Erna Stahl

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Erna Stahl (born February 15, 1900 in Hamburg ; † June 13, 1980 there ) was a German reform pedagogue ; it belonged to the environment of the White Rose Hamburg .

Live and act

Erna Stahl grew up as the daughter of a Viennese violinist from the working class and a Lübeck concert agent in the Hamburg district of St. Pauli . Already in her childhood she showed a keen interest in literature and the theater. After attending a private girls' school (Anna Kraut), she first began training as a teacher at the Hoheweide teacher training college, later at Freiligrathstrasse, but broke it off to enroll as a guest student at Hamburg University . In her younger years she had contact with the pastor Wilhelm Heydorn . She attended his artistically designed church services and took part in his youth group, then also in a group of young girls who helped the pastor with social tasks. In order to meet the requirements for a full course of study, Erna Stahl attended the State Lyceum on Hansastrasse (today: Helene-Lange-Gymnasium ) for six months, from Michaelis 1923 to Easter 1924 .

After graduating from high school there, she continued her studies with the subjects: German, history, art history and philosophy. As a working student, Erna Stahl earned her living by giving German and history lessons (Jessel college) and playing the piano at societies. During her studies she developed a special interest in anthroposophy through mutual stimulation with her friend and later colleague at the Lichtwark School , Hildegard Meyer [-Froebe] . She spent a semester with her at the University of Vienna . The relationship to this city, her mother's area of ​​origin, was significant for Erna Stahl throughout her life. After taking the first exam for teaching at secondary schools in the summer of 1928, her preparation time as a "candidate" began in autumn at the monastery school and at the reform-pedagogical Lichtwark school (today: Heinrich-Hertz-Schule) in Hamburg-Winterhude Completed pedagogical examination on March 8, 1930

Teaching activity 1930–1943

Erna Stahl's actual teaching activities at the Lichtwark School began when she took over a sixth. Erna Stahl remained in a special connection with this class throughout her life. For a while she was also Helmut and Loki Schmidt's German teacher . Erna Stahl taught cultural studies - an amalgamation of the subjects German, history and religion. This combination was abolished after 1933. Within the group of mostly older, male colleagues, Erna Stahl soon acquired a recognized position through her thorough, demanding teaching. She also gained public attention through theater performances and articles in the Hamburg teachers' newspaper . The time-related deformations in the Nazi era also in this modern school - recognizable u. a. With the dismissal of the headmaster Heinrich Landahl in the summer of 1933 - she withstood sovereignly by avoiding the Hitler salute - like some other teachers - and still maintaining a relatively open atmosphere for discussion. In 1935 Erna Stahl was transferred to what was then the secondary school for girls in the Alstertal, Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel. The official reason for this was the participation in a private meeting of some colleagues at the already observed biology teacher Ida Eberhardt . She then kept in touch with her old class at the Lichtwark School and took some of these students on a study trip to Berlin during the Easter break in 1936 to show them the originals of modern painters and to attend theater performances ( Faust and Romeo and Juliet ). A reading group had emerged from their lessons. There were private meetings before 1935 and beyond 1936. However, the school year 1935/36 was succinct because the meetings took place here regularly on a weekly basis; Almost the entire class took part, including the students who formed the resistance group during the war that historians called the Hamburg White Rose after 1945 . These were Traute Lafrenz and Heinz Kucharski , and later Margaretha Rothe , who had been attending the Lichtwark School since the end of 1936, after Erna Stahl's transfer to prison. During these reading evenings, which took place at different intervals until 1938/39, and later on occasionally also older Lichtwark students took part, works of classical as well as modern literature and expressionist painting were dealt with in addition to some historical topics.

