Emma Kretschmer

Emma Kretschmer (born June 9, 1895 in Oberbrüden ; † September 20, 1960 in Karlsruhe ) was a German teacher, kindergarten teacher and head of several social training centers.

Live and act

She was the fifth and youngest child of the pastor couple Ernst and Luise (née Bengel) Kretschmer. Her brother Ernst , who was seven years her senior , became a well-known psychiatrist. The parents had taught their daughter privately. At the age of 17 Emma Kretschmer decided to train as a "Kindergarten Teacher First Class", which she completed in Stuttgart . The certificate "Kindergarten Teacher 1st Class" meant that the kindergarten teacher was also allowed to teach in the first three primary school classes. From 1917 to 1924 she worked with deaf and dumb children in the Paulinenpflege Winnenden , where the now fatherless family had moved, and then ran a home for school-age children in the same facility . In 1929 Emma Kretschmer took over the management of the practice kindergarten at the newly opened Evangelical Fröbelseminar in Ulm -Söflingen. In 1937 she was given responsibility for the denominational training center. Sophie Scholl was one of her students . After the seminar had to cease operations in the school year 1943/44, Emma Kretschmer switched to the kindergarten teacher seminar at the Ev. Deaconess House Bethlehem Karlsruhe ; at the same time she also took over the nanny school attached to the seminar . Until her death she was in charge of the social training centers. The seminar leader was a representative of Froebel pedagogy . In her essay Froebel in everyday life in kindergarten , she wrote about Froebel's third gift, personally appealing to the kindergarten teacher :

You have to love this little thing. It has the characteristics of Froebel's playful things in a special way: it is simple and inexhaustible in one. The children's real joy. Play along, give him a little flag on his tower ..., the production of which is a considerable achievement for the little ones. Even unpacking and packing the contents, opening and closing the box is such and often entertainment enough. Let me tell you what instruction Froebel gives: 'You must have a very own play box for the third gift for each of your children' .

At the end of the 1940s, Emma Kretschmer developed her own and expanded Froebel gifts , which were sold by the Dusyma company .

Works (selection)

• Froebel in everyday life in kindergarten, in: Evangelische Kinderpflege 1952, p. 94 ff.
• Let us live our children, in: Evangelical World 1952, p. 291 ff.

literature

• Manfred Berger : A senior brother worked in Ulm as the educator of Sophie Scholl, in: Backnanger Kreiszeitung, on June 9, 1995
• Ders .: Sophie Scholl also trained. Emma Kretschmer, educator at the Paulinenpflege, would be 100 years old on Friday, in: Winnender Zeitung, June 7, 1995, o. P.
• Ders .: Women in the history of kindergartens: A manual , Frankfurt / Main 1995, p. 112 ff.
• Evangel. Diakonissenhaus Bethlehem Karlsruhe: In memory of Miss E. Kretschmer , Karlsruhe 1960

Web links

• Appreciation on the kindergarten pedagogy page
• Appreciation on the nifbe side

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kretschmer 1952, p. 94