Pestalozzidorf "In Grund"

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Place "in the ground"
House in Pestalozziweg
Information board for the industrial heritage route

The Pestalozzidorf “Im Grund” is a housing estate for young people that was built in the Katernberg district of Essen according to the principles of the pedagogue Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi - adapted to the needs of the mining industry . It is located between the Zollverein III colony and the Dortmannhof .

idea

The idea of ​​the youth family villages was proposed in Switzerland by the writer Walter Robert Corti at the end of the Second World War in order to offer the orphaned young people a new home with family-like structures and special educational offers. The first Pestalozzi Children's Village was opened in Trogen in 1944 .

In the German mining industry, this idea, together with the still prevailing shortage of young skilled workers and the social problems in traditional apprentice dormitories, found fertile ground. In 1948 the “Jugendheimstättenwerk-Pestalozzidorf-Vereinigung Ruhrgebiet” was founded in Dortmund . At the beginning of 1950 the first two Pestalozzidörfer emerged in Dinslaken - Lohberg and Bochum - Weitmar , then from 1953 to 1955 the settlement "Im Grund" of the Zeche Zollverein in Katernberg. In 1957 - when the mining crisis set in with the first layoffs - there were more than 40 Pestalozzidörfer in the Ruhr area and in the Aachen area ( Wurmrevier ), which together looked after more than 4,000 young people. The coupling of training contract, rental contract and support by an experienced miners' family as "house parents" was typical.

settlement

In 1953 the first six houses were built in the “Im Grund” estate, and by 1955 there had been 15 semi-detached houses, all arranged around a village green and in the Pestalozziweg leading there. The kitchen and common room were located on the ground floor, and the house parents had a bedroom and living room here. In the attic there were two shared rooms for the young people.

A large kitchen garden with farm buildings belonged to the house, and gardening for self-sufficiency was part of the overall concept. This included, among other things

  • a village director provided by the colliery who organized, administered and also economically checked the community;
  • a village council made up of the village and household heads to deal with social problems, house rules and community life;
  • a youth council, which, under the supervision of the village director, dealt with its own issues and was supposed to educate people about democratic behavior and
  • a regular leisure program with sports, film screenings, church services and regular contacts such as dance events in the village's own community center.

The house parents had a cheaper rent than in the normal colliery houses, in addition they received board money from the wages of the young people. To do this, they had to meet special requirements, for example a loyal relationship with the mining industry, a firm Christian faith and a pedagogical skill. The husband, as a long-standing, proven miner, was the role model, the housewife as a housekeeper and educator. Each house-parent couple took in a maximum of six young people, who were between 14 and 21 years old. The young people were recruited from all over Germany.

Overall, the concept of the Pestalozzidörfer could not prevail. On the one hand, the necessary housing construction developed only slowly, so that the number of young people could not be looked after that would have been necessary to replace the apprentice homes. On the other hand, the mining industry soon no longer needed any new workers, but laid off existing ones.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ “Swiss Pestalozzi Villages for Mountain Apprentices” by Hans H. Hanke, from Cultural Policy in Occupied Germany 1945–1949, Franz Steiner Verlag, 1994 (PDF; 13.7 MB)

Web links

Commons : Pestalozzidorf “Im Grund”  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 51 ° 29 ′ 21.2 "  N , 7 ° 3 ′ 20.5"  E