Theresia Albers

Theresia Albers

Theresia Albers (born August 5, 1872 in Dornheim (today to Schmallenberg ), † January 21, 1949 in Bredenscheid near Hattingen ) was a German teacher and founder of the order. The tasks of the religious order she founded have been taken over by the Theresia Albers Foundation since 1996 .

Life

After finishing school, Theresia Albers completed her teacher training from April 1887 to February 1891 at the St. Josephs Institute in Dingelstädt / Eichsfeld. She then went to the Meier-Bühlmeier estate near North Rheda as an educator and private teacher  . In 1894 she received the church permission to teach and worked in the orphanage of Oschersleben , from 1897 as a teacher at the local elementary school. In October 1900 she was transferred to Dortmund and used there in various church schools.

After moving to Dortmund , Albers joined the Third Order of St. Francis . Your plan to set up a worship order, was the outbreak of the First World War prevented. In 1919 she founded the association “Seraphische Caritas” with eleven sisters in Dortmund , which was dedicated to family care.

In 1920 the Seraphische Caritas in Bredenscheid (Hattingen district) bought a farm consisting of a burned-down farmhouse, a barn, a small bakery and a small mill in order to establish a home for girls who had left secondary school. After her retirement as an auxiliary school teacher, Theresia Albers also moved to Bredenscheid at the end of 1922. Theresie Albers founded Catholic schools in Sprockhövel, Bredenscheid and Holthausen.

Because of differences in the Seraphic Caritas , 18 sisters founded the association of the Caritas Sisters of the Divine Child Friend in 1926 , whose superior was Mother Theresa. In addition to the motherhouse in Bredenscheid, the sister community had several branches and built a retirement home in Hattingen. Theresia Albers died on January 21, 1949 in Bredenscheid.

Antoniusheim

On the farm bought in 1920, the buildings were repaired and a new home, the Antoniusheim, was built and inaugurated on September 14, 1924. There were initially three sisters and two men for agriculture. Less gifted girls, but also other people in need, moved in there.

In 1925 a legal dispute began with the previous owner, which ended in 1928 with an agreement. In 1926 the farm was transferred from the Seraphic Caritas to the new association of the Caritas Sisters of the Divine Child Friend . Because the farm was threatened with loss, the association bought another farm in 1927.

In 1930 the Antoniusheim was expanded, so that from now on around 40 less gifted girls could be accommodated there, who were placed by the district and welfare offices.

Theresia Alber's work with and for less gifted girls was in danger with the beginning of National Socialist rule in 1933 . The Nazi racial hygiene policy initially tried to exclude the mentally or physically handicapped from reproduction by means of forced sterilization . This also applied to the work in the Antoniusheim. Although the Catholic Church often tried to protect those affected, Theresia Albers could not prevent the sterilization of most of her protégés.

In 1942, the Antoniusheim also came under the spotlight of the “Reich Commissioner for Sanatoriums and Nursing Agencies” Herbert Linden and his authority, as can be seen from Theresia Albers' private letters. However, children were not transported from the home, which is not least due to Theresia Albers' skillful tactics, especially in the last phase of the war.

In the spring of 1944, Theresia Albers took a severely abused Ukrainian slave laborer in the Antoniusheim. The sisters nursed her until her death and, against initial opposition from the authorities, arranged for a church burial.

Towards the end of the war, many homeless and sick people had to be admitted to the Hattingen hospital. After the end of the war, life in the Antoniusheim only gradually returned to normal. Electricity was only restored in late autumn 1945; at the same time refugees were admitted.

After Theresia Alber's death, the Antoniusheim in Bredenscheid was expanded. Today the institutions of the order are administered by the Theresia Albers Foundation.

Caritas sisters from the divine child friend

The association of the Caritas Sisters of the Divine Child Friend was founded in 1926 with initially 16 sisters under the direction of Theresia Albers. On March 12, 1926, the community of sisters was recognized by the bishops. In May 1926, the legal form of a registered association was also given ( e.V .; Register of Associations No. 70 at the Hattingen District Court).

After the construction years, monastic life took on more conscious forms at the end of the 1920s, for example with the first novitiate in 1931. Over the years, the number of sisters grew significantly, so that Theresia Albers gradually founded around 30 branches and branches of her community. The sisters worked in various dioceses in parish pastoral care, in outpatient nursing, in sewing schools, in kindergartens and in care for the elderly.

