Rauhes Haus

Rauhes Haus ('the Rough House,' so called) is the name of a great institution founded and managed by Johann Heinrich Wichern (1808-81) at Horn, near Hamburg, in connection with the German Home Mission (Innere Mission). It is partly a refuge for morally neglected children; partly a boarding-school for the moral and intellectual education of children of the higher classes; lastly, a training-school for those who wish to become teachers or officials in houses of correction, hospitals, &c., in promotion of the objects of the Home Mission. It was opened on November 1, 1831, by Wichern with twelve neglected children. By the addition of new houses the whole has, however, been very much enlarged, and has of late almost grown into a colony. A printing-office, a bookbinders' shop, and book-selling form part of the institution. The children live in families of twelve, each family being under the paternal superintendence of a young artisan, who employs the children according to their capabilities, partly in indoor, partly in outdoor manual labour. In connection with the Rauhes Haus there was founded in 1845 a kind of conventual institute for the education of young men as heads or superintendents of similar institutions. See works on the subject by Wichern (1833-83).