Austrian friends of children

The title of this article is ambiguous. On the German organization founded by the SPD in the Weimar Republic and banned again by the National Socialists, see Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft der Kinderfreunde .

Austrian Federal Organization for Children's Friends
purpose	Representing the interests of children and families
Chair:	Christian Oxonitsch (since 2011)
Establishment date:	1908
Number of members:	97,000
Seat :	Vienna
Website:	www.kinderfreunde.at

The Austrian Federal Organization for Children's Friends is an Austrian interest group for children and families. The association was founded in 1908 on a private initiative in Graz , 1917 at the Reich level and in 1921 incorporated into the Social Democratic Party. Today it is a preliminary organization of the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ).

history

An initiative of the father of the family, carpenter and later journalist Anton Afritsch , who initially spent his free time with his own children in the Grazer Volksgarten , which was near his apartment, found so much interest within a short time that the following year, on February 23 1908, around 50 parents founded the “Workers' Association Kinderfreunde”.

"The association is a non-political one and has the task of promoting the mental and physical well-being of the children." (§ 2 of the association statute). Ellen Key's Century of the Child (German translation 1902) saw Afritsch as a “milestone”.

Afritsch organized free fairy tale and photo evenings and sporting activities, hikes in the surrounding area and soon also holiday camps that would have been unaffordable for proletarian families on their own. The first holiday campaign in 1909 was a four-day hike with thirty children on the Hochlantsch (around 2 × 40 km walk!). The humanist Afritsch tried very hard to keep the action free from party interests, so neither to prefer socialist songs to folk songs or socialist to children's books, nor to take part in May marches with the children.

On February 14, 1910, another local group was founded in Vienna-Floridsdorf. In the same year, the people of Graz ran their first holiday colony (Hörgras near Gratwein, 60 children). The following year the Lower Austria Regional Association was founded, and in 1912 the Villach branch (Carinthia).

In 1913 there was the first holiday campaign in Gratkorn together with the "Association to Fight Tuberculosis in Styria". Further local groups emerged in Lower Austria, Carinthia, Salzburg, Bohemia, Moravia and Hungary.

On February 25, 1917, the “Alpine Workers' Association Kinderfreunde” merged with the “Children’s Workers Association for Lower Austria” to form the “Reichsverein Kinderfreunde”. Reichsrat Max Winter became chairman, and Afritsch was his deputy. In 1918 the association was able to acquire the Steinbergschlössl near Graz and expand it into the children's friends' first own holiday home.

After the proclamation of the Republic Max Winter requisitioned the summer of 1919 parts of the main building of Schönbrunn Palace for the children's friends, namely about 2/3 of the second floor and located on the 3rd floor rooms, a total of 84. There was on 12 November 1919, the Schoenbrunn Educational school founded, the association's private educational school; It was directed by Otto Felix Kanitz . In the same year a children's home was opened (management: Anton Tesarek ), soon afterwards a library and the Reichsbücherstelle, from which the Jungbrunnen publishing house emerged in 1923 .

In 1920 Max Winter invented the Kinderheller campaign, the voluntary self- taxation of one percent (one penny per wage crown ), which was soon approved and levied by the unions. With this contribution it was also possible to finance larger holiday campaigns. The Kinderheller dried up after the currency changeover, with the onset of the global economic crisis and increasing unemployment.

In 1921 the club was incorporated into the party organization. At the beginning of the 1920s there were already more than 55,000 members in 182 local groups. Such groups were also founded in the German Reich and in 1923 came together to form the umbrella organization Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft der Kinderfreunde , which, like the Red Falcon Movement for 12 to 15 year olds founded in 1925 , was heavily influenced by Austria.

