Baby home

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Infant nurse in Berlin, 1955

The infant home (sometimes referred to as the infant clinic) is a welfare facility that provides temporary or permanent care for healthy, abandoned, orphaned, or abandoned infants and young children who may a. are cared for and cared for by infant nurses . The homes are predominantly state, church and independent sponsorship and are often managed or subordinate to a pediatrician . In Germany, the health authorities are responsible for oversight.

The first foundations took place at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. During this time, the nurseries were mainly inpatient medical facilities. The institutions found their distribution particularly in the industrialized countries of Europe, the USA and the Comecon countries . Historical forerunners were the foundling house in the Middle Ages and the orphanage after the Thirty Years' War. Infants and toddlers were admitted at the request of their parents or by order of the authorities; individual exceptions were possible. From the mid-1960s onwards, the number of children cared for in nurseries in Germany fell sharply; in the GDR the decline was slower. The reasons for this included findings from research on babies and toddlers , the publication of film recordings from the homes and public protests.

Today this type of facility is rarely found in western industrialized countries. In Eastern European countries or in Third World countries , the classic infant home for very young children can still be found, a. criticized by the United Nations.

Germany

The development

In Germany, on December 20, 1897, the pediatrician Arthur Schloßmann , together with doctors and Dresden citizens, founded the children's outpatient clinic with an infant home in Johannstadt. In 1898 they opened the Dresden infant home as the first home of its kind in Germany.

Through hygienic measures and the change in infant nutrition (including the use of wet nurses) and medical advances in the fight against infectious diseases, infant mortality in this home was drastically reduced from 71% to 17% between 1912 and 1920. At that time, the “infant homes” were mainly pediatric research institutes. a. on the subject of pros and cons of butter flour food . Sometimes the homes developed into children's clinics, among other things. a. the children's clinic at the Westphalian Wilhelms University of Münster. One of the main concerns of paediatricians during this time was to combat the still high infant mortality rate in the institutions. On the basis of statistically recorded observations, the undeniable successes in the fight against infant mortality were documented for the contemporary professional public. The successes of the pediatricians encouraged a rethink in clinical paediatrics. The nursing homes (often also called infant clinics) have been modernized according to hygienic principles (quarantine, asepsis during care, vaccinations, healthy eating). The care of infants and toddlers was regulated according to general norms and less according to the individual needs of the child. In well-run homes, the mortality rate fell to 0 to 2%. Associated with this was also a strong and at this time influential socio-political commitment of the pediatricians, which also included public infant care. State-recognized nursing schools, which offered courses for the general population, were attached to the nursing homes of the time. In addition, committed movements such as the Committee for Baby Homes or the Association for Mothers and Baby Homes were founded , which promoted the construction of baby homes.

The pediatrician Meinhard von Pfaundler brought hospitalism to the fore at a very early stage and showed the consequences of maternal deprivation as well as schematic institutional routine. In his 1901 lecture "About the natural and rational baby care" he criticized the unnatural removal of the baby from the mother under the modern conditions of civilization. He explained the origins and conditions of hospitalism in his "Physiology of the Newborn" in the Handbook of Obstetrics in 1915. The pediatrician Gustav Tugendreich wrote in 1910 about hospitalism in homes:

"Hospitalism in detail manifold, but on a large scale always characterized by the fact that infants who were not yet severely ill or were even admitted in good health continued to deteriorate in the institutions until they finally died."

Between the two paediatricians A. Schloßmann and M. v. Pfaundler developed a violent controversy between 1920–1930 about the importance of infant care in infant homes. A. Schloßmann defended institutional care, while M. v. Pfaundler took a deeply skeptical attitude towards the "unnatural mass care" of young children in the infant homes. He heavily criticized the increasing tendency to view infant homes as suitable accommodation for young children. He initiated the world's first major comparative study of the problem of hospitalism. In 1925, Zaida Eriksson compared 425 prison children who came from affluent parental homes with 760 family children from an urban poor district. The prison children were significantly more susceptible to certain infectious diseases. Furthermore, the children at home were clearly impaired in their growth in length. The family children seemed more mentally active and more intelligent and were much more sociable than the institutional children. In nursing homes for babies, the focus was on the children's physical hygiene to ward off infections. Hildegard Durfee and Käthe Wolf found in their investigation carried out in 1933 that overly strict observance of hygiene rules increases care conditions that promote psychological hospitalism.

As a result of the successes in the fight against infant mortality, a tolerant to positive attitude towards the infant homes gradually spread among the public. So there was a strong expansion of homes in the 1920s and 30s. The effects of the global economic crisis were an accelerating factor. In the years 1923–1963 the number of children in family care changed: home care in the city of Frankfurt a. M. from 78%: 22% to 27%: 73%.

Little is currently known about the nursing homes during the Nazi era. The Lebensborn -Heime and the children's departments are an exception . The aim of the Nazis was to increase the population of the Aryans through targeted "breeding" or killing and to "free" them from "hereditary defects". The extent to which existing infant homes have been converted into specialist children's wards and infants and toddlers from the homes were deliberately killed by child euthanasia still requires further research. The Hamburg pediatrician, infant home manager and head of the Rothenburgsort children's hospital Wilhelm Bayer may stand for a possible interconnection . From June 1940 to April 1945, at least 56 so-called "Reich Committee children" were murdered in the Rothenburgsort Children's Hospital by fatal drug cocktails. Between 1939 and 1945, between 5,000 and 10,000 infants, children and young people were murdered in the 37 children's departments in Germany.

