Selma Countess von der Gröben

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Selma von der Groeben, 1878

Countess Selma Tusnelda Wilhelmine Karoline von der Gröben (born November 8, 1856 in Potsdam , † October 13, 1938 in Hanover ) was a German philanthropist , women's rights activist in the bourgeois denominational women's movement and a pioneer of social work . She was the second chairwoman of the German-Evangelical Women's Association , co-founder of prison welfare and the Christian-Social Women's School in Hanover. She belonged to the first generation of women who significantly smoothed the transition from poor relief to social issues .

Life

Childhood and youth

Selma Tusnelda Wilhelmine Karoline came from the old Brandenburg noble family von der Gröben . Her parents were Count Georg Reinhold von der Gröben , a cavalry general and member of the Prussian manor house , and Countess Elisabeth von der Gröben (née Countess zu Münster -Ledenburg ). She was the oldest of four daughters and grew up with her family on the family estate in Neudörfchen near Marienwerder . She received private tuition from governesses and foreign carers . As a teenager she lived with her sister in Weimar for some time , where she received musical training from the well-known court singers Rosa von Milde-Agathe and Hans Feodor von Milde . When her father died in 1894 and the family did not inherit anything because there were no male descendants, Groeb's mother moved with her still unmarried daughters to Hanover, the home of her own family.

Denominational women's movement and social work

In 1900 Selma von der Gröben became involved for the first time in the German Evangelical Women's Association (DEFB, since 1969 DEF), which had been founded a year earlier at the Evangelical Women's Day in Kassel . There she worked closely with Paula Müller-Otfried and Adelheid von Bennigsen and took over the chairmanship of the DEF local group in Hanover from 1901 to 1910, since Mueller, who previously held him, was elected federal chairman. In 1910 she was appointed Deputy Chairwoman of the DEF by Paula Mueller.

General Assembly of DEF in Stralsund, 1927 first row, second from left: Selma von der Gröben; standing at the desk: Paula Müller-Otfried ; third from the right: Adelheid von Bennigsen ; second from right: Auguste Jorns

The three pillars of the association: women's movement , religion and social policy were also decisive guiding principles for the countess. She played an important role for the German-Evangelical Women's Association due to the extensive legal competence she acquired in self-study on the legal situation of women and children. So put their main area of work in the confessional women's movement , the care for girls and women represent. First, she was active as a member of the municipal orphanage Council for a more adequate care of orphan girls , gaining further Waisenrätinnen and finally theoretical for the development and practical training for Waisenrätinnen.

Later, she increasingly campaigned for so-called vulnerable young girls and women, including a. for prostitutes and socially stigmatized women. This activity was often found offensive by the bourgeoisie and aristocratic circles, as one came into contact with people who had "stumbled". Despite all the criticism, she continued her work. In 1903 she and friends founded a refuge for single pregnant women in an empty factory building. After a few years, the supply house had already established itself and from 1912 onwards it was expanded into a large, well-equipped maternity and infant home in Hannover-Kleefeld , which was finally taken over by an elderly care association in 1988 and converted into a care facility .

She also succeeded in hiring a welfare worker at the prison - an absolute novelty at the time - who, according to her instructions, visited women imprisoned for prostitution, won her trust and helped them find an honest job after their release. This represented an important intermediate step towards the full professionalization of female social work .

She sums up her commitment to the welfare of the endangered , which was part of the so-called morality movement , in her contribution " Our Struggle for Moral Purity " published in 1929 on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the DEF as follows:

“ As long as the earth exists, we fear that the moral struggle will never come to rest. For us, that doesn't mean giving up and laying our hands cowardly on our laps - on the contrary. [...] 'God wants it', is also for us above this crusade . - Due to the time situation, the fall of the regulations and the entry into force of the law to combat sexually transmitted diseases , work and struggle have not become superfluous [...], they have only changed. Nevertheless, great things have been achieved: Nobody can refer to it with unscrupulous carelessness: the state protects 'the necessary evil'. He did it. In doing the same, he ostracized the woman and gave the man all honors. […] The struggle for moral purity has now penetrated families that were otherwise considered to be protected. [...] The changing conditions of a great turning point make the relationship between the younger and older generations more difficult. The eternal moral laws are confused by the older generation with changing external forms, while the younger generation, in their inexperience, often attacks the eternal and reverently declares it obsolete [...]. [...] This is where the most difficult tasks for German Protestant women lie. - In view of the great immoral needs of our time: housing shortage , unemployment and their consequences, we want to faithfully use all means at our disposal [...]. When we do this, we know and experience what is so often forgotten: a real moral improvement of our people can only come from within, through the return to the highest authority, to God. "

So the DEF sat down by the Gröben for future membership in the Association of German Women's Associations (BDF) (1908), a what they called the reaction " of some leading women moderate direction [considered], the around the radical wing with his request to lift §§ 217ff. of the Criminal Code (punishment of abortion ) to vote down. [...] "

In 1905, the Countess, together with Paula Mueller and Adelheid von Bennigsen, helped found the Christian-Social Women's School in Hanover, one of the first training centers for social workers in Germany , which later became part of the Protestant University of Applied Sciences in Hanover as part of the university reform . Since 2007 this has been a faculty of the University of Hanover . Von der Gröben also vigorously tackled the problem of homelessness among women, so that in 1906 a dormitory for women was built in Hanover for the first time.

Her biographer and at the same time leading figure of the first wave of the German women's movement , Gertrud Bäumer , writes about Selma von der Gröben and her commitment to women at risk:

“ When Selma Gröben said to the youth in 1912: 'Don't turn your gaze away from suffering, captivating yourself into your own small circle; Just look boldly out into the world, yes deep into misery, injustice and guilt! ' - there she herself stood in the middle of the dark flood for years ”.

