Combination of special homes for psychodiagnostics and educational-psychological therapy

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The combination of special homes for psychodiagnostics and educational-psychological therapy was a closed youth welfare facility in the GDR . In it, children and adolescents of school age with behavioral problems were admitted to a home. The headquarters of the combine was in East Berlin .

structure

The 1964 following the restructuring of the children's homes of the GDR in normal and special homes on the initiative of Reiner Werner , who in Werftpfuhl an already since 1959 special home for mentally damaged children established around Berlin, created facility to care for severely maladjusted children and adolescents consisted of:

The homes, managed by Werner until 1971, had their own private schools, in which the inmates were taught in grades 1-4 and 5-8 of the POS or in the auxiliary school. The special homes combine was directly subordinate to the Ministry of Popular Education .

From today's point of view, these were closed facilities, even if they weren't called that at the time.

Goal setting

The aim of the combine was the diagnosis, assessment and therapy of children and adolescents with behavioral problems. This required a definition of the behavioral disorder and its demarcation from gravity. The GDR policy denied general milieu and poverty influences as well as hospitalization in the home education as causes for deviant behavior, so that the alleged causes were only family or organic deficits. At the same time, outdated diagnoses were retained (minimal cerebal dysfunction (MCD)). The ideologically influenced framework conditions created a difficult starting position for the work of the combine in theory.

Failure of the concept

The facilities did not do justice to the approach of observing, assessing and treating the minors in the homes. The curative educational care was by and large limited to calming down by administering psychotropic drugs . All of the homes in the Combine employ psychologists, although their work is focused on expert activities, and therapy was neglected here. Upbringing initially took place mainly through drill and punitive measures; in the mid-1970s these conditions were relaxed somewhat. Among other things, the hitherto customary marching movement during court breaks and the movement in single file groups were abolished. There was no special training for the educators and teachers. Because of the unattractiveness of the home locations and the far too long working hours, graduates with no professional experience were often hired. This led to the fact that educators who were overwhelmed by the special circumstances, including one of Reiner Werner's adoptive sons, gained respect through violence and criminal regime or were deliberately transferred to the combine as pedagogues known to be violent.

The general living conditions in the homes were sometimes very bad, which was reflected in poor nutrition (also in terms of quantity) or vermin infestation. Any absence from the home, as well as visits to relatives and letters, were strictly regulated.

The minors were released from home education before the end of school only in a few cases with a positive assessment by teachers, educators and psychologists. In most cases, after completing the 8th grade, they were transferred to a youth work center for training . With good school results, there was the possibility of further schooling in the Hohenleuben special children's home, which was the only special home in the GDR that taught grades 9-10 of the POS. The discharge to a special children's home or a youth work center showed, however, that the educational success of the upbringing in the special home was doubtful.

Decline

On November 3, 1988, the special homes combine was replaced by the "Pedagogical-Medical Center" (PMZ). This was also based in Berlin, and also cooperated with child and adolescent psychiatry, but also relied on outpatient forms of care in addition to inpatient care in the home. Immediately before reunification, the PMZ was dissolved on September 15, 1989. In the period that followed, the homes were transferred to private sponsorship and some of them still exist - with changed pedagogical concepts - to this day (2016, including Bollersdorf, Großer-Köris).

literature

  • Eberhard Mannschatz : 10 years Combine of the special homes of youth welfare in: Jugendhilfe Heft 10/1974
  • Andreas Methner: The combination of special homes for psychodiagnostics and educational-psychological therapy. Attempt at a historical reconstruction , Leipzig 2009.
  • Laura Hottenrott: "Red Star - we follow your trail. Re-education in the Combine of Special Homes for Psychodiagnostics and Educational-Psychological Therapy (1964–1987). Series of publications by the GJWH Torgau Memorial, Vol. 2, Ed .: Initiativgruppe GJWH Torgau, Torgau 2013.
  • Andreas Methner: "Diagnosis: disturbed behavior", Metropol-Verlag, Berlin 2015

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sachse, Christian: "The final touch", State Commissioner for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania for the records of the State Security Service (ed.), Schwerin 2010, p. 65
  2. ^ Methner, Andreas: "Diagnosis: behavior disturbed", Metropol-Verlag, Berlin 2015, p. 123 f. to the MCD; It should be noted that the diagnosis of MCD was a neurological construct that was widespread in the 1980s.
  3. ↑ Methner, Andreas: "Diagnosis: behavior disturbed", Metropol-Verlag, Berlin 2015, p. 185 f. at working hours
  4. ^ Methner, Andreas: "Diagnosis: behavior disturbed", Metropol-Verlag, Berlin 2015, p. 97 u. 103
  5. ↑ Methner, Andreas: "Diagnosis: behavior disturbed", Metropol-Verlag, Berlin 2015, p. 211 ff.

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