Bronze plaque on the Gantenwald memorial

The nursing home for foreign children was a special form of the infant home during the Second World War . It was a device that Eastern European forced laborers their deprived children . Its establishment was ordered by a decree of Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler from 1943. Many female forced laborers were also forced to have abortions . The mortality of the children was between 80 and 90 percent, especially in the larger care facilities. Selected babies and older children were adopted by “ Aryan ” families. It is estimated that between 100,000 and 200,000 children died in these facilities. The War Against Children database contains information on more than 400 places where children of forced laborers were born, housed or died - including numerous foster homes for foreign children.

Infant homes in West Germany and the FRG after the Second World War

The infant home as an independent type of home did not exist in the later FRG after 1945. There were a number of different tasks relating to the care and support of infants and toddlers in these houses, which were summarized under the term “infant home”. The official mandate of the institutions was to protect children at risk from neglect and abuse. One focus was the care and supervision of abandoned infants and small children, so-called "social orphans". Often they were illegitimate children. Quite a few of the children were admitted to an infant home through an official decision, sometimes against the will of their birth parents. The youth or social welfare office paid for the care of these children. The biological parents, depending on the location, had no access to the premises or only at certain visiting times.

For the period from 1951 to 1990, the number of babies and toddlers cared for by Felix Berth is estimated to be at least 700,000. In a Munich study of 300 children in the nursery, 71% of them were born out of wedlock, 11.5% came from broken marriages and 17.5% from intact marriages. The mothers of these children had almost never completed any education and were often unemployed; about 20 to 30 percent of them worked as prostitutes. Around a third of the mothers were listed as homeless in the files of the youth welfare offices, and a similar number had serious illnesses. In 1960 - the year with the largest number of places in the Federal Republic of Germany - the German infant homes had more than 18,000 places that were occupied by several children each year.

Infants and young children suffered from hospitalism and deprivation damage in these homes . Maximilian Rieländer comes to the conclusion that nursing practice in the nursing homes from the 1920s to around 1970 was hardly influenced by the theoretical discussions and empirical results about early childhood hospitalism and deprivation damage.

The disappearance of the infant homes began in the Federal Republic in the mid-1960s at a rapid pace, which is why it cannot be traced back to the so-called “ home campaign ” of the Extra-Parliamentary Opposition (APO). Carlo Buschel sees a change in the care rate economy as the cause of the liquidation of the nursing homes, which made the placement of infants and small children in a foster home appear “cheaper”. Berth, on the other hand, emphasizes that the findings of pediatricians and psychoanalysts about damage to hospitalism were gradually being perceived in youth welfare offices and home providers, which resulted in the closings of infant homes or their conversion into children's homes. In addition, the social and economic situation of illegitimate mothers gradually improved somewhat in the course of the 1960s, which gave them more opportunities to look after their children themselves.

Infant homes in East Germany and the GDR after the Second World War

Bundesarchiv Bild 183-19489-0001, Cottbus, Infant Home March 18, 1955 Photo: Schutt, Erich

The permanent homes for babies and toddlers in the GDR had a special position among the normal homes . In addition to orphaned children, healthy infants and toddlers aged between a few weeks and 3 years of age were admitted and permanently housed, whose mothers were single parents or whose parents worked in shift systems. These facilities were medically supervised and from 1951 were under the supervision of the responsible health service department of the council of the rural or urban district. The expansion of the permanent homes was accelerated until the late 1950s.

Parentless children or social orphans who did not have the opportunity to adopt were relocated to secondary homes after they reached the age of 3. In the years 1959–1961 the number of permanent home places reached its highest level with approx. 11,000. This development did not go unchecked. At the end of the 1950s, strong reservations of pediatricians about this form of small child care were loudly supported by their own comparative studies. The results indirectly confirmed the theoretical considerations of the Anglo-Saxon researchers John Bowlby and James Robertson , who developed their attachment theory further. The still young attachment theory found attention in the GDR in 1957 through an article by James Robertson in the "Zeitschrift für Ärztliche Fortbildung". In the same year, Eva Schmidt-Kolmer presented excerpts from Bowlby's essay for the WHO "Maternal Care and Mental Health" in this journal. At the instigation of the pediatricians, reform ideas such as B. the creation of family milieus, personal toys and clothing, faster adoption procedures and carers for the children discussed and tested. Politically motivated perspectives in parts of the GDR government and the SED leadership saw the educational importance and the advantage of permanent homes in community education, which would rule out unilateral preferential treatment. The construction of the Berlin Wall on August 13, 1961 was not without consequences for the work in the permanent homes. In the following years there was an ideological orientation in the education in the homes as well as in research on young children. The stimulated and tried reform efforts by the pediatricians were largely withdrawn in the homes. The risks that arose for the children in the home due to a lack of nest warmth were not given sufficient consideration. The Minister of Justice Ms. Hilde Benjamin wrote to her colleague to the Minister of Health Max Sefrin in a letter dated April 25, 1962:

"I know that leading paediatricians, especially Dr. Eva Schmidt-Kolmer, take the view that children in the week nurseries develop more slowly. For this reason, she only advocates the placement of children in day groups and emphasizes the considerable need of small children for warmth. (...) I therefore consider it to be urgently necessary that, in connection with the women's communiqué, an ideological clarification be made with the doctors about the importance of placing small children in maternity homes for ensuring the implementation of equal rights for women. (...) I would also like to say that following the Council of Ministers meeting I received approval from a number of colleagues, in particular also from the Minister for Popular Education. "

The independent research groups in Halle, Leipzig and Berlin were dissolved in the early 1960s. Their research results, as well as the theoretical results, were not published further until the political change in 1990. It was only after 1962 that the number of children cared for in the permanent homes decreased in the following years. In 1965 the "Law on the Uniform, Socialist Education System" was passed. In this law were u. a. the permanent homes are recorded as pre-school facilities for the first time. In 1966, the centrally managed Institute for Hygiene of Children and Adolescents (IHKJ) was founded under the direction of Eva Schmidt-Kolmer as a subordinate department of the MfGe. This institute has not published comparative research results between family children and children in homes. The institute did not provide any notable impulses to improve the living conditions of the children in the home.

