CHAPTER VI.
THE REGULATIONS AT KAISERSWERTH, AND THE DUTIES AND SERVICES OF THE DEACONESSES.
The regulations in daily use at Kaiserswerth are based on those that Fliedner drew up in the early days of the institution. They have been adopted with few alterations by the larger number of deaconess institutions that have since arisen, so that to understand the spirit and usages prevailing in them it is well to give these rules some study. They are contained in a book numbering one hundred and seven pages,[1] treating with great minuteness every question that affects the daily lives of the deaconesses. The qualities that the office demands are first dwelt upon as they are described in Acts vi, 3, and 1 Tim. iii, 8, 9. The sisters are reminded that their life is one of service; that they serve the Lord Jesus; that they serve the poor and the sick and helpless “for Jesus’ sake;” and that they are servants one of another.
Special stress is given to the importance of cultivating unity, love, and forbearance in the relations of daily life, and the deaconesses are enjoined “to protect and further the honor of other sisters,” “to form one family living unitedly as sisters, through the tie of a heartfelt love for the one great object that brings them to this place.”
There are two classes of deaconesses formally recognized, nurses and teachers; although there is another, deaconess whose work is year by year becoming more important, and that is the deaconess who is attached to a church in the capacity of a home missionary. She is designated by the term “commune-deaconess,” or, as the English translate it, “parish-deaconess.”
Those who desire to become nurse-deaconesses must have the elements of a common school education, must be in good health, and, as a general rule, be over eighteen and not over forty years of age. Most important of all is it that she possess personal knowledge of the salvation of Christ, and a living experience of the grace of God. Those who desire to become teacher-deaconesses must, in addition, present certain educational certificates, and be able to sing. All must pass some months at the mother-house, taking care of children and assisting in housework, so that their fitness for the office can085/81 be proven. A great deal of care is taken to test the efficiency of the candidates, and only about one half the probationers finally become deaconesses in full connection. The teachers have, further, a seminary course of one year for those who are to teach in infant schools, of two years to prepare for the elementary schools, and of three years for the girls’ high schools.
While probationers, they receive, free of charge, board and instruction, and the caps, collars, and aprons that are their distinctive badges. Their remaining expenses they provide for themselves. Those who have completed the full term of probation, and have proved their fitness for the office, must pledge themselves to a service of at least five years. At the end of the time they may renew the engagement or not, as they wish. Should a deaconess be needed at home by aged parents, or should she desire to marry, she is free to leave her duties, but is expected to give three months’ notice of her intention to do so.
The deaconess performs her duties gratuitously. This is a main feature of the system. She is not even free to accept personal presents, for envy, jealousy, and unworthy motives might then creep into the system. She is truly “the servant of the Lord Jesus Christ.” All of her wants are supplied, and086/82 her future needs anticipated, so that, literally “taking no thought for the morrow,” she can give herself with single-hearted devotion to the work in hand. The deaconess at Kaiserswerth receives from the institution her modest wardrobe, consisting of a Sunday suit, a working-dress of dark blue, blue apron, white caps and collars. A deaconess attired in her garb, with the placid, contented countenance that seems distinctively to belong to her, is a pleasant, wholesome sight that is constantly to be seen on the streets of German cities. Her deaconess attire is not only a protection, assuring her chivalrous treatment from all classes of men, but it is a convenient identification that insures her certain privileges on the State railroads and steamboats, for the German government recognizes the sisters as benefactors of society, and treats them accordingly. For her personal expenses the Kaiserswerth deaconess in Germany receives yearly twenty-two dollars and fifty cents; sometimes when in foreign lands she is paid a slightly larger sum. When she becomes unfitted for service by reason of sickness or old age, and has no means of her own, the Board of Direction provides for her maintenance.
The rules for probationers are full of practical suggestions touching the details of daily life. There is not space to transcribe them here, but those who087/83 have charge of training schools will find them valuable reading. Every kind of house and hospital service is clearly defined. The deaconesses are instructed what duties are theirs in hospitals for women and in hospitals for men. In the latter the sister undertakes only such nursing as is suited to her sex, and for that reason she has a male assistant. She must follow strictly the doctor’s orders in all matters pertaining to diet, medicine, and ventilation, and must inform him daily of the patient’s state. She also assists the clergyman, if desired, in ministering to spiritual needs. But she must not obtrude her religion, when it is distasteful to her patients; rather manifest it in her deeds and manner of life.
