Karl Freytag (teacher)

Karl Freytag (born June 1, 1866 in Marktsteft ; † April 21, 1945 in Landshut ) was a teacher , headmaster , art teacher , artist and organizer of cultural and economic associations. He worked on a voluntary basis, among other things, in the social and cultural sector as well as building allotment gardens in Munich and southern Germany.

Since Freytag had also been a staunch National Socialist and Nazi functionary since 1933 , an ambiguous image remains of him. The school, which he had strongly influenced as a teacher and headmaster, was to be named after him after his death in 1945. However, this decision was revoked because of his Nazi past. A street in the Munich district of Schwabing-Freimann that was renamed after Karl Freytag in 1932 was renamed again in 1947.

biography

Youth and education

Karl Freytag grew up as the son of a Lower Franconian wine merchant and sparkling wine manufacturer, Konrad Friedrich Freytag, partner of the company Fr. Freytag & Co. in Marktsteft. On his mother's side he was a great, great, great-nephew of Johann Sebastian Bach . From the age of 13 to 16 he attended a preparatory school . He was top of the class both in school and in the teachers' seminar that followed in Würzburg .

Teachers and headmasters

In 1884, at the age of 18, Freytag became a school administrator in Kitzingen . After he had again passed the teaching examination as the best of 82 candidates with a grade of 1, he submitted an application for employment in Munich. So he came in 1889 as an assistant teacher, later as a teacher, at the III. Protestant Munich school on Luisenstrasse . He worked in Munich for the rest of his professional life.

After the Luisenschule, Freytag taught at the bakery school. In 1902 he set up the vocational training school for plasterers and sculptors on behalf of Georg Kerschensteiner , which he headed until 1907. From 1907 he was senior teacher ( rector , headmaster) of the Protestant department in the Hirschberg School in Neuhausen , a boys' school.

The Winthir School, view from the north

From 1912 he was a senior teacher at the newly built Neuhausen Winthir School, which he had also helped to build. Under his direction, the Winthir School became a model school known throughout Germany over the next 20 years.

During the winter months, Freytag gave lessons in exchange apprenticeships, bookkeeping, calculation and commercial law at the municipal trade school. In the Munich teachers 'association he organized the archive and thus created the basis for the South German teachers' library. He also worked on the official textbook commission. Freytag was chairman for many years in the Munich school directors' association and in the special purpose association of Bavarian school directors.

In April 1932 Freytag retired after a total of 48 years of work .

Social Commitment

Karl Freytag was socially and culturally committed well beyond his professional life and was characterized as an “exemplary active idealist ”. He was the founder of several clubs, first chairman in ten clubs and board member in eight others.

Arts and Culture

Wiechs with the Heuberge near Aibling , oil painting by Karl Freytag, 1903

Freytag had a “strong affinity for art and music”, attributing his ability to express himself as a painter to his father's legacy and his musical talent to his maternal ancestors.

At the suggestion of Franz von Lenbach , who discovered Freytag's artistic talent, he took training in drawing and painting from various Munich artists . Freytag was a student of Josef Haunstetter , Georg Mühlberg , Hugo Kotschenreiter , Julius Widnmann and Eugen Schoch . He painted all his life, often on trips through Bavaria and beyond, including abroad. In total, Freytag left behind more than 2,800 oil paintings , mainly landscapes and cityscapes. His works were attributed by a newspaper editor to "dignified old Munich landscape painting" and characterized as "mostly quite colorful" and based on "intimate moods".

As a painter, Freytag chose the motifs and the almost photographic exactness of their execution with the teacher's eye in such a way that his pictures were also well suited for teaching purposes. More than 200, later 300 of his paintings were hung in the Winthir School “in the sense of youth and popular education”, since “a noble person can only grow up in beautiful rooms” (as Freytag Comenius quoted). Because of this unusual wealth of images, the school was nicknamed "Neuhauser Pinakothek" or "Pinakothek von Neuhausen" by the people of Munich. It also served as a model for other Munich schools: in 1930, two other schools, the Pestalozzi School and the new school in Berg am Laim , were "decorated" in the same way.

Freytag organized courses in drawing and painting, became a pioneer in the field of drawing lessons in elementary schools and was therefore sent to London in 1908 as a representative at the International Drawing Congress.

In the Bavarian People's Education Association founded by Georg Kerschensteiner in 1906 , Freytag was head of the visual arts department. He also founded the “Teachers' Association for Art Education” and was its first director. From 1910 onwards, Freytag conducted public tours in Munich's galleries, collections, museums, studios and workshops as well as in other cities. He kept precise statistics about it. By the end of his life there were 2,244 tours with 80,625 participants.

