August Heyn

August Heyn (born January 18, 1879 in Reetz in the Neumark , Arnswalde district ; † December 13, 1959 in Berlin ) was a German teacher and reform pedagogue . In the first third of the 20th century he coined the concept of a gardening school and implemented it as a pioneer.

Life and accomplishments

After his teacher training in Friedeberg Heyn entered the public school service in 1899 and was active on the board of the Neukölln teachers' association. In 1914, he supported his demand to be allowed to work on wasteland and building land with boys and girls. In this way he wanted to meet the hunger of the war years and get the youth off the streets.

In the spring of 1915 the first so-called war colonies or school colonies were set up on 10 acres (25,000 square meters) , which in 1916 were placed under the school administration. In 1918 August Heyn was drafted into the war, from which he returned unharmed towards the end of the same year.

Then he found that the school administration had lost interest in the school colonies. However, this did not prevent August Heyn from reviving his idea. He became a member of the Association of Resolute School Reformers , to which u. a. Also Fritz Karsen and Anna Siemsen belonged. As a SPD member of the Neukölln city council, he supported the idea of ​​a work school and called for a gardening school to be set up. Artur Buchenau , the city ​​school councilor at the time , who later founded the Neukölln Adult Education Center , became the intellectual head of August Heyn's idea. On October 23, 1919, he enforced the resolution in the magistrate to set up a gardening school. The district parliament decided on March 31, 1920 to open it on April 1, 1920; this was the hour of birth of the first gardening school in Neukölln on the Teltow Canal as part of the working school movement within reform pedagogy.

Artur Buchenau appointed August Heyn as the first manager. He was given the task of running the school according to his ideas. Despite fierce resistance from the district parliament, August Heyn was appointed rector of the 5th community school in Mariendorfer Weg 69/73, to which he was assigned as head of the gardening school.

In 1921 his book The Gardening School appeared in Breslau , one of the most important publications from the time of reform pedagogy. In this book he describes in detail what is new in this type of teaching. So the students spent z. B. ten hours a week in gardening school. Two mornings of five hours each were held in the gardening school: four hours of natural history, two hours of spatial studies and four hours of gymnastics and games. Subjects such as physics, chemistry, mineralogy, and geometry were also taught. Due to the location on the Teltow Canal, the economic life could be observed and conversations with the boatmen could be used to learn about their lives and needs.

August Heyn formulated overarching goals in the so-called Frankfurt Guidelines. There is u. a. called:

• equal recognition of physical and mental work,
• Bridging the gap between town and country,
• correct career choice of children,
• Strengthening the sense of beauty, love of nature and homeland, love of the country and people.

August Heyn was about the upbringing of children and young people through work lessons in communities to become healthy, creative, socially thinking, feeling and acting people. He said: "We need people with a social feeling".

In addition to his work as a teacher, August Heyn gave lectures on the topic of gardening schools, wrote articles and contributed to the fact that very soon in other Berlin districts such as z. For example, similar institutions were established in Wilmersdorf and Schöneberg . In Neukölln seven other gardening schools that were opened in 1922 and in 1923 emerged.

August Heyn and his wife Frieda, geb. Vogt, in Berlin-Kreuzberg, Friedrichswerderscher Friedhof II

August Heyn retired in 1924 at the age of 45. Since this also happened to younger colleagues, it can be assumed that the reason for this was the great financial distress in Berlin. In the same year August Heyn did nine months of voluntary military service in Potsdam .

In 1925 August Heyn moved with his family to Reppen, where he grew fruit and asparagus on his own property and then sold it. In 1945 his property in Reppen was requisitioned by SS units for strategic reasons . The family was forced to move back to Berlin.

August Heyn was married. His wife Frieda Heyn, b. Vogt, born on July 24, 1881, died on September 4, 1950 in Berlin. The marriage had two children: a daughter (born 1904) and the son Hellmut (born 1908). August Heyn died at the age of 80 on December 13, 1959 in Berlin. In his honor, the last remaining gardening school in Neukölln was renamed the August Heyn gardening school in Neukölln in 1995 .

Publications

• August Heyn: The gardening school. With an introduction by Artur Buchenau. Hirt-Verlag, Breslau 1921, DNB 573996385 .

Web links

• Literature by and about August Heyn in the catalog of the German National Library
• Short biography of Heyn on the website of the August Heyn gardening school in Berlin-Neukölln