Criticism of church institutions for young people in which corporal punishment was still common, coeducation and the weekend excursions that prevented attending the Sunday service, however, aroused displeasure in church circles in the wake of the Glöckel decree of 1919. In particular, the shepherd's letter of the Austrian bishops from 1922 found hard words:

“On the other hand, we urgently warn you against letting your children take part in events organized by certain associations that are specifically aiming to alienate children more and more from religion and church […]. These associations organize joint excursions, gymnastics exercises and dances by boys and girls and thus cause them the greatest moral dangers. "

In 1926 the Franciscan Cyrill Fischer prefixed his pamphlet Socialist Education with the biblical phrase “the divine childhood friend” from Mt. 18: 4–6 “... But whoever gives a nuisance to one of these little ones who believe in me would be better off Millstone hung around his neck and he sunk into the depths of the sea. ” Max Winter countered by successfully collecting donations and thus founding millstone libraries.

In 1934 , the labor movement and thus also the Kinderfreunde were banned by decree and the entire property was confiscated. At that time, the organization had around 100,000 members and looked after around 122,000 children and another 15,000 Red Falcons in 475 homes. Numerous functionaries continued their work illegally; Even the officially ordered confiscation could to a large extent be undermined by civil courage: Books, sports equipment and other materials such as tent equipment were declared as private loans, thus withdrawn from the official stock and later used "privately".

The Children's Friends were re-established in 1945 with the participation of Theodor Körner , Paul Speiser and Josef Holaubek . As early as 1946, the association had 36,000 members in 286 local groups and 76 homes, and from that year the “Sweden feed-out” and new holiday camps were organized.

In 1958, on the 50th anniversary of the founding of Steinbergschlössl near Graz, the first children's village, the “Anton Afritsch Children's Village”, was opened.

Structure of child friends

At the lowest level, the child friends are in local groups, i. H. in a basic spatial structure within a city, a municipality or even just a village. Since the local groups are independent associations, the members of these local groups regularly elect a group chairman and a board of directors. If there are several local groups in political districts, which mostly correspond to the administrative districts of the individual Austrian federal states, they can also constitute themselves as a district organization and elect a district chairman and a district board.

At the level above there are nine regional organizations that are organized according to the nine Austrian federal states. The respective state chairperson as well as the other members of the respective state executive committee are elected at regular intervals at a state conference. At this state conference, the delegates, who send all local groups and district organizations to the state conference according to their number of members, also discuss and decide on the political positions, guidelines and objectives of the state organization.

The federal organization of Kinderfreunde Austria exists above the national organizations. Its board of directors is also elected at national conferences at regular intervals. The delegates to this conference are sent by the national organizations due to their membership. The current federal chairman of Kinderfreunde Austria is Vienna City Councilor Christian Oxonitsch.

Today's work of the child friends

Children's friends table at Georg-Schmiedel-Hof in Vienna

The Kinderfreunde see themselves as representing the interests of children and families. The fundamental social democratic values ​​of freedom, equality, justice and solidarity, renunciation of violence and tolerance are essential.

Actions against violence and against the glorification of violence are therefore an integral part of media work, such as the “No murder on screen” campaign against violent computer games; Actions against xenophobia and racism also play an important role.

A current campaign by the Kinderfreunde is called “Papa aktiv” and advocates a father's month of protection (see parental leave ).

Most of the child friend work takes place in the local groups on a voluntary basis. Depending on the local group, there are regular meetings in the form of home hours, public events and holiday camps.

Numerous groups of children's friends also run kindergartens and after-school care centers . The Kinderfreunde Vienna serve as one of the largest nonprofit provider of child care facilities around 10,000 children.

The national organizations also offer children's holiday campaigns for non-members. Every year, the Kinderfreunde enable thousands of children between the ages of 5 and 15 to spend their holidays at home and abroad.

