Emanuella Carlbeck


Emanuella Ottiliana Carlbeck, was a Swedish pedagogue. She is counted as a pioneer in the education of students with Intellectual disability. She founded the first institution for people with Intellectual disability in Gothenburg in 1866. The institution included a school, a working home and an asylum for patients.

Life

Emanuella Carlbeck was the daughter of a vicar, and worked as a governess as an adult. She never married. Her activity for children with intellectual disability was initiated by the birth of her nephew, who had this disability. In mid 19th-century Sweden, there were no institutions for these children, nor any place in the public eye what so ever: they were simply hidden away by their families and never seen. Like her contemporary Sophia Wilkens, Emanuella Carlbeck belonged to the class of upper- and middle class females engaged in social reform work.
In 1866, she founded the first institution for children with intellectual disability in Gothenburg, including a school and a working home as well as an asylum. This has been referred to as the first institution of the kind in Sweden: though the one of Sophia Wilkens was in fact founded seven years prior, it was the one of Carlbeck which became the role model of all following institutions in the nation. In the beginning with a handful och patients, it grew rapidly, as institutions for disabled children in particular were a novelty. From 1871, it was given government support. Originally a private charitable institution, it was taken over by the state in 1885, though Carlbeck continued as its director. Emanuella Carlbeck has been referred to as the founder of the Swedish institutionalized care.