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“Unashamed of the Gospel”: Johann Hinrich Wichern and the Battle for the Soul of Prussian Prisons1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2009

Albert Wu
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Extract

On August 23, 1859, a death occurred in the prison at Moabit, a largely working-class neighborhood in Berlin that housed the largest penitentiary of its time. An inmate named Jacobi attacked and wounded a fellow inmate, forcing the prison warden, Kügler, and the prison supervisor, Brother Anton, to intervene. When Jacobi showed no signs of calming down, Kügler and Anton tried to force Jacobi into a straitjacket. During the struggle, Kügler shot and killed the inmate.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 78 , Issue 2 , June 2009 , pp. 283 - 308
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 2009

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References

2 A full account of the incident can be found in “Kreisschwurgericht zu Berlin. Sitzung vom 16. Dezember 1859,” in Preußische Gerichtszeitung 1:57 (1859): 3–4.

3 Oldenberg, Friedrich, Johann Hinrich Wichern: Sein Leben und Wirken, bd. II (Hamburg: Agentur des Rauhen Hauses, 1887), 285Google Scholar.

4 Shanahan, William O., German Protestants Face the Social Question: The Conservative Phase 1815–1871 (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1954), 299Google Scholar.

5 Rothman, David J., The Discovery of the Asylum: Social Order and Disorder in the New Republic (Boston: Little Brown, 1971; reprint with new introduction, 1990)Google Scholar. Rothman's new introduction in the 1990 reissue edition of The Discovery of the Asylum, xiii–xliv, maps out the historical landscape well. Another good overview of the historiography of prisons can be found in Nutz, Thomas, “Global Networks and Local Prison Reforms: Monarchs, Bureaucrats and Penological Experts in Early Nineteenth-Century Prussia,” German History 23:4 (October 2005): 431–460CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 Foucault, Michel, Surveiller et punir: naissance de la prison (Paris: Gallimard, 1975)Google Scholar.

7 For the English case, see Ignatieff, Michael, A Just Measure of Pain: The Penitentiary in the Industrial Revolution, 1750–1850 (New York: Pantheon, 1978)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; for the French case, see O'Brien, Patricia, The Promise of Punishment: Prisons in Nineteenth-Century France (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1982)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The best synthetic work on the German case is Krause, Thomas, Geschichte des Strafvollzugs. Von den Kerkern des Altertums bis zur Gegenwart (Darmstadt: Primus Verlag, 1999)Google Scholar. A general overview of the history of prisons from ancient times to the present is Morris, Norval and Rothman, David J., ed., The Oxford History of the Prison: The Practice of Punishment in Western Society (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998)Google Scholar.

8 Christian Smith, “Introduction: Rethinking the Secularization of American Public Life,” in The Secular Revolution: Power, Interests, and Conflict in the Secularization of American Public Life, ed. Christian Smith (Berkeley: University of California Press), 1.

9 Smith, “Introduction,” in The Secular Revolution, 1–2.

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12 Gross, Michael B., The War Against Catholicism: Liberalism and the Anti-Catholic Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Germany (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2004), 23CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Gross provides an excellent historiographical overview of the literature on German liberalism in his introduction.

13 Christopher Clark, “Re-Reading the 1850s: The European Revolution in Government,” unpublished paper presented 27 November 2006 at the Institute for European Studies, University of California, Berkeley. Clark cites the recent work of Richard J. Evans, Abigail Green, and David Barclay as part of this attempt to recast Prussia as an innovative and dynamic governmental force.

14 There has been a large range of literature on the Kulturkampf. Some of the most important works are Sperber, Jonathan, Popular Catholicism in Nineteenth-Century Germany (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1984)Google Scholar; Anderson, Margaret L., Windthorst: A Political Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981)Google Scholar; Blackbourn, David, Class, Religion, and Local Politics in Wilhelmine Germany: The Centre Party in Württemberg before 1914 (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1980)Google Scholar.

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17 Berger, Thomas, Die Konstante Repression: Zur Geschichte des Strafvollzugs in Preussen nach 1850 (Frankfurt: Verlag Roter Stern, 1974), 38Google Scholar.

18 Berger, Die Konstante Repression, 103. For more exact figures, see Holtzendorff, Franz von, “Morbidität und Mortalität in den Gefängnissen,” Handbuch des Gefängnisswesens, vol. 2 (Hamburg: Verlag von J. F. Richter, 1888), 438–472, 456Google Scholar. The mortality rate from 1858 to 1863 in Prussian penitentiaries averaged 31.6 (deaths/1000), more than three times the mortality rate of the general population, which averaged about 10 (deaths/1000). To compare that in a contemporary perspective, the highest death rate in the world in 2006 was in Swaziland at 29.74 (deaths/1000). Germany in 2006 had a death rate of 10.62, while the United States had a death rate of 8.26: data taken from the CIA World Factbook, https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2066rank.html.

