History

Our founder, Father Joseph Kentenich, was a man who had a great sensitivity for the needs of the time. He already recognised in 1930 the important role of family and married life for the renewal of the Church and society. From this point on he held on to the idea of bringing a new type of family movement to life.

It became very clear to Father Kentenich in the Dachau concentration camp through his encounter with Lutheran pastors from the School of Bodelschwingh, Germany just how much strength can radiate from their own families into their parishes. More often than not they played a model role and were the strength and spirit behind the parish. Our founder recognised a message from God to him through this meeting and came to the conclusion that even the Catholic Church needs such families. His answer to this call from God was to found our community whose aim it is to be such a strength and spirit behind the entire family movement, which was yet to be realized. His vision was a community whose task it is to protect the Catholic ideal of marriage and family life and to live it on a model basis in today's world.

He was able to inspire Dr. Fritz Kuhr, a Christian politician with his idea and so, on July 16, 1942 in Dachau, our community was founded.

The family movement then developed in Germany after the war. Finally, in 1962 some couples were prepared to start in the Institute and in 1968 our founder acknowledged and accepted our first family government. With this action our Institute became independent within the Schoenstatt Work, and soon spread out internationally.