Richard Meister

This article deals with the Austrian philologist and teacher Richard Meister (1881–1964). For the epigraphist and linguist Richard (Carl) Meister (1848–1912) see Richard Meister (epigraphist) .

Richard Meister (born February 5, 1881 in Znojmo , Moravia ; † June 11, 1964 in Vienna ) was an Austrian scientist who dealt primarily with classical philology and pedagogy .

He completed his entire studies in Vienna, in 1918 he became an associate professor for classical philology and in 1923 a full professor for pedagogy at the University of Vienna . He had a significant influence on Austrian school policy. After Austria was annexed to the German Reich in 1938, he was removed from his chair because there were reservations within the NSDAP about letting masters work in this subject, which is central to the training of young people. He was transferred to the chair for Classical Philology and kept this during the years of National Socialist rule . In the post-war period he held important management positions: in 1945 he became prorector (later rector) of the University of Vienna and vice-president (later president) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences . Above all, his influential work as a pedagogue is remembered, but his publications only partially deal with pedagogy as a science; other focal points were classical philology, the history of scientific institutions, educational policy and cultural philosophy. From an ideological point of view, Meister was humanistic and German national .

Life

Study, research and school teaching

Richard Meister's father was the lawyer Anton Meister , who worked in Znojmo ( Znojmo in Czech ) . There is no close relationship to Richard (Karl) Meister (1848–1912). He was also a classical philologist, with a focus on Greek dialects, and was a teacher at the Nikolaigymnasium in Leipzig .

After graduating from high school in 1899, Meister studied classical philology , German , comparative linguistics and philosophy at the University of Vienna . He received his doctorate in 1904 as Dr. phil. with the Indo-Europeanist Paul Kretschmer with an investigation on the flexivic peculiarities in the language of the Septuagint . In 1905 he passed the teaching examination for grammar schools for the subjects Latin and Greek as a major and German as a minor, and in 1909 also for philosophical propaedeutics . In 1906/07 Meister worked on the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae at the University of Munich. From 1907 Master was a provisional high school teacher in Znojmo. In 1909 he got a position as a high school professor in Vienna. During this time he dealt intensively with the didactics of his subjects, with high school education, the educational value of antiquity and generally with the theory and history of education . He published z. B. About the use of Aristotelian logic in the propaedeutic lessons of the humanistic grammar schools , about the means for the scientific further training of middle school teachers or about the didactic treatment of Cicero's philosophical writings.

Meister remained unmarried and had no children.

University professorship from 1918

Before the First World War, Meister discussed a possible habilitation with the Viennese professor of education Alois Höfler . This did not happen, however, because in 1918 Meister became an associate professor for classical philology at the University of Graz , although he did not qualify for this subject either. In 1920 he moved to the University of Vienna in the same position, where he worked until his death. He was one of those scientists who grew up in the German-speaking population of Moravia and who found good opportunities for development in the capital Vienna during the period of the Habsburg Monarchy (such as Ernst Mach or Sigmund Freud ).

The educational ideal of the humanistic grammar school was highly valued at the Vienna Philosophical Faculty. When Höfler died, the faculty appointed the Graz professor of education, Eduard Martinak , who declined for private reasons. Martinak was originally a high school teacher, u. a. for Latin and Greek, and he was a defender of the ancient language grammar school. One such was Meister, who was now being considered by the Appeals Committee. It was alleged that he had experience as a school teacher and knew the Austrian school situation well. In addition, he had previously advised the faculty on the subject of school education. Objections came from two Germans who had been appointed to Vienna shortly before (1922) and to whom Meister's academic achievements in the field of education seemed inadequate: Karl Bühler saw methodological deficiencies, and Moritz Schlick missed originality. The majority, which also included the advisor to the commission, Robert Reininger , decided in favor of Meister, and so in 1923 he became a full professor for this actually quite different subject. As a professor, he dealt primarily with the “systematic core of pedagogy” and operated the “establishment of a scientific system of educational theory on the basis of cultural philosophy”, so he was not limited to moral-philosophical and psychological requirements or to questions of school organization practice.

