Chaim Seeligmann

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Chaim (Heinz Alfred) Seeligmann (born January 16, 1912 in Karlsruhe , † September 25, 2009 in Givat Brenner ) was an Israeli-German educator and historian. He examined the roots of the kibbutz movement and demonstrated that the founding generation not only had Marxist ideas and models, but also approaches to coexistence free of domination in the sense of nonviolent anarchism .

Life

Heinz Seeligmann grew up as the second of five siblings of the married couple Oskar and Therese, née Dux, in an upper-class, free-thinking environment. His father was a banker. The boy completed a humanistic high school and the banking apprenticeship requested by his parents in his hometown. Surprisingly for his assimilated family background, he learned Hebrew early on. As a schoolboy, he also joined the Zionist youth movement Kadima , later the pioneers of the Hechaluz organization and emigrated (after the Hachschara , an agricultural preparation in Switzerland) to Palestine at the end of 1935. The ship was called Galilee and brought him to Haifa with other German-Jewish emigrants willing to rebuild . In 1936 he entered the Givat Brenner kibbutz near Rechovot . During the development phase of this socialist agricultural commune, which was founded in 1928, full of privation, property and income were completely shared, all work was done voluntarily and unpaid; external income flowed to the community. In return, food, medical care, school and children's home were free from the start.

In 1940 Chaim Seeligmann married Shifra, née Gurvits, from Žasliai , Lithuania . The marriage has three children: Moshe, Mimi and Yigal. As it later turned out, Chaim's father, Oskar Seeligmann , had been deported to Camp de Gurs on October 22, 1940 , and died there in January 1941. His mother, also initially in Gurs, died in Corrèze in 1947 . His brothers Werner and Herbert were deported to Auschwitz and murdered.

1941–45 he served in the Palmach . In the following years Chaim Seeligmann worked in France as an emissary for socialist Habonim youth groups for Jewish immigration to Eretz Israel . From 1957 he studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem , then at the University of Tel Aviv , was general secretary in the kibbutz, worked as an educator, ran an elementary school and was involved in educational work in kibbutzim. His brother Ernst and his sister Sophie escaped the Holocaust and also emigrated to Israel. Ernst Seeligmann (1910–1989), who lost his hearing early, also lived with his family in Givat Brenner.

The collective way of life of the Chawerim (Eng. "Friends, comrades") has been supplanted by individualistic and private-economic structures since the late 20th century . Chaim Seeligmann has analyzed this process in his work and self-critically presented the kibbutz movement in its roots, achievements and utopias . He researched for many years at Yad Tabenkin , the research center of the kibbutz movement in Ramat Efal, and has worked on libertarian concepts and the like. a. published by Gustav Landauer , Erich Mühsam and Bernard Lazare . Seeligmann's last major publication was the festschrift for the 80th anniversary of Givat Brenner (2008). He was an honorary doctor of the Faculty of Education at Bielefeld University .

Chaim Seeligmann died on the Erew of Yom Kippur in 2009 and is buried next to his wife in the Givat Brenner cemetery.

Works in German (selection)

  • The Jewish Youth Movement and the Kibbutz Movement. In: Wolfgang Melzer , Georg Neubauer: The kibbutz as utopia . With an afterword by Ludwig Liegle. Beltz, Weinheim u. a. 1988, ISBN 3-407-34023-0 ( Pedagogy series ).
  • On the political role of philologists in the Weimar Republic. Collected essays on teachers' associations, the youth movement and the anti-Semitism discussion. Böhlau, Cologne a. a. 1990, ISBN 3-412-01690-X ( Studies and Documentation on German Educational History 41).
  • Traces of a silent revolution. Meetings of a kibbutz member with the Catholic Integrated Congregation . Urfeld publishing house, Hagen 1998, ISBN 3-932857-21-6 ( Urfelder series 2).
  • Together with Gabi Madar: Kibbutz. An overview. Extended and updated edition. Yad Tabenkin, Ramat-Efal 2000.
  • It wasn't just a dream. Autobiographical and kibbutz historical sketches. Urfeld publishing house, Bad Tölz 2002, ISBN 3-932857-29-1 .
  • Curriculum vitae. In: Wolfdietrich Schmied-Kowarzik (Ed.): Confrontations with the destroyed Jewish heritage. Franz Rosenzweig guest lectures (1999–2005). Kassel University Press, Kassel 2004, ISBN 3-89958-044-3 , ( Kasseler Semesterbücher, Studia Cassellana 13), abstract.
  • The kibbutz and its development. In: Wolfdietrich Schmied-Kowarzik (Ed.): Confrontations with the destroyed Jewish heritage. Franz Rosenzweig guest lectures (1999–2005). Kassel University Press, Kassel 2004, ISBN 3-89958-044-3 , ( Kasseler Semesterbücher, Studia Cassellana 13), abstract.
  • Anabaptists (Anabaptists). In: Lexikon der Anarchy , DaAWebd.de

literature

  • Alexander Visser: With Knickerbockers to the Promised Land. In: Der Tagesspiegel , January 29, 2005

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. to the my.informedia.de family
  2. ↑ palmach.org.il ( Memento of the original from September 2, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.palmach.org.il
  3. ↑ M'ha-nekuda el ha-shkhuna: Givat Brener asked 80 shana . In: Leksikon Givat Brener 1928–2008 . (Hebrew)
personal data
SURNAME Seeligmann, Chaim
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Seeligmann, Hayyim
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Israeli-German educator and historian
DATE OF BIRTH January 16, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Karlsruhe
DATE OF DEATH September 25, 2009
Place of death Givat Brenner