Transit home by Lake Schwerin

In the 1950s, a kindergarten was established in the villa at today’s 6 Franzosenweg. It was later converted into a residential home for juveniles. From the 1960s, the villa also housed a so-called “transit centre”. Formally an autonomous facility with separate rooms, the facility included cells in its tower, with barred windows, which were used for solitary confinement. The transit home had a capacity of ten places, which were mainly used as temporary, secure accommodation for children and juveniles that had run away from other homes. Children were often held there while they waited to be placed in an available home. 

Most of the young people kept there were aged between 14 and 17. However, much younger children also had to endure the prison-like conditions: in 1963, for example, a total of 91 minors were accommodated in the villa overlooking Lake Schwerin, including six children under the age of six. The facility was constantly understaffed. In the mid-1960s, the transit home did not have its own full-time personnel, so children and juveniles were “co-supervised” by employees from the juvenile home. Girls staying there were systematically used to look after smaller children.

The transit home in Schwerin was closed in 1987. The building served as a kindergarten until the end of 1990. Today, the villa is privately owned and rented out as holiday accommodation.