Magdalenenheim

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London Magdalene Chapel on Blackfriars Road. The "fallen women" sat behind a gauze screen in the middle of the gallery and listened to the sermon.

Magdalenenheim , Magdalenenhaus , Magdalenium , rescue house or home for fallen girls vaguely denotes correctional or reformatory institutions for prostitutes that are not necessarily denominationally run . A distinction must be made here

  • monasteries and ecclesiastical institutions that have existed since the Middle Ages and which, with reference to the legend of Maria Magdalena, were dedicated to the rehabilitation of repentant prostitutes ( Magdalenenkloster , Magdalenenstifte ),
  • philanthropic institutions ( Magdalen asylums , Magdalen hospitals ) emerging in Anglo-Saxon countries since the middle of the 18th century ,
  • ecclesiastical institutions emerging from around 1800, mainly in Ireland, often referred to as Magdalen Laundries (“Magdalene laundries”), as the former prostitutes there often had to work in laundries
  • Until the end of the 20th century in Germany , closed institutions for the welfare of the endangered, mostly run by the church, were often referred to as “homes for fallen girls ”.

Penitents in the monastery

In the Middle Ages, the order of the Magdalenerinnen , founded in 1224 , also known as "penitent women" or "penitent women", hence the "penitentiary monastery", according to the legend of the patron saint Maria Magdalena, was primarily dedicated to saving the souls of penitent prostitutes. There were a large number of monasteries of the order, especially in Central Europe, of which, however, many were secularized during the Reformation . One example is the Maria Maddalena delle Convertite monastery in Florence , which has existed since 1257 , where an asylum was established in 1330 where 100 to 200 women could find protection at the same time and where they were encouraged to live a moderate life and to repent. Such asylums are to be distinguished from the monasteries: a former prostitute could enter a Magdalenenkloster and become a nun, while an asylum (often run by an order) offered women in physical and mental distress (and this also included "fallen women") temporarily Protection and help.

In addition to the Magdalena, there were other orders and institutions of the church that were dedicated to the goal of converting prostitutes and leading them back on the right path, for example the Augustines de l'Ordre de established in France in the 1490s by Jean-Simon de Champigny la Pénitence de la Madeleine also known as Filles Rendues de Paris or Filles Pénitentes . Such mild forms of prostitution coexisted all over Europe with the practice of church parish courts to chastise prostitutes (for example by public flogging ), to expel them or to condemn them to long public penance, insofar as such a procedure could also serve to save souls, was also applicable that as a merciful act.

In the course of the Counter-Reformation in particular, numerous charitable institutions emerged in the Catholic countries, which were supposed to give asylum and help to women who were at risk or who had fallen. Tuscany was a center for the training of this type of institution, which in its structure should be groundbreaking for preservation, correction and correction institutions of the most varied kinds up to modern times . The Casa delle Malmaritate (“House of Badly Married Women”, founded in 1579) in Florence, for example, specifically dedicated itself to such “immoral” women who could not become nuns because they were married, and tried to encourage moral change through a system of financial incentives to motivate. Another example is Santa Maria Maddalena in Pistoia , founded in 1604 as a protective community for former prostitutes, which quickly developed into a convent .

As a result, throughout continental Europe in the 18th century there were a multitude of institutions with different names, different objectives and very different methods. There was also a broad spectrum as far as the inmates were concerned, as not only prostitutes were admitted, but also victims of rape , abused or destitute women, especially widows without support.

Magdalene movement

In contrast, there was nothing like this in England until the middle of the 18th century. The ecclesiastical courts had lost their penal power and the problem of prostitution had been tried alternately through tolerance (especially in London and the larger cities) or through harsh sanctions, one way or another without success.

Around 1700, alternative, educational approaches were formulated for the first time in England. Thomas Bray , founder of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel , said that one should set up “ Penitential Hospices” in which the 'immoral' women are under the 'care of some clever and virtuous matrons and some elderly and pious clergy "would in time" be converted to due fear of God and abhorrence of their shameful deeds ". Writer and philanthropist Robert Nelson (1656–1715) also described a house in which "through true Christian discipline" "young women [...] who want to let go of their wrong path" should be helped.

