Wilhelm Wittbrodt

Wilhelm Wittbrodt (born November 8, 1878 in Arendsee , Prenzlau district ; † May 12, 1961 in Berlin-Neukölln ) was a German reform pedagogue , school director, social democratic politician and Esperantist .

Life

Wittbrodt completed the teachers' seminar in Prenzlau , then worked as a teacher in various places before he came to Berlin with his family in 1907 and was employed at the elementary school on Hermannplatz in Neukölln . Wittbrodt had already attended an Esperanto course in 1910 after giving a lecture at the Neukölln teachers' association and since then has been involved in the Berlin Esperanto movement. In 1914 the “Berliner Esperanto-Anzeiger” listed him as chairman of the “Esperanto Group Neu-Kölln”. The office is his apartment, Anzengruberstr. 3 and the meeting place is the club room in the Ratskeller Neukölln.

As a soldier in World War I , he got to know and abhor the horrors of war. He joined the SPD in 1918 , was a district councilor (1918–1928) and a member of the Association of Socialist Teachers. In 1927 and 1928 he was a city ​​councilor . In 1929 he left the party because of the construction of new armored cruisers and the Vatican Concordat with the country of Prussia, which was ruled by Social Democrats .

Esperanto teacher

From 1920 Wittbrodt taught at the 31st secular school in Rütlistraße . This school became one of the Neukölln reform schools, which became known as the Rütli schools. Wittbrodt only became provisional, from 1925 officially rector of the school, which as a community school practiced a completely new relationship between children and teachers and new forms of learning and teaching. At his school he particularly promoted the scientific and technical orientation. With particular commitment he taught Esperanto to children and adults. When the Reichsschulkonferenz took place in Berlin in September 1920 and a request was made to introduce Esperanto teaching in German schools, Wilhelm Wittbrodt and 22 children gave an Esperanto lesson to conference members. He often gave such trial lessons in front of various bodies. His Neukölln group now met in the Rütli school. When delegates of the Esperanto World Federation (UEA) were named in Berlin in 1924 , he represented the Neukölln district. He not only worked actively in the Berlin Esperanto teacher group, but also belonged to the International Association of Esperanto Teachers (Internacia Ligo de Esperantaj Instruistoj - ILEI). Although he could not make up his mind to join the more radical Parisian teachers' international, which demanded a commitment to the class struggle and proletarian school policy, the relationship with the communist Esperantists in his class, such as Elly Janisch, Hans Feuer and Käthe Agerth, did not deteriorate.

At the end of the 1920s, Wittbrodt became deputy chairman of the social democratically oriented Pedagogical International and in this role organized the last Esperanto congress in Berlin, in which students from the Rütli School also took part. In April 1933 he was given leave of absence as principal and downgraded to teacher, and in 1934 he was dismissed from school by the Nazis.

post war period

In the early summer of 1945, Wittbrodt, who had rejoined the SPD, was appointed to the Hauptschulrat in Neukölln. In this function he soon came back to teaching Esperanto and also for the establishment of an Esperanto organization in Berlin. He also became a member of the examination committee of the Esperanto League Berlin. The dispute over responsibility for the content of the Berlina Informilo between the league and the Esperanto publishing house led to his resignation as league chairman in 1950 at a time when he - meanwhile, was excluded from the SPD due to acceptance of the title "Honored Teacher of the People" - had to litigate for his retirement benefit. When Wilhelm Wittbrodt was elected 1st chairman when the Esperanto League Berlin was founded in 1949, he, over 70 years old, had just been retired as a Hauptschulrat von Neukölln because he had come into conflict with the American occupation forces because of his educational reform ideas.

The Neukölln District Councilor for Public Education, Wolfgang Schimmang, later said: “A reform pedagogue like Wilhelm Wittbrodt, who was also politically active for his ideals during the Weimar Republic ..., was not a supporter of the Soviet Russian model of society. Nevertheless, he got caught up in the mill of the rival world power interests, whereby the knowledge that he had never belonged to those who led Germany and Europe into the abyss also had meaning when it hurt not to be able to realize ideals. ”Wilhelm Wittbrodt became an honorary member in 1955 of the Esperanto League Berlin in recognition of his services to the association of Berlin Esperantists after the war and received from the German Esperanto Association e. V. awarded the badge of honor.

swell

• Germana Esperantisto (GE) 8-9 / 1920, p. 106, GE 4-5 / 1922, p. 83, GE 2/1924, p. 27, GE 12/1930, p. 176, GE 10/1932, p 164
• Heimatmuseum Neukölln, 1993, especially Rudolf Rogler, Wilhelm Wittbrodt. Biography, in Volume II, pp. 251-52
• Sand in the gears. Neukölln story (s). Neuköllner Kulturverein (Ed.), Edition Hentrich, Berlin, 1990, 2nd revised edition
• Volker Hoffmann: The Rütli school between school reform and school struggle 1908-1950 / 51. Self-published

literature

• Volker Hoffmann, Rudolf Rogler: Wilhelm Wittbrodt 1878-1961. In: School reform - continuities and breaks. The Berlin-Neukölln test field. Ed .: Gerd Radde , Werner Korthaase, Rudolf Rogler and Udo Gößwald on behalf of the Neukölln District Office, Department of Public Education, Art Office, Volume II: 1945 to 1972, Opladen 1993.