From the 1920s - interrupted by the National Socialist era - he had an advisory role in Austrian educational policy. In his essay, Proposals and Suggestions for a Reorganization of the Educational Pre-Education of Secondary School Teachers from 1923, he outlined his concern of intensifying the pedagogical-theoretical training of candidates for the higher teaching post , Psychology), secondly, a “general theory of pedagogy”, and thirdly, “special teaching theory”, i. H. the didactics and methodology of the respective subject. Meister's suggestions were largely implemented and were included in the new examination regulations for the teaching post in secondary schools issued in 1928 , as well as in the examination regulations he had drawn up for teaching in secondary schools from 1937. Meister was a member of important committees such as the Federal Culture Council established in 1934, and worked on laws Regulations for schools as well as on curricula with.

In his writings, Master strove for comprehensibility and clarity. He was a "man of definitions"; his definition of upbringing is often given:

"Upbringing is the systematic leadership that the adult generation allows the adolescents to thrive in their confrontation with the traditional culture."

His arguments and formulations often prevailed. He rejected Otto Glöckel 's plan of a “ single school ” for 10 to 14 year olds. Even where he advocated a certain direction, he was objective and willing to compromise.

By 1938, Meister accepted around 70 pedagogical dissertations as first reviewers , most of which, however, he only rated “sufficient”.

In the academic year 1930/31 he was dean of the philosophical faculty. In 1931 he was elected a corresponding member, and in 1934 a real member, of the Academy of Sciences in Vienna.

As early as the 1920s, Meister was a member of the Bärenhöhle Association , a well-organized group of anti-Semitic professors at the Faculty of Philosophy that prevented Jews from successfully pursuing academic careers in Vienna. The counterpart at the law and political science faculty was the tension circle .

Transfer after connection

Master's worldview can be characterized as follows:

"He was a humanistic liberal with a tendency towards enlightened cultural Catholicism and the large German national orientation characteristic of his homeland Moravia."

It is therefore understandable that the responsible National Socialists did not want to entrust him with the ideologically central subject of education. After the annexation of Austria, he was released from the pedagogy chair in April 1938 and transferred to a professorship for classical philology (with a focus on Latin studies) in October 1938. Formally, his professorship for pedagogy lasted until October 31, and on November 1 he took up his professorship for classical philology.

The political assessment by the Vienna Lecturer Association Leader Arthur Marchet shows not only a fundamental appreciation but also an ideological reservation ("humanistic") and indicates that Meister was not well received by the students:

“As an educator, he represented the humanistic ideals of education. ... He has an astonishing knowledge of the law and was very adept at drafting memoranda, proposing examination regulations, etc. ... He was not popular with the students. But the students wrongly held him responsible for many ordinances for which he could not, because they had been requested on behalf of higher authorities. In the bottom of his heart he was benevolent, but was often unlovable. "

The tendency of this assessment is favorable. It contains no date and was probably written in June / July 1938. At that time, Meister had already been relieved of his teaching chair, and the question was whether he should definitely get a chair in classical philology. Apparently Marchet wanted to support that.

Despite the reservation mentioned, Meister was able to continue to take on responsible tasks in the philosophical faculty. He participated in the drafting of the study regulations for the Institute for Life Economics , and he signed related letters to the Ministry of Science on behalf of the dean.

During the Nazi era, almost 60 dissertations were supervised at the Vienna Philological Seminar , all of them by Johannes Mewaldt and Meister, accepted mainly in 1939 and 1940. Around a third of them have a political tinge in places.

Meister never tried to become a member of the NSDAP, although he had belonged to the Austrian-German working group and the Austrian-German Volksbund ; so he could have pointed to his German national attitude that was recognizable therein.