Every portion of the day has definite duties assigned to it. On reading them over you say, Can much be accomplished when the hours are subdivided into so many portions, and given over to so many objects? But the unvarying testimony is that no nurses accomplish more than the German deaconesses. No matter how busy they may be, the effort is made for each to have a quiet half hour for meditation and private devotion. Every afternoon the chapel is opened for this purpose, and all the sisters who can be spared meet here. A hymn is sung, and afterward each spends the088/84 time as she will in meditation, reading the Bible or silent prayer, the quietness and stillness being unbroken by words. The “Stille halbe Stunde,” as it is called, is greatly prized by the sisters, and is observed by them in all their institutions, and in all lands. There are Bible-classes and prayer-meetings for the deaconesses during the week, and the first Sunday of every month there is a special service of prayer and thanksgiving for all sisters, all the affiliated houses, and similar homes wherever they exist. Fliedner prepared a book of daily Bible readings for the use of the sisters, and a hymn-book, used in all the Kaiserswerth institutions at home and abroad. “We have no vows,” he said, “and I will have no vows, but a bond of union we must have, and the best bond is the word of God, and our second bond is singing.”[2] The sisters of each house meet together to give their votes for the admission of new deaconesses and the election of the superintendents. Each deaconess is expected to obey those who are placed over her, and to accept the kind of work assigned her, except in the case of contagious diseases, when her permission is asked. What a tribute it is to these women that such a refusal has never yet been known! Every effort is made to harmonize the089/85 right of the individual with the needs of the whole body, a marked characteristic of the Protestant sisters of charity.
When a probationer becomes a deaconess she is consecrated to her work by a service the main features of which it may be well to indicate. They are as follows:
Singing. Address commending the deaconesses for acceptance. Address to the deaconesses, recalling the ever-repeated thought, “You are servants in a threefold sense: servants of the Lord Jesus; servants of the needy for Jesus’ sake; servants one of another.” Then, having answered the question, “Are you determined to fulfill these duties truly in the fear of the Lord, and according to his holy will?” the candidate kneels and receives the benediction: “May the Triune God, God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, bless you; may he give you fidelity unto death, and then the crown of life.” After this is repeated the prayer of the Apostolical Constitutions, that beautiful prayer which has been said on similar occasions in many lands and in many tongues.[3] The service ends with the communion.
A similar consecration service is used by nearly all the German deaconess houses. The features of090/86 those that meet together in the triennial Conferences at Kaiserswerth are strikingly similar; the spirit of the original founder pervades them all.
The first of the Conferences was held in 1861, just twenty-five years after the founding of the first deaconess house at Kaiserswerth. It was celebrated as a Thanksgiving festival for the restoration of the diaconate of women to the Church. The representatives of twenty-seven distinct mother-houses met together to exchange their experiences, and to deliberate on matters touching the further usefulness of the order.
Since then the Conferences have been continued at intervals of three and four years. The last General Conference assembled at Fliedner’s old home in September, 1888.
Just before it convened, as is the custom, statistics were obtained from the different mother-houses represented in the association, and pains were taken to verify their correctness. The results so obtained are given in the following table:[4]
| Conferences. | Mother-houses. | Sisters. | Fields of Work. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1861 | 27 | 1,197 | ? |
| 1864 | 30 | 1,592 | 386 |
| 1868 | 40 | 2,106 | 526 |
| 1872 | 48 | 2,657 | 648 |
| 1875 | 50 | 3,239 | 866 |
| 1878 | 51 | 3,901 | 1,093 |
| 1881 | 53 | 4,748 | 1,436 |
| 1884 | 54 | 5,653 | 1,742 |
| 1888 | 57 | 7,129 | 2,263 |
Five additional houses had made application for entrance at the time the table was made, and were received at the ensuing Conference, among which was the Philadelphia mother-house of deaconesses in connection with the Mary J. Drexel Home.
