In the last third of the 19th century, significant structural changes took place in rural areas, relating to the crisis in traditional farming and the hitherto prevailing way of life.The countryside, especially the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands and the Drahany Highlands, gradually became depopulated, and its inhabitants sought new employment in the industrial area of Brno. Among them were women who moved there in search of income or who hoped that relocation would improve their social prospects, for example, by enabling them to find an advantageous marriage.The Brno city administration and state authorities had to cope with this influx of new residents. However, the existing social institutions had only limited capacity to deal with the ongoing social changes. Among the most pressing problems were the inadequate care for young people from poor backgrounds, the lack of suitable accommodation for new arrivals, and the lack of mechanisms to help them find employment. Local church institutions and women's associations, i.e., private initiatives that primarily established shelters and hostels, responded to the influx of women coming to Brno for work, most often in factories or as domestic servants. There were several similar facilities for women and girls in the Czech lands. They were usually supported by charitable organizations, often linked to Christian social circles, and their aim was not only to provide material assistance but also to pass on a religiously based value system.
Moravian Central Women's Shelter
Liberal-minded women's initiatives in Brno also created their own asylum institutions: a shelter for young girls in Brno was established in 1900 by the Moravian Women's Shelter and six years later also by the "German Women's Union". Both projects were conceived in a national and emancipatory spirit. Unfortunately, due to a lack of preserved sources, the activities of the German institution have not been documented, but there is a relatively rich source material on the so-called Moravian Central Women's Shelter. The goals of the women's shelter as a community facility financed from private sources and fundraising greatly exceeded the earlier plans of the Vesna association from the 1870s and later the 1890s to create a shelter, a kind of hospice – a refuge and at the same time an "employment office" for maids.The association's founding meeting took place at the end of 1900 on the premises of Vesna. It was founded by about 70 members of Brno's Czech society, some of whom were the wives of The People´s Party (e.g., Karla Stránská, Miloslava Přikrylová). Initially, the association was supported by a broad network of patriotic-minded individuals from all over Moravia.The women's shelter did not focus exclusively on social activities, but also helped to build contacts between women's associations in Brno and other such associations across Moravia, partly in order to secure funding for the construction of a girls' boarding school and a job agency for women from lower social classes. It gradually succeeded in achieving these goals. Statistics from 1903 show that by that time it had managed to find work for more than 600 maids, for whom it maintained a dormitory with a public kitchen, ran a boarding school for Czech girls and children, and organized various practical courses in sewing, cooking, and traditional dances. The shelter became the organizational base for a number of nationalist projects, including fostering ties with Slovaks, whom it supported in anti-Hungarian demonstrations in 1904. Together with other organizations, the association organized courses for mothers, for example. In 1906, after a fire in the building on what is now Křížová Street, where the institute had moved shortly after its establishment, the shelter finally settled in new premises on what is now Gorkého Street. Although the Moravian Women's Shelter did not succeed in establishing its originally planned network of branches throughout Moravia and remained limited to Brno, it was a very progressive solution to the social problems of the time. Under the leadership of director Marie Stejskalová, the originally modest institution became an integral part of the social care system for destitute children and young people, as well as for women without means. In addition to a "job agency" and a shelter for maids, the association also maintained an orphanage, a nursery, a girls' boarding school, and a network of more than ten children's sanatoriums in Moravia and Vysočina, and even one in present-day Croatia. After 1918, it specialized in providing health care in the form of convalescent stays in its own facilities. Due to the fact that many of its original activities began to be provided by the state, the Ženská útulna association continued to specialize in providing health care in the form of convalescent stays in its own facilities from 1918 onwards. The activities of the shelter on Gorkého Street and the association itself were terminated in 1952, i.e., in the period after 1948, when all social care was nationalized and subordinated to the ruling regime.
Hana Krutílková, Moravské zemské muzeum
