Die Kinder aus Korntal (4 Stars)

It's not often that a documentary film is almost sold out. The reason is that the film is of local interest. The title means "The Children from Korntal", and Korntal is a small town, approximately 10,000 inhabitants, that lies on the northern border of Stuttgart. It was an independent town until 1975, when it became part of the larger town Korntal-Münchingen. The joining of these two towns was unpopular with the residents of Münchingen, who considered themselves a village with an independent character, but today, 50 years later, Münchingen has changed. More than half of the village is made up of new housing estates, and only a handful of the old residents are still bitter about the linking to Korntal.

Korntal is often called "Holy Korntal". The reason is that its character is shaped by a free church in the town's centre, the Brüdergemeinde. The literal translation is "Brethren Church", but it has nothing to do with the international Brethren movement. It's an independent church founded on Puritan principles. In the early 19th Century only members of the Brüdergemeinde were allowed to live in Korntal, but the restriction has long been lifted.

The subject of the film is the children's homes run by the Brüdergemeinde, in particular from the 1960's to the 1980's. They were the biggest scandal in recent German history. It was bad enough that children were mistreated in children's homes, but it was worse that they were run by a Christian church.

The film started with the cruel treatment of the children. After lights out the children weren't allowed to go to the toilet. If a child wet his bed, he was beaten in the morning. The usual solution was that any child who needed to go peed in a cup and drank it. A former member of the children's home who was sitting next to me verified this.

The film went on to the sexual abuse of the children. It seems that this didn't happen in all 14 of the homes. The man sitting next to me told me that he never experienced sexual abuse in his home. Detlev Zander, one of the men in the documentary, said he was raped by the caretaker from the ages of 4 to 14. When he was young he didn't know what was happening. He was bleeding from behind, so he asked the woman in charge of his home for help. She hit him and sent him to bed. He never complained again.

It was also women who abused the children. A sister left Korntal when she became pregnant from a 12-year-old boy.

People in the documentary accuse Fritz Grünzweig, who was the church's priest at the time. He was well known for violently hitting any children who answered Biblical questions incorrectly. He didn't participate in the sexual abuse, but they say he must have known about it. They call him an evil man.

Detlev Zander was the first person to speak about the abuse in 2014. This encouraged 140 other victims to speak about their abuse. Court cases against the abusers haven't been possible, because most of them are dead. He's asked for compensation of 1.7 million Euros to be distributed among the victims. That's not much. One woman complained that her cut of 10,000 Euros is pitiful for years of being raped.

The reaction of the church was unbelief. Even today many church members deny that it ever happened. They're angry about the compensation claims, because the church is founded solely by their donations. The film has interviews with church members who refuse to pay for things that happened 50 years ago. They say it's time to forgive and forget.

A frequent participant in the documentary is Jochen Hägele, the church's priest until 2022. Evidently most of the cinema audience knew him. Whenever he spoke the audience either laughed or reacted angrily. He's obviously a person trying to take a middle ground, but his remarks border on ridicule. For instance, when asked about the large number of suicides by the children he replied that it's impossible to generalise. Each suicide should be treated individually. If 16 children in the homes killed themselves, it shouldn't be assumed that it was always because of abuse; each child had a different reason. Nobody in the audience took him seriously.

A lot more is said in the film, but I don't want to repeat everything. Watch it yourself. The film probably won't be shown on general release. It was only shown once in Stuttgart. It will probably be available for streaming.

Before anyone comments on this post, let me emphasise that I'm only repeating what was said in the documentary. Before watching the film I had every little knowledge of the events. If anyone wants to say "It's all lies", please take it up with the director Julia Charakter, not with me.

After the film there was a podium discussion with Julia Charakter, Detlev Zander and another lady whose name I've forgotten. The audience members were invited to ask questions or make general remarks. All the people who came forward were former residents of the children's homes. Most of their remarks revolved around the fact that the Brüdergemeinde as an institution has never accepted responsibility. Because of this today's members are sharing in the guilt.

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When I returned home I found out that my mother-in-law had died. She was 91 and has been suffering for years. She's been lying in a bed in an old people's home in Korntal for the last two years. The home is also run by the Brüdergemeinde. Before then she was in a wheelchair for almost 10 years. She lived in the same street as me, and I remember seeing her looking out of the window every day. What else did she have to do?

I never got on with my mother-in-law. Actually, it was the other way round. She never accepted me into the family. She was disappointed that her daughter didn't marry a farmer. My father-in-law was different. He was a wonderful man, and after the death of my father in 1983 I thought of him as a replacement father. Nevertheless, I would have visited her and sat talking with her, but my brother-in-law, an evil man called Wolfgang, didn't allow it. The last time I visited her, way back in 2017, he hit me in the face, and I had to call the police. A short time later I was sent a legal document forbidding me to enter the house. By doing this he harmed his mother, but he never had any affection for her. A few years later she went into the old people's home, and I visited her frequently.