Manteuffel-Szoege

W Pabianicach przyszła na świat Emilia Manteuffel-Szoege, pedagog i współorganizatorka opieki społecznej w Polsce. Była córką znanego w mieście lekarza Pawła Schroettera, który zapewnił jej solidne wykształcenie w dziedzinie nauk ścisłych zdobywane za granicą. Jednak pasją Emilii okazała się praca społeczna z osobami najbardziej potrzebującymi wsparcia.

Manteuffel-Szoege (nee Schroetter) Emilia (1886-1968) co-founder and social care organizer

She was born on 15 January 1886 in Pabianice near Łódź. Her father, Paweł Schroetter , provided his daughter with thorough education. First she studied at J. Kotwicka’s private school in Warsaw, then for a year she took part in underground self-education courses. She continued her education in nature at the Ecole Superiere in Nauchatel, Switzerland.

After returning to Poland, she was an unrolled student at the Scientific Courses Society (which in time evolved into the Free Polish University). She completed her natural studies with systematic self-education in pedagogy and social sciences. She mastered four languages: French, German, English and Russian. She started her work in social services at the age of 16 in the reading room in Warsaw (probably in one of the Free Reading Rooms of the Warsaw Charity Society). She also took part in clandestine teaching. After 1905, she joined the activities of the Society for Aid to Political Prisoners.

After getting married in 1910 (or 1911) with a member of the old aristocratic Livonian family Manteuffel-Szoege, she and her husband moved from Warsaw to Riga. In the years 1912-1915 she established cooperation with local Polish care institutions.In the years following World War I, she organized the Riga branch of the Society for Assistance to War Victims.

The Manteuffel-Szoege couple returned to Poland in 1918. Emilia almost immediately began extensive activities in care and education. Fascinated by Kazimierz Jeżewski’s concept of foster families, she joined the Board of the Orphan Nest Society. The most active period of her activity took place throughout her stay in Kielce (1923-1927), where her husband served as Head of the Kielce Voivodship.

Manteuffel –Szoege initiated the organization of the Social Committeee of the Kielce, a substitute institution for the voivodship self-government in the field of social care. Her activity as the head of the board inspires respect and is astounding because of organizational impetus: in Stradom near Częstochowa she established a social care facility for 500 children with trachoma. In Herby Śląskie, she organized an educational institution for difficult children, the first of its kind in the country, and in Rabsztyn – a prewentorium for children with glandular tuberculosis.

The Committee built an infectious pavilion in the Kielce hospital for children, arranged a hostel for girls travelling alone and organized children’s summer camps, more and more numerous from year to year. After her husband’s death in 1927, she returned to Warsaw and took up paid employment. She was the organizational clerk for child care (1927-1929).

At the same time, she was the cecretary of the Polish Committee of Intrernational Social Services Conferences and in this role participated in the preparation of several conferences. She took part in organising a part of an international exhibition of social service in Paris (1928). She participated in international meetings, popularizing worldwide Polish achievements in social work. She lectured at the State Institute of Special Education, she managed the field practices of students of School of Social – Educational Work at the Free Polish University, in the institutions of the City Board of the Capital City of Warsaw.

In the years 1929-1932 she was a correspondent at the Block-Brun company in Warsaw. She was first an instructor on the City Board of the Capital City of Warsaw in 1932-1944, then the head of the 2nd Health and Social Care Centre in the Ochota district, which was a model institution introducing the latest forms of family, health, material and educational care until the uprising of 1944.

It was there that the first educational counselling centre for children cared for by the Centre was created. Manteuffel-Szoege introduced and applied new forms of care in cooperation with Prof. Helena Radlińska and the School of Social-Educational Work at the Free Polish University in Warsaw, the latter of which she headed. She also supervised the practices that students of the School held at the Department of Health and Social Care of the Municipal Board of the Capital City of Warsaw.

After the Germans captured Warsaw in September 1939, the Capital Social Self-Help Committee established District Committees. The first such committee was created at 82 Nowogrodzka Street (district II), initially under the leadership of Manteuffel-Szoege.