19 v. Holtzendorff, “Morbidität und Mortalität,” 456.

20 See Scheerer, Sebastian, “Beyond Confinement? Notes on the History and Possible Future of Solitary Confinement in Germany,” in Institutions of Confinement: Hospitals, Asylums, and Prisons in Western Europe and North America, 1500–1950, ed. Finzsch, Norbert and Jütte, Robert (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 349–361, 350Google Scholar. See also McGowen, Randall, “The Well-Ordered Prison,” in The Oxford History of the Prison: The Practice of Punishment in Western Society, ed. Morris, Norval and Rothman, David J. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 82Google Scholar.

21 Berger, Die Konstante Repression, 48.

22 Ibid., 49.

23 Ibid., 52.

24 Ibid., 51.

25 For a concise history of prison reform and its international “network,” see Nutz, “Global Networks and Local Prison Reforms.”

26 Julius, Nikolaus Heinrich, Vorlesungen über die Gefängnis-Kunde oder über die Besserung der Gefängnis und sittliche Besserung der Gefangenen, entlassenen Sträflinge usw. (Berlin, 1828)Google Scholar.

27 Scheerer, “Beyond Confinement?” in Institutions of Confinement, 352.

28 Julius, Nicholas Heinrich, Nordamerikas sittliche Züstande. Nach eigenen Anschauungen in den Jahren 1834, 1835 und 1836, 2 vol. (Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus, 1839)Google Scholar.

29 The best account of Frederick William IV and his reign is David Barclay's Frederick William IV and the Prussian Monarchy 1840–1861 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995).

30 The standard Wichern biography is Gerhardt's, MartinJohann Hinrich Wichern: Ein Lebensbild, 3 vols. (Hamburg: Agentur des Rauhen Hauses, 1927)Google Scholar. Another classic biography is by Oldenberg, Friedrich, Johann Hinrich Wichern: Sein Leben und Wirken, 2 vols. (Hamburg, Agentur des Rauhen Hauses, 1887)Google Scholar. Oldenberg was a contemporary of Wichern's and worked for the Rauhe Haus in Hamburg. The classic English account of Wichern's life is found in Shanahan, German Protestants Face the Social Question, 71–98.

31 Crowner, David and Christianson, Gerald, introduction to “Johann Hinrich Wichern,” in The Spirituality of the German Awakening (New York: Paulist Press, 2003), 229–241, 232Google Scholar.

32 Shanahan, German Protestants Face the Social Question, 76.

33 Dickinson, Edward Ross, The Politics of German Child Welfare from the Empire to the Federal Republic (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1996), 13Google Scholar.

34 Shanahan, German Protestants Face the Social Question, 78.

35 Wichern, Johann Hinrich, “Asyl in Glückstadt,” in Sämtliche Werke 6, edited by Meinhold, Peter (Berlin: Lutherisches Verlagshaus, 1973), 17Google Scholar.

36 Wichern, “Asyl in Glückstadt,” in Sämtliche Werke 6, 17.

37 Shanahan, German Protestants Face the Social Question, 83.

38 The standard history of the Inner Mission is Gerhardt, Martin, Ein Jahrhundert Innere Mission, 2 vols. (Gütersloh, 1948)Google Scholar.

39 Shanahan, German Protestants Face the Social Question, 81.

40 Klügel, Maria, Wichern: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Sozialpolitik (Berlin: Verlag des Evangelischen Bundes, 1940), 167Google Scholar.

41 Gerhardt, Ein Jahrhundert der Innere Mission, 52.

42 Bigler, Robert, The Politics of German Protestantism: The Rise of the Protestant Church Elite in Prussia, 1815–1848 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972), 262Google Scholar.

43 Shanahan, German Protestants Face the Social Question, 213.

44 Gerhardt, Johann Hinrich Wichern, 2:283–287.

45 Johann Hinrich Wichern, “Die Behandlung der Verbrecher in den Gefängnissen und der entlassenen Sträfline,” in Sämtliche Werke 6, 32.