The institutions in Catholic, continental Europe had previously been viewed as evidence of papist immorality. Around 1750, instead of denouncing approaches to a practical improvement of a perceived problem as promoting prostitution or an indication of moral indifference, the lack of such facilities in England began to be viewed as a deficiency and a lag compared to Catholic Europe. The English traveler and philanthropist Jonas Hanway (1712–1786) said: "Although we consider ourselves far smarter than many other nations, we are many years behind them in this regard."

This was an expression of a changed consciousness, which meant that proposals for institutions for the moral improvement of prostitutes were no longer paper projects as at the beginning of the century, but were implemented now. Equity financing for philanthropic projects had already been implemented with great success ( London Foundling Hospital 1741). From the end of the 1750s, institutions for the reform of fallen women and for the protection of poor girls from seduction were established in rapid succession: in 1758 the Reverend Dr. William Dodd founded Magdalen House for repentant prostitutes and Lambeth House , for poor girls who were trained there as domestic servants or in another profession and were thus better protected from becoming prostitutes out of material need.

Dining room in Lambeth House . A middle-class family visits the uniformed orphans.

It is noteworthy that there is not a single clergyman among the founders of Magdalen and Lambeth House , which shows that the improvement of prostitutes was no longer a matter for a Christian church, but the project of an enlightened, wealthy and philanthropically minded bourgeoisie. What was particularly appealing was the idea that bad women should be turned into good women, that a kind of social alchemy should be practiced. With a visionary look , the blind John Fielding sees “miserable prostitutes, etc., who are transformed into modest, decent, happy women and useful house servants” and his magistrate colleague Saunders Welch wants an institution “through which these unfortunate fellow creatures can be saved from illness and hardship so that instead of being a nuisance to the public, they are useful to it ”. The utilitarian way of thinking becomes explicit in such utterances.

Both men drew up and published detailed plans for Magdalene homes in the late 1750s and began raising funds for their projects. More important was the involvement of men like Jonas Hanway and Robert Dingley , who were well-connected, able to mobilize the charity of the wealthy, and also had experience of founding and running stock-funded charities. Hanley and Dingley apparently succeeded in transforming their enthusiasm for the project, prostitutes who had been subjected to a wretched fate into happy women and mothers, "a work that was both creation and redemption". In terms of participation, the Magdalenenheim project was more successful than any other charitable institution of the 18th century. After the shares could be subscribed, more than 3000 pounds were collected within a few weeks, a sum that other institutions did not achieve in years. The Magdalen House in Prescot Street, Whitechapel was the first such facility in the kingdom to be opened on August 10, 1758. Initially designed for 50 residents, the number rose to over 130 in 1760 and when the construction of a new residential building on Blackfriars Road in Southwark began in 1769 according to the plans of Dingley (opened in 1772), there were more than 1,500 women by that time found refuge at Magdalen House . In 1767 the Magdalen Asylum opened in Dublin .

The inmates came voluntarily, they were not admitted, as was usually the case later, they came and went, sometimes several times. De Cunzo wrote of the women in the asylum of the Magdalen Society of Philadelphia : “They did not see themselves as guilty and miserable according to the image of society, they did not seek redemption, purification, or repentance in the asylum. They sought a respite and refuge from illness, from prison and poor house, unhappy family circumstances, violent men or a precarious economic situation. "

Magdalen Laundries

Magdalen laundry in Ireland, early 20th century.

history

The Magdalene movement in Ireland was also supported by the Catholic Church after the Catholic emancipation from 1829. In Ireland such houses were known as Magdalen laundries because the homes often operated laundries. It has been estimated that up to 30,000 women have been inmates of these institutions during their 150-year history.

The homes were transformed from short-term havens to facilities in which not only former prostitutes, but above all single mothers, including victims of rape, were held for an indefinite period of time. Home-born children were often given up for adoption by wealthy adopters, for example in the USA. Socially or psychologically problematic women were also admitted to these institutions at the request of family members or priests. In addition, there were women who - sentenced to suspended sentences for minor offenses - were passed on by the courts to the Magdalen laundries , in which, however, they only had to work a fixed time. The other inmates were subjected to the forced labor and oppression system for an indefinite period. For many of them, taking religious vows was a way out, but it often made them part of the system from which they had previously suffered. The living and working conditions were very harsh: inmates were mostly forced to do hard physical labor for no wages, often seven days a week. They had to obey afford for every small infraction repentance do and extreme punishments were partially subject.