In 1910, at the suggestion of Paula Mueller, the Countess became second chairwoman of the DEF, as she increasingly appears as one of the leading figures of the association and of the conservative women's movement . In 1913, together with Paula Mueller, she founded the Association of Conservative Women (VKF), which acted as a political counterweight to liberal and socialist women's positions and a. positioned against women's suffrage .

First World War and Weimar Republic

Selma Countess von der Gröben (around 1930)

During the First World War , she took over the management of all welfare measures for war women and their children in Hanover as part of the National Women's Service , headed by Gertrud Bäumer . Her staff comprised more than 200 employees. After the war she fell into a deep depression and became seriously ill. Because the war defeat and the subsequent profound political and social consequences (cession of territory in Prussia , social democratic leadership, inflation , social loss of importance of voluntary work ) had had a lasting negative effect on her life. In 1921, due to her physical exhaustion, she finally resigned the second chairmanship of the DEF, but remained associated with the association as an honorary chairman and honorary member until her death.

National Socialism

Compared to that of Adolf Hitler and Nazi ideologues to the beginning of the war promoted the role of women , which devalued the intrinsic value of woman and she firmly put fully on her role as a mother, housewife and wife, the Countess behaved extremely critical. Like many other conservative women, however, she was positive about the political views of the NSDAP and its “patriotic sentiments”. Your later positioning in relation to the Nazi state remains open; she died in 1938, before the outbreak of World War II .

literature

  • German-Evangelical Women's Association (1929): 30 years of the German-Evangelical Women's Association - DEFB, self-published by the German-Evangelical Women's Association, Hanover
  • Bäumer, Gertrud (1939): Countess Selma von der Gröben , in: Die Frau, 46th year, 1938–1939, pp. 71–77
  • Bäumer, Gertrud: Women of Action - Shape and Change, Tübingen 1959 . Peter Graf vd Groeben: The Counts and Barons vd Groeben, 1978; Hugo Rasmus: Life pictures of West Prussian women in the past and present, Münster 1984. Gotha Gräfliche Häuser part A 1940.
  • Manfred Berger : Gröben, Selma Tusnelda Wilhelmine Karoline von der, Countess , in: Hugo Maier (Ed.): Who is who of social work . Freiburg: Lambertus, 1998 ISBN 3-7841-1036-3 , p. 214f.
  • Berger, Manfred (2003): GRÖBEN, Selma , in: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL), Volume 11, Sp. 556-563, viewed online at: GRÖBEN, Selma ( Memento from June 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), status : June 24, 2004
  • Gröben, Countess Selma von der (1929): Our struggle for moral purity , in: Mueller-Otfried, Paula (Ed.): 30 years of the German-Evangelical Women's Association, Hanover, pp. 24-27
  • Kuhn, Halgard (2005): The foundation of the Christian-Social Women's School (CSF) , in: Krause, U./Kuhn, H./Exner, H. (Ed.): Responsibility for helping to shape the social in society. Festschrift for the establishment of the Christian-Social Women's School of the German Evangelical Women's Association (DEF) a hundred years ago, Hanover
  • Otte, Hans (2005): Selma Gräfin von der Gröben (1856-1938) , in: Mager, Inge (Ed.): Frauenprofile des Luthertums. Life stories in the 20th century, Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh, pp. 47–64
  • Rothig, Friede (1961): Countess Selma von der Gröben. 1856-1938 - A sheet of memory , in: Neue Evangelische Frauenzeitung, vol. 1961, vol. 5, pp. 99-102
  • Schröder, Hiltrud (Ed.) (1990): Sophie & Co. Significant Women of Hanover , Hanover, p. 237
  • Suchting-Hänger, Andrea (2002): The "conscience of the nation". National engagement and political action of conservative women's organizations 1900–1937, Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c cf. Berger 1998, pp. 214f.
  2. ↑ cf. Otte 2005, p. 47
  3. ↑ cf. Otte 2005, p. 48
  4. ↑ cf. Schröder 1990, p. 237
  5. ↑ a b cf. Berger 2003
  6. ↑ cf. Otte 2005, p. 51
  7. ↑ cf. Kuhn 2005, p. 42
  8. ↑ cf. German-Evangelical Women's Association 1929, p. 100
  9. ↑ a b c cf. Rothig 1961, p. 100
  10. ↑ cf. Groben quote. in Otte 2005, p. 47
  11. ↑ cf. Otte 2005, p. 50
  12. ↑ cf. Berger 1998, p. 215
  13. ↑ a b cf. Schmücker in Berger 2003
  14. ↑ See archived copy ( memento of the original dated November 14, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; accessed: May 2, 2012 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.altenpflegeverein-hannover.de
  15. ↑ cf. Otte 2005, p. 54
  16. ↑ Gröben 1929, p. 26f.
  17. ↑ Gröben 1929, p. 26
  18. ↑ cf. Berger 1998. pp. 214f.
  19. ↑ cf. Otte 2005, p. 53
  20. ↑ Bäumer 1939, p. 73
  21. ↑ cf. Berger 2003; see. Otte 2005, p. 56
  22. ↑ a b cf. Otte 2005, p. 56
  23. ↑ a b cf. ibid.
  24. ↑ cf. Otte 2005, p. 61f.
  25. ↑ cf. Groben quote. in Otte 2005, p. 59f .; see. also Suchting-Hänger 2002, p. 349f.
  26. ↑ cf. Otte 2005, p. 59f.
personal data
SURNAME Gröben, Selma Countess von der
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gröben, Countess Selma Tusnelda Wilhelmine Karoline von der (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German philanthropist, women's rights activist
DATE OF BIRTH November 8, 1856
PLACE OF BIRTH Potsdam
DATE OF DEATH October 13, 1938
Place of death Hanover