Sisters to testify to the love of Christ

On March 24, 1962, the former auxiliary bishop of Paderborn, from January 1, 1958, bishop of the newly established Ruhr diocese of Essen, Franz Hengsbach , converted the association of the sisters of the divine childhood friend into a congregation under episcopal law with its own vows and confirmed the newly formulated rule. The sisters chose the new name Sisters for Testimony of Christ's Love .

Theresia Albers Foundation

As the community of sisters became smaller and smaller, they could no longer fulfill the tasks. In 1996 the Theresia Albers Foundation was established, which continues the Theresia Albers work. The sponsorship of the religious houses, initially the St. Josef retirement home in Hattingen and the Theresia house in Bredenscheid, are combined in this foundation. It now has four other houses targeting the sick, the elderly and the disabled. Mother Theresa is the model of the Theresia Albers Foundation .

Honors

On the 50th anniversary of Theresia Albers' death in 1999, the parish of Theresia Albers, Kirchrarbach , named the former parsonage and current parish home and community center “Theresia-Albers-Haus”. On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the St. Josef retirement home and the new construction of apartments suitable for the elderly (2008), Theresia-Albers-Strasse, decided by the city council of Hattingen, was also opened. For the 60th year of the death of mother Theresia Albers, the Hattingen artist Egon Stratmann created a stele out of glass and in 2011 the Kirchrarbach Heimat- und Geschichtsverein donated the Catholic Church. St. Lambertus parish a memorial plaque on the house where she was born in Dornheim . Efforts are currently being made to beatify Theresia Albers.

literature

• Alfred Bruns: Schmallenberg heads . Published by the Schmallenberg-Holthausen Slate Mining Museum. Slate Mining Museum Schmallenberg-Holthausen 1985, p. 24ff. ( Publications of the Slate Mining Museum on State History 6 (recte 7), ZDB -ID 2293376-1 ).
• Daniela Krein : Therese Albers. A farmer's daughter from the Sauerland . Lahn-Verlag, Limburg 1953.
• Daniela Kerin : Your life was love. Life and work of sister Theresia Albers . Butzon U. Bercker Verlag, Kevelaer 1964 (ND 2006), ISBN 3-7666-0763-4 .
• Martin Patzek (Ed.): Theresia Albers. Teacher and founder of the order . Bonifatius Druckerei, Paderborn 2007, ISBN 978-3-89710-380-1 .
• Sisters to the witness of Christ's love: Novena for the beatification of Mother Theresia Albers , Bonifatius, 2008, ISBN 3897104075
• Martin Patzek: Theresia Albers (1872–1942). Teacher and founder of the order . In: Jürgen Bärsch , Reimund Haas (ed.): Christians on the Ruhr . Volume 4. Aschendorff, Münster 2010, pp. 88-105.
• Martin Patzek: From a community of sisters to a foundation. Sisters to the testimony of Christ's love and the Theresia Albers Foundation in Hattingen-Bredenscheid . In: Reimund Haas , Stefan Pätzold (Hrsg.): Ordensleben in the Ruhr area. Bochum and Hattinger perspectives . Monsenstein & Vannerdat publishing house, Münster 2015, ISBN 978-3-95645-529-2 , pp. 59-78.
• Erika Richter: Theresia Albers - life and work. In: Heimat- und Geschichtsverein der kath. Kirchrarbach parish (ed.): Deeply rooted - widely branched . Life in the Henne and Rarbach valleys. Kirchrarbach 2012, ISBN 978-3-930264-96-4 , p. 757-768 .

See also

• List of Catholic women's orders

Individual evidence

1. ^ Hans-Josef Wollasch: Contributions to the history of the German Caritas in the time of the world wars. On the 100th birthday of Benedict Kreutz (1879–1949). Freiburg im Breisgau 1978, p. 206.
2. ↑ Orden-online.de: Sisters for the testimony of Christ's love
3. ↑ Frank Kühbacher: Coincidence brought you to Bredenscheid , on www.derwesten.de on January 19, 2009

Web links

• Sisters to testify to the love of Christ
• Theresia Albers
• Theresia Albers Foundation