Christian Leichtle

Christian Leichtle (born May 14, 1892 in Neu-Ulm ; † March 26, 1949 in Weinsberg ) was a teacher in Talheim and founder of the adult education center in Heilbronn . After the end of the Second World War , he made major contributions to the rebuilding of schools and culture in Heilbronn.

Life

education

Leichtle studied education, German and art history in Munich, a. a. with Georg Kerschensteiner and Heinrich Wölfflin . He also completed part of his studies in Paris: art history with Henri Bergson . He spoke French, English and Italian. He traveled 18 times to Italy and several times to numerous other European countries. Leichtle came to Talheim in 1916 as the main teacher.

Leichtle belonged to the Heilbronn Masonic lodge Zum Brunnen des Heils . His closest acquaintances included the painter Hanns Reeger , who also portrayed him in 1919, and the journalist Hans Franke .

Protagonist of the adult education movement

In the Heilbronn area, as elsewhere, the adult education movement started mainly with teachers and pastors. After the First World War, Leichtle led popular education courses in Heilbronn and became an ardent advocate of the evening adult education center , whose ideas he propagated at meetings. The focus of his interest was less the preparation for a career or the addition to school content, but rather the teaching of ethical, religious and pedagogical basic values, culture and cultural history. The Heilbronn adult education committee founded an adult education center in Heilbronn in 1919 and elected Leichtle as its director. At the same time he was also a consultant for cultural history , which he conveyed not only by reading historical sources together, but also by looking at monuments from different eras in the area, later also on longer journeys. These excursions established the supraregional reputation of the early Heilbronn adult education center.

Leichtle understood the Volkshochschule Heilbronn from the beginning as an institution for the city and the entire surrounding area, so that by 1924 there were already adult education commissions in the sense of the Volkshochschule in Böckingen, Flein, Frankenbach, Großgartach, Neckargartach, Nordheim, Schwaigern, Sontheim, Weinsberg and Wimpfen . Additional locations followed through Leichtle's ongoing personal commitment, and he often held courses in cultural history himself at newly added locations.

When the adult education center ran into financial difficulties during the period of high inflation in 1922/23 , Leichtle made lecture tours to the USA, where he collected money and thereby financially secured the adult education center. He also campaigned for the acquisition of material assets (e.g. an extensive library), which were later transferred to foundations for the benefit of the city of Heilbronn, which in turn granted multi-year grants.

At the time of National Socialism Leichtle refused to join the NSDAP . On September 1, 1933, he was therefore ousted from office. He then worked as a teacher at the boys' middle school in Heilbronn . With some difficulties, he was able to hold courses again from 1937 within the Deutsches Volksbildungswerk . He also won a 1937-39 lawsuit against the NSDAP, which involved property from his property and that of the adult education center.

In the period from 1937 to 1944, Leichtle continued the cultural-historical topics he had already discussed. During that time he led 95 city tours and 77 hikes back home, and from 1939 to 1942 he gave a total of 106 photographic lectures on regional studies. In addition, from 1938 to 1944 he led 45 full-length events on music history and 150 lectures on poetry and philosophy. His activity - and that of the adult education center in general - came to a temporary end with the air raid on Heilbronn on December 4, 1944.

After the end of the Second World War, Leichtle led the restart of the Heilbronn adult education center. As early as May 20, 1945, he led a musical Whitsun celebration, and in the first post-war years he put his personal stamp on the annual programs of the Heilbronn Adult Education Center, which was re-approved on February 2, 1946, with an emphasis on lectures on art history. At the same time he managed the reconstruction of the Heilbronn city library and the Heilbronn school system.

When, in the course of the currency reform in 1948, there were again financial problems at the adult education center, the Leichtle, who was in the civil service as the head of the District School Office I in Heilbronn, waived a salary at the VHS and took up his management position on a voluntary basis.

Death and appreciation

On Friday, March 25, 1949 Leichtle unexpectedly suffered a stroke during a school exam in Dürrenzimmern , of which he died the following day. At a funeral service on April 9, 1949, the Mayor of Heilbronn, Paul Meyle, judged : "A man who has been its liveliest center for decades has been torn from the spiritual life of our city."

Christian-Leichtle-Straße is named after him in Heilbronn (since 1999) and Talheim , and the foyer of the adult education center in Heilbronn's Deutschhof has been renamed Christian-Leichtle-Foyer .

literature

• "There is silence in the reading room". From the public library with reading hall to the city library. 100 years of Heilbronn City Library. Heilbronn City Library, Heilbronn 2003
• August Vogt: The adult education center in Heilbronn. Development and history 1917–1978. Volkshochschule Heilbronn, Heilbronn 1985
• Gerhard Schwinghammer and Reiner Makowski: The Heilbronner street names . Edited by the city of Heilbronn. 1st edition. Silberburg-Verlag , Tübingen 2005, ISBN 3-87407-677-6 , pp. 51-52