Luise von Bodelschwingh

Luise von Bodelschwingh, née von Ledebur (* 1868 at Crollage Castle in the Minden-Lübbecke district ; † 1956 ) worked at the side of her husband Wilhelm von Bodelschwingh and after his death in the v. Bodelschwingh Foundation Bethel .

biography

family

Luise was the daughter of Friedrich August Justus Albrecht von Ledebur and Elisabeth Wilhelmine Amolie Caroline Marie von Ledebur, born Freiin von der Recke - Obernfelde and had eleven siblings, including Julia , Bertha, Else, Adelheid, Agnes, Helmine, Marie, Carl, Wilhelm and Albrecht von Ledebur. In 1876 her mother died of puerperal fever .

Education, profession and marriage

Bodelschwingh studied painting, with copying being her strength. In 1897 she married Wilhelm von Bodelschwingh , the son of Friedrich von Bodelschwingh the Elder and his wife Ida von Bodelschwingh , née von Bodelschwingh , whom she had met while painting in Bethel. Friedrich von Bodelschwingh, in whose successor Wilhelm became head of the Bethel deaconess mother house Sarepta, was also known as "Father Bodelschwingh" because, as director of the Bethel establishment, he expanded it into the largest institution of the Inner Mission. Wilhelm's job as the head of the institution was to visit the more than 1000 deaconesses who were mostly employed in hospitals throughout Germany and in other parts of Europe, to advise them and to provide pastoral care. This required long rail journeys, so that many of the normally verbal conversations between married couples are reflected in the correspondence.

The couple had four children, of whom the eldest daughter Elisabeth died at the age of 12. Of the other children Friedrich , Ernst and Margarete, Friedrich also became pastor and in 1946 took over the management of Bethel. This happened after his uncle Friedrich von Bodelschwingh the Younger , Wilhelm's brother, died childless. He had run the Bethel Institutes during the National Socialist era and was proclaimed the first Reich Bishop in 1933 , but at the end of the National Socialists' work he resigned after just one month.

Luise von Bodelschwingh continued to live and work in Bethel after her husband died in 1921. Especially in the war years she got involved with health and care facilities.

swell

Estate of Luise von Bodelschwingh, Landesarchiv NRW, Westphalia department