According to Deutsche Welle, people in certain circles in 1960s Germany viewed sex with children as “progressive.” One popular psychology professor at the time, Helmut Kentler, advocated this type of behavior. He believed children were sexual beings who had the right to express their sexuality, and he had quite a following; he was a frequent guest on radio and TV, and his books on education sold well.
He believed that allowing children to express their sexuality would “unleash energies that would in turn lead to political protest and the true democratization of German society that Kentler believed was still necessary.”
In what is now known as the Kentler Experiment, homeless children were systematically placed with pedophile men in shared apartments and foster homes under the pretense that they would make particularly loving foster parents to these boys. Authorities in Berlin not only condoned this practice for nearly three decades, but they also gave the foster fathers a regular care allowance.
One perpetrator, who is known in the report as Fritz H., was given access to at least nine boys who the government-backed scheme placed with him in a fostering arrangement. The children were typically six or seven years old when they were first placed with him, and the youth welfare officers in Berlin continued to choose him as a foster father despite extreme warning signs that something was amiss. The Berliner Zeitung paper reported that his abuse spanned from the 1970s until 2003.
Two of the boys who were placed under his care have recently spoken out about the abuse they suffered at the hands of this monster. After sharing their heartbreaking stories, researchers went through countless files and carried out a slew of interviews that uncovered the network across various educational institutions, the Berlin Senate, and the state youth welfare office, revealing that pedophilia there was “accepted, supported, defended.”
Now in their 40s, the victims are struggling as adults and depend on state welfare payments. Although they are encouraged by the fact that these unconscionable crimes are being brought to light, they will never see Fritz H. brought to justice as he died in 2015.
Child abuse extended to German schools
Systematic abuse also took place at one of the most “progressive” schools in West Germany, the Odenwald boarding school in Hesse. At this school, up to 900 students were sexually abused between 1966 and 1989. It is absolutely shocking that this type of behavior was able to go on for so long without anyone being brave enough to put a stop to it.
In both the cases of the school and the Kentler project, youth welfare officers in Berlin were sending boys who were viewed as “difficult” to a place where they were abused.
Sandra Scheeres, Berlin’s senator for youth and children, has said the findings are “shocking and horrifying.” Although the Berlin Senate did not seem to show much interest in investigating this horrific story when it was initially reported in 2016 by the University of Gottingen, authorities have now promised to shed light on the abuse.
However, one politician, Marianne Burkert-Eulitz of the Green Party, has accused the Senate of stalling on the investigation because they fear a potential political backlash if other prominent politicians are found to have been involved. She added that these networks still exist and that political parties need to admit their culpability in these scandals.
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