüdische Migrantinnen und Migranten , p. 44
  4. ↑ Ingeborg Pauluhn: Jüdische Migrantinnen und Migranten , p. 42
  5. ↑ Ingeborg Pauluhn: Jüdische Migrantinnen und Migranten , p. 43
  6. ↑ Ingeborg Pauluhn: Jüdische Migrantinnen und Migranten , pp. 43–48
  7. ↑ Ingeborg Pauluhn: Jüdische Migrantinnen und Migranten , pp. 51–52
  8. ^ Ingeborg Pauluhn: Jüdische Migrantinnen und Migranten , p. 55
  9. ↑ Ingeborg Pauluhn: Jüdische Migrantinnen und Migranten , p. 56
  10. ↑ Ingeborg Pauluhn: Jüdische Migrantinnen und Migranten , pp. 253-259
  11. ↑ Ingeborg Pauluhn: Jüdische Migrantinnen und Migranten , pp. 259–263
  12. ^ City of Norderney / City Archives and Homepage of the Thomas More Clinic