German Teddy Foundation

The German Teddy Foundation was founded on September 28, 1998 in Bensersiel , part of the town of Esens in East Friesland . The purpose of the non-profit foundation is the immediate alleviation of threatening psychological trauma in children who are affected by accidents, disasters or the like or who have witnessed them, by giving these children a teddy bear as a comfort donor : Children in need should receive a teddy is the motto of the foundation .

history

The German Teddy Foundation was the German section of the 1969 US based Foundation Good Bears of the World (Good Bears of the World) launched. The donors in the USA were the American radio pioneer James Theodore Ownby, and the two British Colonel Robert Henderson and actor Peter Bull . Ownby founded the foundation after reading Peter Bull's book Bear with me , in which Bull described his passion for teddy bears and that he gave plush bears to comfort children in hospitals, to alleviate their loneliness and to give them love. The purpose of Good Bears of the World is to bring love and affection through teddy bears to children and the elderly in need of comfort. The foundation is still active today, meanwhile in several countries around the world.

Franz Andratzke, former head of the police inspection Wilhelmshaven - Friesland - Wittmund, in turn founded the German Teddy Foundation after a personal key experience that showed him how important a teddy bear can be for a child in coping with an impending psychological trauma. One evening in October 1997, Andratzke received a phone call from his office. He was told he had to come immediately because of the apparently failed kidnapping of a nine-year-old girl. Shortly before he left the house, his wife gave him a teddy bear of their daughter to give to the girl. When Andratzke appeared at the office, the atmosphere was extremely tense because of the incident. The child and parents were obviously in shock . Andratzke handed the teddy bear to the child, who was sitting in silence, and noticed within a very short time how it relaxed and was finally able to use the teddy bear to report on the incident. This made Andratzke aware of how important a soft toy is for coping with trauma in children and he decided to set up the German Teddy Foundation. Andratzke is still its chairman today. The German Teddy Foundation has been a member of the Federal Association of German Foundations since 2000 .

The teddybear

“Our bear is 28 cm tall and deliberately does not wear a police uniform, a doctor's coat or the clothing of a paramedic. The focus should be on the child in need and the bear as a symbol of love and affection [...] From 125 different teddy bears, several hundred children from Dutch kindergartens have chosen our bear as the most beautiful and appealing. "

- Description from the website of the German Teddy Foundation

An expert opinion confirms that the plush toy is free of harmful substances and allergens and was not made by child labor . Every delivery is therefore checked by TÜV Rheinland . The teddy is to be certified soon.

In 2016, two police students from the University of the Rhineland-Palatinate Police Department examined the psychological effect of a teddy on children in a bachelor thesis entitled Project Seelentösterteddy - Crisis Intervention in Children in the Police Service and came to the conclusion that the stuffed animal in an extraordinary stressful situation for the child was " Bridge builder ”between the child and the (partly uniformed) adults works by the teddy bear enabling or facilitating communication between child and adult.

The foundation is financed through donations, sponsoring and the direct sale of their teddy bears. It equips emergency vehicles of the police , fire brigade and rescue services as well as the emergency rooms of hospitals with teddy bears free of charge. Since the foundation was founded, more than 250,000 teddy bears have been given to children in need.

Teddies from the German Teddy Foundation are used in around 640 German locations, communities and districts. Since 2000, the teddy bears have had a slip of paper on which the children are asked to describe the circumstances under which they received their teddy bears, whether they gave it a name and whether it comforted them.

Web links

• German Teddy Foundation , official website of the foundation
• Teddies dry tears. Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe receives teddy bears for children in need on johanniter.de
• A bear as a comforter: 20 years of the Teddy Foundation , In: Hallo Niedersachsen , broadcast by NDR on September 1, 2018, on ardmediathek.de (video, 3:33 min.)
• Teddies as comforters: Conversation with Franz Andratzke , In: Mein Afternoon , broadcast by NDR on September 18, 2018, on ardmediathek.de (video, 11:01 min.)
• A teddy bear as a friend and helper from March 18, 2002 on welt.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Press release of July 13, 2006
2. ↑ Good Bears of the World official website
3. ^ Good Bears of the World , home page
4. ^ Board of the German Teddy Foundation
5. ↑ Paper dated December 8, 2016, submitted to the examination office of the Rhineland-Palatinate Police University .
6. ↑ 20 years ago the German Teddy Foundation was founded in the ancestral hall of the Esens town hall on esens.de

Remarks

1. ↑ The book title is a humorous play on words with bear . The English word can be understood here both as the noun for the animal bear , but also as part of the phrase Please, bear with me . Where to bear with someone / something , in the sense of someone or some leniency have to be translated.