Over sixty mother-houses now belong to the association, and notwithstanding the necessary loss of deaconesses from death or removal from work since the preceding Conference, there are 1,476 more in number now than then. Surely the deaconess cause is striking deep root in the religious life of Protestant Europe. During Fliedner’s life-time occasions arose which called the deaconesses outside their accustomed fields of work, and proved their value in the exceptional emergencies that so often arise. Here is an instance that occurred during the early days of the establishment:[5]
“An epidemic of nervous fever was raging in two communes of the circle of Duisburg, Gartrop, and092/88 Gahlen. Its first and most virulent outbreak took place at Gartrop, a small, poor, secluded village of scarcely one hundred and thirty souls, without a doctor, without an apothecary in the neighborhood, while the clergyman was upon the point of leaving for another parish, and his successor had not yet been appointed. Four deaconesses, including the superior, Pastor Fliedner’s wife, and a maid, hastened to this scene of wretchedness, and found from twenty to twenty-five fever patients in the most alarming condition, a mother and four children in one hovel, four other patients in another, and so on, all lying on foul straw, or on bed-clothes that had not been washed for weeks, almost without food, utterly without help. Many had died already; the healthy had fled; the parish doctor lived four German leagues off, and could not come every day. The first care of the sisters, who would have found no lodging but for the then vacancy of the parsonage, was to introduce cleanliness and ventilation into the narrow cabins of the peasants; they washed and cooked for the sick, they watched every night by turns at their bed-side, and tended them with such success that only four died after their arrival, and the rest were only convalescent after four weeks’ stay. The same epidemic having broken out in the neighboring commune of Gahlen,093/89 in two families, of whom eight members lay ill at once, a single deaconess was able, in three weeks, to restore every patient to health, and to prevent the further spread of the disease. What would not our doctors give for a few dozen of such hard-working, zealous, intelligent ministers in the field of sanitary reform?”
The Schleswig-Holstein war of 1864 was the first in which Protestant deaconesses were active as nurses. Already in the Crimean war the Greek Sisters of Charity among the Russians, the Sisters of Mercy among the French, and Florence Nightingale and Miss Stanley among the English, had wakened the liveliest gratitude on the part of the soldiers, and secured the respect and approbation of the surgeons.
In the Austrian war of 1866 two hundred and eighty-two deaconesses were in the hospitals and on the battle-fields, fifty-eight of whom were from Kaiserswerth. The Franco-Prussian war of 1870 was on a greater scale, and afforded wider opportunities for the unselfish, priceless labors of these Christian nurses. Neatly eight hundred deaconesses, sent from more than thirty mother-houses, cared for the sick and wounded in the camp hospitals or on the field. The willingness of a number of boards of administration to release sisters who were in their094/90 service, and the voluntary offers of other women to take their places, enabled Kaiserswerth to send two hundred and twenty of the number. Their experience in improvising hospitals, in aiding the surgeon in his amputations, and in ministering to the wounded and dying, throws a tender glow of compassionate sympathy over the terrible scenes of war.[6]
The importance of trained deaconesses in times of war is now well understood by the military authorities at Berlin. In the winter of 1887, when war seemed imminent, the directors of the German deaconess houses were summoned by the government to a conference at the German capital to take measures for supplying nurses in case war should be declared.
Deaconesses are now thoroughly incorporated into the religious and social features of the German national life, as must be admitted by any one who has weighed the facts that have been given.
The example of Kaiserswerth has been far-reaching; the mission of Fliedner, that simple-hearted, true-souled, practical, energetic pastor, has been wonderfully successful.
In this rapid sketch I have said but little of the095/91 hinderances he met, nothing of the ridicule which at first attacked him unsparingly. He paid no heed to these obstacles, and why should we waste time in detailing them? Steadfastly and undeviatingly he went forward toward the end he had in view; that is, to restore in all its aspects the devoted disciplined services of Christian women to the Church. He passed away from life October 5, 1864, leaving the great establishment that he had watched over in the charge of his son-in-law, Pastor Disselhoff, and other members of his family.
The institution has become an imposing mass of building, forming an almost absurd contrast to the little garden house, the cradle of the whole establishment, which is still standing in the parsonage garden.
When the fiftieth anniversary of the rise of the deaconess cause was celebrated in 1886 the Kaiserswerth sisterhood put their mites together and purchased the little house, to hold it in perpetuity as a monument of God’s providence.
The symbol of Kaiserswerth is a white dove, carrying an olive branch, resting against a blue ground. The blue flag floats from the old windmill tower on the river-bank, attracting the attention of the traveler as he floats up the Rhine.
Other flags bear messages of conquest, of victory, of battles fought and won, of storm and stress and endeavor in the conflict of man against his fellow-man. But only peace and good-will, the victory of goodness and of love—these alone are the messages that are waved forth to the wind by the blue flag of Kaiserswerth.
[1] Haus Ordnung und Dienst-Anweisung für die Diakonissen und Probeschwestern des Diakonissen Mutterhauses zu Kaiserswerth.
[2] Deaconesses, Rev. J. S. Howson, D.D., p. 81.
[3] Refer back to [page 23], chapter ii, where it can be found.
[4] Der Armen und Kranken Freund, August Heft, 1888.
[5] Woman’s Work in the Church, p. 273, J. M. Ludlow. A. Strahan, London, 1866.
[6] Denkschrift zur Jubelfeier, p. 215.