Rudolf Kraemer (blind activist)

Rudolf Wilhelm Kraemer (born December 6, 1885 in Heilbronn ; † July 30, 1945 ) was a German lawyer, activist for the blind and the founder of the Württemberg Blind Association .

Life

Rudolf Kraemer was the sixth of seven children of newspaper publisher Viktor Kraemer and his wife Lina, nee. Frank. He grew up in his parents' house at Bismarckstrasse 22 in Heilbronn, although a few weeks after his birth it was discovered that he suffered from cataracts and was severely visually impaired. As expected, he went completely blind in later years.

However, his family decided, contrary to the custom of the time, not to put the child in an institution and to allow him to go to normal schooling. Viktor Kraemer had a primer printed for the boy with particularly large letters so that he at least got to know the alphabet; fluent reading could not be achieved in this way because Rudolf Kraemer's field of vision was so small that he could only recognize a single letter at a time. That is why the tutor, who anyway had to look after Rudolf's siblings with completing their homework, was trained in the Stuttgart Institute for the Blind so that he could take over part of the lessons for the child. Rudolf Kraemer also attended grammar school pre-school as an extraordinary pupil and later also some grammar school classes before the decision was made to only let him teach at home from around the age of 15.

When Rudolf Kraemer was 17 years old, he went to the boarding school for the blind in Hamburg-Bergedorf for two years ; He then tried to control his stuttering during a six-month stay in a language hospital . He continued these efforts in two follow-up courses in 1906 and 1907 and at least managed to speak reasonably fluently in private. From 1905 he was again a student at the Karlsgymnasium in his hometown; at the Abitur in 1908, he was the fourth best of 22 candidates. In the following winter semester he began to study economics in Freiburg im Breisgau . After just one semester, however, he switched to law and continued his studies in Tübingen , motivated by the idea of becoming “the lawyer for the German blind” and ensuring that the state compensates for the disadvantages suffered by blindness , created. In 1909 he founded the Württemberg Blind Association, whose first chairman he became. The Reichsdeutsche Blindenverband (RBV) was founded in 1912; Here too, Kraemer was one of the initiators and became deputy chairman. The Heilbronner Blindengenossenschaft, founded by Kraemer in 1913, was the first organization of its kind in Germany to rely on self-help for the blind by marketing its products. Brush and basket making as well as chair weaving were the areas in which the first participants were active. Karl Anspach took over commercial management in 1915 , under whom the cooperative became very successful.

Impaired by nervous insomnia and a severe joint disease, Kraemer had to interrupt his studies for several years in 1911. Saltless vegetable diet and regular fasting finally improved his condition to such an extent that he was able to do without the wheelchair and resume his studies in Heidelberg in 1918 . In 1924 he was awarded both a Dr. jur. as well as Dr. phil. PhD.

From 1929 Kraemer was legal advisor and legal advisor to the Reichsdeutscher Blindenverband and also did a lot of voluntary work as chairman of the pension committee and the statute committee of this association. He demanded a pension for the blind and published several papers on this subject from 1926 onwards. His draft was very popular at the 1930's Welfare Congress, even from the NSDAP . Nevertheless, after the seizure of power, the blind pension was categorically rejected. In 1933 , among other things, Kraemer openly opposed the idea of racial hygiene and forced sterilization or even euthanasia propagated by the National Socialists in the work Critique of Eugenics from the Location of the Affected Person . In 1934 he was therefore forbidden to work as legal advisor to the RBV.

He then concentrated his efforts on completing his German law for the blind , which was completed in 1935, but the Reich Ministry of Labor prevented it from going to print . Excerpts of it appeared in the series of magazines of the Marburg Institute for the Blind .

Kraemer, who was married to his former reader Helene Bauer and who built the Sonnfried house in Heidelberg in 1927/28 , offered speech therapy courses for stutterers there from 1935. From 1940 he also worked as managing director of the concert community for blind artists in Southwest Germany. As the war progressed and Kraemer's health deteriorated, this activity gradually came to a standstill. In the first summer after the war he died of sudden cardiac death .