In the Oberrealschule (since 1937 "Oberschule") for girls in the Alstertal (in a school community with the boys' school), Erna Stahl continued a culture-conscious lesson, which she kept free from National Socialist infiltration as far as possible. In retrospect (2008), a student from the last Abitur class (1943) before Erna Stahl's imprisonment once again highlighted her after-effects:

“Beyond all the ideology prescribed at the time, it made us so familiar with the great currents of European intellectual history, with epochs, representatives, works of art and poetry that after 1945 we were able to pass on the legacy without any break, without re-education. As students, I am afraid that we simply took this great gift of ideology-free, musically shaped, wonderfully humane lessons for granted and only later, in retrospect, recognized it as the great privilege it was. "

There were also some private contacts with her students, looking at literature and art and going to the theater. A professional and personal partnership between Erna Stahl and Hilde Ahlgrimm developed within the staff. Erna Stahl was only taken on as a civil servant in 1941 - albeit without membership of the NSDAP - and in 1942 appointed as a student councilor.

Imprisonment

On December 4, 1943, Erna Stahl was arrested by the Gestapo and taken to the Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel (Kolafu) Gestapo prison . After the preliminary police investigations were largely completed in the summer of 1944, the proceedings were handed over to the Oberreichsanwalt and the People's Court . Thus, after eleven months of solitary confinement with temporary dark detention, Erna Stahl and 18 other defendants were transferred to the Hamburg-Stadt remand prison . From Hamburg, the nine female prisoners were briefly brought to Berlin, where the trial was originally supposed to take place, and then transported on to the Cottbus women's prison , where the People's Court was to sit. Before the approaching Red Army , Erna Stahl was first transferred to Leipzig-Kleinmeusdorf in early 1945 and from there to the St. Georgen prison in Bayreuth . Here she was served the indictment of February 23, 1945 (in the "high treason case" against: Heinz Kucharski, Margaretha Rothe, Erna Stahl, Dr. Rudolf Degkwitz (junior) , Hildegard Heinrichs); this contained the charges: preparation for high treason , favoring the enemy , degradation of military strength , broadcasting crimes . In conclusion, the public prosecutor stated that their "activity must be seen as a systematic contamination of the youth". In view of this, Erna Stahl faced the death penalty. On April 14, 1945, however, she and other prisoners were liberated by American troops , while on April 17, 1945, the trial before the People's Court, which had not yet been liberated, took place in Hamburg, although the three female accused were absent. (The co-defendant Margaretha Rothe, who was seriously ill in custody, died on April 15 in Leipzig.) After a several-week return trip, which Erna Stahl and her fellow prisoner Ursula de Boor made partly on foot, Erna Stahl reported to the Hamburg school administration back.

Some clear reports to which Erna Stahl saw herself challenged after 1945 provide information about the circumstances of her imprisonment, while in general she showed reticence in this area. According to her portrayal, she was heavily burdened when she was confronted with her former student Heinz Kucharski in custody, in that he conducted the interrogation in place of the interrogator and disclosed content from confidential conversations. Kucharski later stated that he had used a conscious technique to drag out the investigation.

Worked 1945–1965

At the resumption of teaching at the Hamburg schools after the end of the Second World War , Erna Stahl was initially temporarily made head of the secondary school for girls in the Alstertal; In 1947 she was transferred to the senior degree director. Interim deliberations on the part of the school administration and a working group of former Lichtwark students and teachers to revive the Lichtwarkschule , which was abolished after 1937 , were rejected for various reasons, including by Erna Stahl. In contrast, Erna Stahl, together with Hilde Ahlgrimm, realized a school project planned with Hildegard Meyer-Froebe, applied for in 1946 and approved at the end of 1949, which envisaged setting up a "school experiment" (with the possibility of an elementary or secondary school leaving certificate) within the high school. This created the first early form of a cooperative comprehensive school in Hamburg at Easter 1950 . In terms of content, there was a “holistic”, musical and social orientation, which, in particular in the “school experiment”, showed an independent adaptation of elements of reform education in the Lichtwark School with those of Waldorf education - with a decidedly Christian orientation. Personally, Erna Stahl distinguished herself from being classified as an anthroposophist .

