Geschlossene Einrichtungen und soziale Fürsorge für Mädchen in Bulgarien in der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts

Kristina Popova, Closed Institutions and Social Care for Girls in Bulgaria During the First Half of the Twentieth Century

Abstract

This article examines the history of closed institutions for children and youth (orphanages, correctional institutions) during the first half of the twentieth century from a gender perspective and as part of a more general analysis of the attitude towards disadvantaged children on the Balkans, particularly in Bulgaria. The first modern institutions for children in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries replaced traditional practices of caring for orphans, that is raising them in families of relatives or foster families or giving them to a convent (monastery) or other religious institutions. The contribution presents the plurality of agency of children’s social care, including the state, municipalities, women’s societies and other civil organisations, religious institutions, military institutions and individuals. During the Balkan Wars (1912-1913) and the First World War (1914-1918), the number of children in need (orphans, refugees, neglected children, street children) grew significantly. In the post-war years, social care institutions were integrated in international networks of child protection, which contributed to the spread of international standards, practices and ideas.