Elisabeth Heimpel

Elisabeth Heimpel , née Sophie Elisabeth Michel , (born April 26, 1902 in Mannheim , † 1972 in Falkau ) was a German educator and social worker . She was the author and co-editor of the educational journal “ Die Sammlung ” by Herman Nohl and editor of the “Neue Sammlung. Göttinger Blätter for Culture and Education ”. She was also involved in the peace movement and made the writings of Janusz Korczak and Anton Semjonowitsch Makarenkos known in the Federal Republic.

Life

Wayside cross at the place where the corpse was found

Sophie Elisabeth Michel was the daughter of Oskar Michel, a secret counsel and board member of BASF , and his wife Luise (née Glaser). She had two younger siblings and grew up with them in a director's villa in Hemshof .

As a schoolgirl, she organized a hall where she told working-class children fairy tales with photographs . In her later life, too, both fairy tales and the care for young people from deprived backgrounds played an important role in her educational work. After graduating from high school , Elisabeth Heimpel initially pursued the goal of becoming a pediatrician, but stopped studying medicine in Munich after four semesters. She went to Freiburg im Breisgau , where she studied history , philosophy and psychology and at the same time attended seminars at the social women's school.

The combination of theoretical knowledge and practical work was important to Elisabeth Heimpel, so that she did an internship at the Freiburg Youth Welfare Office during her studies , where she got, among other things, insights into procedures relating to guardianship and welfare education . Through this activity she came into contact again with children and young people from difficult social and financial backgrounds, which solidified her desire to be educational. On the advice of Martin Heidegger , she left southern Germany and went to the Georg-August University in Göttingen , where she studied pedagogy with Herman Nohl from 1924 . During this time she worked in a kindergarten and also gave lessons in German and civic studies in a girls' class at the Landhaushaltsschule in Wöllmarshausen near Göttingen .

In 1927 she received her doctorate on the subject of The Enlightenment. A historical-systematic study that emerged from a Nohl seminar . It already echoed the questions that should occupy her life as a teacher: "How is it possible to bring up a good education, to create the conditions for good politics through good pedagogy" and also "where do the children lag behind? Why the deviant behavior of so many young people? Why revolt? Why drugs? Why crime? "

After completing her doctorate , she moved back to Freiburg, where she worked as a lecturer at the social women's school. On April 11, 1928, she married the historian Hermann Heimpel (1901–1988), with whom she had five children. She also wrote articles on the topic of “female education”. She also wrote fairy tales in which she combined the children's world and the political situation of the 1940s with typical fairy tale aspects.

"The (New) Collection"

For Elisabeth Heimpel, her return to Göttingen meant resuming her educational work in the vicinity of Herman Nohl. Under his leadership, the educational seminar, which at the time was located on Wagnerstrasse, became the center of the educational reorientation.

Elisabeth Heimpel wrote regularly for Nohl's monthly magazine “ Die Sammlung ”, which exerted great influence in the post-war period and not only collected educational contributions, but also kept the so-called Nohl Circle together. She became co-editor and in her articles she devoted herself above all to the importance of fairy tales, which, due to the fantastic elements, seemed to her to be particularly suitable for promoting children's development. In addition, she opened “The Window to the East” in 1951 (Heimpel 1951, 527-540) and published essays on the pedagogy and personality of Anton Semjonowitsch Makarenkos (1888-1939), whose socio-educational work with neglected and criminal offenders in the “Gorki -Kolonie "made it known for the first time in West Germany and put it up for discussion.

It is also thanks to her that the writings of the Polish doctor and pedagogue Janusz Korczak were translated into German. For the translation of Korczak's study How to Love a Child , in which he discusses his work in “Dom Sierot”, which had become his main work, and one entitled Das The child's right to respect summarized lecture series she won Professor Dr. Hans Roos, a historian of Polish history.

Elisabeth Heimpel later became co-editor of the “Collection” and after Nohl's death in 1961 took over the editing. The title was in “New Collection. Göttinger Blätter for Culture and Education ”changed. As editor, she helped to determine the contents of the magazine and thus had a significant influence on the pedagogy of the time. The focus of the publications was the interaction between education and politics.

Social work on site

Elisabeth Heimpel, despite all her obligations as a mother of five and grandmother of 16 children, as a wife and as the editor of a scientific newspaper, continued to work socio-educationally and practically: She was one of the Göttingen women who, in 1953, welcomed late returnees from Soviet captivity Recordings. “She organized the student Friedland Service, which worked with the church-organized groups and the Red Cross” (Weber-Reich 1995, p. 313). At her request, Abitur courses were set up at the Göttingen Institute for Education and Teaching especially for those involved in the war.

In 1954 Elisabeth Heimpel visited the reception center for girls in Berlin-Marienfelde , a camp for so-called refugees from the East. After she had trained as a Red Cross helper, she accompanied the girls to an emergency reception center in Westertimke near Bremen , from where they were assigned to individual cities and communities. She advocated advice on career opportunities before the girls left the camp.

