Erika Opelt-Stoevesandt

Erika Opelt-Stoevesandt (1965)

Erika Opelt-Stoevesandt (born January 16, 1919 in Wilhelmshaven as Erika Nessenius ; † March 3, 2013 in Bremen ) was a German educator and school founder in Bremen.

biography

Family and education

Opelt-Stoevesandt was the daughter of the Finance President of Bremen Hans Nessenius and his wife Käthe. The family moved to Bremen in 1920, where their two brothers Walter and Günter Nessenius were born. In the 1930s, as a young girl, she had to do the Reich Labor Service and was an apprentice in agriculture for six months. In 1938 she graduated from high school. In 1939 she married the lawyer Dr. Heino Stoevesandt, a nephew of the physician Karl Stoevesandt . In 1939 she worked as a reserve nurse. Their daughter Gertrud was born in March 1940. In 1941 her husband died in the war . After her husband fell, their son Heino was born in November 1941, who was named after his father.

In 1943 she moved with her two children to study in Marburg , where the children were looked after by a nanny . She studied natural sciences at the University of Marburg . She also attended theological lectures a. a. with Rudolf Bultmann , with Paul Tillich and especially with the religious scholar and ecumenist Friedrich Heiler .

In 1945 her father was killed in a bomb attack. Erika Opelt-Stoevesandt returned to Bremen and arranged for the establishment of an orphanage for children separated from their parents and orphaned during the war. There was a dispute between the Diakonie , which was subordinate to the orphanage, and Ms. Stoevesandt regarding the design of the admission of these children, who mostly arrived starved, exhausted, overtired and completely filthy . The deaconesses took the position that the children should be prayed first, and only afterwards they should be looked after, while Ms. Stoevesandt, without paying attention to this, made sure that the children first got a meal, a bath, fresh clothes and a bed, and she was of the opinion that one could also pray with the children afterwards. Ms. Stoevesandt's unyielding attitude resulted in her being dismissed by the Diakonie for allegedly unchristian behavior. Then she went back to Marburg and continued her studies.

She passed her state examination in the main subjects biology and religion and in the minor subjects mathematics and physics .

In 1961 she married the widower Rudolph Opelt, who brought four children into the marriage.

Pedagogue and school founder

In 1950 Opelt-Stoevesandt became a student trainee in the Bremen school service. She was u. a. until 1964 as director of studies, deputy director of the grammar school at Leibnizplatz in Bremen Neustadt .

In 1964, as the successor to Elisabeth Forck, she became head of the grammar school at the Kleine Helle in Bremen-Mitte and then senior director of studies . By 1981 it modernized this former girls' school through various reforms, which now also opened the way for secondary school graduates to graduation. The politicization of teachers and schools in the 1970s bothered them as well as the lack of religious education in Bremen.

In 1974 she published thoughts on the establishment of an ecumenical high school in private ownership and the integration of physically handicapped students . In 1981 she succeeded in setting up the Ecumenical Gymnasium in Bremen (ÖG), a private Christian school in Bremen- Oberneuland , which she directed as director. This led to political disputes. The ÖG provides a Christian education profile as well as a comprehensive general education in traditional grammar school subjects. There is no separation of denominations in religious education (see Ecumenical Movement ). She also campaigned for inclusion at her school, i.e. for the integration of physically handicapped children. As the founding director of the ÖG, she also lend a hand wherever work was necessary at the school. In 1978 the Friends and Patrons of the Ecumenical High School was founded , from which the Erika-Opelt-Stoevesandt-Foundation developed in 2006 . In 1987 she retired. It was not until 1988 that the Austrian Abitur was officially recognized.

Due to her initiative, the now private Ecumenical Cathedral High School Magdeburg ("ÖDG") was re-established in 1991 , where she was a member of the Board of Trustees and the Friends' Association and an honorary member of the board.

to travel

In retirement, she went on study trips abroad. She visited Assisi and made a papal visit to the Vatican City as well as a pilgrimage to Japan, where she visited Shinto and Buddhist religious communities and took part in the services there. She lived and worked in Bremen until old age. She died in March 2013 and was buried in the Riensberg cemetery in Bremen.

Honors

• In 1996 Opelt-Stoevesandt received the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon from Federal President Roman Herzog .
• In 1999 she was awarded the Senate Medal for Art and Science from the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen .
• The 2006 Erika Opelt Stoevesandt Foundation for gifted children was named after her.

See also

Wilhelm Nesen

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://grabsteine.genealogy.net/indilist.php?cem=135&b=N
2. ↑ Weser-Kurier of March 8, 2013, p. 9 and March 9, 2013, p. 19.
3. ↑ Erika Opelt-Stoevesandt on Erika-Opelt-Stoevesand-Stiftungt

literature

• Gertrud Stoevesandt: A woman moves the Bremen school system , a teacher with body and soul .
• Erika Opelt-Stoevesand: The Ecumenical High School in Bremen: History and the first three years 1981 to 1984 . Ed .: Friends of the school.
• Edith Laudowicz : Opelt-Stoevesandt, Erika, née Nessenius . In: Women's history (s) , Bremer Frauenmuseum (ed.). Edition Falkenberg, Bremen 2016, ISBN 978-3-95494-095-0 .