As a leading functionary, Meister reliably carried out the respective requirements, such as the requirement to reduce the presence of Jews as much as possible. When the exhibition The Viennese Personality of the 20th Century from Art and Science , planned for 1943, had to be prepared, Meister informed Government Councilor Dr. Ludwig Berg informed that when selecting the portraits of scientists to be exhibited, some candidates would have to be eliminated: “Pirquet as not certain Aryan” and Friedrich Freiherr von Wieser , “who was not purely Aryan”. Here Meister made an effort to fully meet Nazi expectations. Meister in the Academy reported on an exhibition Vienna - Art and Culture of Our Time , which was held at about the same time . He criticized the sudden change of specifications in the course of the preparation, which made it extremely difficult and impaired the didactic yield. Ie Meister expressed concerns about the planning of an exhibition, but only within the permitted framework. Meister did not comment on the question of whether it makes sense to portray Viennese culture around 1900 while omitting Judaism. After the end of the war, there were political and administrative requirements to the contrary: Now, as Secretary General of the Academy, Meister informed the Jews who had previously been excluded that their membership was valid again.

post war period

In the post-war period, Meister also received important academic management positions. In addition, he received several honors from municipal and scientific institutions in Vienna: in 1956 the Ring of Honor of the City of Vienna and in 1957 the Austrian Decoration of Honor for Science and Art . He also received the title of Councilor . In 1972 - eight years after Meister's death - the Meistergasse in Vienna- Floridsdorf was named after him.

Professorship for Education and Cultural Philosophy

In 1945 Meister was again given the professorship for education, now expanded to include the subject of cultural philosophy . The connection between the two subjects becomes clear in another definition by Master of Education:

“Education is an area of ​​culture, its function as such is the transmission of culture in the course of generations. In every act, this cultural transfer is the revitalization, resubjectivation of an 'objectified' meaning created in a cultural object. "

In Meister's cultural philosophy, Friedrich Jodl's experience-based “philosophy of reality” - which is close to scientific positivism - continued to have an effect . Meister distinguished three “zones” or “areas of life and creativity” with increasing freedom granted by the state, namely economic culture (includes hunting, agriculture, trade, traffic, among others), social culture (including family, upbringing, law, state) and intellectual culture in the narrower sense (including language, games, science, religion).

Bernhard Möller , who later became a professor for school pedagogy at the University of Oldenburg , visited Meister in his office hours at the beginning of his pedagogy studies. Master said to him:

“You know, you can't actually study education at all. Read my 'Contributions to Theory of Education'. I recommend ethnology as a minor. "

Meister therefore recommended his 200-page anthology, published in 1946, in which several smaller essays were compiled. Another anthology with the same title appeared in the year after Meister's death. It fits in with his diverse commitment that he brought out a large number of rather small, thematically wide-ranging publications, but not an extensive monograph on a particular topic of education, apart from a historical book on Austrian studies (1963).

Master "was considered a dry and pedantic teacher", but he tried to expand the range of courses by including honorary professors for elementary and middle school education and theory of adult education . These external teachers also offered a good connection to the then ÖVP- led Ministry of Education and the SPÖ- led City School Council for Vienna , i.e. to both major political camps.

Since it was feared that a suitable successor for masters would not be found in pedagogy, he retained the chair until 1956, i.e. until the age of 75. In the post-war period he accepted 44 pedagogical dissertations. Despite the large number of doctoral students he supervised - before and after the Nazi era - he did not achieve a single habilitation. His successor to the chair was the former middle school teacher and active in the adult education sector, Josef Lehrl, who then died after just one year. Then Richard Schwarz, who had been teaching at the Bamberg University of Applied Sciences until then , was appointed (at the Vienna chair 1958–1963).

University management

In 1945, Meister became the prorector of the University of Vienna. In the first post-war years, those responsible for the university had many decisions to make. Meister submitted a report to the Philosophical Faculty with suggestions in relation to the university institutes established during the Nazi era: Meister suggested integrating the Institute for Folklore of German Studies into a separate institute for the "History of the Postal Service" - because too special - to renounce and rename the "Institute for Life Economics" which was incorporated into the university in 1940 and which was renamed the Institute for the "Subjects of Women" in 1940. Furthermore, it was about the recall of expelled professors; It did not work with the psychologist Karl Bühler, although he - who was an opponent of the appointment of Master in 1923 - observed a "friendly attitude" with regard to his return. And also in the process of the so-called “denazification”, Meister, as someone who was not a member of the NSDAP and therefore “unencumbered”, played a decisive role, both at the university and at the Vienna Academy. In doing so, he tried to keep former NSDAP members on duty - as far as the law allows - in order to keep the loss of competent teachers as low as possible. Therefore, he was criticized by the Ministry of Education, whereupon the Law and Political Science Faculty awarded him an honorary doctorate in law in 1948 . How much he was valued at the university is also reflected in his election as rector for the academic year 1949/50.

