page_title: Pestalozzi-Stiftung Hamburg
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Pestalozzi-Stiftung Hamburg / History
caption_attribution_description: Pestalozzi-Stiftung Hamburg in Billwärder
context_page_description: The Pestalozzi-Stiftung Hamburg is a social and charitable organization founded in 1847 in Hamburg, German Confederation. Over a period of more than hundred years, the organisation ran a children's foster home which changed its location several times within Hamburg. Constant adjustments have taken place over the last decades. Recently, the organisation has maintained facilities and projects in many parts of Hamburg and to a lesser extent in Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein. Its main goal is to provide support and counselling for children, youths and families. It also maintains day care facilities for children and facilities for adults with disabilities and mental illnesses. The organisation's work depends to a large extent on public funds and owns only a limited amount of capital assets which are not used for funding external projects. The Pestalozzi-Stiftung Hamburg appeals to the convictions of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi whose aim in education was "to strengthen the human being" and to move him to a point where he is "able to help himself". The organisation is based on the idea of offering people the means to attain the ability of "help to self-help".
context_section_description: The Pestalozzi-Stiftung Hamburg was founded on 12 January 1846. The idea to establish a charity foundation was born during the celebration of the 100 years commemoration in honour of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi. The charity was initiated by the Masonic' lodge "Zur Brudertreue". The intention was to provide support for orphan children whose parents lead a destructive or abusive lifestyle and in situations which show a degradation and hazard of the children's moral and physical state. The idea was to take the children out of their family and raise them as free-thinking human beings in an enlightened spirit based on Pestalozzi's ideas and methods. The charity created an aid organization in the form of a children's foster home which would take in neglected children when families could not care for them anymore.
  The first children's home was established on 8 August 1847 in Hamburg, in the district Billwerder and became a shelter for 32 children. In 1865 the foundation was laid for a new and bigger facility in the district Barmbeck (now Barmbek) on the Hufnerstraße. The number of places for children rose to 78. Due to the urban development of Hamburg, especially the construction of Barmbek station as well as the necessity for more space within the home, the children's home had to move to another location again. The new children's home which could take in 100 children was inaugurated on 29 August 1906, in the district Volksdorf. In 1930, the Pestalozzi-Stiftung Hamburg had to move another time to the district Ohlstedt, where a part of the facilities has been used as a residential home until today.
  During World War II, the director of the children's foster home, Elisabeth Schleuß and the chairman Hugo Poppe behaved restrained towards the prevailing political convictions, and that was noticeable in terms of the children's education. The attitude was reflected in the fact that there was no portraits of Hitler in the whole house. Furthermore, ideological ideas or songs which glorified the national consciousness or the fighting spirit of the army were not spread at any time in the children's home. In 1943 the imperial governor (Nazi Gauleiter) Karl Kaufmann arranged a confiscation of the main building so that the children's hospital of Rothenburgsort, which had been bombed and destroyed could be moved into the building of the children's foster home and the Pestalozzi children had to move out of their house. The children's home was saved from closing and could continue its work only under considerable restrictions with twenty out of forty children who were housed in the cramped accommodations of the adjoining building.
  After the war, in 1947, the Pestalozzi-Stiftung Hamburg received its property back and could again accommodate 40 children. Yet due to the monetary reform in 1948, the assets had become valueless, and the biggest part of the real estate had to be sold little by little for the maintenance of operation. Moreover, the following years were marked by financial and structural difficulties. Throughout the years, the charity has been changing its shape, and it has broadened its range of facilities in the field of child, youth and family services, as well as the care for people with handicaps.
  Over the years the concepts and practical offers have been developed due to historical and social changes and adjusted to the newly arising circumstances. Today the headquarters is settled in Hamburg, in the district St. Georg. The classical idea of a home for children has been converted into various regional facilities for children, youths, families and people with handicaps. The facilities are spread throughout the city of Hamburg, as well as the states of Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony.
caption: The Pestalozzi children´s foster home in "Billwärder" in Hamburg around 1850.
exif: {"Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "160", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6116"}