Nevertheless, the Magdalen laundries were generally recognized social institutions, as they corresponded to the extremely conservative moral principles that prevailed in Ireland until the middle of the 20th century. The events in the homes were not made public and the role of the Catholic Church as the operator of a system of female forced labor was of course not called into question.

Magdalen laundry in England, early 20th century.

The Magdalen laundries disappeared with the change in attitudes towards sexual morality and self-determination or, as Frances Finnegan suspects, when they were no longer profitable: "Perhaps the advent of the washing machine was just as important a reason for the closure of these laundries as the change in morality." The last Magdalenenheim in Ireland closed on September 25, 1996.

scandal

Until the 1990s, the Magdalen Laundries and the conditions prevailing there received no public attention. It was not until 1993 when an order of nuns in Dublin sold part of its monastery to a real estate agent that the remains of 155 inmates who had died there were found on the site. The bodies were buried in unmarked graves on the property. Now they have been exhumed and, with the exception of one body, cremated and buried in a mass grave in the Glasnevin cemetery. This created a scandal in the local and national news.

In 1999, Mary Norris, Josephine McCarthy, and Mary-Jo McDonagh, all former asylum inmates, reported on their treatment in the homes. In 1998, British television station Channel 4 aired the documentary Sex in a Cold Climate , in which former inmates of Magdalena's homes testified to the sexual, psychological and physical abuse they suffered while isolated from the outside world for an indefinite period of time.

Similar cases of abuse have occurred in Ireland's industrial schools , homes for neglected, orphaned and abandoned children, both Catholic and state owned. Some of these homes were accused of child abuse by reporter Mary Raftery in a 1999 series on RTÉ .

In May 2009, the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse , one of the Irish government's investigations into cases of abuse in industrial schools , the Magdalene Catholic homes and the Bethany Home in Dublin , an analog Protestant institution , presented a 2,000-page investigation report, which became known as the Ryan report after the chairman of the commission and which in its tenor fully confirmed the allegations made against state and church institutions. Both former Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern and Cardinal Seán Brady , Primate of Ireland and Archbishop of Armagh, made several public apologies for decades of sexual abuse, among other things. The Magdalenenheims were, however, not directly affected by this investigation, as it was initially assumed that they - formally regarded as a private company - were not under the control of the government and that the government therefore had no responsibility for the events there. Thereupon Justice for Magdalenes was formed , a group of victims whose aim is to fight for justice and recognition of the suffering of the now over 70-year-old former inmates. However, there were initially no successes. Although there was a meeting between Seán Brady and representatives of the group in 2010, Brady declined to assume immediate responsibility, as the Magdalen Laundries in question were led by four religious orders that were not under the Irish Church.

These religious orders in turn refused to speak to Justice for Magdalenes . Numerous attempts to obtain a new state investigation were unsuccessful, including an initiative by the Irish Human Rights Commission in November 2010. In 2011, representatives of Justice for Magdalenes presented the case to the UN Committee against Torture .

Finally, another investigation was initiated. In early 2013, the Inter-Departmental Committee Investigating State Involvement with the Magdalen Laundries ("Interministerial Committee to Investigate State Involvement with the Magdalen Homes, " also known as the McAleese Committee after Chairman Martin McAleese ) concluded that the state was in the system the Magdalen Laundries had been entangled in a measure from which leave very well derive a responsibility.