Presidium of the Academy of Sciences

Since 1945, Meister has been Vice President of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, which has been called this since 1947. To mark its 100th anniversary in 1947, he presented a history of the academy - he had already taken on this task in 1943, in the middle of the dramatic war time. In it, he also dealt with the immediately preceding Nazi period, but shows a tendency to trivialize. This can already be seen in his overall assessment:

"The activities of the academy itself have not been significantly influenced by political change, either in terms of the course of business or the content and spirit of the work."

In 1951 Meister became President of the Academy and remained so until 1963, one year before his death. After the end of the war, his tasks had become even more varied and numerous. So he wrote in a letter to his friend Heinrich von Srbik :

"It is no different than always, when the hardest work comes down to me."

In 1957 he was elected honorary member of the Saxon Academy of Sciences .

Fonts (selection)

• The educational values ​​of antiquity and the unified school concept. Self-published, Graz 1920.
• Proposals and suggestions for a reorganization of the educational training of secondary school teachers . In: Monthly Issues for German Education 1, 1923, pp. 1–9.
• Humanism and canon problem. Collected lectures and essays . Österreichischer Bundesverlag, Vienna 1931 (on the didactics of ancient language teaching).
• Forms of being of culture . In: Blätter für Deutsche Philosophie 17, 1943, pp. 361–379.
• Contributions to the theory of education . Sexl, Vienna 1946, 2nd edition 1947.
• History of the Academy of Sciences in Vienna 1847–1947 (= memoranda of the entire academy ; 1). Adolf Holzhausen successor, Vienna 1947.
• The zoning of the culture . In: Vienna Journal for Philosophy, Psychology, Pedagogy 3, 1951, 188ff.
• History of the doctorate in philosophy at the University of Vienna . Rohrer, Vienna 1958.
• Development and reforms of the Austrian study system , 2 volumes. Böhlau, Graz a. a. 1963.
• Contributions to the theory of education. New episode . Böhlau, Graz a. a. 1965.

Bibliographies:

• Bibliography Richard Meister 1906–1951. For his 70th birthday ... from the University of Vienna . Holzhausen, Vienna 1951.
• Ludmilla Krestan: Bibliography Richard Meister . In: Knowledge and Education. Vienna 1961, pp. 169-183.
• Friedrich Kainz : List of publications . In: Almanach of the Austrian Academy of Sciences 114, 1964, pp. 286–311.