In October 1966 the first international symposium on nursery and home problems took place in Prague with the participation of a GDR delegation. In addition to problems of susceptibility and frequency to illness, the fundamental question was whether infants and toddlers can be looked after in collective institutions with some success. For the GDR delegation these were remnants of backward thinking and they argued accordingly.

In 1968 the draft of an educational program appeared under the title “Pedagogical Tasks and Working Methods of the Crèches”, which was also used in the homes. In the early 1970s, a number of instructions and ordinances were issued that further regulated work in the homes. Fundamental reforms that responded to the needs of infants and toddlers are looked for in vain at this time. At the end of the 1980s, the number of registered children in care rose to over 4,000.

With the turnaround, the entire state education system was up for grabs. The permanent homes for infants and toddlers were dissolved in the course of German reunification or converted into children's homes and other social institutions.

Processing and compensation / Fund "Home Education West" and "Home Education in the GDR"

In Germany, following the deliberations of the round table, at which those affected were also represented, 100 million euros were made available for the area of ​​the former FRG and 40 million euros for the area of ​​the former GDR, which only met the demands of the organizations of children in care was partially taken into account. In addition, 20 million euros have been budgeted for scientific investigations and processing. Contact points for those affected have been set up in the individual federal states.

Due to the high number of former children in the GDR, the fund was exhausted at the beginning of 2014. The fund was topped up with funds from the federal and state governments. The fund is scheduled to run until the end of June 2017. A deadline regulation is new. Only applications submitted by September 30, 2014 will be considered. The acceptance of applications is ensured by the contact and advice centers for former children in the GDR.

Up until December 31, 2014, affected former children in care from the old federal states were able to register their claims with your contact and advice center.

External care for infants and toddlers in Germany today

In Germany, benefits to young people (are federally SGB VIII children , teenagers , young adults ) and their families (esp. Parents , persons having custody , parenting ), and thus the child care of infants and toddlers regulated.

Infant homes are an absolute exception in Germany and the placement of infants and small children is only provided as an emergency solution in any case.

In order to avoid hospitalism or deprivation damage in seriously ill babies and toddlers in hospitals, they now offer the option of rooming-in .

United States

Comparative research between children in the infant home and in the foundling home

René A. Spitz carried out his research in the USA around 1940. He conducted intensive research into the development of 203 toddlers in an infant home and 90 toddlers in a foundling house. In the context of comparative longitudinal studies, the toddlers were observed in their development almost from birth, sometimes up to the age of 4 years. a. examined with the "Bühler-Hetzer infant test". Both homes were run in a perfectly hygienic manner. In the two homes, the children experienced clear differences with regard to maternal care.

The nursing home was part of a penal system for delinquent girls and was used to care for the children born to their delinquent mothers while in prison. In this home the mothers were able to look after their children until they were one year old; they were instructed by the nurses at the home.

Two groups of small children lived in the foundling house:

  • Some were children of married women who (mostly socially well-adjusted) were not able to support themselves and their children.
  • The others were children of single mothers, with the mothers breastfeeding their own child for the first 3 months. The children were separated from their mothers at the age of 3 months and remained in "single cells" which were glazed on three sides until about 18 months. In this phase of life the children were looked after by an infant sister. They were fed by bottle-laying, mechanical feeding by means of attached bottles. There were hardly any toys.

The observation results showed:

  • As long as the children in the homes were cared for by their mothers, they showed an average normal course of development. Most of the children in the nursing home were fully cared for by their delinquent underage mothers in their first year of life and, accordingly, developed a normal course. In the foundling house the children developed normally in their first 3 months of life as long as they were looked after by their mothers.
  • In the case of the children who had to do without their mother's attention for 3 or more months in the first year of life, R. Spitz found that there was a lag in the development process. Through the observations he recognized two different forms of "mother deprivation". A partial and a total deprivation. He found two pathological conditions in the children. The children reacted to a specific form of partial mother deprivation with anaclitic depression . With total mother deprivation, the children showed the state of hospitalism.

Findings and effects of the research results

The test results initially had a rousing effect in the Anglo-American region. Psychologists and educators became aware of the sad fate of small children who had to grow up without loving emotional care in the first few years. In the German-speaking countries, R. Spitz's research only became known from around 1965, when his research results were first translated into German.

Central statements of the research are:

  • The overall development of a toddler depends on the extent of positive development conditions that the environment offers. Inherited development facilities need friendly, stimulating environmental conditions for their specific development. A good emotional and intellectual development includes maternal affection, social contact with adults and suggestions from the environment. According to R. Spitz's study, toddlers of young unmarried delinquent mothers can develop much better if these mothers are supported in caring for their children than if these toddlers are withdrawn from their mothers for reasons of "neglect" and sent to a home become.
  • At the age of around 6 months, toddlers with regular maternal care have formed a stable relationship with the mother or the caring mother. This becomes clear when small children react to strangers who are not familiar to them in the family with aversion or fear reactions; one speaks of "alienating"; R. Spitz calls it the "eight month fear".
  • Young children react more violently and sadly to the separation from their mother if they have previously developed a good relationship with the mother. So a strong sad reaction after the breakup can be a hallmark of a good previous relationship. In contrast, the passive, almost indifferent reaction that toddlers show after a long period of mother deprivation is a sign of inner resignation.