The religious orders and the ten institutions they operate and examined as part of the McAleese Report are:

  • Sisters of Our Lady of Charity ( French Ordre de Notre-Dame de Charité , Latin Ordo Dominae Nostrae de Caritate , abbreviation ONDC): Founded in 1641 by Jean Eudes in Caen, France. In 1853, at the invitation of John Smith, pastor of St. Michael's and John's in Dublin, and with the approval of Cardinal Paul Cullen , the Order sent a group of nuns to Ireland to look after women in an asylum there.
    • St Mary's Refuge, High Park, Grace Park Road, Drumcondra, Dublin: founded in 1831 as Mary Magdalen Asylum in Sacred Heart Home, Drumcondra, founded in 1849 under the direction of John Smith as St. Mary's Asylum for Penitent Females on Strict Principles . Taken over by the Order in 1853. The High Park site was purchased in 1856 and the foundation stone for a new building was laid there in 1858. In 1991 the facility was closed and the site was sold in 1993, which subsequently attracted public attention due to the corpses found there and ultimately led to the discovery of the scandal.
    • Monastery of Our Lady of Charity, Sean McDermott Street, Dublin: 1821 by Brigid Burke Magdalen Retreat founded and run by laymen, 1873 at the instigation of Cardinal Cullen of the Sisters of Mercy adopted in 1887 with the approval of Archbishop William Joseph Walsh of the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity . 1996 closed as the last of the Magdalen Laundries in Ireland.
  • Sisters of Mercy (abbreviation RSM): Founded in 1831 by Catherine McAuley in Dublin.
    • Magdalen Asylum / Magdalen Home, Forster Street, Galway : Founded in 1824 by a Ms. Lynch and operated by the Association of Ladies of the Saint Magdalen Society . After the death of Ms. Lynch at her request from 1845 under the direction of the Sisters of Mercy . Closed in 1984.
    • St Patrick's Refuge, Crofton Road, Dún Laoghaire : Founded in 1790 on Bow Street in Dublin, from 1880 on Crofton Road, Dún Laoghaire. Closed in 1963.
  • Religious Sisters of Charity : Founded in Dublin in 1815 by Mary Aikenhead at the instigation of Daniel Murray, later Archbishop of Dublin.
    • St Mary Magdalen's, Floraville Road, Donnybrook, Dublin: Founded in 1796 by a Mr. Quarterman and Mrs. Brigid Burke as St Mary Magdalen's Care Center on Townsend Street. From 1798 to 1833 under the direction of a Mrs. Ryan. Taken over by the Sisters of Charity in 1833 and relocated to Donnybrook Castle in 1837. In 1992 the property was sold to a private company that operated a laundry there until 2006.
    • St Vincent's, St Mary's Road, Peacock Lane, Cork : founded in 1808 by Nicholas Therry. Taken over by the Sisters of Charity in 1845 .
  • Good Shepherd Sisters ( Latin: Congregatio Filiarum BMV a Caritate Boni Pastoris , abbreviation RGS): Founded in France in 1835 by Maria Euphrasia Pelletier . The Order also operated two Magdalen Laundries in Derry and Newry in Northern Ireland .
    • St Mary's, Cork Road, Waterford : Founded in 1842 by Rev. Timothy Dowley. Taken over by the Good Shepherd Sisters in 1858 . 1892–1894 construction of a new convent building. Closed in 1982.
    • St Mary's, New Ross, Wexford : founded by two lay people in 1860, taken over by the Good Shepherd Sisters in the same year . Closed in 1967.
    • St Mary's, Pennywell Road, Limerick : Founded in 1826 by Rev Fitzgibbon and Joanna Reddan. Taken over by the Good Shepherd Sisters in 1848 . In 1982 the property was sold to a private company.
    • St Mary's, Sunday's Well, Cork : Founded in 1870 by a Good Shepherd Sisters nun . Closed in 1977.

Ireland's Prime Minister Enda Kenny announced compensation in January 2013. The four Catholic religious orders that acted as operators of the Magdalen Laundries declared in July 2013 in a letter to the Irish Minister of Justice Alan Shatter that they were ready to deal with the matter further. The planned compensation fund, which has a volume of up to 58 million euros, will not be financially involved.

reception

Joni Mitchell dealt with the subject of "Magdalenenheim" in 1994 in her song The Magdalene Laundries on the album Turbulent Indigo .

The British-Irish drama by Peter Mullan from 2002 The Merciless Sisters (The Magdalene Sisters) thematizes the conditions in a Magdalene home in the 1960s based on the story of three young women. However, the authenticity of the presentation has been questioned in part. According to relatives and investigators, the story of one of the most famous alleged victims - Kathleen O'Beirne - is largely an invention.

