Susanne Kreutzer Bücher

The occupation of nursing in Germany has an image that still today is shaped by Christian traditions of care. Numerous long-standing concepts of nursing – from terminal care to outpatient community nursing and holistic care – are currently the subject of much debate. Using the example of protestant deaconesses, the volume illustrates how these concepts are put into practice. The activities of the nurses, their experiences and the sense of purpose they give to their everyday work and life context are analysed. The book also sheds light on the conflicts that arise from the application of rational principles to the care of individual patients. An understanding of nursing seen within an historical context thus serves to reveal the contradictions in the current modernisation of care.

The transnational approach has led to the emergence of new historical research areas and topics. With the concept of „transfer history“, there has been a growing interest in historical studies of religious communities because they were early „global players“. Originating typically in France, many Catholic sisterhoods settled in numerous other European and non-European countries. Likewise, Protestant deaconess motherhouses became a popular German export in the nineteenth century. The contributions to this anthology examine the transnational history of the deaconess movement, focusing on the example of Protestant deaconesses who worked as nurses. Focal point is a nursing organisation that was founded in the 1830s in Germany, but was subsequently exported to many European and even non-European countries. If the deaconess motherhouses wanted to stand a chance of survival in these countries, they had to adapt to the specific cultural and societal contexts. Due to these adaptation processes, the deaconess motherhouses are particularly suitable for an international comparative and transfer history. Honored in 2017 with the Mary M. Roberts Award for Exemplary Historical Scholarship and Writing from the American Association for the History of Nursing (AAHN)