Aftermath

In West Germany, Rudolf Kraemer was largely forgotten, especially since he was celebrated as an anti-fascist and left-wing intellectual in the GDR . In 1968 a rest home for the blind in Bad Liebenzell was named after him, and on the occasion of his 100th birthday a street in Heilbronn was named after Rudolf and Viktor Kraemer. For his gravestone he chose the inscription: “Rudolf Kraemer invites you to remember him with a cheerful heart and a kind heart. Honor and thanks are due to God. ” Christhard Schrenk published a biography of Kraemer in Volume II of the Heilbronner Köpfe .

Individual evidence

^ According to Christhard Schrenk: Lawyer for the German Blind. Rudolf Kraemer (1885–1945). In: Christhard Schrenk (ed.): Heilbronner Köpfe II. Life pictures from two centuries. Stadtarchiv Heilbronn, 1999, ISBN 3-928990-70-5 , pp. 65–78, Kraemer still had 2% vision in one eye as a child, but later wore a glass eye on the left, whereas the right eye was destroyed in an accident . Schrenk does not mention which eye originally had some vision.
↑ Christhard Schrenk: Lawyer for the German blind. Rudolf Kraemer (1885–1945). In: Christhard Schrenk (ed.): Heilbronner Köpfe II. Life pictures from two centuries. Heilbronn City Archives, 1999, ISBN 3-928990-70-5 , p. 71.
↑ Christhard Schrenk, The Father of the German Blind Associations. Karl Anspach (1889–1941) , in: Christhard Schrenk (ed.), Heilbronner Köpfe III. Pictures of life from three centuries (= small series of publications from the Heilbronn Archives 48), Heilbronn City Archives 2001, ISBN 3-928990-78-0 , pp. 9–22
^ History of the Association - Association of the Blind and Visually Impaired Württemberg eV Accessed on May 14, 2020 .
↑ Christhard Schrenk: Lawyer for the German blind. Rudolf Kraemer (1885–1945). In: Christhard Schrenk (ed.): Heilbronner Köpfe II. Life pictures from two centuries. Heilbronn City Archives 1999, ISBN 3-928990-70-5 , pp. 65–78.

personal data
SURNAME	Kraemer, Rudolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Kraemer, Rudolf Wilhelm (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German lawyer, activist for the blind and the founder of the Württemberg Blind Association
DATE OF BIRTH	December 6, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH	Heilbronn
DATE OF DEATH	July 30, 1945

[1] According to Christhard Schrenk: Lawyer for the German Blind. Rudolf Kraemer (1885–1945). In: Christhard Schrenk (ed.): Heilbronner Köpfe II. Life pictures from two centuries. Stadtarchiv Heilbronn, 1999, ISBN 3-928990-70-5 , pp. 65–78, Kraemer still had 2% vision in one eye as a child, but later wore a glass eye on the left, whereas the right eye was destroyed in an accident . Schrenk does not mention which eye originally had some vision.

[2] Christhard Schrenk: Lawyer for the German blind. Rudolf Kraemer (1885–1945). In: Christhard Schrenk (ed.): Heilbronner Köpfe II. Life pictures from two centuries. Heilbronn City Archives, 1999, ISBN 3-928990-70-5 , p. 71.

[3] Christhard Schrenk, The Father of the German Blind Associations. Karl Anspach (1889–1941) , in: Christhard Schrenk (ed.), Heilbronner Köpfe III. Pictures of life from three centuries (= small series of publications from the Heilbronn Archives 48), Heilbronn City Archives 2001, ISBN 3-928990-78-0 , pp. 9–22

[4] History of the Association - Association of the Blind and Visually Impaired Württemberg eV Accessed on May 14, 2020 .

[5] Christhard Schrenk: Lawyer for the German blind. Rudolf Kraemer (1885–1945). In: Christhard Schrenk (ed.): Heilbronner Köpfe II. Life pictures from two centuries. Heilbronn City Archives 1999, ISBN 3-928990-70-5 , pp. 65–78.