Helmut Kentler, a German social pedagogue and sex researcher, gained sad notoriety for his dangerous views on sex education. His assertion that paedophile men were suitable foster fathers because they would take more intensive care of the children led to decades of abuse of minors.
Resocialisation with paedophile foster fathers
For decades, minors from child and youth welfare services in Germany were deliberately placed with paedophile men, often with a criminal past. Kentler was of the opinion that the cohabitation of ‘problem children’ and paedophile men was a ‘win-win situation’: the latter would look after the children with the utmost dedication ‘because they are in love with them, smitten and infatuated’, according to Kentler. As he was a respected educationalist in Berlin, the Berlin Senate Department for Youth and Family funded his experiment and created several foster homes with paedosexuals.
The background: A time of free love
The late sixties and seventies were a time of sexual emancipation. The young generation of the post-war period wanted to break down rigid rules, sexuality was to be de-tabooed. Opinions on homosexuality also changed. Since 1969, homosexual people have not been prosecuted for ‘fornication’ in Germany. In Austria, homosexuality has not been subject to prosecution since 1971. Everyone should love who they want to love.
Kentler went one step further – too far. ‘Tender care’ for children should also be allowed to express itself sexually. Parents and guardians should introduce children to sexuality in order to ‘destroy boundaries of shame’, as he explained in his book “Eltern lernen Sexualerziehung ’ (Parents Learn Sex Education ), published in 1975. The book also contained exercises for sexual education in schools.
‘Delight in the child’ – paedophile propaganda
Many people shared Kentler’s view. A network of researchers, artists, educators and priests formed who believed that sexual contact with children was care instead of abuse. A well-known writer named Gabriel Matzneff wrote an essay entitled ‘The Under-16s’ in which he celebrated physical love with minors. The sociologist Rüdiger Lautmann is the author of the book ‘Lust am Kind’, (in German the word ‘lust’ can mean both sexual lust as well as innocent inclination or liking) in which he doubts that active paedophilia is bad.
In the care of Mr H.
The people who fell victim to Kentler’s abstruse experiment and their ‘foster fathers’ suffer from panic attacks, nightmares and social phobia for the rest of their lives. Sven and Marco, for example, went public with their story in 2017 and demanded justice for what was done to them. The Berlin youth welfare office had placed them with the paedophile Fritz H., together with eight other children between 1973 and 2003. One of the boys was only six years old when he became part of the ‘family’. A normal life is still not possible for Sven and Marco today.
Public responsibility for endangering the welfare of children
The legal investigation into the scandal has been ongoing for around 10 years and is proving difficult. Helmut Kentler died in 2008 before everything came to light and he could be held criminally responsible. Most of the ‘foster fathers’ are also deceased and the statute of limitations on their offences have long past anyway. It also took some time for the co-responsibility of the youth welfare offices in several German cities to be proven. Some victims have since received compensation payments.
The scandal surrounding Helmut Kentler is an example of how easily children can become victims of abuse in a misguided system. Consistent reappraisal, sensitisation of society and improved child protection can prevent such acts in the future. It is everyone’s responsibility to ensure that such crimes never happen again. We must come to terms with the past, even if it is sometimes terrible.
Translated by Anna Smith
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