46 Wichern, “Die Behandlung,” in Sämtliche Werke 6, 32–33.

47 Gerhardt, Johann Hinrich Wichern, 2:283–284.

48 Schäche, Wolfgang and Szymanski, Norbert, Das Zellengefängnis Moabit: Zur Geschichte einer Preussischen Anstalt (Berlin: Transit Buchverlag, 1992), 15Google Scholar. For a history of the Pentonville Prison, see Michael Ignatieff, A Just Measure of Punishment.

49 Krebs, Albert, “Die ‘Erste internationale Versammlung für Gefängnisreform, zusammengetreten September 1846 in Frankfurt am Main,’” in Festschrift für Günter Blau zum 70. Geburtstag am 18. Dezember 1985, edited by Schwind, Hans-Dieter et al. . (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1985), 641Google Scholar.

50 Wetzell, Richard, Inventing the Criminal: A History of German Criminology, 1880–1945 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000), 21–31Google Scholar.

51 Nutz, “Global Networks,” 440–441.

52 Ibid., 443.

53 Ibid.

54 Ibid.

55 Ibid.

56 Oldenberg, Johann Hinrich Wichern, 2:215.

57 Ibid., 2:216.

58 Wichern, “Separatvotum zu dem Kommissionsbericht über die neue Strafanstalt zu Moabit, die Durchführung des pennsylvanischen Systems daselbst und die in Moabit vorgekommenen Wahnsinnsfälle und Selbstmorde,” in Sämtliche Werke 6, 61.

59 Ibid., 63.

60 Ibid., 73.

61 Ibid., 75.

62 Nutz, Thomas, Strafanstalt als Besserungsmaschine. Reformdiskurs und Gefängniswissenschaft 1775–1848 (München: Oldenbourg 2001), 365–366Google Scholar.

63 Gerhardt, Wichern, 2:374; Oldenberg, Johann Hinrich Wichern, 2:225–226.

64 Gerhardt, Wichern, 2:375.

65 Wichern, “Gutachten über die Neuorganisation des Personals der Strafanstalt zu Moabit,” Sämtlicke Werke 6, 81.

66 Gerhardt, Wichern, 2:376.

67 Ibid., 2:377.

68 Nutz, “Global Networks,” 456.

69 Gerhardt, Wichern, 2:377; Oldenberg, Johann Hinrich Wichern, 2:226.

70 Gerhardt, Wichern, 2:404.

71 Berger, Die Konstante Repression, 148. See especially footnote 3.

72 Gerhardt, Wichern, 2:404–405.

73 Wichern, “Gefangenenfrage in der Geschichte und im Evangelium,” Sämtliche Werk 6, 100.

74 Sheehan, James, German History, 1770–1886 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), 863, 869–888Google Scholar. Holborn, Hajo, A History of Modern Germany: 1840–1945 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1959), 131Google Scholar.

75 Quoted in Sheehan, German History, 863.

76 Sheehan, James, German Liberalism in the Nineteenth Century (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978), 90Google Scholar.

77 See Barclay, Frederick William IV, especially chapter 4, “Monarchy and Religious Renewal, 1840–1850,” 75–98.

78 Barclay, Frederick William IV, 159. For more on the Camarilla, see Barclay, Frederick William IV, 153–184.

79 Gross, War Against Catholicism, 99–100.

80 For more on the Catholic revival of the post-1848 period, see Gross, War Against Catholicism, 29–73.

81 Gerhardt, Wichern, 3:199.

82 “Die Einzelhaft und die Brüder des Rauhen Hauses,” Kölnischen Zeitung, Beilage nr. 293, 22 October 1859, 4.

83 Ibid.

84 Gerhardt, Wichern, vol. 3, 204. “Violent antagonism” was Gerhardt's description, not Mommsen's.

85 Mittermaier, Karl Josef Anton, Der gegenwärtige Zustand der Gefängnißfrage mit Rücksicht auf die neuesten Leistungen der Gesetzgebung und Erfahrungen über Gefängnißeinrichtung mit besonderer Beziehung auf Einzelnhaft (Verlag von Ferdinand Enke, 1860), 38Google Scholar.

86 Gerhardt, Wichern, 3:200.

87 For a brief biography of Holtzendorff, see Riemer, Lars Hendrik, “Holtzendorff, Franz von,” in Riemer, Lars Hendrik, ed., Das Netzwerk der “Gefängnisfreunde” (1830–1872): Karl Josef Anton Mittermaiers Briefwechsel mit europäischen Strafvollzugsexperten, vol. 1 (Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 2005), 249–251; 251Google Scholar.

