Religious Sisters in Eastern Switzerland in the 20th Century

To ensure their continued existence, women's convents founded social-charitable institutions in the 19th century. Thus, the private girls' school of the Dominican convent St. Katharina in Wil or that of the Capuchin convent Maria der Engel in Appenzell were founded. A total of 46 Catholic sisters' communities were active in social institutions in eastern Switzerland. For many single women, the basic motivation for joining a religious community was not primarily religious practice, but the opportunity to receive an education and pursue a profession. Esther Vorburger-Bossart traces this "professional identity" in her study and examines the functioning and success of the congregational model, especially with regard to the tension between the individual and the collective. In doing so, she analyzes the mutual influence of religion u.