Munich orphanage

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Munich orphanage, built by Hans Grässel , 1896/99 (photo: 1903)

Today's Munich orphanage was created from the amalgamation of three Munich orphanages , and has been sponsored by the Munich Orphanage Foundation since 1809. The facility pioneered home education in the 1950s .

Today's Munich orphanage is a modern child and youth welfare facility.

Beginnings

The beginnings of the orphanage in the city of Munich go back to the 17th century. In 1615, Elector Maximilian I had the court orphanage built for the orphans of court servants . 1625 was Civil Orphanage launched. This was followed in 1742 by the orphanage ob der Au . The children of these institutions had to work for themselves or beg for a living, the remainder was inevitably paid for by the court pay office . In 1809 the three institutions were combined. The city administration determined the orphanage to be the so-called depot orphanage or consignment orphanage , which was moved to Findlingsstraße in 1819. Since it was difficult to find suitable orphan carers, the house was handed over to the Order of the English Misses for care in 1861 :

Taking over the management of the institution meant a gain in prestige for the Order of the English Misses, which enabled him to expand its influence in the urban area. In the course of time, the Munich City Orphanage became a Catholic institution, non-Catholic children were not admitted to the institution .

The municipal orphanage finally moved to Neuhausen on October 7, 1899, in a building built in the style of old Bavarian baroque monasteries, located near the Nymphenburg Canal . 240 children were accepted. The management of the institution was given to an orphan carer and his wife. The educational line had a spiritual Inspector held, which ertheilte nebstbei religious instruction, and had to be applied for the measuring donated chapel . On December 22, 1899, Prince Regent Luitpold of Bavaria visited the facility.

The new house was an old school model of institutional education: girls and boys, dressed and coiffed in the same way, were strictly separated, dormitories with 40 beds and more were lined up, the pupils had to show their superiors, including all members of the order, honor, love and obedience . Only children who had lost their home were accepted, no neglected, illegitimate or less gifted children.

The orphanage was repeatedly given donations and foundations. One of the most generous donors was Simon von Eichthal . When the Emperor of Brazil, Peter I , married Amélie von Leuchtenberg on November 24, 1829 , the couple remembered the orphanage and its female pupils in a noble manner . In 1830, the high rulers established a foundation with a capital of 40,000 guilders, according to which four girls (two by lot, two determined by the administration of the Ducal House of Leuchtenberg ) should receive dowry amounts of 500 guilders each.

During the time of the Nazi dictatorship, the former director of the home, who was a member of the NSDAP, tried to withdraw the economic and educational management of the institution more and more from the influence of the Order of the English Misses. Finally, a service and administrative order issued in 1935 severely restricted the nuns' sphere of influence. They were only responsible for the housekeeping as well as the care work and care in the house, as well as the educational responsibility for the girls. The upbringing of the children was entirely subject to the National Socialist ideology. As a result, only well- mannered children of German and related blood were allowed to be admitted.

On July 11th and 13th, 1944, the orphanage was largely destroyed by bombing, except for the left wing, the boys' wing. Eleven religious and twenty passers-by who had sought protection there were killed. Home children were not among the victims because they had been evacuated to Bad Wiessee .

Reform of institutional education

In September 1945 Andreas Mehringer took over the management of the house (until 1969), which at the end of March 1946 moved from Bad Wiessee to the Bäckerwaldheim in Graefelfing, on the outskirts of Munich. In March and November 1948, the children and their carers were able to return to their usual place in Munich. Two donated barracks and the makeshift north wing of the destroyed house provided accommodation.

The new home manager took advantage of the ruin and dared to build a new building with several separate apartments on the site of the former institution building. He won over Charles Crodel to furnish the room, who contributed mosaic-clad columns and a ceramic wall with fable motifs. Here the previous education, which was characterized by discipline and order, should be a thing of the past. Andreas Mehringer deliberately refrained from a written home order, as, in his opinion, it is dangerous and kills the atmosphere . The new home manager postulated the following as essential elements of the reform of the previous institutional education :

  • Reduction of the group size
  • Mixed-age and gender-mixed groups (co-education)
  • family-like structures
  • independent groups
  • good staffing
  • a fixed reference person for the children (group mother)
  • Not only orphans are accepted, but also illegitimate, less gifted, stray and neglected children

The Munich orphanage with its family principle quickly advanced to become a model for home education in German-speaking countries and caused a sensation at the time. No less than the great educators Elisabeth Rotten , Hans Zulliger , Paul Moor and Alfred Nitschke were full of encouraging encouragement. But not only positive voices spoke up. The critical dissenting voices described Mehringer's concept of family education as extreme radicalism , an old dream that institutional educators have long dreamed . Some today see Mehringer's family-oriented home pedagogy as nothing more than an implementation of the NSV youth home concept , leaving out the racist components originally contained therein. This view is opposed to the deeper historical retrospect. For example, Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi , Johann Hinrich Wichern and Eva von Tiele-Winckler tried to create a family-oriented home education from their institutional education (Röper 1976, p. 241). Mehringer could also have orientated himself on these after 1945 .