Harold M. Skeels made long-term prognoses for the development of children in care based on his studies in the USA. A very depressing home education that begins in the first or second year of life and lasts almost uninterrupted throughout childhood will be associated with a very low social status later on. The home children belong to the lower class or the "Lumpenproletariat", where the possibility of social recognition is reduced to a minimum.

Czech Republic

In 2010 there were around 1,800 babies and toddlers in Czech nurseries across the country. According to a study from 2009, around 7,500 children in the Czech Republic live long-term, i.e. 14.5 years on average, in a home. This puts the Czech Republic in a leading position in Europe and has been criticized by both the EU and the UN, although child psychologists and other personalities in the Czech Republic campaigned for various alternative projects at least 40 years ago and one can look back on an old tradition of substitute family care.

Instead, the established system from before the fall of the Wall survives to this day. Representatives of the nursery and children's homes often stick to the lengthy process at the end of which either foster or adoptive parents are found for a child. Among them is Doctor Milada Šilhová, director of children's homes in the North Bohemia region. It is about children who have been abandoned by their biological families and for whom the state has taken responsibility. They would be handed over to the care of the children's homes as long as no suitable substitute family was found. The state thus decides the fate of every child through its institutions such as social welfare offices and courts. The latter alone need an average of 200 days to decide whether to adopt a child. Jitka Gjuričová, head of the crime prevention department at the Czech Ministry of the Interior, has long criticized the existing system. The Czech welfare system for children does not do well in an international comparison. If only because of the high number of children living in the infant homes.

Burkina Faso

Many women still die in childbirth. The fathers and the newborns are left behind. They are fed and raised in the Den Kanu (German: "For love of the child") infant home . In this home, 50 full or half orphans or children from difficult backgrounds are cared for until they can return to their families at the age of around two. Caregivers from the families visit the babies on average every two weeks.

Romania

A handful of lots in a hat decided the fate of 136 Romanian orphans in an isolation experiment in 2001 . After extensive discussions between the responsible ministry and the local commission for the protection of children, the proposal of American scientists led by Charles A. Nelson was followed and embarked on a momentous experiment. For the children between six and 31 months old, the lot determined who would continue to be cared for in one of the state orphanages and which 68 children would instead grow up in the care of paid foster parents . The aim was to determine the consequences of the various types of care on early childhood development as precisely as possible and to derive recommendations from this.

Psychosomatic long-term effects for the children in the nursery

Persistent stress in early childhood through experiences of violence, physical or emotional abuse , economic hardship, family tensions and the like makes people sick, even as adults. This is worst and has the most consequences when the attention, love and warmth of the parents, or at least another constantly available, loving caregiver, is missing.

In these situations, the body tries to compensate for the stress by adapting, especially in the brain, and to maintain the psychological and physical balance ( allostasis ) necessary for survival . Usually this adjustment system returns to normal once the stress is over. If the stress is permanent, however, the system is overwhelmed. The adaptation system gets out of hand, psyche and organs become sick. The consequences are often a disturbed reaction system in the brain ( cholesterol ), cardiovascular diseases or metabolic disorders ( metabolic syndrome ).

A study with 750 participants has now been able to prove both effects: the long-term illness-causing stress in childhood on the one hand and the “buffer function” of parental love in such situations.

Examples of nursing homes

Processing and compensation in an international comparison

The history of nursing homes was and is still partly a taboo subject, which social historiography has long avoided. It was predominantly the circle of insiders such as: members of the authorities, heads of institutions, social pedagogues, child psychiatrists, who expressed themselves from their own point of view in anniversary publications and specialist articles. In some countries, compensation was paid to former children in care and other victims of compulsory welfare measures.

In Germany, due to the high number of former home children, the fund was already exhausted at the beginning of 2014 and was subsequently topped up again with funds from the federal government and the federal states. The applications submitted up to September 30, 2014 could be considered. Projects for the individual processing of home experience can be applied for at the contact and advice centers and must be fully billed at the end of the fund term by September 30, 2018. The final report of the Home Education Fund and the Federal Government's position paper will be published in August 2019. The goals of those who set up the funds were ambitious and in the conclusion of the Federal Government's statement it says: "The funds have not fully met these high requirements in every single case. But the broad satisfaction of those affected as a whole impressively shows that the financial The decisive factor for the success of the funds was, not least, the willingness of the constructors to break new ground with the representatives of those affected when implementing the funds, to try out possible solutions and to correct the decisions made if there were any In the sense of an affected-friendly practice was necessary. Thus it was possible to achieve the overarching goals of the funds and to make a contribution to social reappraisal and reconciliation with a dark chapter of recent German history. "

In Switzerland, former children in care received a so-called from 1988 to 1993 by two fund commissions that were systematically torn from their culture of origin by taking away children, placing them outside of homes, as contract children or as adopted children and some of them were also subjected to forced sterilization "Reparation" in the form of a payment of between 2,000 and 20,000 francs. Compensation payments were also made to those affected in Ireland, Sweden, Iceland and Canada.