In 1922, Freytag founded the association “Deutsche Kultur München-Nordwest”. As part of this, he organized 374 events such as concerts, lecture evenings with photographs, literary evenings, theater performances and collective exhibitions of paintings by Munich painters on a voluntary basis for the population of the north-western Munich districts ( Neuhausen, Nymphenburg and Gern ). The cultural events took place in the Winthir School and in the Dom-Pedro-Saal and made it possible in particular for little-known artists to present themselves to the Munich audience.

War aid, allotment garden and homestead movement

When the First World War broke out in 1914, Freytag founded the association “Private Kriegshilfe München-Nordwest e. V. “, who fed 500 children a day during the time of food shortage and supported more than 4,000 families. To finance this charity, he started a war card publisher that sold 18 million war postcards and made a profit of 720,000 marks . Some of these war postcards have drawings of his son, the war volunteer Karl Freytag junior, as motifs.

As a further measure against the food shortage, the War Aid Association supported the creation of allotment gardens , so-called "war gardens". For these, cultivation land was organized free of charge or cheaply and divided into plots that were leased. Water pipes were laid, fences erected, and seeds obtained. There were also breeding facilities for smaller farm animals such as rabbits, chickens, geese, ducks and goats.

Freytag promoted allotment gardening with energy and a talent for organization and was at the forefront of the Munich allotment garden movement for almost two decades. Before the First World War, there were only three allotment gardens in Munich with around 500 allotment gardens. This number grew to 120 plants with around 10,000 gardens. Even after the end of the war, Freytag emphasized the importance of private allotment gardens, especially for the unemployed and low- wage earners , who were thus able to improve the nutrition of their families.

In order to better organize the large number of new allotment gardens in the Munich districts, the Familien-Kriegsgärten-Verband München e. V. (today allotment garden association Munich e.V.), in which Freytag was elected chairman and held this office until 1934. He also became chairman of the regional association of Bavarian allotment gardeners, the German allotment gardeners association with over 400,000 members and the home association "Eigenhaus und Garten", a cooperative . In an annual report by the allotment garden association, Freytag once described itself as the “allotment garden father of Munich”. In 1938 a newspaper article called him the "allotment gardener" of Bavaria and the whole of the Reich. Freytag had its own allotment garden in 1915 as the first allotment garden complex NW 1.

Aerial photo of an allotment garden in Munich, 2014

The Munich allotments gradually changed their character. From usable areas to improve nutrition, especially in the "hunger years" 1915–1918, they increasingly became places of recreation for city dwellers. In order to put the allotment gardening in the service of the general public, Freytag organized a "flower day" in autumn 1928 and 1929. During this festival parades with music, abundant floral decorations, costumes, floats and dance performances took place. Munich hospitals, old people's homes, clinics, nursing homes, institutes for the blind and deaf-mute as well as orphanages were visited to make their inmates happy with bouquets of flowers.

Others

Freytag spent short study visits to London , Paris and Venice and mastered the foreign languages ​​English, French and Italian. He was also considered a "capable gymnast ". In 1895 he won first prize among 80 racers at the Oktoberfest competitions. Every year from April to October he stayed at the public gymnasium on Maßmannstrasse every day , where he worked as a gymnastics teacher and young gymnastics instructor .

Letter drafts by Johann Elias Bach

From the estate of his Franconian Bach ancestors, Freytag owned a bundle of draft letters from the period 1738–1743, which is known today in Bach research under the name "Letter drafts by Johann Elias Bach ". He handed them over to the composer and music writer Karl Pottgießer, then living in Munich, for evaluation. The letters from Johann Sebastian Bach's cousin are important sources on JS Bach's life. The first extracts from the draft letters were published in 1913.

Family and personal life

Karl Freytag was married three times and had a total of six daughters and three sons. He was also an avid genealogist . His family chronicle , begun around 1901 , including the life story of his nine children, ultimately comprised 30 volumes with 3,000 pages, which were decorated with around 1,000 illustrations by Freytag's own hand.

His first wife Maria, nee Henne, whom he married in 1891, died in 1902. From 1910, Freytag lived with his family in a row house on Klugstrasse in the Gern district of Munich . His second wife Elisabeth nee Henne (the youngest sister of his first wife) died in 1914. One of his sons, Walter, died in 1917 in the First World War. Another son, named like his father Karl, was seriously injured and suffered from the consequences for years until he died of them. Since Freytag spent much of his income on charity, his own family also suffered from financial problems. Freytag kept his work fanaticism, physical and mental health and, despite many family worries, his sense of humor into old age. Freytag's third and last son, Helmut, died on the Eastern Front in 1944 during World War II . In March 1945 his third wife, Auguste née Emhardt, died shortly before Freytag's own death.

