New findings about sexual violence in a Bavarian children’s home

A Protestant deacon becomes the director of a children’s home in the late 1960s. There he committed sexual violence on several occasions. A look at the files raises the question of why he was hired in the first place.

When Hermann Ammon thinks of the 1960s in Willmars, Lower Franconia, one word in particular comes to mind: “horror childhood.” For the first time he tells the story BR publicly about what he experienced here in the Protestant children’s home Nicolhaus. He tells of beatings and sexual assaults by the then director of the home, a Protestant deacon from the Stephansstift fraternity in Hanover.

“He was a person who terrorized children with joy,” Ammon remembers. He experienced this firsthand for two years. To date, the attacks in the home have not been dealt with – although the Bavarian Protestant Church recognized one of those affected in 2015.

The Bavarian regional church refers here to the differently distributed responsibilities. The Nicolhaus was in their area, the accused deacon was a member of a deacon community in Hanover, the Nicolhaus was an institution of the local deaconry association. “Unfortunately, our options are very limited.”

Noticeably frequent job changes

The Diakonie in Bavaria also does not see itself as having a duty, but rather the local provider. President Sabine Weingärtner says: “It was not our job as a regional association to research this case.” The local association, which is run by volunteers, was advised to investigate the case. Contemporary witnesses were interviewed there who confirmed the statements of those affected.

A request from Bavarian Radio at the Diakonie umbrella foundation in Hanover only brings details about the alleged perpetrator to light. There is a file about the deacon in an archive in Gifhorn.

What is striking is that the man often changed jobs and only worked in different functions for one or two years. And according to his file, he became abusive during his training to become a deacon, for example in an orphanage in Varel in Lower Saxony. He tried to approach children there in an unpleasant, intimate way, according to a letter from 1961 that is preserved in the archive.

The full extent remains unclear

These are not the only attacks documented in the files. Nevertheless, the deacon was allowed to complete his training and continued to work with children and young people until the 1980s. Among other things, he is a boarding school teacher in Herchen an der Sieg, and after his time in Willmars he runs a boarding school in Elsfleth in the Oldenburger Land.

The deacon’s other places of work are Salzgitter, Hamm and Garmisch-Partenkirchen. In the 1990s he left the deacon community, after which his trace was lost.

The full extent of the case – whether there are also those affected at other locations and how many actually – is still unclear. The question remains: could anyone in Willmars have known about the attacks in 1969, when the deacon was hired as director of the home?

Not a recommendation, but not a warning either

When the deacon applied in Willmars, they inquired about the applicant at two positions in Lower Saxony. Neither made any recommendations at the time, but neither did they expressly warn against him.

“Nobody talked about the sexual assaults,” says historian Steffen Meyer, who works at the Diakonie umbrella foundation in Lower Saxony. “But it was formally pointed out legally that he actually doesn’t meet the criteria to fill a home director position.” With the information he found in the files, the Bavarian plant should actually have been recommended not to take him on as facility manager, says Meyer.

Responsibility unclear

The deacon’s case shows what is described as “diffusion of responsibility” in the Protestant abuse study published at the end of January. It’s about the question of who takes responsibility, says the head of the ForuM study, Hanover professor Martin Wazlawik.

The federal government’s independent abuse commissioner, Kerstin Claus, emphasizes with regard to the Protestant Church: “Of course it is and must be the responsibility of the church and of those responsible in the church and diakonia to investigate and uncover.” It is important to clarify whether the crime complex has really ended.

You can find out more about this topic in the BR documentary “Evangelical abuse: looking away and keeping quiet” in the ARD media library.