In addition to founding this school, Erna Stahl took numerous initiatives in the immediate post-war period with which she contributed to the renewal of the school system, in particular through reports to the school authorities, creation of a reader (in the cycle of the year) for the secondary schools within the British occupation zone , introduction of co-education , Collaboration in the VVN , publication of the essay volume Youth in the Shadow of Yesterday , collaboration in the Goethe Committee on the Goethe celebrations in 1949 and through her statement in the " Hamburg School Process " of 1950. In 1953 Erna Stahl introduced a new form of the Abitur with group exams in her school. In 1954 the social internship was carried out for the first time as a form of class trip in a 12th grade. Since 1953 a new school building has been built in a neighboring district (Struckholt, Hamburg-Kl.-Borstel), which was named after Albert Schweitzer on February 8, 1958 (Albert Schweitzer [Ober] school, later: Albert Schweitzer Gymnasium ) . Erna Stahl had obtained a special permit for this naming, as it is not customary in Hamburg to name public institutions after people who are still alive. Albert Schweitzer attended this school on October 3, 1959.

Retired 1965–1980

In 1965 Erna Stahl was retired. In the course of school political disputes, the “school trial” was removed from the former Albert Schweitzer [upper] school and relocated to another building (Schluchtweg). With this newly created Albert-Schweitzer-Schule (comprehensive school with a special pedagogical character and elementary school), which still refers to Erna Stahl in the present (2011), she maintained contact while she left the school she had built (Albert-Schweitzer -Gymnasium) distanced.

Recognition of her work after 1945 is reflected in an amiable poem that a former colleague wrote on Erna Stahl's 70th birthday:

On February 15, 1970

Sing, O Muse, of brave men and women, who worked in history and accomplished great and great things. / But never forget to tell you about Struckholt, the school in Borstel, / which bloomed there with joy and rich in vital force. / Tell me, o Muse, of festivals, of wonderful sounds and dances, / which have been planned for the students, including a festival for the teachers. / And also speak of journeys and journeys and moonlit nights / those consecrated to the sun, transforming the round of the zenith. / Do not forget to tell of hardship, great patience and seriousness / with which even the smallest thing happened, always for the benefit of the child. / So in two ten years she worked very quietly / Ms. Stahl joyfully struggling, restless with her own courage. / And the light that created and also woke them shone back into the hearts of the children and also of the whole community, / which recognized what was done here in the need after the war. / Today she looks back on a meaningful life, / lively and full of confidence, as it is her own, / on the chain and pattern that fate wrought. / May the next decade bring you well-being and joy / united with your companion / working in a different circle. / The little one wishes this with grateful greetings / who climbed Pegasus' horse only reluctantly today - / asking for forgiveness because of the bumpy rhyme.

After her retirement, Erna Stahl undertook numerous trips with her companion Hilde Ahlgrimm, as she did during her service, aimed at a comprehensive understanding of European culture. In April 1975 the two school anniversaries took place, at which Erna Stahl gave the commemorative speeches: the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the moving into a new school house built by Fritz Schumacher , as well as the 25th anniversary of the opening of the Albert Schweitzer school experiment -School. In addition, Erna Stahl participated critically in public life until the end of her life.

Erna Stahl died in 1980 and, as requested, was buried anonymously in the Ohlsdorf cemetery.

Honors

Memorial stone for Erna Stahl and Margaretha Rothe in the women's garden

Within the women's garden at the Ohlsdorf cemetery, which was laid out in 2001, a “spiral of memories” made of sandstones of different designs commemorates important Hamburg women. Inside this sculpture there is also a memorial stone for Erna Stahl and Margaretha Rothe.

The Erna-Stahl-Ring in the new development area Am Anzuchtgarten in Hamburg-Ohlsdorf was named after Stahl in 2008 . This street is only a few minutes' walk from the Albert Schweitzer School in Schluchtweg.

A permanent exhibition was opened in the former Cottbus prison on December 10, 2013 by the Cottbus Human Rights Center , in which the nine women of the Hamburg White Rose , in particular Traute Lafrenz, Margaretha Rothe and Erna Stahl, are honored in one section .

