Blätter des Deutschen Roten Kreuzes

Titelblatt

Blätter des Deutschen Roten Kreuzes 1. 1922 – 16. 1937

(Social Welfare; 8)

10,330 pages 115 microfiches
2005, ISBN 3-89131-471-X

Diazo negative: EUR 750.– / Silver negative: EUR 900.–

Founded as a relief organisation for voluntary nursing in wartime the German Red Cross developed into a central association for non-statutory welfare after Germany’s defeat in the First World War. This led to a repositioning of the activities of the Red Cross from military medical service to civilian fields of work and was in harmony with the protocol of the League of Nations. For the organisation, which was closely bound up with the elite of the Empire and whose members met the Weimar Republic with still greater scepticism than the members of the confessional and socialist welfare associations, this turn towards independent welfare work represented a new direction in terms of principles, methods and organisation. At the beginning of 1921 a powerful umbrella organisation, the German Red Cross, was constituted out of the multitude of regional Red Cross societies.

Parallel to this the journal Blätter des Deutschen Roten Kreuzes was established as the organ of the new leading association. The sub-title «Welfare and Social Hygiene» already points to the new direction that the Red Cross had taken, which is also presented within the journal. Following the fundamental nature of the German Red Cross the main emphasis lay very clearly in the area of health care. This included not only medical treatment and stationary as well as ambulant nursing but also activities in the fields of health prevention. Because the preventative health and social work within the Weimar Republic was increasingly regarded as influencing the public health, the journal also handled aspects of eugenics.

The Blätter des Deutschen Roten Kreuzes continued to exist for several years after the National Socialists had brought the organisation into line. As such it is possible to follow the new ideological, medical and social directions of the German Red Cross through the journal. The Blätter des Deutschen Roten Kreuzes ceased publication in 1937.