The orphanage today

The concept of the post-war period turned out to be out of date at the latest by the end of the 1980s / beginning of the 1990s. A pedagogical, conceptual, organizational and economic modernization of the facility took place in a long-term process.

The orphanage in Munich , Waisenhausstrasse 20, is today a modern child and youth welfare facility with a remedial educational mandate. Children and young people who find themselves in difficult life situations and whose parents are temporarily or longer in a position to ensure their upbringing and care are accepted. According to its own information, the Munich orphanage has 134 places.

The Friends of Orphans Association has existed since 1949, and was founded by Andreas Mehringer under the name Association Friends of former Heimkinder eV .

criticism

Since around 2010, the allegations of former orphanage children who accuse the home of severe corporal punishment well into the 1970s have been increasing. In this regard, Rädlinger u. a .:

Home manager Bahr is described as reasonably balanced by all those questioned; he also struck, but 'it was worse in Mehringer's time'. In some alumni, however, the name of educator N. does not bring back good memories. You also associate him with violence against the children he cares for, as well as harassment and even assaults against interns ... Educator N. is accused of having raped young people and probably children ("child fucker"); ... Mehringer, this is also blamed by two people in a not entirely clear way

Literature (selection)

  • G (ustav) A (dolf) Horst:  The new orphanage in Munich. In:  Allgemeine Bauzeitung , year 1903, (LXVIII. Year), pp. 58–61. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / abzand G (ustav) A (dolf) Horst:  The new orphanage in Munich. In:  Allgemeine Bauzeitung , year 1903, (LXVIII. Year), pp. 20–26. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / abz.
  • Andreas Mehringer : Reform of the institution . In: Our youth . Volume 1.1949. Reinhardt, Munich / Basel 1949, ISSN  0342-5258 , pp. 12-17.
  • Friedrich Franz Röper: The orphaned child in the institution and home. A contribution to the historical development of foreign education . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1976, ISBN 3-525-31512-0 .
  • Ursula Göllner, Hannelore Buschner: Andreas Mehringer - A pedagogue in the home. Representation-analysis-criticism . Dortmund 1977. (Unpublished diploma thesis, archived in the Ida-Seele archive ).
  • Martin Sauer: Home education and the family principle . Critical texts on social work, social pedagogy, social problems. Luchterhand, Neuwied / Darmstadt 1979, ISBN 3-472-58042-9 .
  • Andreas Mehringer: Andreas Mehringer . In: Ludwig J. Pongratz (Hrsg.): Pedagogy in self-portrayals . Volume 4, Social Pedagogy. Meiner, Hamburg 1982, ISBN 3-7873-0520-3 , pp. 115-153.
  • Günther Baumann: The "exciting" story of the municipal orphanage in Neuhausen / Nymphenburg . Munich 1988. (Unpublished manuscript, archived in the Ida-Seele archive ).
  • Manfred Berger : "Use the chance of the ruin". The Munich orphanage . In: Angelika Baumann (Red.), City of Munich (Ed.): Munich post-war years. 1945… 1946… 1947… 1948… 1949… 1950… history competition 1995/96 . Reader on the history of everyday life in Munich. Buchendorfer-Verlag, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-927984-68-X , pp. 112-117.
  • Günther Baumann: The Munich orphanage. Chronicle 1899–1999 . Published by the social department of the City of Munich. Buchendorfer-Verlag, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-934036-04-X .
  • Carola Kuhlmann / Christian Schrapper: History of educational assistance from poor relief to assistance with upbringing . In: Vera Birtsch (Hrsg.), Klaus Münstermann (Hrsg.), Wolfgang Trede (Hrsg.): Handbuch Erziehungshilfe. Guide to training, practice and research . Votum-Verlag, Münster 2001, ISBN 3-933158-21-4 , pp. 282–328. 
  • Sylvia Binder: From the institution to a second home - the Munich orphanage . In: Neuhauser Werkstatt-Nachrichten. Historical magazine for Neuhausen, Nymphenburg, Gern and the surrounding area . Issue 14.2005. Geschichtswerkstatt Neuhausen , Munich 2005, ISSN  1436-5987 , pp. 11-16.
  • Daniela Zahner: Childcare in Bavaria in the first post-war decade, 1945-1955 / 56 . Miscellanea Bavarica Monacensia, Volume 180. Utz, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-8316-0627-7 , pp. 337-353.
  • Christine Rädlinger : "Christmas was always beautiful": The children's homes in the state capital of Munich from 1950 to 1975

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Zahner 2006, p. 338
  2. ↑ Baumann 1988, p. 15
  3. ↑ Göllner / Buschner 1977, p. 18
  4. ↑ Binder 2005, p. 14
  5. ↑ Berger 1997, p. 112
  6. ↑ Mehringer 1982, p. 136
  7. ↑ Mehringer 1949, p. 12 ff.
  8. ↑ cf. Sauer 1997, p. 87
  9. ↑ cf. Kuhlmann / Schapper 2001, p. 297 f u. Babic 2008, p. 70 ff.
  10. ↑ http://www.freunde-der-waisenkinder.de/
  11. ↑ cf. Rädlinger 1014, p. 92 ff.
  12. ↑ ibid., P. 94 f
  13. ↑ Table of contents online (PDF) .

Web links

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