Arbeiterwohlfahrt wants to work through the past of the children's sanatorium in Dorfen

Created: 04/18/2022, 09:00

By: Carl Christian Eick

The Buchenwinkel house in Dorfen, a district of Icking, used to be a children's convalescent home.

The workers' welfare organization is investigating whether abuse occurred there.

© Archive

The Arbeiterwohlfahrt researches possible abuses in his former children's homes.

This also includes the Buchenwinkel house in Icking.

Munich/Icking

– The Arbeiterwohlfahrt (AWO) in Bavaria wants to conduct a scientific study on abuse in their former children's sanatoriums.

This includes Haus Buchenwinkel in the Ickinger district of Dorfen, which today offers accommodation and care to adults with mental illnesses.

According to a press release from the Bavarian state association, it is part of the AWO's self-image to "clarify any mistakes of the past".

One wants to clarify the history of the former AWO children's sanatoriums in Stauffenhof (Bad Reichenhall), Klosterhof (Bayerisch-Gmain) and in Dorfen/Icking.

According to a statement by Arbeiterwohlfahrt, the reasons for the scientific work-up were the descriptions of physical and mental abuse in a former AWO facility and the public discussions about assaults in children's sanatoriums in general.

You can read the latest news from Icking here.

The historians Johannes Lang and Hermann Rumschöttel are to undertake the study of the history of the former children's sanatoriums.

For a complete picture, they are looking for eyewitnesses who have got to know the AWO homes from the inside.

The former Vice-President of the German Bundestag, Susanne Kastner, acts as the representative for the history of the children's sanatoriums of the Arbeiterwohlfahrt in Bavaria.

The house served various purposes after the end of the war

Today's Buchenwinkel house in Dorfen is a former estate that was built in the mid-1920s.

After the Second World War it was used in various ways, including Jewish emigrants and a children's sanatorium.

In 1951, the Bavarian AWO regional association took over the house and changed its use from a children's sanatorium to a children's convalescent home - which developed into a facility for children with educational difficulties.

From 1961 to 1983, the house was a convalescent home for mothers, sponsored by the workers' welfare organization.

From 1983, the "Daytop" therapy facility was located there until the animal protection association acquired the property.

Finally, AWO Munich bought the Buchenwinkel house again, renovated it and rented it to the project association, which has been running the housing project there since the beginning of 2007.

Witnesses of the AWO children's convalescent home can contact Susanne Kastner on 01 72/2 46 21 14 or by e-mail to kinderkurheime@awo-bayern.de.

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