In the past, outside care for infants and small children

Parable of Chronica Salimbenis

In the 13th century, the chronicler Salimbene of Parma stated in his Chronica about the question of Emperor Frederick II : In what language would children begin to express themselves who had never heard a word speak before? His lively interest is said to have prompted Friedrich II to conduct a strange experiment. He is said to have given a number of orphaned newborn babies to nurses and nurses to raise them with the task of giving them their breasts, cleaning them, bathing them etc. but with the strictest prohibition against caressing them and saying a word to them or in front of them speak. It was done according to the emperor's will; but his burning curiosity found no satisfaction, for all children died at the earliest age. This parable is based on an older anecdote by Herodotus .

Herodotus reports in this anecdote that until the reign of Pharaoh Psammetichos the Egyptians considered themselves to be the first of all men. But when Psammetichos became Pharaoh and wanted to find out which were the first, they believed that the Phrygians were even older than them, that they were older than all the others. When the Pharaoh could not solve the question of who the first humans were despite all his research, he had two newborn children given to a shepherd. The shepherd should raise the children and his flock so that no one should speak in the presence of the children. The children should live all by themselves in a lonely hut. At certain times the shepherd should lead his goats there and give the children enough milk, then go about his other business. Psammetichos tried to find out what word the children would say first when the time of babbling was over. His orders were strictly carried out. After the shepherd had provided for the children in this way for two years, when he opened the door one day and walked in, they both rushed over to him and muttered the word Bekos , holding up their hands for him. When the children repeated this more often when he came to them, he informed Pharaoh and, on orders, brought the children to him. Psammetichos also heard the word and inquired into which language this term Bekos occurs. Then he found that this was what the Phrygians called bread; The Egyptians inferred from this story and admitted that the Phrygians were older than themselves. Herodotus added that he heard this incident from the priests of Hephaestus in Memphis (Egypt) and that the Greeks embellished this story with many foolish additions.

The anecdote of Herodotus is likely to have known Salimbene of Parma and probably used it as a model for his parable to vilify Emperor Frederick II in the power struggle against the church. So far there are no documents or other historical sources for the representation of the Salembene.

Use of a wet nurse

The future King Louis XIV with his wet nurse

Breastfeeding one's own children through wages has been documented since ancient times. For example, the Babylonian code of Hammurapis (approx. 1780 BC) already contained a separate paragraph for wet nurses, in ancient Egypt they often had a high position in families and at court, the Old Testament reports on the death of Deborah, the wet nurse of Rebekah , as an important person. In Roman mythology , the wet nurse of the later founders of Rome , Romulus and Remus , who were abandoned as infants , was a she-wolf.

In her work on the six wives of Henry VIII, the British historian Antonia Fraser names the reason for the use of wet nurses that a breastfeeding woman does not become pregnant. However, upper class women had to have as many children as humanly possible in order to secure the succession, which is why they were not allowed to breastfeed their children themselves. During the baroque period in France, many babies and toddlers of townspeople and nobles lived with their peasant wet nurses. They were only rarely brought into the families, often on solemn occasions.

Around 1880, the wet nurses from Niederlausitz who went out with their fosterlings in their Sorbian costume were conspicuous in the cityscape of Berlin . In Vienna, too, wet nurses from Bohemia and Moravia have become legendary in town houses alongside the cooks who came in the second half of the 19th century.

Sociologically it is significant that - especially in the European upper and upper middle class up to the threshold of the 20th century - mothers as the born “permanent carers” said goodbye to their young children at an early age and instead of the wet nurses became an integral part of the household . This often resulted in a respectful social distance to the biological mother for the growing children , but an intimate social closeness to the familiar wet nurse, which was often taken up as a motif in poetry.

Breastfeeding through wages declined sharply in Europe from around the 20s / 30s of the 20th century, when usable substitute milk became available. In Bern , the last professional wet nurses were retired in the 1950s.

Foundling houses

In the Middle Ages it was common to leave unwelcome infants in foundling homes. The first foundling house in Milan was established in 787 at the instigation of the local Archbishop Datheus for infants and small children. The foundling houses (later replaced by orphanages) were mostly church institutions and found widespread use in Central and Western Europe from around the 9th century, especially in the Romanic countries. Some of them have existed until recently. Pope Innocent III In 1194 ordered a foundling house with a special rotating drawer to be set up within a hospital in Rome, d. H. with a flap in the monastery wall, through which a child up to a certain size was put in and carried inside by turning the box. These baby flaps enable the foundlings to be stored secretly. The spread of the surname Esposito (Italian for suspended ) in southern Italy still testifies to the high proportion of such children in the population. Foundlings previously had no rights and were often sold into slavery, kept as servants on farms or given to monasteries.

Orphanage

Orphanages developed from foundling homes , especially numerous since the 17th century from foundations and the founding of the Pietists . It was only after the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) that institutions were increasingly founded; they should be responsible for a whole range of social problem areas at the same time. The “ Armen-, Waysen-, Zucht- und Werkhaus ” established in Braunschweig in 1677 makes its intentions clear in its name. Similar institutions were founded in Frankfurt in 1679, in Bamberg in 1702, in Waldheim in 1716 and in Ludwigsburg in 1736. The "Große Friedrichs Hospital ", founded in Berlin in 1702, was primarily a place of accommodation for orphans, beggars, invalids, the mentally disturbed, lepers and only a subordinate hospital. In some cases wealthy merchants and merchants also looked after the children by running charitable foundations.