Fonts

  • Erna Stahl (Ed.): Youth in the shadow of yesterday. Papers teenager at the time . Köhler Verlag, Hamburg 1948
  • Erna Stahl: In the cycle of the year. A reading book for high schools . Köhler Verlag, Hamburg 1946ff. [Multi-volume reading]
  • Erna Stahl: A picture of the Lichtwark School . [Hamburg 1975]

See also

literature

  • Iris Groschek; Rainer Hering: "And this war seemed to me the only, the last way." 60 years ago: Air raids on Hamburg. Erna Stahl writes to Wilhelm Heydorn . In: Journal of the Association for Hamburg History , 89, 2003, pp. 207–226
  • Ursel Hochmuth : Lichtwark school / Lichtwark pupil. "Hitler leads to perdition - do not greet!" In: Ursel Hochmuth; Hans-Peter de Lorent (ed.): School under the swastika. Hamburg 1985, pp. 84-105
  • Ursula Meier: Comments on the attitude and self-image of the Hamburg teacher Erna Stahl in the time of National Socialism . In: Information. Journal for library, archive and information in Northern Germany . 27, 4th, 2007, pp. 569-611
  • Ursula Meier (Hrsg.): Erna Stahl - testimonies to her work in the Hamburg school system after 1945 and reflections from her later life. With a contribution: Erna Stahl's attitude in the time of National Socialism . Publishing house Dr. Kovač, Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-8300-5473-3 . [Extended documentation from 2000]
  • Evelin Moews: Erna Stahl. “She was always the director too” . In: Ursel Hochmuth, Hans-Peter de Lorent (ed.): Hamburg: School under the swastika . Hamburg 1985, pp. 291-295
  • Hannelore Sengbusch: About Erna Stahl: a special print on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Albert Schweitzer School . [Hamburg 2000]
  • Peter Normann Libra: Long live freedom! - Sweet Lafrenz and the White Rose. Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 978-3-8251-7809-3
  • A brave life - thanks to a Hamburg teacher . In: Die Zeit , No. 8/1980.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ursula Meier (Hrsg.): Erna Stahl - testimonies to her work in the Hamburg school system after 1945 and considerations from her later life. With a contribution: Erna Stahl's attitude in the time of National Socialism . Publishing house Dr. Kovač, Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-8300-5473-3 . , P. 447 (Eva Schmidt née Rimkeit: conversation notes for an interview with Wolfgang Peper, Ansgarkirche Hamburg-Langenhorn. November 9, 2008)
  2. ^ Ursel Hochmuth , Gertrud Meyer : Streiflichter from the Hamburg resistance 1933-1945. Report and documents , second edition, Frankfurt 1980, ISBN 3-87682-036-7 , p. 419
  3. ↑ Traute Lafrenz: Report . In: Inge Scholl: The white rose. Frankfurt a. M. 1993, p. 138
  4. ^ Research Center for Contemporary History Hamburg, Erna Stahl estate NL 11/34
  5. ↑ Thomas Tielsch: Liars par existence. Maurice Sachs, final notes on the White Rose . In: Transatlantik , 2, 1985, pp. 59-68
  6. ^ Schweitzer's visit to the ASG on October 3, 1959. Retrieved on December 28, 2011 .
  7. ↑ Ursula Meier (Hrsg.): Erna Stahl - testimonies to her work in the Hamburg school system after 1945 and considerations from her later life. With a contribution: Erna Stahl's attitude in the time of National Socialism . Publishing house Dr. Kovač, Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-8300-5473-3 , p. 407 .
  8. ^ Detlef Garbe, Kerstin Klingel: Memorials in Hamburg. Guide to places of remembrance from 1933 to 1945 , p. 51
personal data
SURNAME Steel, Erna
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German teacher and resistance fighter against National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH February 15, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH June 13, 1980
Place of death Hamburg