88 Riemer, Mittermaiers Briefwechsel, 1:255.

89 Holtzendorff, Franz von, Gesetz oder Verwaltungsmaxime? Rechtliche Bedenken gegen die Preußische Denkschrift betreffend die Einzelnhaft (Berlin: Lüderistz'sche Berlagsbuchhandlung, 1861)Google Scholar.

90 Ibid., 12.

91 Ibid., 13.

92 Ibid.

93 See Wichern, “Denkschrift über die Einzelhaft,” in Sämtlicke Werke 6, 279–302.

94 Stenographische Berichte über die Verhandlungen des Preußisches Landtages, Haus der Abgeordneten (hereafter cited as SBAH), June 3, 1861, 1576.

95 Wichern's speech can be found in two places, in the SBAH, 3 June 1861, 1576–1585, and as “Zur Frage der Einzelhaft: Rede, gehalten in der 62. Plenarsitzund des Preußischen Abgeordnetenhauses,” in Sämtlicke Werke 6, 303–324. I provide numbers for both versions.

96 Wichern, “Zur Frage der Einzelhaft,” 319; SBAH, 3 June 1861, 1583.

97 Wichern's speech can also be found in two places, in the SBAH, 3 June 1861, 1590–1591, and as “Zur Frage der Tätigkeit religiöser Genossenschaften in Strafanstalten. Diskussionsbeitrag in der 62. Planarsitzung des Preußischen Abgeordnetenhauses,” in Sämtliche Werke 6, 325–327.

98 Wichern, “Zur Frage der Tätigkeit religiöser Genossenschaften in Strafanstalten,” in Sämtliche Werke 6, 326; SBAH, 3 June 1861, 1591.

99 Wichern, “Zur Frage der Einzelhaft,” 320; SBAH, 3 June 1861, 1583.

100 Gerhardt, Wichern, 3:233.

101 Holtzendorff, Franz von, Die Brüderschaft des Rauhen Hauses, ein Protestantischer Orden im Staatsdienst. Aus bisher unbekannten Papieren dargestellt (Berlin: Lüderitz'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1861)Google Scholar.

102 Gerhardt, Wichern, 3:235.

103 Holtzendorff, Die Brüderschaft des Rauhen Hauses, 13.

104 Ibid., 34.

105 Ibid., 35.

106 Ibid., 45.

107 Holtzendorff to Mittermaier, 17. 10. 1861, in Riemer, Mittermaiers Briefwechsel, 1:295.

108 Gerhardt, Wichern, 3:237. Holtzendorff also mentions this in a letter to Mittermaier, in Riemer, Mittermaiers Briefwechsel, 1:296.

109 Gerhardt, Wichern, 3:237–238.

110 Ibid., 3:238.

111 Ibid.

112 Ibid., 3:244. Holtzendorff also mentions the incident in a letter to Mittermaier, 17 November 1861, in Riemer, Mittermaiers Briefwechsel, 1:296–297. The account is the same as Gerhardt's.

113 Gerhardt, Wichern, 3:245.

114 Ibid., 3:244.

115 Ibid., 3:243.

116 Ibid., 3:246.

117 Wichern, “Besprechung der Schrift von Friedrich Oldenberg,” 332.

118 Oldenberg, Johann Hinrich Wichern, 2:301.

119 Gerhardt, Wichern, 3:251.

120 SBAH, 2 October 1862, 1988.

121 Ibid., 1989.

122 Ibid., 1999.

123 Ibid.

124 Ibid.

125 Ibid., 2002.

126 Ibid., 2003.

127 Rohden, G. von, “J. H. Wichern und die Preußische Gefängnisreform,” Zeitschrift für die Gesamte Strafrechtswissenschaft 26 (1906): 218Google Scholar.

128 I am grateful to Margaret Lavinia Anderson for providing this insight.

129 The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, “Pennsylvania Prison Society: Background note,” accessed online http://www.hsp.org/files/findingaid1946prisonsociety.pdf, 3.

130 Himmelfarb, Gertrude, “The Haunted House of Jeremy Bentham,” in Victorian Minds (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1968), 42Google Scholar.

131 Cooper, Robert Alan, “Jeremy Bentham, Elizabeth Fry, and English Prison Reform,” Journal of the History of Ideas 42:4 (October–December 1981): 675–690, 677CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

132 Cooper, “Bentham, Fry, and English Prison Reform,” 688–690.

133 For more on the Jesuit Law of 1872, see Healy, Róisín, The Jesuit Specter in Imperial Germany (Leiden: Brill, 2003)Google Scholar.

134 For the popular resistance to the Kulturkampf, see Blackbourn, David, Marpingen: Apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Nineteenth-Century Germany (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994)Google Scholar.