Quietly and without fuss, an era of social work in the city of bad kissingen came to an end at the beginning of this year. The last of the "missionary sisters of the precious blood, after 38 years of beneficial work, sister anna-dorothea left the spa town for her mother’s home in neuenbeken near paderborn. In a very personal devotion, deacon bernhard fenn and city pastor gerd greier thanked the nun for her dedicated service. A number of long-time friends and supporters of the good cause were also present at the farewell ceremony in the burkardus residential park.
Sister anna-dorothea introduced the history of the house st. Joseph in the spotlight. Based on the request of pope benedict XV., after the end of the 1. In order to help children in need during the second world war, the nuns were initially active in 1920 in the marienruh children’s home in hammelburg, which had been founded in 1919. However, the financial situation soon came to a head: despite an enormous number of children in their care, the sisters were forced to look for other accommodation.
This was found in bad kissingen in the former "cafe ysenburg". In january 1924, sister theophana and sister ebba bought the house – to then manage the move from hammelburg to bad kissingen with horse-drawn carts and fub in deep snow as early as february. The new children’s home was then called "st. Josef", out of gratitude to saint joseph, the father of jesus.
Nevertheless, there were still many obstacles to be overcome. There was no water pipe to the home until – thanks to the stubbornness of sister theophana – the city council decided to lay a water pipe up the station hill. The resulting shortage of funds for the children’s home was alleviated by a generous donation from the (former) bad kissingen couple kliegl, who paid the entire cost of the water supply and continued to be rude about it. In 1925, the first agreements with the health insurance companies were already in place, and the children had a regular drinking and bathing cure.
In 1940, the year of the war, st. Josef converted by the gauleiter from wurzburg into a hitler youth camp. The sisters had to continue their work, but were not allowed to exert any influence whatsoever. After that st. Josef used by the federation of german girls until 1945. At the end of 1945, the house could again be used as a recreation home for all children.
In january 1980, sister anna-dorothea came to bad kissingen as cake manager. In the summer, up to 160 children between the ages of four and 13 with obesity or special diets from all over germany were guests at the house for six-week cures. After numerous renovations and extensions until 1975, st. Joseph had to be closed as a children’s home in 1998. Joseph had to be closed as a children’s home in 1998. The reasons for this were the new health reform law, high fire protection requirements, and the declining number of nurses.
After some turbulent project ideas and association foundations and dissolutions, the sisters turned their attention to current problems: people in need and residents from the psychiatric ward were admitted. Furthermore, rooms have been rented out to various companies, groups and schools in order to be able to finance the whole thing and to keep the building busy. In 2004, an initial concept was developed for the new task of "helping the mentally ill and people in need submitted to the district. For this, sister anna-dorothea thanked district councilor karin renner in particular for her energetic support.
In spite of this, the sale of the hospital was decided by the order’s management in 2008, so that the hospital had to move from stationberg to the nordring – a move that was preceded by a difficult search for the right location. And also there, in the outpatient assisted living, people found help.
In her review, sister anna-dorothea spoke moving words of thanks to the selfless helpers at her side over many years and for the wonderful time they spent together. As a farewell gift, deacon bernhard fenn presented a small sculpture, which adds the last piece to the puzzle – as a symbol of what sister anna-dorothea meant to many people here in bad kissingen and beyond.