Photos of children in the home © Armin Weigel
Former home children and staff report "very bad memories" of "violent and derogatory behavior". Reason for the Carmelite Sisters to have the accusations against the Ludwigsburg children's home investigated.
The Order of Carmelite Nuns is having allegations of violence and neglect in a Ludwigsburg children's home comprehensively investigated by the Munich-based Institute for Practice Research and Project Consulting (IPP). As the head of the house Edith Riedle explained this Friday in Ludwigsburg, the study should be available in the summer of 2021.
Institute collects reports
Following an appeal, around 30 people had contacted the IPP and reported on their experiences. According to the order, an allegation of sexual abuse made in the media by a priest in a confessional falls under the jurisdiction of the Rottenburg-Stuttgart diocese and will be dealt with there. The home has been closed for 27 years.
In the first report now published, the IPP lists allegations of unfortunate experiences from the 1960s to the 1980s. Home children and staff overwhelmingly expressed "very bad memories". Literally it says: "Representations of unloving and also violent as well as degrading behavior determine the bulk of the narratives."
Mental and physical cruelty
The IPP speaks of structural violence, psychological violence, neglect and physical violence. The home had not fulfilled its care and protection mandate. This evaluation is not only valid according to today's standards, but also according to those before 1975. In Ludwigsburg-Hoheneck human rights and human dignity had been disregarded.