Children’s home – red help: heart for needy

Meschdunarodnaja Organazija Pomoschi Borzam Revoljuzij – that is literally translated: International aid organization for the fighters of the revolution, abbreviated mop. The international red help (IRH), according to the common name in German, was founded in Moscow in 1922 on the initiative of the Communist International. Already two years later there were 19 national branches in Europe as well as in the USA and Mexico.

In the fall of 1924, the Central Committee of the IRH decided, whose primary goal was to support political prisoners to set up a children’s home, if possible in Germany. This should be “in an idyllic location” so that (especially) workers’ children can “find real recreation in the great outdoors”. After the Barkenhoff in Worpswede near Bremen in Lower Saxony, people also found what they were looking for in the Thuringian Elgersburg. At that time, the place had 1400 inhabitants, of which 350 members of the KPD were. The party had a safe majority in the local council. In particular, the KPD councilor Karl Hager and Mayor Albrecht Müller quickly drove the “Children’s Home” project.

Members of the Thuringian state government tried in vain to prevent the purchase of the house and property. On February 7, 1925, the »Villa Bauer«, named after its first owner, was acquired above Elgersburg. With great weeks and with great support from residents from Elgersburg and the surrounding area, the villa was converted. The first 30 protégés arrived at the beginning of April.

Despite the massive attempts by the state government to prohibit the opening ceremony, on April 12, 1925, Easter Sunday, “considerable crowds” to Elgersburg, as stated in a contemporary report. Coming from Geraberg, the music corps of the workers’ gymnastics clubs and the Red Front fighters led the train of almost 3000 people. Wilhelm Pieck had traveled from Berlin, member of the Prussian state parliament. Like him, the Secretary General of Germany, Jakob Schloer, and a Swedish representative of the Irh passed passionate opening speeches.

The so-called mop home, as it was called under the left, was entertained by donations and by many volunteers from Elgersburg and all of Germany. Some of the children, some of which were underrusted and medical and medically supervised, were given – some of them for the first time in their lives – food, clothing, medical care and lessons, as well as a lot of free time. The program was advised together with the children.

The first round of around ten weeks followed. There were around 200 children until the summer of 1926. The rush was large, so that in April 1926 there was an extension with bathrooms, play rooms and conference room. From the following year, Austrian and Bulgarian children also recovered here. Clara Zetkin, as chairwoman of the IRH, Albert Einstein, Kurt Tucholsky, Gustaf Gründgens and Heinrich Zille, were among the supporters of the project.

However, the political and financial possibilities were formed from 1927, reinforced by the global economic crisis. The number of children who could use the home decreased. Therefore, it was increasingly used for training and educational purposes of the Thuringian KPD. The state government took this as an opportunity in 1931 to revoke permission to accept children. In contrast, red help in court successfully defended itself. However, the end of the Nazis 1933. House and facility were confiscated. The Thuringian Ministry of the Interior left the Hitler Youth building for “free use”; From then on it was misused as a “HJ leader school”. During the Second World War, the property of the Navy was handed over and used for “naval children”.

After the end of the war, folk solidarity initially took over the house. Again, it was Hager and Schloer who campaigned for the (re) opening as a recreational recreation but also educational home. With success: From mid-1946, children of working mothers, whose fathers fell or were still captivated, came to the house again called the MOPR home. Soon afterwards, children were also looked after over longer periods whose parents or single mothers qualified professionally at home or abroad.

Workers’ children should find “real relaxation” in the wild.

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In 1949 the state management of the SED took over the house, in 1952 the SED district management Suhl. Three years later, when the number of children to be looked after, this decided to make the house a central recreation home for SED officials, later also for squads “friendly parties”. Rumors about extraordinary luxury. In the 1989 turning point, everyone who was interested could convince themselves that this was not true.

In June 1990, the house, now a training home and the public hotel, came under trusted supervision of the so -called independent commission to check the assets of the parties and mass organizations of the GDR. Although this, all revenues from rent and leasing, did not put any marks on the urgently needed maintenance and maintenance of the property. In 1995 there was a “comparison” between the PDS and the Federal Institute for “Special Special Editions”. The house was transferred to the PDS as one of only four of the approximately 1800 of the SED that belongs to the SED or managed by it as “perfectly under the rule of law”. On their behalf, the Vulkan Society for Property, founded in November 1991, manages the house, whose decline in the house has now been well advanced. After elaborate restoration and expansion measures, the house was reopened in 1998 as a “Hotel am Wald”. A lovingly furnished exhibition has been reminiscent of the eventful history of the house, in which the later GDR President Wilhelm Pieck had opened a children’s home of Red Aid exactly 100 years ago.

Further reading: Gerd Kaiser, “Home in an idyllic location” (Dietz-Verlag, 2010)