Spitz receives the Staufer Medal

The ProKids boss is the first person from Schwenningen to be awarded this exclusive medal. The entrepreneur works tirelessly for his foundation. His baby hatch has already saved five young lives.

When he realized that not every family in this country could afford to pay for a hot school meal for their child, Joachim Spitz took action. He collected donations, tied an apron on himself with the then mayor Dr. Rupert Kubon and cooked spaghetti in the kindergarten. That was almost 15 years ago.

Now the enterprising Schwenningen entrepreneur is receiving one of the highest awards in the state of Baden-Württemberg for his commitment – the Staufer Medal.

Only about 120 carriers

It is valuable because it is awarded relatively rarely. Only people who have made a special contribution to the common good receive it. To date, there are only around 120 recipients, including personalities such as the entrepreneurs Carl Herzog von Württemberg, Reinhold Würth, Ewald Marquardt, astronaut Ernst Messerschmid and the late Swiss television presenter Kurt Felix.

This makes the Staufer Medal even more exclusive than the State Order of Merit, which is limited to 1,000 living recipients and is awarded around 30 times a year - although it is the highest award in the state. The State Badge of Honour is also valuable, finding around 400 new owners each year. Spitz is one of the few people from the twin cities to receive this high award. Before him, the Staufer Medal had only gone to personalities such as conductor Gernot Laufer, former district administrator Dr. Rainer Gutknecht and honorary citizen Ewald Merkle.

Active for many years

Anyone who is decorated with the Staufer Medal, like Joachim Spitz (52), must have earned merits that – according to the wording of the award guidelines – “were acquired beyond the actual professional duties in the context of a generally voluntary, social or civic commitment and were performed over many years.”

This undoubtedly applies to the chairman of the ProKids Foundation; since Spitz founded the foundation on a personal initiative in 2010, the owner of a Schwenningen printing company has worked tirelessly to help poor children and their families. The talented networker has already won a whole series of social awards for this; the Staufer Medal, which Mayor Jürgen Roth will present to him in January in the Neckarhalle, is of course the crowning achievement of his work.Spitz is extremely imaginative; only recently he had a volunteer platform set up on the Internet that helps to bring together existing willingness to help and need for help in a structured way. In a similarly pragmatic way, he built a street workout park for the Schwenningen youth on the Vorderer See and founded a shared flat for teenage mothers.

However, the core of the foundation's work remains hot school meals and the ProKids meeting place, a contact point for families in need.

Baby hatch of the “Lighthouse”

The beacon of the foundation's work - and Spitz's favorite project - is the baby hatch that he had installed in the Franziskusheim on Neckarstrasse a few years ago. It has presumably saved the lives of five newborns who were left there. Joachim Spitz is particularly proud of this.

The baby hatch makes it clear how the designated bearer of the Staufer Medal works: He knows God and the world and approaches people to win them over to his cause. He can do that, and he almost always succeeds.



He does not just let others work for him, but also does an immense amount of voluntary work himself in parallel to his entrepreneurial activities - you would be hard-pressed to find a more efficient social manager. This is not only honored by numerous private donors, but also by entrepreneurs who like what the man with the grey beard is doing as the "engine" of his foundation. ? advice

Mothers exchange ideas in the drilling tower at the parents' café of the ProKids Foundation

Jumping around in the ball pit together, visiting a playground together - the small children enjoy the weekly meeting on the upper floor of the municipal youth center in the parents' café of the Pro-Kids Foundation in the Bohrturm municipal youth center in Bad Dürrheim. A little over a year has passed since Joachim Spitz from the Pro-Kids Foundation in Villingen-Schwenningen opened the parents' café in Bad Dürrheim together with some mothers. On Thursday afternoons, mothers meet in a relaxed group between 3 and 6 p.m. in the Bohrturm.

Jenny Leber and Isabell Auer are responsible for the local organization. Fathers are also allowed to come, but so far no one has dared to. The women could also meet in a normal café, but the little ones are of course very lively and it can get loud sometimes. The women can exchange ideas and always keep an eye on the children during the conversation.

Toys from the foundation

They always have enough toys on the upper floor of the municipal youth center and can crawl or run around on the floor. A ball pit and blankets on which fabric building blocks or toys can be spread out provide variety. Child-friendly musical instruments are also available.

In between, one of the little ones is changed, breastfed or given a bottle, while the older ones are given a snack or rice cakes that are donated by the Pro-Kids Foundation. Such meetings with peers are particularly good for promoting development and social contacts for children who are still in kindergarten.

Over coffee and pretzels, the mothers talk about their everyday lives, the situation of their children or discuss the chance of getting one of the coveted kindergarten places later on. And they meet like-minded people with whom they can also meet privately. Thanks to the financial help of the Pro-Kids Foundation with the basic equipment, nothing is lacking and even if consumables such as diapers, wet wipes or sturdy toys need to be purchased, the women can turn to Joachim Spitz.

The parents' café is intended for parents who bring children up to the age of three. However, once the children are in kindergarten, there is no longer such a need for a meeting.

After the parents' café was founded, the mothers were restricted by the corona pandemic, so they sometimes met outside in a playground. But not only that: "We met in the youth center and did a rapid corona test beforehand," reported one woman.

Not only mothers with their children are welcome, but also pregnant women. Even in the summer, the parents meet outside from time to time. Sometimes the children don't even notice when the mothers meet because they are sleeping - especially if they are still babies.

Invite speakers

In a conversation with the mothers, city youth worker Jessica Gälle and Joachim Spitz, it was agreed that speakers would be invited to the parents' café or an evening event, for example on topics such as diabetes, child nutrition, kite building, educational content or first aid for children. The trainees at the youth center can also be involved.

In any case, the parents' café is open to cooperation and also to new interested parties - "everyone is welcome," says city youth worker Jessica Gälle. In recent months, at least five to six mothers with their children have come to the meetings, but usually more.

At one point, 15 mothers with a total of 16 children were counted, from infants to older children. The idea of setting up a second group was already being considered. A WhatsApp group was set up to facilitate communication between the groups. In the mothers' opinion, the parents' meeting definitely fills a gap; they appreciate "that parents with children of different ages can meet here."

Dürrheim family friendly

Jessica Gälle is happy to make the room in the youth center available: “It’s a good opportunity for the women to exchange ideas with each other.”

One topic that comes up again and again in the mothers' conversations is kindergarten places. "I got a place well," said Jenny Leber, for example, although she suspects that it has something to do with the fact that she runs a small business.

Isabell Auer confirms that the town of Bad Dürrheim is "very child and family friendly," and this also applies to the creation of new kindergarten places. Not only the senior citizens, but also mothers with strollers would benefit from lowered sidewalks and the infrastructure, for example.

One mother said that there could be more babysitters in the city who look after children for a few hours, especially if the grandparents don't live locally - but maybe something will happen here at the youth center? ? hje