After World War II she settled in Łódź. She started cooperation with Prof. Helena Radlińska in organizing the Polish Institute of Social Service (1946-1949). As its researcher, she managed the social research department. She was also the scientific secretary. From this period of her work, a non-printed report on the results of research on mother and child komes should be mentioned. She conducted this research as a former long-term (1924-1939) activist of the „Let’s Save Babies” Society for Care for Mother and Child.

She anticipated liquidation of the Polish Institute of Social Service resultated in the transfer of Manteuffel-Szoege to the Łódź branch of the State Institute of Mental Hygiene. She was the head of this institution in the years 1948-1950. In 1950, she became the head of the social department of the Central Mental Health Clinic of the Łódź Voivodship.

In 1956, she settled in Warsaw again. During this period, she dealt primarily with educational counselling . She worked as a psychologist in a counselling Centre for children and youth. She developed the concept, organizational structure and work plan of educational counselling for the Friends of Children Society. At the end of her life she began researching children care in various countries. In 1958 she represented the Society of Friends of Children at the International Congress of the Child Care Organization in Brussels.

Througout her life she wrote articles on raising children and organization of social care in various periodicals and gave talks on Polish Radio. She died on 8 July 1968 in Warsaw. (Irena Lepalczyk „Manteuffel-Szoege z Schroetterów Emilia” , Praca Socjalna. Social Work in Poland – 2018, Issue 1)

www.wikiwand.com - Emilia Manteuffel-Szoege

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Podczas pierwszej wojny Emilia Manteuffel wraz z rodziną przebywała na terenach zajmowanych przez Rosję, o czym wspomina profesor Eugeniusz Romer w swoich dziennikach.

Eugeniusz Romer „Dziennik 1871-1954”, 1995 r.: (…) Pod względem gospodarstwa i kuchni jeden dom z pp. Taubami stanowią Ignacostwo Manteufflowie. Ignacy Manteuffel młodszy kolega mój z Rygi, obecnie adwokat w Rydze, ożenił się w tym samym roku co ja, i prawie tego samego dnia, bo 5 lipca z panną Emilią Schroetter, córką doktora z Pabianic. Człowiek wykształcony, systematyczny aż do pedantyzmu, ma w charakterze dużo cech niemieckich pochodzących z wychowania i szkół w Rydze, i obracania się w środowisku niemieckim, jest Polakiem i ma orientację polską, ale imponują mu Niemcy tak dalece, że nie wierzy w możliwość ich zwyciężenia, nie wierzy we wszystkie objawy niekulturalności niemieckiej na wojnie, w ogóle będąc szczerym Polakiem. Bezwiednie ma światopogląd i sposób myślenia niemiecki, a sekunduje mu w tym żona, wyrosła także w takim środowisku na wpół polskim, na wpół niemieckim. Trudna jest w skutek tego wszelka z nimi dyskusja o wypadkach bieżących, bo wszystkie wiadomości z pism niezgadzające się z ich poglądem uważają jako tendencyjnie sfałszowane, a z drugiej strony wierzą i powtarzają wszystkie ustne plotki kursujące tutaj o działaniach wojennych rosyjskich i nadużyciach Rosjan. Poza tym jest Ignacy bardzo miły, zrównoważony i zacny człowiek, doskonały mąż i ojciec, który przy braku niańki spełnia przy dzieciach wszelkie funkcje piastunki, mając czteroletnią córeczkę Jolantę i drugą Hanię, która już tu na wygnaniu przyszła na świat w listopadzie przeszłego roku. Mieszka przy nich i niezmordowanie pracuje, i opiekuje się dziećmi matka p. Ignacowej, p. Karolina Schroetterowa, z domu Wendówna, córka właściciela księgarni w Warszawie, osoba dobra i sympatyczna, ale głucha, co niemal uniemożliwia obcowanie towarzyskie. Pani Ignacowa przeszła obecnie na katolicyzm, odbyło się to w Niszczy u księdza biskupa Roppa, ale utrzymuje się w tajemnicy. (…)

Dr med. Paweł Schroeter, ojciec pani Ignacowej prowadził odczyty dotyczące profilaktyki zdrowotnej dla pabianiczan, które zostały opublikowane nakładem dzierżawców Domu Ludowego (obecnie MOK) w Pabianicach w 1907 roku pod tytułem „Dwanaście pogadanek z zakresu higieny”.

Dwanaście pogadanek z zakresu higieny

Autor: Sławomir Saładaj