Silvia Görres

Silvia Regina Volkart was born in Stuttgart, the third recorded child of Hans Volkart, an architect and university teacher, and his wife Kathe Volkart-Schlager, a composer. Between 1944 and 1949 she attended Tübingen University where she studied philosophy, psychology and pedagogy.[2][4] Between 1949 and 1952 she completed her psychoanalytical training with Alexander Mitscherlich at his Institute for Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy at Heidelberg. She was then ready to set up her own psychotherapy practice, which she did in 1953, continuing to treat patients till approximately 1990.[2]

In 1950 Silvia Volkart married the psychoanalyst and psychotherapist Albert Görres, who was one of several younger members of the profession closely associated with Alexander Mitscherlich at Heidelberg.[5] The marriage produced seven recorded children, of whom two were affected by Down syndrome.[1]

In 1967 she began to volunteer for the Munich Lebenshilfe charity. In 1971 she became chair of the Munich-based regional executive. She later also joined the organisation's national executive board, which was based in Marburg.

The Munich Lebenshilfe lists various practical support initiatives that Silvia Volkart had already launched by 1980 in order to support the mentally impaired:[1]

• Early years support for children during their first four years
• Two school preparation institutions providing curative teaching and daycare for children from the age of three
• A school with special needs daycare provision for children with severe and multiple impairment (today renamed as the "Silvia Görres School")
• A "Lebenshilfe" workshop
• The organisation's first residential homes for adults with impairments
• The organisation's first residential group
• Publicising work for the handicapped
• Parents' advice service
• The periodical publication L.I.E.S (Lebenshilfe in eigener Sache)[1]

Silvia Görres' voluntary work did not go unrecognised.