August Henze

August Henze (born January 25, 1867 in Lüthorst ; † May 3, 1944 in Wiesbaden ) was a German special school teacher who was a leading figure in the Association of Aid Schools in Germany (today: Association of Special Education ).

Life

August Henze came from the Hanover area and worked as a teacher at an auxiliary school since 1898 and joined the Association of German Aid Schools when it was founded in the same year. From the beginning he was part of the inner circle of the association management. In the board he was first secretary . In 1908 he became editor of the association magazine " Die Hilfsschule " (later: Die Sonderschule ). He held this position until 1934. Not only did he develop a journalistic activity as editor-in-chief of Die Hilffschule , he also wrote three articles for the fourth volume of the renowned Handbuch für Pädagogik , which was published by Herman Nohl and Ludwig Palla between 1928 and 1933. He also published in numerous educational journals.

In 1907 he became rector in Frankfurt am Main . In 1912 he was appointed city ​​school inspector and from 1924 he became a school councilor . During his professional career, he was mainly involved in speech therapy schools and in the 1920s set up classes for (in the language used at the time) “speech impaired” and “ hard of hearing ”. He also set up a collective class for “mentally deep students”. He was also involved in the training of auxiliary school teachers and had a teaching position at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz .

In 1932 he retired, but held the office of editor until 1934. Initially, Karl Tornow was placed at his side as the second editor. After the dissolution of the Association of Aid Schools and the reorganization of the NSLB , Martin Breitbarth put pressure on him, so that Henze finally resigned in a tearful meeting. Until his death in 1944 he remained loyal to the magazine and continued to write small articles. In 1942, on the occasion of his 75th birthday, his services to the auxiliary school system were recognized by the NSLB.

Eugenics

From the beginning of his journalistic activity Henze developed eugenic ideas. In 1913 he noticed at a lecture that the “physically infirm” and “mentally weak” would do the “popular good”. In 1930 he wrote a lengthy article in the magazine for children's research , in which he represented ideas of racial hygiene and described disabled people as "unworthy of life". On May 1, 1933 , he joined the NSDAP . In the September 1933 edition of the auxiliary school , he celebrated the law for the prevention of genetically ill offspring as the "most significant law that was ever created". With that he had his share in the National Socialist racial hygiene .

Formerly named after August Henze, today a cultural monument

Nevertheless, Henze was honored for his services to the auxiliary school in the post-war period. The language therapy school at Gutleutstraße 38, which was built as a secondary school in 1903, was renamed from Weißfrauen-Schule to “August-Henze-Schule” in 1960. Furthermore, a special school in Einbeck (today: Leinetalschulen-Drüber, school for learning aid and elementary school) was named after him. While the latter renamed itself largely unobserved in 2000, a controversy arose over the name of the school in Frankfurt am Main. In the course of the increasing processing of special education and the VDS on the role of special education in National Socialism , Henze's role was also examined in more detail. In February 1996, the Hessen State Association of the VDS contacted the college of the August Henze School and disclosed that Henze had already spoken out in favor of the forced sterilization of so-called “inferior” and “feeble-minded people” before 1933 . This was followed by a heated debate, which among other things resulted in a TV report on Sat.1 and several newspaper reports, including a longer newspaper article by Ernst Klee in Der Zeit . As a result, the school got its old name back, although the college was divided. The former headmaster announced that he would continue to work on the rehabilitation of Henze during his retirement.

Works (selection)

• The most important thing about recognizing and distinguishing edible mushrooms . Frankfurt am Main: Rhein.-main. Association for Popular Education, 1916 (pamphlet)
• Collect tea herbs . Frankfurt am Main: Rhein.-main. Association for Popular Education, 1916 (pamphlet)
• Forgotten foods . Frankfurt am Main: Rhein.-main. Association for Popular Education, 1917 (pamphlet)
• Arithmetic book for elementary school: In the sense of the work school concept . 7 booklets. Together with Otto Koschemann and Karl Otten. Frankfurt am Main: Diesterweg 1924.
• Diesterweg's arithmetic book . Together with Otto Koschemann, Karl Otten and H. Runzheimer. 7 booklets. Frankfurt am Main: Diesterweg 1925.
• Arithmetic book for the country school: In 4 booklets . Together with Otto Koschemann and Karl Otten. Frankfurt am Main: Diesterweg 1925.
• Who is reading? A German reading book for special schools . Together with Franz Lichtenberger and Hugo Schmidt. Halle (Saale): C. Marhold 1927. (Two volumes, one for intermediate and one for advanced)
• My working day . Together with Franz Lichtenberger and Hugo Schmidt. Halle (Saale): C. Marhold 1929.
  • Part 1: Reading skills for vocational schools with special consideration of simple school conditions .
  • Part 2: arithmetic problems from the simplest professional life

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Precise life data from: Ernst Klee : Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 246
2. ^ ^{A b c d} Sieglind Ellger-Rüttgardt: Auxiliary School in the "Third Reich". Compliant and non-compliant behavior by auxiliary school teachers . In: Erika Welkerling, Falk Wiesemann (ed.): Unwanted youth in National Socialism. “Youth care” and auxiliary school in the Rhineland 1933–1945 . Klartext, Essen 2005, ISBN 3-89861-525-1 , p. 144-145 .
3. ↑ Andreas Möckel: History of curative education or power and impotence of education . Klett-Cotta, 2007, ISBN 978-3-608-94489-1 , p. 195 .
4. ^ Chronicle of the Bahn and Gutleutviertel, accessed on Feb. 22, 2020
5. ↑ Chronicle of the school. Leinetalschulen-Drüber, accessed on April 11, 2017 . 
6. ↑ Hans Boeckler Foundation (ed.): Reflections on the Nazi era and on Nazi education as preparation for the teaching profession (=  lecture concepts for the Nazi era: crime. Ideology. Pedagogy ). Frankfurt am Main January 2012, p. 230 ( wordpress.com [PDF]).
7. ↑ Ernst Klee: How eugenics conquered the minds . In: The time . No. 37 , September 5, 1999 ( zeit.de ).
8. ^ Sieglind Ellger-Rüttgardt: History of special education. An introduction . Ernst Reinhard Verlag, Munich / Basel 2008, ISBN 978-3-8252-8362-9 , pp. 12 .
9. ↑ A farewell in a double pack. (No longer available online.) Frankfurter Neue Presse , June 15, 2011, archived from the original on April 12, 2017 ; Retrieved April 11, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.