Kibbutz (Israel)

The first kibbutz was founded on October 28, 1910 by a Zionist group from Belarus . There were also in Europe, even in Germany, settlements in the form of a kibbutz in order to prepare for a life in Palestine, later Israel, within the framework of the Hachshara .

In the kibbutzim, the patriarchal nuclear family was dissolved and child rearing was also centralized. Depending on the kibbutz, the children were brought up from birth in their own children's house with their peers, so the siblings each lived in a different group of children. Each group was led by its own teacher , the so-called Metapelet (plural: Metaplot ). Due to the contact with several Metaplot and the short-term daily contact with the parents, the young kibbutzniks were strongly fixated on their age group. After a certain period of time - about a year - there was a change to another metapelet. Despite the upbringing outside of traditional family structures, hospitalism was unknown, and a healthy personality development was common. The strict orientation towards upbringing in the children's home slowly dissolved in the following decades in the direction of “ kindergarten ”.

Stolen Generations (Australia)

In Australia, around 50,000 Aboriginal children were abducted from their families in the 20th century and into the 1970s , often as babies or toddlers. They grew up in homes, with foster and adoptive families, cut off from their culture. The officers sought out mixed-race children in particular. The heritage of the indigenous people should be brought up from them. What re-education could not achieve should be done through eugenics . The color was to be bred out by “crossing hybrids with white settlers. Many of them later had to work as cheap labor on the farms.

Personalities who lived in the infant home

See also

literature

  • F. Berth: On the history of the infant home. A forgotten institution of the federal German welfare state. In: Zeitschrift für Pädagogik 65 (1), 73–94.
  • Federal Government Commissioner for the New Federal States: Processing of home education in the GDR. Expertise.
  • É. Hédervári: Small children in traditional homes. Investigation of the situation of children under three years of age in traditional homes in the state of Brandenburg. Potsdam 1996.
  • W. Hilweg, C. Posch: Strange and yet at home. Schneider Verlag Hohengehren, 2008, ISBN 978-3-8340-0368-3 .
  • E. Mannschatz: Home education. People and Knowledge, Berlin 1984, DNB 850664748
  • M. Müller-Rieger: "When mom goes to work early ...". On the history of the kindergarten in the GDR. Argon, Dresden 1997, ISBN 3-87024-396-1 .
  • J. Plückhahn: Permanent homes for infants and small children in the GDR from the perspective of attachment theory . Diploma thesis FH Potsdam, Potsdam 2012.
  • J. Reyer, H. Kleine: The day nursery in Germany. Social history of a controversial institution. Lambertus, Freiburg i. B. 1997, ISBN 3-7841-0934-9 .
  • E. Schmidt-Kolmer: The care and upbringing of our children in day nurseries and homes. People and Health, Berlin 1956, DNB 453762808
  • L. Langstein, F. Rott: Atlas of the hygiene of infants and small children. Springer, Berlin 1918. (Reprint: Schmidt-Römhild, Lübeck 1989, ISBN 3-7950-7080-5 ).