literature

• K. Taschwer, stronghold of anti-Semitism. The decline of the University of Vienna in the 20th century. Vienna: Czernin Verlag, 2015
• Wolfgang Brezinka : History of the subject pedagogy at the University of Vienna from 1805 to 1956. In: Communications of the Austrian Society for the History of Science 15, 1995, p. 67-78 (on Meister from p. 71).
• Wolfgang Brezinka: Education in Austria. The history of the subject at the universities from the 18th to the end of the 20th century , Vol. 1: Introduction. School system, universities and pedagogy in the Habsburg Empire and in the Republic. Pedagogy at the University of Vienna . Verlag der Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2000 (on Meister pp. 372–388 and 425–430).
• Josef Derbolav : Richard Meister's cultural-philosophical pedagogy and its scientific significance . In: Anzeiger der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 118, 1981.
• Alois Eder:  Master, Richard. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 16, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-428-00197-4 , p. 728 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Franz Graf-Stuhlhofer : The Academy of Sciences in Vienna in the Third Reich. In: Eduard Seidler, Christoph J. Scriba, Wieland Berg (ed.): The nation's elite in the Third Reich. The relationship of academies and their scientific environment to National Socialism (Acta historica Leopoldina; 22). Barth, Leipzig 1995, pp. 133-159.
• Franz Graf-Stuhlhofer: opportunists, sympathizers and officials. Support of the Nazi system in the Vienna Academy of Sciences, represented by the work of Nadler, Srbik and Master. In: Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift 110, 1998, Issue 4–5 (= special issue “On the 60th Anniversary of the Expulsion of Jewish Colleagues from the Vienna Medical Faculty”), pp. 152–157 (Master as an “official” or “bureaucrat” executing orders ).
• Friedrich Kainz : Richard Meister (obituary). In: Almanach of the Austrian Academy of Sciences 114, 1964, pp. 267-311 (with list of publications).
• Friedrich Kainz: Main problems of the cultural philosophy in connection with the cultural-philosophical writings of Richard Meister . Vienna 1977.
• Alois Kernbauer: Richard Meister (1918–20) . In: Walter Höflechner (Ed.): Articles and materials on the history of science in Austria (= publications from the archive of the University of Graz ; 11). Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, Graz 1981, pp. 189–197.
• Martin Knechtel: The Pedagogical Seminar of the University of Vienna 1938–45 . Typewritten diploma thesis, University of Vienna 2012, pp. 28–34 (master craftsman from 1921), pp. 49–59 (transfer 1938).
• Marko Stettner: Richard Meisters System der Pädagogik (= publications of the commission for the history of education and teaching ; 18). Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1977.
• Udo Wallraf: Culture and Personality. Richard Meister as an educational theorist and reformer of the Austrian education system . Bonn 1986 (Dissertation University of Bonn 1985).

Web links

• Literature by and about Richard Meister in the catalog of the German National Library
• Portrait via Richard Meister , Der Standard , March 22, 2015

