Die vergessenen Säuglingsheime

The infant asylum is a forgotten institution of the two German states. More often than previously assumed, babies and toddlers were housed there during the post-war period, some for months or even years. The living conditions severely affected child development, which was soon described by contemporary psychological and psychoanalytic research as hospitalism. In the Federal Republic, these asylums were dissolved in the 1960s; in the GDR, these findings were initially acknowledged as well, but after the construction of the Wall in 1961, the authorities lost interest. Infant asylums existed there until 1989. The criteria for admission were not precisely defined, which gave the authorities considerable discretion, and the prevailing moral standards at the time had a significant impact. Often, it was children of single mothers, or those from sick or abusive parents, who ended up in the asylums. Because the affected individuals can hardly remember or only have limited recollections of their time in the asylums, Felix Berth reconstructs the living conditions in these institutions using archival material and contemporary scientific studies. Those affected share their experiences in interviews, expressing their current perspectives on their time in the asylum.