St. Josefshaus Wettringen

The St. Josefshaus Wettringen was a Catholic children's home near Wettringen in the Steinfurt district between 1902 and 2012 . It was initially sponsored by the Episcopal Foundation Haus Hall and, from mid-1965, by the St. Josefshaus Foundation, which still exists and which maintains the Josefsschule (special school for emotional and social development) on the spacious grounds. The bell tower, visible from afar, and the chapel of the complex are under monument protection .

St. Josefshaus, chapel building 2010

location

The St. Josefshaus is located in a park on the B 70 between Wettringen and Metelen .

history

Postcard from St. Josefshaus in Wettringen, photo taken around 1968

The house was built in 1902 as a small Catholic children's home in Dorfbauerschaft 30, near Wettringen, then still in the Burgsteinfurt district, in the province of Westphalia. The idea came from the first director, Pastor Anton Pröbsting from Wettringen, who wanted to give orphans and difficult-to-educate boys a home. He managed the St. Josefshaus from 1902 to 1932. At first the children's home consisted of a small wooden house, but more and more buildings were added in the following years. In 1927 a Catholic church was added, which is now the landmark of St. Josef's House. There were also Clement Sisters in the children's home who helped in everyday life and also with upbringing and providing food.

In earlier times, home education was primarily characterized by a kind of military drill. The children had to do hard physical field work for up to 14 hours. The penalties were severe. Those who ran away were locked up in the "express train" with their heads shaven. This was a prison-like cell block with heavy iron bars in front of the windows on the third floor under the roof of the old building. During the Second World War, there was also a military hospital for wounded soldiers from the front in the St. Josefshaus .

During many night bombing raids in 1943 and 1944, the residents of the reformatory had to spend hours in a small tube bunker on the grounds of the St. Josefhaus. The remains of the tubular bunker are still preserved today. However, the earth bunker was filled in in 1988 and is no longer accessible. During the Second World War, educators, teachers and Sisters of Clement also hid young people of Jewish faith in St. Josefshaus. As a result, all Jewish children survived the chaos of war.

Even after 1945, the teachers' authoritarian behavior and strict discipline continued to shape everyday life in the facility. As a result, the St. Josefshaus hit the headlines in 2010 in the course of the discussion about abuse in church institutions. With the student movement in 1968, these rigid structures in the children's and nursery schools slowly dissolved.

In 1976 six star-shaped group houses were built on the site. Military aircraft from Dreierwalde Air Base near Rheine used the church and the star-shaped houses as easily recognizable approach and orientation points during training flights by the Bundeswehr well into the 1980s.

The educational methods and pedagogical approaches from around 1980 onwards were democratic and increasingly pedagogical. In 1986 there were 187 boys, 75 educators, 5 house managers and numerous other employees in the administration wing, including psychologists, class teachers, social workers and craftsmen, who carried out repairs of all kinds in the house.

Between 1950 and 1990, the St. Josefshaus was the largest facility of its kind in North Rhine-Westphalia. Sometimes over 300 boys lived in St. Josefshaus. There was a cobbler's shop, carpenter's shop, sewing shop, gym, bowling alley, riding hall, locksmith's shop, gardening shop, bricklayer's shop, bakery, large kitchen, blacksmith's shop, laundry, library, doctor's room, riding stables with horses and a private outdoor pool with a large lawn on the site. In January 1987 the last Clemens sisters returned from the St. Josefshaus to the mother house in Dülmen.

The St. Josefshaus has been part of the Caritas Children's Home Society Rheine since 2003 . The Josefsschule (special school for emotional and social development), which has existed for many decades on the extensive grounds of the St. Josefshaus, is attended by around 160 boys and girls from the entire Steinfurt district . The Josefsschule is thus an important part of the special educational provision of the Steinfurt district. The students are encouraged in their personal and social environment and led to degrees from the secondary school and special school. Oliver Born and Pawel Peters have been running the Josefsschule since the 2018/19 school year.

The church in St. Josefshaus was profaned in 2009. From 2010 on, the demolition of the church and the 6 star-shaped houses were also under discussion due to decay. While the Wettringen municipal council decided to demolish the building, the preservation authorities intervened at the Westphalia-Lippe Regional Association and demanded that the church building be preserved. The church is a listed building. In 2015, Berthold Krümpel became the leaseholder of the building and initiated a conversion. In 2016 the artist community Wettringen was founded in the church in St. Josefshaus. Since then, its five members have lived and worked on the two lower floors of the building. The altar hall on the second floor has been used as the "Josefshaus Art Church" for art exhibitions and markets since 2017.

In 2012, the last residential group of the St. Josefhaus on the site closed for the time being. The Josefsschule on the site of the former St. Josefshaus Wettringen children's home is to be permanently retained as a modern special needs school. Since 2013 there has been an intensive living group on the site again, which can be assigned to the Caritas children's home in Rheine.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Contemporary witness from Wettringen: “The St. Josefshaus was a child's gym” , Westfälische Nachrichten, May 10, 2010
2. ^ Humiliated in the St. Josefshaus , Allgemeine Zeitung, March 16, 2010
3. ↑ Victim of abuse demands compensation  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Ruhr Nachrichten, June 16, 2010  
4. ^ Josefsschule: Born and Peters take over. Retrieved October 13, 2019 . 
5. ^ Church at St. Josefshaus is no longer a church , Dülmener Zeitung, March 26, 2009
6. ↑ Monument Office does not accept the council resolution on the demolition , Münstersche Zeitung, 31 August 2011
7. ^ Berthold Krümpel rents from Caritas , Münsterländische Volkszeitung, April 22, 2016
8. ↑ "The St. Josef House Wettringen Church has served the Wettringen artist community as a studio and exhibition house, place of activity, communication hub and place of inspiration since it was founded" , website of the Wettringen artist community (KGW), accessed on May 9, 2017
9. ^ Soest artists in Wettringen: All together, each individually , Soester Anzeiger, September 6, 2016
10. ↑ Start in the Kunstkirche Josefshaus , Münsterländische Volkszeitung, April 24, 2017
11. ↑ St. Josefshaus ( Memento of the original from January 14, 2012 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. 

Web links

• Website of the Josef School
• foerderverein-josefsschule.jimdo.com - Website of the Förderverein Josefsschule Wettringen e. V.

See also

• List of architectural monuments in Wettringen (Münsterland)
• List of profaned churches in the diocese of Münster

Coordinates: 52 ° 11 ′ 36.1 ″  N , 7 ° 17 ′ 46.7 ″  E