Use against nuclear weapons

Elisabeth Heimpel's letter to Werner Heisenberg, the leading nuclear physicist at the time, on April 7, 1957, marked the beginning of a major anti-nuclear weapons campaign: She asked him, together with his friends, to give a clear and generally understandable statement against the possession and use of nuclear weapons , because as an authority in this area he has the necessary influence. This resulted in the " Göttingen Declaration " of April 12, 1957, in which, in addition to Heisenberg, 18 other recognized natural scientists - including Otto Hahn , Max von Laue , Max Born and Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker - informed about the destructive effects of nuclear weapons and expressly called for them to to forego the nuclear armament of the Bundeswehr . This manifesto, originally initiated by Elisabeth Heimpel, met with a great response worldwide.

In addition, Elisabeth Heimpel initiated a signature campaign entitled Declaration of Women Against Nuclear Weapons , which was signed by 60 female public figures. The undersigned included Minna Specht , Elisabeth Blochmann , Ehrengard Schramm, Gundi von Weizsäcker, Gertrud von Le Fort , Ina Seidel , Hedwig Conrad-Martius , Luise Rinser and Hildegard Hamm-Brücher . Despite numerous protests, the Bundestag debate on March 25, 1958, decided to arm the Bundeswehr with nuclear weapons. The women's declaration at the time had almost 20,000 signatures. During the debate in the Bundestag, the movement “ Fight against atomic death ” emerged from which the “Easter marches” developed. Elisabeth Heimpel got involved in the “fight against atomic death” and also became a member of the world organization of mothers of all nations WOMAN, which works for a culture of peace.

The Elisabeth Heimpel House

New construction of the Elisabeth-Heimpel-Haus daycare center in Göttingen, Hagenweg 2. Right the "White House"

In 1963 she was involved in founding the “Göttingen Association for Youth Issues”. Together with students and lecturers from the pedagogical seminar and the youth welfare office , the association mainly took on the problems of young people.

Five years later, Elisabeth Heimpel presented her plans to set up a day-care center in Maschmühlenweg . 60 children from financially less well-off families should receive educational care there. The cost-intensive project was only realized when the association was able to present start-up capital of 50,000 DM, which had come from donations alone. Thereupon the city of Göttingen decided to take over the further financing for the construction as well as the maintenance costs of the facility. Elisabeth Heimpel financed the extension, which was added later, in which there was space for a group of after-school facilities , out of her own pocket. She wanted the house to act as a model. It is thanks to her that both the children and the parents were provided with psychological counseling and therapy and that there was supervision for the teachers working there. Her concern was "to lead the children out of their immaturity in order to be able to seize opportunities in school and training on an equal footing in order to prevent further disadvantages" (quoted in Weber-Reich 1995, p. 317).

The facility moved to a new building at the "White House" on Hagenweg 2 in 2015.

death

Elisabeth Heimpel died in 1972 suffering a stroke in the woods near by Falkau in the Black Forest . She wasn't found until two and a half months after her death.

Honors for the 65th birthday

As a sign of gratitude and solidarity, Elisabeth Heimpel received a completed edition of the “New Collection” from the employees of her magazine on her 65th birthday. The articles dealt exclusively with socio-educational questions, “the solution of which was as important to her as little else” (Blochmann 1967, p. 382). In Elisabeth Blochmann's “Laudation” it says: “I mean, one could search for a long time in the ranks of women who have influenced German intellectual life since the days of Bettina and Rahel until one finds a similarly shaped figure” ( ibid.), with which she equates Elisabeth Heimpel Bettina von Arnim and Rahel Varnhagen . With this present - traditionally the festschrift on the 65th birthday is the farewell present for professors - the “supporting force” (ibid.) Of the “New Collection” was honored as an exceptional woman and educator and symbolically elevated to the rank of university professor.

In Göttingen, a path is named after Elisabeth Heimpel.

Works

• Elisabeth Heimpel: Janusz Korczak as an educator. Epilogue , in: Janusz Korczak: The Child's Right to Respect , Göttingen 1970.
• This. (Ed.): How to love a child , Göttingen 1967.
• This. (Ed.): The AS Makarenkos youth collective , 1956.
• This .: A Christmas story, in: Die Sammlung 2, 1947, pp. 725–735.
• Elisabeth Michel: The Enlightenment. A historical-systematic investigation , in: Herman Nohl (Hrsg.): Göttinger Studien zur Pädagogik , Göttingen 1927.

literature

• Elisabeth Blochmann: Laudation , in: Neue Sammlung 7, 1967, p. 381 f.
• Elisabeth Heimpel: The window to the east , in: Die Sammlung 6, 1951, pp. 527-540.
• Traudel Weber-Reich (Ed.): Worth getting to know. Significant women of Göttingen , Göttingen 1995, pp. 303-319.

Web links

• Literature by and about Elisabeth Heimpel in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Martin Stolzenau: Sophie Heimpel , neue-deutschland.de, April 28, 2012, accessed on November 16, 2012
2. ↑ Traudel Weber-Reich: Elisabeth Heimpel, née Michel in: Worth getting to know: important women of Göttingen , Wallstein, Göttingen 1995, ISBN 978-3-89244-207-3 , p. 303 ff., Preview in Google book search
3. ^ Roth, Heinrich: Elisabeth-Heimpel-Haus, in: Neue Sammlung 13, 1973, pp. 112–116; quoted n. Weber-Reich 1995, p. 304.
4. ^ Hans Erich Troje: Hermann Heimpel (1901–1988) , jura.uni-frankfurt.de, accessed on November 16, 2012
5. ↑ "Children move into their domicile" , HNA v. 3.3.2015