Political engagement, Freytag as a National Socialist

Until the rise of National Socialism, Freytag had his political home with the Liberal Association Neuhausen-Nymphenburg, of which he was also a member. In March 1933, a few days after the National Socialists also seized power in Bavaria , the 66-year-old retired became a member of the NSDAP . The Reich Labor Minister Franz Seldte and the Office for Agricultural Policy of the NSDAP commissioned him to “ bring the Reich Association of Allotment Garden Associations into line ”. This meant the introduction of the “ Führer principle ”, the implementation of anti-Semitic principles and a complete or partial change in leadership in favor of supporters of the Nazi regime. As the main board of directors, Freytag informed the state, provincial and administrative district associations in a circular dated May 6, 1933 that the Reich Association of Allotment Garden Associations could only make a claim to continued existence with an unconditional implementation of conformity, and asked them to do so. On the "Reichskleingärtnertag" on July 29, 1933 in Nuremberg , he reported that he had 530,000 German allotment gardeners in the Reichsbund der allotment gardeners and small settlers of Germany e. V. convicted. Freytag was chairman of the allotment garden association Munich until 1934, which had now become a city group of the Reichsbund. His war aid association, which had been the nucleus of the Munich allotment garden movement, disbanded in 1935.

Freytag was a fanatical supporter of National Socialism. He was a block leader in his local NSDAP group in Borstei , was an active member of the National Socialist Welfare Association , the Nazi teachers' association , as a sub-group leader in the Reich Air Protection Association , the Singing Association and the Reich Chamber of Culture . Even during the Nazi era, he continued his voluntary art tours through galleries and museums, which enjoyed a steadily increasing number of participants.

When the German Volkssturm was proclaimed in the autumn of 1944 , in which all men between the ages of 16 and 60 who were capable of holding weapons were drafted who had not previously been conscripted, Karl Freytag volunteered for it, even though he was already 78 years old. Shortly afterwards his son Helmut fell. Munich's NS mayor Karl Fiehler condoled Freytag, who thanked Freytag in writing for his condolence letter. From Freytag's reply to Fiehler it can be seen how Freytag was still unshakably connected to National Socialism at the end of 1944, despite all the suffering that the world, Germany and his own family experienced during World War II :

“ Fate grabbed me hard: After I lost my first child, my first and second wife to death, all of my three sons have now become victims of the two world wars, as well as a son-in-law. (...) During the period of the violent air alarms , my third wife has been suffering from a severe gastric ulcer since November 4th and is waiting for the operation that has become necessary. But I bear the fate that has been imposed on me as a German man and party member in the unshakable belief in the ultimate victory of our just cause. (...) The brave resistance of our German people at the front and at home, the highly gratifying successes of our heroes, especially in the West, reinforce my confident belief that all the sacrifices made are building blocks for Greater Germany's life, freedom and future. To be able to make my modest contribution to this is my sacred obligation to our great leader and our dear fatherland. May the New Year 1945 bring us the glorious peace we have longed for! Hail Hitler! Karl Freytag. "

- Karl Freytag, letter of December 28, 1944 to Karl Fiehler

death

In 1944 Karl Freytag brought Johann Elias Bach's draft letters to safety from the increasing air raids on Munich . On April 16, 1945, a bomb hit his train on his way back to Munich. He suffered serious injuries and died on April 21, 1945 in a hospital in Landshut.

After his death, many of his paintings were distributed to schools in Munich. In 1987, on the occasion of its 75th anniversary, an exhibition with pictures by Karl Freytag took place in the Winthir School.

Honors

Sign on the Karl Freytag allotment garden in Augsburg

The “Karl Freytag” allotment garden in Augsburg-Hochfeld , founded in 1928, still bears his name today, as does the “Karl-Freytag-Stuben” restaurant located in it.

The “Karl-Freytag-Land” allotment garden in Munich's Bogenhausen district was also named after its founder, Karl Freytag. It was also called "Wotansgarten" after the "Wotans- or Odinshain" on Odinstraße with a colossal statue of the god Wotan ( Odin ) created by Heinrich Natter in 1874 . This allotment garden was given up in 1975 with the construction of the Bogenhausen Clinic .

In 1932, when Freimann was incorporated, the former Simmerlstrasse was renamed Karl-Freytag-Strasse because of Freytag's merits in building allotments in Munich. It was renamed again in 1947 in the course of denazification , namely in Hermann-Vogel-Straße.

