Red Cross nurses are part of the global Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and are committed to humanitarian and ethical principles. They serve humanity and provide assistance in an impartial, neutral, and independent manner. Only women are admitted to the nursing associations. There are 32 nursing societies in Germany with over 20,000 members. Their work is based on the principles of voluntarism, unity, and universality. 

Organized as a registered association, the Wiesbaden Red Cross Sisters’ Association currently has around 100 members and is part of the Association of Sisters’ Associations of the German Red Cross e.V. The association operates a nursing home called the “Haus der Altenpflege” with over 100 beds. It also operates shared living communities for people with dementia and the Birgit Jung Nursing School, where the Sisterhood trains its own new generation of nurses. The members of the Sisterhood work in these facilities themselves; however, not every staff member is required to be a member of the association. 

The Wiesbaden Sisters’ Association can look back on a long tradition dating back to 1891. The historical documents that chronicle this long history have now been transferred to the Wiesbaden City Archives. Following their cataloging and conservation treatment, they are now accessible to the general public. 

This past spring, at the initiative of its chairwoman, Jutta Oehlschlägel, the Oranien Sisterhood donated its historical records to the Wiesbaden City Archives. The Sisterhood’s archives had previously been stored in the basement of the building at Schöne Aussicht 41, the “Haus der Altenpflege” (House of Elderly Care), which the Sisterhood operates. The official records and files—described by Jutta Oehlschlägel as a “treasure for the history of the Sisterhood and nursing”—were repackaged in the following months by archivists at the Wiesbaden City Archives, cataloged in a database, and stored in the City Archives’ climate-controlled repository. The historical documents can now be searched online under the collection code V 105. 

The contents of the collection, which comprises over 400 archival records dating back to 1891, can now be searched online via the “Arcinsys Hessen” archival information system. Jutta Oehlschlägel would be delighted if many interested people were to take a look at the documents: “I hope that these documents will soon be analyzed and that, among other things, the significance of the sisterhood as an educational institution for women before World War II will be researched,” said the sisterhood’s chairwoman. Dr. Hendrik Schmehl, head of the Department of Culture, is also enthusiastic about the new archival collection: “The documents provide a striking record of the Sisterhood’s remarkable charitable commitment in Wiesbaden.” For this reason, Schmehl—who holds a doctorate in history—said he is particularly pleased about the donation of the Sisterhood’s archive. The documents include, among other things, patient and medical records from 1892 to 1959, the hospital’s surgical logs dating back to 1920, midwives’ diaries from 1910 onward, and the clinic’s birth records dating back to 1984. “Of course, these documents are subject to the strict provisions of the Hessian Archives Act regarding data protection,” explains City Archives Director Dr. Peter Quadflieg. “Only once the applicable retention periods have expired can the documents be freely accessed in the archives.” 

The acquired records contain the entire fascinating history of the nursing association, which dates back over 140 years. In June 1885, the “Wiesbaden Red Cross Association” was founded for the purpose of “training and employing female nurses.” This was necessary because the Municipal Hospital on Schwalbacher Straße, founded in 1879, lacked trained nurses. “The first four nurses were soon put to the test,” reports City Archives Director Peter Quadflieg. “Shortly after the association was founded, a devastating typhus epidemic broke out in Wiesbaden, during which the four nurses assisted at the Municipal Hospital.” Even after the typhoid outbreak, the association continued to provide nursing care at the Municipal Hospital. Another milestone for the nursing association came in 1892 with the establishment of its own “Red Cross Hospital” on Schönen Aussicht. “The hospital had 42 beds and a nursing school. In the years that followed, a maternity home, a nurses’ dormitory, and the motherhouse were added, among other facilities,” says Oehlschlägel. 

With the celebration of its 50th anniversary in June 1935, the association changed its name to “German Red Cross Sisters’ Association Oranien e.V.” Up until that point, the association had maintained its independence and had not affiliated with any of the existing Red Cross organizations. “This changed with the Reich Law on the German Red Cross of December 1937,” says archive director Quadflieg, “under which all independent Red Cross organizations in the ‘Third Reich’ were dissolved. The nursing associations were placed directly under the Office for Nursing Associations within the Presidium of the German Red Cross in Berlin.” 

During World War II, more than 200 nurses and 400 auxiliary nurses from Wiesbaden were deployed in mobile units of the Wehrmacht, in the Wehrmacht Medical Service, and in reserve hospitals back home. A small collection of “marching orders” addressed to the Wiesbaden nurses from this period has also been preserved in the archives. After World War II, the nursing association was reestablished in December 1947 under the name “Rotes Kreuz Schwesternschaft Oranien e.V.” in Wiesbaden.

In the 1950s, the Red Cross Hospital was renovated, and an extension was built featuring three modern operating rooms, two delivery rooms, a laboratory, and several offices. Numerous residents of Wiesbaden were born here. “Well-known doctors also performed surgeries here,” says Oehlschlägel. Until its closure in 2005, surgeons, internists, gynecologists, midwives, and registered nurses worked at the hospital on behalf of the Sisters’ Association, treating and caring for countless patients. With the closure of the clinic, the nursing association shifted its focus to caring for the elderly. One notable initiative was the establishment of shared living communities for people with dementia, tailored to the specific needs of this group. 

Further information on the Wiesbaden City Archives and the collection V 105 “Red Cross Sisters’ Association Oranien e.V. Wiesbaden” is available online at www.wiesbaden.de/stadtarchiv (opens in a new tab) and at https://arcinsys.hessen.de/ (opens in a new tab).