Another film on the subject is Philomena (Director: Stephen Frears , 2013), the film adaptation of a book by Martin Sixsmith.

The author John Banville takes up the subject in his crime novels written under the pseudonym Benjamin Black about the pathologist Quirk, which are set in Ireland in the 50s. These crime novels served as a template for the British-Irish TV miniseries Quirke (in Germany Der Pathologe ).

The Irish author Ken Bruen addresses the Magdalen homes in one of his crime novels The Magdalen Martyrs (German: Jack Taylor goes to hell) about the private detective Jack Taylor, which was also implemented as a television series .

Rescue movement and homes for fallen girls

The Magdalene movement in the Anglo-Saxon region corresponded to the “rescue movement” in Germany, which started in the middle of the 19th century with the founding of numerous so-called “rescue houses”, mostly institutions of Protestant churches, some of which are dedicated to the rescue of orphans from socially difficult surroundings, neglected children and partly dedicated to the rescue of prostitutes or girls and women classified as “morally endangered”.

Well-known examples of rescue houses and Magdalena monasteries are:

Up until the end of the 20th century there were numerous such closed educational institutions in Germany for girls and women who were “ fallen ”, “morally endangered”, “unaccustomed to work”, “neglected” or similarly named, often not or not exclusively prostitutes, but single mothers or simply only sexually active or perceived as sexually active women.

Today, welfare education in general is subject to legal regulation, in particular closed home care requires a judicial decision. The specific, sexual-moral motivations that formed the basis of the Magdalenenheimen are no longer considered a sufficient basis for profound educational measures, as a result of which such institutions have lost their legal basis over time, especially since prostitution is now no more than is considered immoral .