On August 30, 1945, the Munich city council approved an application by the Bavarian National Education Association to rename the Winthir School "Karl Freytag School on Winthirplatz". The renaming took place on September 5, 1945, but was revoked a few days later by the Mayor of Munich, Karl Scharnagl , after the letter quoted above had been found in Freytag's documents and thus it became clear that “the deceased Mr. Karl Freytag not only belonged to the NSDAP, but also expressed his membership in a more than formal way ”.

Publications

• Allotment garden and poetry. Sammlg of poems, games and. Dance, drama, puppets games ... In the JOB. D. Reichsverb. d. Allotment garden associations in Germany, 1930.
• The allotment garden and settlement system in the context of unemployment welfare. Memorandum of the Bavarian regional association. Allotment gardeners e. V., 1931

literature

• Franz Schröther: Karl Freytag and the "Pinakothek von Neuhausen". In: Neuhauser Werkstatt-Nachrichten: Historical magazine for Neuhausen, Nymphenburg and Gern. History workshop Neuhausen e. V., No. 12 , 2004, p. 48 ff.

Web links

Commons : Karl Freytag (1866-1945)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} A true teacher. In: Munich newspaper . April 1, 1932
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac} Franz Schröther: Karl Freytag and the "Pinakothek von Neuhausen". In: Neuhauser Werkstatt-Nachrichten: Historical magazine for Neuhausen, Nymphenburg and Gern. History workshop Neuhausen e. V., No. 12 , 2004, p. 48 ff.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} 100 Years of Allotment Garden Association Munich eV 1917–2017, p. 12 f. ( Online )
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k} famous teachers. Primary school on Winthirplatz, accessed on June 21, 2021 . 
5. ^ The trade register of the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1871: Address book of all the individual, corporate and cooperative companies registered in the trade registers of the Kingdom of Bavaria up to the end of 1871 with details of the business owners . Walter de Gruyter & Co KG, 2020, ISBN 978-3-486-72326-7 , p. 174 ( books.google.de ).
6. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} A teacher and artist. Karl Freytag 70 years old. In: Munich newspaper. May 28, 1936
7. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Karl Freytag 70 years. In: Munich Latest News. May 28, 1936.
8. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} “A descendant of Joh. Seb. Bach lives in Munich: From the work of a German idealist ”, in: Telegramm-Zeitung of April 9, 1931
9. ↑ ^{a b} sheets of the Bavarian State Association for Family Studies, 9th year 1931, No. 4. Max Kellerers Verlag, Munich 1931, p. 51 ( digitized version )
10. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Franz Rogler: The 'Neuhauser Pinakothek' and senior teacher Freytag, who created it. In: Welt am Sonntag . May 25, 1930.
11. ↑ ^{a b c d e} NordOstMagazin München, 2012, 8th volume, p. 12 f. ( Online )
12. ↑ ^{a b c d e} head of the week: senior teacher Karl Freytag. In: Allgemeine Zeitung . July 12, 1929.
13. ^ ^{A b c} Painter from a hobby: The Bavarian National Education Association visits Karl Freytag. In: Munich Latest News . June 3, 1938.
14. ^ Head teacher Karl Freytag. In: Munich newspaper . January 14, 1936.
15. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} The supervisor of the allotment gardens. In: Völkischer Beobachter . May 25, 1936.
16. ↑ ^{a b c d} 100 years allotment garden association Munich e. V. 1917-2017. P. 14 ff. ( Online )
17. ↑ ^{a b} Flower day of allotment gardeners. In: Munich newspaper. September 2, 1929.
18. ↑ ^{a b} Hans-Joachim Schulze: Bach Facets: Essays - Studies - Miscell. With a foreword by Peter Wollny . Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2017, ISBN 978-3-374-04837-3 , pp. 171 ( books.google.com ).
19. ^ Karl Freytag: My family chronicle and the life stories of my children. The whereabouts of this family chronicle is unknown.
20. ↑ 100 Years of Allotment Garden Association Munich 1917–2017. P. 16. ( online )
21. ^ Karl Freytag's 1200th guided tour. In: Völkischer Beobachter. February 9, 1937.
22. ↑ Stadtverband Augsburg der Kleingärtner eV - GA 17 - Karl Freytag allotment garden. Retrieved June 21, 2021 . 
23. ↑ Karl-Freytag-Stuben - Bavarian Swabian cuisine. Accessed June 21, 2021 (German). 
24. ↑ Wotan's or Odinshain. www.nordostkultur-muenchen.de, accessed on June 29, 2021 . 
25. ^ Sculpture "Wotan". www.nordostkultur-muenchen.de, accessed on June 29, 2021 . 
26. ^ Karl-Freytag-Strasse in Munich. In: stadtgeschichte-muenchen.de. Retrieved June 21, 2021 .