Single receipts

1. ^ Estate in the Brandenburg Academy
2. ^ Brezinka: Pedagogy at the University of Vienna , 1995, p. 71f.
3. ^ In the annual report of the KK Staatsgymnasium in III. District in Vienna 1911 - at this master trained.
4. ^ In: Österreichische Mittelschule 26, 1912, pp. 94-104.
5. ↑ Self-published, Vienna 1921.
6. ^ Brezinka: Pedagogy at the University of Vienna , 1995, pp. 70, 72, 74.
7. ^ Brezinka: Pedagogy at the University of Vienna , 1995, pp. 70f.
8. ^ Brezinka: Pedagogy at the University of Vienna , 1995, pp. 72 and 78.
9. ^ Gerald Grimm: University teacher training in Austria. On the genesis of the educational accompanying study for teachers in higher schools from 1848 to the present . In: Tertium comparationis. Journal für Internationale Bildungsforschung 6, 2000, pp. 151–171, there 158–161. open access (PDF; 222 kB).
10. ^ Knechtel: The Pedagogical Seminar , Diploma thesis 2012, pp. 31–34.
11. ↑ Brezinka: Pedagogy at the University of Vienna , 1995, p. 78.
12. ↑ Meister: Contributions to the theory of education , 1946, p. 49, and 1965, p. 10.
13. ↑ A new plea for comprehensive school is linked to these two opponents, by Karl Josef Westritschnig: Educational policy opponents: Otto Glöckel and Richard Meister . Munich 2012.
14. ^ Brezinka: Pedagogy at the University of Vienna , 1995, p. 73.
15. ↑ Klaus Taschwer : The Bear Cave, a secret anti-Semitic professor clique from the interwar period. In: geschichte.univie.ac.at . University of Vienna , November 4, 2015, accessed December 25, 2015 . 
16. ↑ Lukas Wieselberg: Reason was expelled earlier. In: science.orf.at . Österreichischer Rundfunk , June 13, 2012, accessed on December 25, 2015 . 
17. ↑ Margarete Grandner, Thomas König: Reaches and External Views: The University of Vienna as an interface between scientific developments and social upheavals . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2015, ISBN 978-3-8471-0414-8 , pp. 119 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
18. ^ Brezinka: Pedagogy at the University of Vienna , 1995, p. 73.
19. ^ Brezinka: Pedagogy at the University of Vienna , 1995, p. 73.
20. ^ Knechtel: The Pedagogical Seminar , diploma thesis 2012, p. 59.
21. ↑ Quoted from Knechtel: The Pedagogical Seminar , Diploma thesis 2012, p. 57.
22. ↑ Edith Saurer : New institutes founded 1938-1945 . In: Gernot Heiss, Siegfried Mattl, Sebastian Meissl, Edith Saurer, Karl Stuhlpfarrer (Ed.): Willing Science. The University of Vienna 1938–1945. Verlag für Gesellschaftskritik, Vienna 1989. pp. 303–328, there 324.
23. ↑ Information from Franz Römer , Sonja Martina Schreiner: Dis-continuities. Classical Philology in National Socialism . In: Mitchell G. Ash et al. a. (Ed.): Humanities in National Socialism. The example of the University of Vienna. 2010, pp. 317–342, there 327.
24. ^ Graf-Stuhlhofer: Opportunists , 1998, p. 155.
25. ^ Graf-Stuhlhofer: Opportunisten , 1998, pp. 155 and 157.
26. ↑ Graf-Stuhlhofer emphasizes this contrast between Meister's behavior during the Nazi era and in the period afterwards: Opportunisten , 1998, pp. 155 and 157.
27. ↑ Meister: Contributions to the theory of education , new series, 1965, p. 73.
28. ↑ Wolfdietrich Schmied-Kowarzik : Philosophy of reality and its metaphysical margins. Walther Schmied-Kowarzik between Friedrich Jodl and Friedrich Kainz . In: Michael Benedikt u. a. (Ed.): Repressed Humanism - Delayed Enlightenment , Vol. V: ... Philosophy in Austria (1920–1951) . Vienna 2005, pp. 241–253, there 243.
29. ↑ Walter Heinrich : The entirety of economy, state and society. Selected writings , published on the occasion of his 75th birthday. by J [ohann] Hanns Pichler. Duncker + Humblot, Berlin 1977, pp. 129f.
30. ↑ Bernhard Möller (ed.): History of pedagogy at the University of Oldenburg in self-portrayals [Volume 1]. Oldenburg 1999, pp. 121–147, there 127. Digitized version (PDF; 181 kB).
31. ↑ The book from 1946 is more numerous in second-hand bookshops than the book from 1965, perhaps a consequence of the fact that it was recommended to students by Meister at the time.
32. ^ Brezinka: Pedagogy at the University of Vienna , 1995, p. 76f.
33. ^ Brezinka: Pedagogy at the University of Vienna , 1995, p. 77.
34. ↑ On Lehrl (born April 26, 1894 in Waidhofen an der Ybbs, † November 11, 1957 in Vienna) see adult education: Josef Lehrl .
35. ↑ On Richard Schwarz (1910–1985) see Klaus-Peter Horn : Erziehungswissenschaft in Deutschland im 20. Jahrhundert. To develop the social and professional structure of the discipline from initial institutionalization to expansion. Bad Heilbrunn 2003, p. 131.
36. ↑ Saurer: New Institutes Founding , 1989, pp. 321 and 308.
37. ^ Gerhard Benetka, Werner Kienreich: The invasion of the academic doctrine of the soul . In: Gernot Heiss, Siegfried Mattl, Sebastian Meissl, Edith Saurer, Karl Stuhlpfarrer (Ed.): Willing Science. The University of Vienna 1938–1945. Vienna 1989, pp. 115–132, there 126.
38. ↑ In particular his work within the academy is described in the articles by Johannes Feichtinger and Dieter J. Hecht in: Johannes Feichtinger u. a. (Ed.): The Academy of Sciences in Vienna 1938 to 1945. Catalog for the exhibition . Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 2013, pp. 159–197.
39. ^ Brezinka: Pedagogy at the University of Vienna , 1995, p. 76.
40. ↑ Meister: Geschichte der Akademie , 1947, p. 183. Quoted and questioned in Graf-Stuhlhofer: Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien , 1995, p. 133.
41. ↑ On October 23, 1945. Quoted from Graf-Stuhlhofer: Opportunisten , p. 155.

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on April 7, 2013 .