As a service for local and district groups, the national organizations also offer play buses and, in some cases, puppet theater stages. The Spielbus and Puppet Theater can also be booked for events by external persons and organizations.

literature

a) Festschrift

• Josef Ackerl, Bernd Dobesberger, Gernot Rammer (Ed.): Pictures of friendship. 100 years of childhood friends 1908–2008. Vienna, Linz 2008.

b) monographs

• Zyrill Fischer OFM (critical):
  • Socialist education, Typographische Anstalt publishing house, Vienna 1926.
  • Child friends and Red Falcons, Vienna 1929.
  • The Child Friends Movement in Germany, Mönchen-Gladbach 1929.
  • The socialist child friends in Germany, Kevelaer 1930.
• Konrad Algermissen (critical):
  • Freethinking, workers and pastoral care, M. Gladbach 1929 (3rd and 4th, greatly increased edition, Hanover 1930).
• Otto Felix Kanitz:
  • Fighters of the future, Vienna 1929.
  • The proletarian child in civil society, Jena 1925.
• Kurt Löwenstein: The child as a carrier of the developing society, Vienna undated (1924; 2nd edition 1927/28).
• Anton Tesarek, Die Österreichischen Kinderfreunde and Roten Falken 1908 to 1958, Jungbrunnen Verlag, Vienna 1958.
• Helmut Uitz, Die Österreichischen Kinderfreunde und Roten Falken 1908 to 1938 […], Geyer Edition Vienna-Salzburg 1975 (dissertation, more than 700 pages).
• Jakob Bindel (Ed.): 75 years of childhood friends: 1908–1983 Sketches, memories, reports, outlooks. Jungbrunnen publishing house, Vienna-Munich 1983. ISBN 3-7026-5536-0

c) Articles

• Zyrill Fischer OFM (critical):
  • Socialist children's and schoolchildren's republics in Germany, in: Schönere Zukunft 5 (1929/30), 291–293, 319–321, 343–344.
  • Socialist “child friends” and the red falcon movement in Austria, in: Schönere Zukunft 5 (1929/30), 470–471.
  • Socialist tent camps and children's republics, in: Schönere Zukunft 5 (1929/30), 493–494.
  • Fundamental to the spiritual world of the socialist children's republics, in: Schönere Zukunft 5 (1929/30), 515-516 and 542-544.
• Konrad Algermissen (critical):
  • Spirit and history of the child friends movement, in: Bonner Zeitschrift für Theologie und Seelsorge 7 (1930), 32–52.
  • The practical work of the child friends movement and our tasks and countermeasures, in: Bonner Zeitschrift für Theologie und Seelsorge 7 (1930), 127–154.
• Viktor Fadrus, The Child Friends Movement in Austria and Germany, in: Die Erziehungs 5 ​​(1930), 238–249 and 294–301.

Remarks

1. ↑ Change of leadership at Kinderfreunde
2. ↑ Founding of an association in Graz; 1917 Reich Association
3. ↑ Own information
4. ↑ According to Afritsch in: The fight. Social Democratic Monthly of November 1, 1909, quoted in Bindel (Ed.): 75 Years Child Friends , 1983: p. 59 and the timetable there: p. 440. Later, February 26th is often mentioned.
5. ↑ Bindel (Ed.): 75 Jahre Kinderfreunde , 1983: p. 58.
6. ↑ Report by Josef Afritsch, quoted in Bindel (Ed.): 75 Jahre Kinderfreunde , 1983: p. 15.
7. ↑ A. Afritsch in Der Kampf. Social Democratic Monthly Publication of November 1, 1909, quoted in Bendel (Ed.): 75 Jahre Kinderfreunde , 1983: p. 61. Afritsch continues: "It would be nice if something could happen in other places too ..." (p. 62 f.).
8. ↑ Bindel (Ed.): 75 Years of Child Friends , 1983: p. 74.
9. ↑ Bindel (Ed.): 75 Years of Child Friends , 1983: Timeline from p. 440.
10. ↑ Half a million schillings had already been collected in 1927 and 119 millstone libraries were set up, soon afterwards there were 446: Bindel (Ed.): 75 Jahre Kinderfreunde , 1983: p. 97.
11. ↑ Bindel (Ed.): 75 Years of Child Friends , 1983.

Web links

Commons : Österreichische Kinderfreunde  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Child friends Austria