This house is not a home: residential care for babies and toddlers in the two Germanys during the Cold War

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper examines the history of infant homes for babies and toddlers in the two German states after World War II. Peak capacity of these institutions was not reached in the immediate post-war years, as one might suppose, but in the early 1960s. At that time in socialist East Germany one in forty children under the age of three lived in an infant home, while the rate was about half as high in capitalist West Germany. Thus, these institutions impacted the lives of more children than previously assumed. From a comparative perspective, divided developments become clear: In East Germany, socialist legislation and media promoted the infant home; in West Germany, the expansion took place in the shadow of the capitalistic welfare state. Criticism of the homes was articulated in both states at about the same time, following publication of British psychoanalyst John Bowlby’s early attachment theory. His WHO report Maternal Care and Mental Health from the year 1951 served as a reference point for the work of several pediatricians and psychologists in both German states. It appears that Bowlby’s theory – stressing the importance of exclusive maternal care and so far described as highly impactful for Western Europe and the USA – also met with approval under East German state socialism in the 1950s. However, it had different implications: In West Germany, scientific criticism of infant homes was acted on by the authorities, who quickly disbanded the institutions from the mid-1960s onwards. In East Germany, political intervention favoring maternal employment prevented this, which is why numerous places in infant homes remained available for babies and toddlers until the end of the socialist state in 1989.