Walter Bärsch

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Felix Walter Bärsch (born October 26, 1914 in Weinböhla ; † January 7, 1996 in Hamburg ) was a German psychologist , special education teacher and educational scientist .

Life and work

Walter Bärsch was the son of Felix Bärsch and his wife Anna, née Rosenberger. He had a sister. His father worked as a lathe operator . From 1921 to 1929 he attended a newly founded elementary school in Weinböhla that was oriented towards reform pedagogy. Allegedly due to insufficient learning success, Bärsch switched to an auxiliary school for a short time . On his own initiative, he managed to switch to a secondary school in Dresden , which he graduated with the final exam in 1935. He then studied pedagogy at the Dresden University for Teacher Training until 1937. From August 1937 to May 1938 he taught at elementary schools in Dresden and in 1938 became an assistant at the university that had previously attended. Bärsch studied psychology and philosophy at the Technical University of Dresden .

Bärsch had been a member of the Stahlhelm since he was 18 . In 1933 he joined the SS , in which he reached the rank of Untersturmführer in 1939 . In 1934 he joined the NSDAP and took part in several Nazi party rallies. In 1937 he became a member of the National Socialist German Student Union and participated there as a student and old man leader. In 1939, his SS group leader stated that his position on the National Socialist worldview was "clear and unambiguous". Bärsch hid these memberships for life. They only became known after his death. The pedagogue failed to come to terms with his past.

During the Second World War , Bärsch served in the navy from 1940 to 1945. During the winter semesters 1942/43 and 1943/44 he was given leave to teach at the University of Prague as a lecturer. The professor with whom Bärsch had studied in Dresden was also located there. Bärsch himself stated that he received his doctorate in psychology in Prague in 1943. Despite extensive research, there is no evidence of this. After the end of the war he passed the second state examination for teaching at elementary and secondary schools. He then worked for private companies. Since he wanted to work as a teacher, he applied for denazification in February 1949 . Since he withheld his previous activities, the procedure ended with a classification in the category "five" (harmless).

In April 1949, Bärsch got a job at the elementary school in Borsteler Chaussee in Groß Borstel . In 1959 he went to a special school for behavioral disorders, which was located first on Bülaustraße, then on Hinrichsenstraße. In 1960 he became the deputy principal and three years first principal. In 1967 the school authorities handed over the management of the Hamburger Schülerhilfe to Bärsch and three years later appointed him to the post of high school council in the school office. In this position he was responsible for the school design. In 1977 the University of Hamburg appointed him to a professorship for psychological and sociological aspects of the education and rehabilitation of the disabled in the Department of Education, Special Education Committee. Bärsch taught here until his retirement in 1983.

Bärsch was married three times. He died in Hamburg in January 1996.

Volunteering

In addition to his professional activity, Bärsch volunteered and expanded this in retirement. From 1966 to 1980 he was a member of the main board of the Education and Science Union . He was chairman of the associated federal arbitration commission from 1980 to 1996. He was a member of the study commission to assess the situation of psychiatry in Germany and was a member of the board of the German Society for Addiction Research and Addiction Therapy . Bärsch, who left the church in 1942 and later rejoined the church, was also involved in the church. Since the mid-1960s he worked in the synod of the church district Alt-Hamburg and after its dissolution after 1979 in the North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church .

Bärsch campaigned for the rights of children and young people. He has written more than 40 scientific papers and publications and gave numerous speeches. From 1981 to 1991 he was President of the German Child Protection Association , then Honorary President of the association until the end of his life. Bärsch was of the opinion that children should always be treated on an equal footing with adults. He repeatedly criticized abuses in social and societal areas to which children are exposed. In his function as the association president of the Child Protection Association, he pleaded for the post of child protection officer to be set up. This should be settled at the federal level in order to be in politics and the public for children's rights.

When it came to questions about drug prophylaxis and addiction therapy, experts and the public saw Bänsch as an outstanding specialist. He always stood up for young people and sometimes acted criminally. He brought people at risk into his household instead of immediately contacting their parents and the responsible authorities.

From 1970 he belonged to the committee for special education and from 1970 developed proposals for the education commission of the Standing Conference. In 1973 the recommendations for the support of disabled children were adopted. Bärsch had a lasting influence on discussions about children's rights and the promotion of the disabled, which were conducted in educational and socio-political circles. He was seen as personally convincing and able to communicate.

In 2013, the scientist Franz Walter found out that Bärsch had been a founding member and until 1994 a member of the Humane Sexualität working group . During this time, the association published several papers in which authors clearly represented pedophile positions. The President of the Child Protection Association, Heinz Hilgers , who was in office in 2013 , stated that he did not know anything about it. Rumors that Bärsch was forced to resign from his post as President of the Child Protection Association in 1994 because of this membership, he could not understand. If the allegations were correct, “his work must be completely reassessed”, said Hilgers about Bärsch in December 2013. The Göttingen Institute for Democracy Research then examined the processes and came to the conclusion in 2015 that demands pedophiles for unpunished sexual intercourse between children and Adults had found supporters in the Kinderschutzbund in the 1980s. Official decisions, for example to approve of sexual intercourse between children, were never made. The institute did not want to assess the role of Walter Bärsch at this point in time, especially since essential files on the Humane Sexuality study group were missing.

Honor

Since 2000 the Walter-Bärsch-Weg in Groß Borstel has been remembering the pedagogue who died in 1996. After Bärsch's National Socialist past became known, the renaming of the street was examined by the Hamburg Senate.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.dws-xip.pl/reich/biografie/numery/numer239.html
  2. ↑ School under the swastika / Nazi biographies (34) Findings about a distinguished colleague , August 2017 (pdf.)
  3. ↑ Pedophilia in the Kinderschutzbund Fr-online.de from September 11, 2013. Accessed on August 24, 2015
  4. ↑ Great understanding of pedophilia in the Kinderschutzbund Deutschlandradio Kultur on May 15, 2015. Accessed on August 24, 2015
  5. ^ Walter-Bärsch-Weg before renaming in February 2019
personal data
SURNAME Bärsch, Walter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bärsch, Felix Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German psychologist, special education teacher and educational scientist
DATE OF BIRTH October 26, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Weinböhla
DATE OF DEATH January 7, 1996
Place of death Hamburg