Web links

Commons : Infant home  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Felix Berth: To the history of the infant home. A forgotten institution of the federal German welfare state. In: Zeitschrift für Pädagogik 65 (1), 73–94. Retrieved February 12, 2019 .
  2. ^ Claudia Kittel: Homes for babies and toddlers in the GDR . In: K. Laudien and A. Dreier-Horning (ed.): Youth welfare and home education in socialism . Berliner Wissenschaftsverlag, Berlin, p. 127-148 .
  3. ^ Norbert Kühne : Early development and upbringing - The critical period, in: Teaching materials Pedagogy - Psychology, No. 694, Stark Verlag, Hallbergmoos
  4. ↑ United Nations Human Rights. Office of the High Commissioner: The Rights of Vulnerable Children under the Age of Three. Ending their Placement in Institutional Care. 2012, accessed February 12, 2019 .
  5. ↑ On the life and work of Arthur Schlossmann see: Peter Wunderlich, Arthur Schlossmann and the Düsseldorfer Kinderklinik: Festschrift for the celebration of the 100th birthday on December 16, 1967. Düsseldorf 1967.
  6. ↑ Infant home, Lingner archive
  7. ^ KOH Klingelhöfer: For and against butter flour food. From the Berlin-Halensee infant home. In: Yearbook for Pediatrics. 93 (1920), 3rd part, Vol. 43, H. 3, pp. 137-150.
  8. ^ Development of the nursing home for healthy infants. In: 80 years of the new University Children's Hospital Greifswald, Greifswald p. 13 (PDF; 9.7 MB)
  9. ^ G. Thie-Mummenthey: From the infant home to the university clinic. The development of the children's clinic at the Westphalian Wilhelms University of Münster. (Studies on the history of the hospital system, Vol. 10). Murken-Altrogge, Münster 1980.
  10. ↑ cf. exemplary: Hamburger infant home (Hrsg.): Need of children in the Hamburg infant home. Hamburg 1922.
  11. ↑ HM v. Pfaundler: Physiology of the newborn. In: A. Döderlein: Handbook of obstetrics. Volume I, Wiesbaden 1915.
  12. ^ G. Tugendreich: Report on infant welfare offices of the Schmidt-Gallisch Foundation. In: Journal for Infant Protection. 4, 1910, pp. 107-121.
  13. ↑ M. Rieländer: Deprivationsforschung: Overview and own investigation of the effects of early childhood home stays and separation experiences on the social self-image of male youth in homes. Thesis. Department of Psychology at the Justus Liebig University Giessen 1975, editorial revision 2000, (PDF; 1.2 MB)
  14. ↑ Z. Eriksson: "Hospitalism" in children's homes: About institutional damage to children. Akad. Dep.; From the Munich Children's Clinic; Dir. Prof. M. v. Pfaundler, Akademiska Bokhandeln 1925.
  15. ↑ H. Durfee, K. Wolf: Institutional Care and Development in the First Year of Life. In: Journal for Child Research. 42, 1933, pp. 273-320.
  16. ↑ K. Hartung, H. Glattkowski: Surveys on length of stay and reasons that lead to the admission of infants. In: Practice of child psychology and child psychiatry. 14, 1965, p. 297 ff.
  17. ^ A. Böhnke: The Nazi hunter Beate Klarsfeld. WDR 2013.
  18. ↑ Thomas Beddies (Ed.) On behalf of the German Society for Child and Adolescent Medicine eV (DGKJ): In memory of children. The pediatricians and the crimes against children during the Nazi era. ( Memento from September 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 5.8 MB), Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-00-036957-5 , p. 90.
  19. ^ Separation decrees. on: krieg gegenkinder.de
  20. ↑ Forced to have an abortion. ( Memento from July 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) on: 175jahrefrauenklinik.de
  21. ↑ Raimond Reiter: Killing sites for foreign children in the Second World War: On the tension between the wartime employment and the National Socialist racial policy in Lower Saxony. In: Publications of the Historical Commission for Lower Saxony and Bremen. 34: Lower Saxony 1933–1945. Hanover 1993, cit. n. Holocaust Memorial Museum, p. 78 (see literature)
  22. ^ J. Pechstein: Baby homes yesterday and today. Impressions and investigations. In: Lost Children ?. The mass nursing in nursing homes. An appeal to society. Munich 1972.
  23. ^ Felix Berth: To the history of the infant home. A forgotten institution of the federal German welfare state. Journal for Pedagogy 65 (1), 73–94.
  24. ↑ J. Pechstein: Deprived children in infant homes and cribs. Impressions and investigations. In: Lost Children ?. The mass nursing in nursing homes. An appeal to society. Munich 1972.
  25. ↑ Berth., P. 79ff.
  26. ↑ Berth, pp. 75f.
  27. ↑ Nissen: Hospitalism. In: H. Harbauer u. a .: Textbook of special child and adolescent psychiatry. Springer, Berlin a. a., p. 55.
  28. ^ Felix Berth: To the history of the infant home. A forgotten institution of the federal German welfare state. Journal for Pedagogy 65 (1), 73–94.
  29. ↑ C. Burschel: Infant homes: The “forgotten” children's homes of the “economic miracle society”. from: W. Damberg, B. Frings, T. Jähnichen, U.Kaminsky (eds.): Mother Church - Father State? History, practice and debates of denominational home education since 1945. Münster 2010.
  30. ^ Felix Berth: To the history of the infant home. A forgotten institution of the federal German welfare state. Journal for Pedagogy 65 (1), 73–94.
  31. ↑ Law on the Protection of Mother and Children and Women's Rights. GDR, October 1, 1950.
  32. ^ Ordinance on institutions for pre-school education and after-school care. GDR September 18, 1952.
  33. ↑ Ordinance on the tasks and organizations of day nurseries and nurseries as health care facilities. August 6, 1953, Journal of Laws No. 91.
  34. ↑ K. Kern: Explanations on the law on mother and child protection and women's rights. In: Labor and Welfare. 1954, 8, p. 17 ff.
  35. ↑ a b Statistical Yearbook of the GDR. 1955-1989.
  36. ^ Journal for Medical Training in the GDR. 1957,21 / 22, p. 895 ff. / 1958,7, p. 307 ff. / 1959,22, p. 1443 ff. / 1960,21, p. 1220 ff. And at the
  37. ↑ J. Robertson: On Loss of Maternal Care in Early Childhood. In: Journal for Medical Training. 1957, 21/22.
  38. ↑ J. Bowlby: Maternal care and mental health. In: World Health Organization Monograph. 1951, serial no. 2