literature

  • Herbert Fuller Bright Compston: The Magdalen hospital: the story of a great charity. Society for promoting Christian knowledge, London 1917, digitizedhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3D~GB%3D~IA%3Dmagdalenhospital00compuoft~MDZ%3D%0A~SZ%3D~doppelseiten%3D~LT%3D~PUR%3D
  • Lu Ann De Cunzo: Reform, Respite, Ritual: An Archeology of Institutions; The Magdalene Society of Philadelphia, 1800-1850. In: Historical Archeology Vol. 29, No. 3 (1995), pp. I-v, vii-viii, 1-168.
  • William Dodd: An account of the rise, progress, and present state of the Magdalen Hospital, for the reception of penitent prostitute. 5th edition W. Faden, London 1776.
  • Faramerz Dabhoiwala: Lust and Freedom. The story of the first sexual revolution. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2014, ISBN 978-3-608-94772-4 .
  • Frances Finnegan: Do Penance or Perish: A Study of Magdalene Asylums in Ireland. Congrave, Piltown 2001, ISBN 0-9540921-0-4 , review (English)
  • Anna Pappritz : Handbook of the official welfare for the endangered. JF Bergmann, Munich 1924.
  • Mary Raftery, Eoin O'Sullivan: Suffer the Little Children: The Inside Story of Ireland's Industrial Schools. New Island, Dublin 1999, ISBN 1-874597-83-9 .
  • Steven Ruggles: Fallen Women: The Inmates of the Magdalen Society Asylum of Philadelphia, 1836–1908. In: Journal of Social History. Vol. 16, No. 4 (Summer 1983), pp. 65-82
  • Carrie Runstedler: Magdalen Homes . In: Melissa Hope Ditmore (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Prostitution and Sex Work. Vol. 1. Westport, Conn. 2006, ISBN 0-313-32969-9 , pp. 268-272
  • James M. Smith: Ireland's Magdalen Laundries and the Nation's Architecture of Containment. Manchester University Press, Manchester 2008, ISBN 978-0-7190-7888-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dabhoiwala: Lust and Freedom. Stuttgart 2014, plate 9
  2. ^ Sherrill Cohen: The Evolution of Women's Asylums since 1500. Oxford University Press, New York & Oxford 1992
  3. ↑ Thomas Bray: A General Plan of a Penitential Hospital for the Imploying and Reforming Lewd Women. circa 1699. Karpeles Manuscript Library, Santa Barbara, California. Quoted in: Dabhoiwala: Lust and Freedom. Stuttgart 2014, p. 287
  4. ^ Robert Nelson: An Address to Persons of Quality and Estate. 1715, p. 212f. Quoted in: Dabhoiwala: Lust and Freedom. Stuttgart 2014, p. 287
  5. ↑ Dabhoiwala: Lust and Freedom. Stuttgart 2014, p. 288
  6. ^ Johann Ernst Fabri: Collection of city, country and travel descriptions. Hall 1783, digitizedhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3D~GB%3D0DRDAAAAcAAJ~IA%3D~MDZ%3D%0A~SZ%3DPA47~ double-sided%3D~LT%3D~PUR%3D
  7. ↑ Dabhoiwala: Lust and Freedom. Stuttgart 2014, p. 288
  8. ↑ Dabhoiwala: Lust and Freedom. Stuttgart 2014, p. 294f.
  9. ^ Lu Ann De Cunzo: Reform, Respite, Ritual: An Archeology of Institutions; The Magdalene Society of Philadelphia, 1800-1850. In: Historical Archeology Vol. 29, No. 3 (1995), p. 132: “ … they did not share the Society's image of their guilt and wretchedness; they did not seek redemption, purification, or transformation at the Asylum. They sought a refuge and a respite from disease, the prison or almshouse, unhappy family situations, abusive men, and dire economic circumstances. ”
  10. ↑ “ Possibly the advent of the washing machine has been as instrumental in closing these laundries as have changing attitudes. ”
  11. ↑ “Scandal in Ireland's Church: Beaten, Humiliated, Raped” , Martin Alioth in Der Spiegel online of May 20, 2009
  12. ↑ "Irish Church's Forgotten Victims Take Case to UN" , article by Carol Ryan, New York Times, May 25, 2011
  13. ^ Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee Investigating State Involvement with the Magdalen Laundries
  14. ↑ McAleese, chap. 3: History of the Magdalen Laundries and institutions , PDF
  15. ↑ "Magdalene Homes in Ireland - Government apologizes" , taz , February 20, 2013
  16. ↑ "Nuns say they will not pay Magdalene compensation" ( Memento from October 10, 2013 in the Internet Archive ). Irish Times, July 16, 2013
  17. ^ "Mis lit: Is this the end for the misery memoir?" , Daily Telegraph, March 5, 2008.
  18. ↑ Martin Sixsmith: Philomena: a mother is looking for her son. Ullstein, Berlin 2014.
  19. ↑ Helene Lange , Gertrud Bäumer (ed.): Handbook of the women's movement. Moeser, Berlin 1901, p. 87http: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3D~GB%3D~IA%3D Handbuchderfrau01bugoog~MDZ%3D%0A~SZ%3D~doppelseiten%3D~LT%3DS.%2087~PUR%3D
  20. ↑ Arthur von Kirchenheim : prison system. In: Illustrated conversation lexicon of women . Oldenbourg, Berlin 1900, vol. 1, p. 461
  21. ^ Karl Janssen: Endangered Care. In: Religion Past and Present . 3rd edition Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 1958, vol. 2, p. 1245
  22. ↑ “Girls, get up!” ( Mk 5.41  EU ), Jesus' address to a terminally ill girl, reproduced in the Aramaic wording in Mark's Gospel .
  23. ↑ Bethesda / St. Martin - story
  24. ↑ G. Schlosser: Magdalenen Association and Magdalenen Asylum. In: Alexander Spiess: Frankfurt am Main in its hygienic conditions and facilities. Mahlau & Waldschmidt, Frankfurt am Main 1881, p. 389ff.
  25. ↑ Schlössli for «fallen girls»
  26. ^ Home for morally endangered girls , Knauers Konversationslexikon, Berlin 1932, Sp. 931
  27. ↑ Decision of the Berlin Administrative Court in 2000 on immorality within the meaning of Section 138 I BGB, cf. Rahel Gugel: The tension between the Prostitution Act and Art. 3 II Basic Law , dissertation, Berlin, May 17, 2010, p. 211