Elsa-Brändström-Gymnasium (Oberhausen)

Elsa-Brändström-Gymnasium
type of school	high school
founding	1874
address	Christian-Steger Strasse 11 ; 46045 Oberhausen, Germany
place	Oberhausen
country	North Rhine-Westphalia
Country	Germany
Coordinates	51 ° 28 '17 " N , 6 ° 51' 21" E Coordinates: 51 ° 28 '17 " N , 6 ° 51' 21" E
carrier	City of Oberhausen
student	800 ; (school year 2017/2018)
Teachers	72 teachers, 9 trainee teachers ; (school year 2018/2019)
management	Alice Bienk
Website	www.elsa-oberhausen.de

The Elsa-Brändström-Gymnasium is a municipal high school in the city of Oberhausen . The high school, which has been recognized as an Agenda 21 school , applies Montessori education .

Location and building

The Elsa-Brändström-Gymnasium is centrally located in downtown Oberhausen, near the main train station, court and town hall. The school address is Christian-Steger-Straße 11.

The grammar school has been at its current location since 1972 and is divided into three buildings: the A building from 1972 and the much older B building are located in one block of the chessboard-like Oberhausen city center between Geibel-, Otto-Dibelius-, Havenstein- and Christian- Steger-Straße, the C-building from 1928, in which classes 5 to 7 are housed, is located opposite on Christian-Steger-Straße. The latter originally housed the Oberhausen-Mülheim police department, later the Hans-Sachs vocational school, and has only been part of the grammar school since 1990. The older parts of buildings B and C are under monument protection.

history

Founded until 1945

The former building of the Elsa-Brändström-Gymnasium (2010)

The Elsa-Brändström-Gymnasium, known at the time as the “municipal parity higher girls 'school” or “municipal middle higher girls' school”, was founded on April 14, 1874 on the basis of a council resolution of March 2, 1874. It was created by merging two schools, a Catholic higher private school founded in 1861 and a "Higher Interested School for Girls" founded in 1869.

In 1892 the first building for the school was built. The building that still exists today is located on Elsa-Brändström-Straße, formerly Eisestraße. It was only through a reform of the girls' school system in Prussia in 1908 that middle schools were given the opportunity to offer full school education. In addition, all higher girls' schools were generally given the designation “Lyceum”. In 1909 the city of Oberhausen added a three-year senior high school and a one-year training seminar class for primary school teachers to the school. Due to the discontinuation of the training seminar class due to the establishment of pedagogical academies in 1922, the school was converted into a "Oberrealschul-Studienanstalt". To date, 341 teachers have been trained at the school. It was only from 1922 or with the final year 1927 that the school was able to grant its graduates full university entrance qualification after the lessons had been completely based on the new Richert guidelines .

During the time of National Socialism there were some changes in the educational offer of the school. The schooling of the "girls' high school" was shortened to eight years, although the old curriculum was retained. In addition, a purely domestic branch was set up, the so-called women's high school. Lessons were increasingly affected by the events of the Second World War . In many cases, organized lessons were no longer possible, not least because the Kinderland deportation was carried out because of the frequent bombing .

On April 1, 1945, a terrible accident occurred in the Austrian city of Mariazell , in which 13 schoolgirls died in a car accident while they were fleeing from the approaching front.

1945 until today

The school had to struggle with enormous problems after the Second World War: the building had been badly damaged by aerial bombs and there were too many students with too little classroom. In addition, the level of education should be raised again after the Nazi era, for which the school was looking for new foundations. As part of this “spiritual foundation”, the girls' high school was renamed Elsa-Brändström-Gymnasium in 1958 . The Swedish nurse's social commitment as well as the convinced humanity and selflessness were seen as a role model for the school.

For the time being, the school continued to consist of the old modern language girls' high school and the women's high school founded in 1937. Until the sixties the number of students grew so much that in 1963 the Bertha-von-Suttner-Gymnasium was separated from her, which also exists to this day. In 1964, the modern language grammar school was converted into a social science grammar school, which was a step towards the individual, modern profile of the school in Oberhausen.

Despite the separation of the Bertha-von-Suttner-Gymnasium, the school continued to grow, so that the building on Elsa-Brändström-Straße became too small. In 1972 the former state high school for boys on Christian-Steger-Straße became the home of the school. For this purpose, the old building (today building "B") was expanded to include a new building with modern scientific and household rooms (today building "A"). The coeducation was introduced only four years later. In the next few years, the Elsa-Brändström-Gymnasium focused strongly on reform pedagogy , until a Montessori branch was introduced in 1988 . While the Montessori branch was initially only taught in one class, later in two classes, today all students at the grammar school are taught in Montessori classes. In 1990 the school was expanded again, namely by the building of the former commercial vocational school on the other side of Christian-Steger-Straße (today building "C").

Alice Bienk has been the headmaster since 2017.

Naming

After the Second World War, a development process took place at what was then the girls' high school with the aim of giving the school a new foundation and a new profile. In the course of this process, the school was named in 1958 after the Swede Elsa Brändström , whose “convincing and selfless humanity” and her social commitment were considered exemplary.

particularities

The school program of the Elsa-Brändström-Gymnasium places particular emphasis on cultural life and a learning culture. The main focus of the grammar school continues to be the individual and gifted support and, as a Montessori grammar school, in particular open lessons .

School with no homework

In 2012 the school conference decided that classes five to nine should be banned from doing homework. This was justified with the high pressure of the students due to the eight-year high school and all-day classes . Since then, exercises are mainly to take place in class; homework specially tailored to the weaknesses of individual students is still allowed.

Honourings and prices

2000: 1st prize in the quality school work competition of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia

2008: The first secondary school in Oberhausen to receive the seal of approval for individual support from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

2010: 2nd place in the 1st school prize for the promotion of gifted students from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

2012: 1st prize in the nationwide competition Ideas for the educational republic with the media scouts project

2013: Nomination for the German School Prize

2019: Award of the cultural school seal of approval

principal

1985 to 2010: Erika Risse
2010 to 2017: Brigitte Fontein
since 2017: Alice Bienk

Known students

Regine Gildemeister (* 1949), professor at the University of Tübingen
Dirk Vöpel (* 1971 Oberhausen), politician and member of the Bundestag
Joshua Abuaku (* 1996 Oberhausen), sprinter
Ulf Keyenburg (* 1969 Oberhausen), illustrator

literature

Elsa-Brändström-Gymnasium Oberhausen (ed.): Three-year publication 2007-2009 . 2009.
Elsa-Brändström-Gymnasium Oberhausen (ed.): Biennial 2010-2011 . 2011.