  39. ^ Journal for Medical Training in the GDR. 1957, 21/22, p. 895 ff. / 1958,7, p. 307 ff. / 1959,22, p. 1443 ff. / 1960,21, p. 1220 ff. And at the
  40. ↑ E. Schmidt-Kolmer: Phenomena of psychic hospitalism and their prevention. In: Journal for Medical Training. 1957, 21/22, p. 895 ff.
  41. ↑ C. v. Bothmer: Report on the meeting of doctors and directors of permanent homes in the GDR. In: Journal for Medical Training. 1958, 7, p. 307 ff.
  42. ↑ K. Kern: Explanations on the law on mother and child protection and women's rights. In: Labor and Welfare. 1954, 8, p. 17 ff.
  43. ↑ a b Federal Archives Berlin-Lichterfelde - Ministry of Health of the GDR BArch DQ 1/13585
  44. ↑ G. Niebsch: International Symposium "Problems of cribs". In: The health professions. 1967, 4, p. 157 ff.
  45. ↑ Ordinance on the instruction and admission of infants and young children in day nurseries and permanent homes. Law Gazette Part I No. 20, Berlin April 30, 1973.
  46. ↑ Order on the tasks and working methods of day nurseries and permanent homes for infants and toddlers. Law Gazette Part I No. 36, Berlin August 13, 1973.
  47. ^ The health system of the GDR. Berlin 1965–1990.
  48. ↑ Jens Plückhahn: Permanent homes for infants and toddlers in the GDR from the perspective of attachment theory . Diploma thesis FH Potsdam, Potsdam 2012, p. 50 ff .; Federal Archives Berlin-Lichterfelde - Ministry of Health of the GDR BArch DQ 1/13585; BArch DY 30 / JIV 2 / 3-084; BArch DQ 1/1374; BArch DC 20 / I / 3/417 u. at the
  49. ↑ Information on services provided by the Home Education Fund in the GDR from 1949 to 1990
  50. ^ B. Leiber, M. Radke, M. Müller: Das Baby-Lexikon. ABC of early childhood. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 2001.
  51. ^ RA Spitz: From infant to toddler. Natural history of mother-child relationships in the first year of life. 5th edition. Klett-Verlag 1976.
  52. ^ R. Spitz: Hospitalism: An Inquiry into the Genesis of Psychiatric Conditions in Early Childhood. In: The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child. 1 1945, pp. 53-74.
  53. ^ R. Spitz: Hospitalism: A Follow-Up Report. In: The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child. 2 1946, pp. 313-342.
  54. ^ HM Skeels: Children with inferior histories: Their mental development in adoptive homes. In: Journal of General Psychology. 72, 1948, pp. 283-294.
  55. ↑ HM Skeels: A Study of Differential Stimulation on Mentally Retarded Children. In: American Journal of Mental Deficiency. 66, 1942, pp. 340-350.
  56. ^ HM Skeels: Adult status with children with contrasting early life experiences. In: Monography Social Research Child Development. 31, No. 105, 1966.
  57. ↑ J. Mládková: children's homes in the Czech Republic. ( Memento of May 17, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) european radionetwork June 19, 2010.
  58. ^ Children in Need - Burkina Faso. ( Memento from February 17, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Caritas Innsbruck project.
  59. ↑ The Consequences of Isolation. Romanian orphans , issue 51, Zeit online Gesundheit 2012
  60. ↑ Simm, M .: Foster parents for child welfare. Education , Der Tagesspiegel Wissen January 17, 2008
  61. ^ Science, Volume 318, page 1937
  62. ↑ Persistent stress in small children still makes adults sick, Wolfgang Bergmann Foundation Initiative October 1, 2013
  63. ^ JE Carrol: Childhood abuse, parental warmth, and adult multisystem biological risk in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults study, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), 23 Sept. 2013
  64. ↑ Projects for the individual processing of the home experience
  65. ^ Final report of the Fund for Home Education and a statement by the Federal Government
  66. ↑ Cronica Salimbenis, scan of the complete text based on the edition by Ferdinando Bernini, 1942 (Latin)
  67. ↑ Herodotus: Histories. Book II. 2
  68. ↑ Feix, J .: Herodotus Historien . First volume, 4th edition, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft Darmstadt 1988
  69. ↑ Wolfgang Stürner: Friedrich II. Part 2: Der Kaiser 1220-1250. Primus-Verlag, Darmstadt 2000, ISBN 3-89678-025-5 , p. 449.
  70. ↑ Nurse. In: Institute for Sexual Research (Ed.): Bilderlexikon der Erotik. Volume I, Vienna 1931.
  71. ↑ D. Stefanović: Göttinger Miscellen. 216 (2008), pp. 79-90.
  72. ↑ Gen 35.8. The Hebrew word מֵינֶ֣קֶ simply means "the breastfeeding woman". Other places: Gen 24,59; Ex 2,7 (the infant Moses); 2 Kings 11: 2; 2nd Chr 22.11; Isa 49:23.
  73. ↑ Records of the Police Prefect Lenoir, 1780 Paris: 21,000 births, 1,000 of which were breastfed by their own mothers, 1,000 from housewives, 19,000 from wet nurses who mostly lived as peasants in the countryside.
  74. ^ Czechs in Vienna. In: dasrotewien.at - Web dictionary of the Viennese social democracy. SPÖ Vienna (ed.); Retrieved November 12, 2009
  75. ↑ See William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet .
  76. ↑ Nurse. In: Institute for Sexual Research (Ed.): Bilderlexikon der Erotik. Vol. I, Vienna 1931.
  77. ^ Z. Eriksson: Acta Pediatrica. Volume 4, Issue Supplement S1, April 1925, pp. 7-18.
  78. ↑ Maximilian Rieländer: Social Orphans - Small Children Without Family, Effects of Hospitalism. For a magazine of the “Society for Social Orphans” e. V. (GeSo). In: heimkinder-ueberlebende.org. 1982, accessed August 2, 2013 .
  79. ↑ Markus Meumann: Foundlings, orphanages, infanticide: Unserved children in early modern society. Wissenschaftsverlag Oldenbourg, 1995, ISBN 3-486-56099-9 , p. 180 f.
  80. ^ Notker Hammerstein, Christa Berg: Handbuch der deutschen Bildungsgeschichte . CH Beck, 2005, ISBN 3-406-32464-9 , p. 430/31.
  81. ↑ Mordecai Naor: Eretz Israel. Könemann, Cologne 1998, ISBN 3-89508-594-4 , p. 51.
  82. ↑ The city of Hameln and its Jews. on: juedische-geschichte-hameln.de
  83. ↑ Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi: Collective education and personality development: results of the kibbutz experiment. In: Werner Fölling, Maria Fölling-Albers (Ed.): Life in the Kibbutz. Giessen 2002, pp. 41-55.
  84. ↑ J.-U. Albig: The kidnapped children. In: Australia. GEO EROCHE 2009, No. 36, pp. 140 ff.