Ernst Reuter School (Frankfurt am Main)
| Ernst Reuter Schools I and II | |
|---|---|
| type of school | Comprehensive school |
| founding | 1969 |
| address |
Hammarskjöldring 17a |
| place | Frankfurt-Niederursel |
| country | Hesse |
| Country | Germany |
| Coordinates | 50 ° 9 '35 " N , 8 ° 37' 32" E |
| carrier | Ernst Reuter |
| student | circa 1800 |
| Teachers | about 300 |
| management | Marina Conejero Enesa |
| Website |
www.ers1.de, website of ERS I www.ersii.de, website of ERS II |
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The Ernst Reuter Schools I and II (often abbreviated as ERS I and ERS II) were established at the beginning of the 1960s in Nordweststadt in the Niederursel district of Frankfurt as one of the first integrated comprehensive schools in Hesse. As a model school , they played an important role as pioneers for this type of school, especially in the 1970s and 1980s, and were therefore mostly caught in the crossfire of Hessian educational policy.
history
From the beginning as a Northwest City School
Shortly after the construction of the Northwest Center , construction of a school complex in the immediate vicinity began in Hammarskjöldring , which was supposed to secure the educational offer for the children of the newly emerging Northwest City. Initially, the project was named Nordweststadtschule and was to encompass all grades from grade 1 to 13. In 1963, the associated elementary school was established in Praunheimer Weg , which, after being replaced by the Nordweststadtschule in 1969, was called Elementary School II , later the Erich-Kästner School . Until the school building was completed in 1965 (including four sports halls, a swimming pool and a sports field), the students were taught in wooden pavilions. The number of pupils grew rapidly from 98 pupils (1963) to 800 pupils (1965) to more than 2000 pupils (1968).
From 1969 two more primary schools were opened in the north-west of the city due to the high number of pupils: Primary school I (today Heinrich-Kromer-Schule ) in Niederurseler Landstraße , primary school III (later Albert-Griesinger-Schule , now mosaic school ) in Gerhart-Hauptmann- Ring and the Römerstadtschule in the street In der Römerstadt 120E .
The Nordweststadtschule will soon be a gathering place for progressive teachers who want to break new pedagogical paths and in particular strive to integrate different types of schools. As early as 1966, cross-school lessons in the subjects of sport, drawing, handicrafts and music have been taking place for secondary school , secondary school and high school students .
From 1967 the main subjects German, English and mathematics are no longer taught separately according to school type, but differentiated according to subject according to student performance. In addition, the classical subjects are geography , history and social studies for new specialist social science merged and school type across taught in joint classes. Project-oriented lessons take place there at an early stage, on topics that were highly innovative at the time, such as “local politics”, “cars”, “energy sources” and “third world problems”.
The Northwest City School is named Ernst Reuter School
On September 30, 1968 the school was given the current name Ernst-Reuter-Schule. It is expressly viewed as a model and experimental school that is supposed to do justice to the new socio-political conditions by educating critical citizens of a new society. As a model and experimental school, it should become a point of influence for other schools throughout Germany. At this point in time, the number of students had risen rapidly to over 2,600, so that despite the large building complex there was still a lack of space. Class sizes of 30 students and more were standard at the time.
With the fundamental decision of the teaching staff, the school will introduce an integrated secondary level (grades 7-10) from September 1st , which in fact marks the path to an integrated comprehensive school . A little later, support levels are set up in grades 5 and 6.
The emergence of the Ernst Reuter School II
By 1972 the number of pupils at the Ernst Reuter School had grown to almost 3,000 and the number of teachers to almost 150. So the idea arose of building a prefabricated makeshift school on the building route next to the school for the bypass road of the Praunheim district , which should accommodate a number of pupils from the so-called baby boom years in the medium term. The new school was opened in September 1972 under the name Ernst-Reuter-Schule II.
Also in 1972, the Ernst Reuter Schools were granted the right by the Hessian Ministry of Education to adopt their own school constitution, which provided that the board of directors would be elected for a limited period by the teaching staff, instead of the previous model of headmasters for life. While this model of collegial school management ( KoSchu ) at Ernst-Reuter-Schule I failed in the 1980s due to internal and external conflicts and caused public displeasure, the collegial school management at Ernst-Reuter-Schule II persisted until the youngest Past.
Conflicts about the future of the Ernst Reuter schools
Due to increasing political pressure, which called for an end to many experiments at the Ernst Reuter schools that were viewed as critical by the conservative side , and because of the increasing call from teachers and students at Ernst Reuter schools for educational freedom, violent conflicts arose several times about their continued existence.
First, the failed collegial school management of the Ernst Reuter School I was replaced from 1982 by a school management appointed by the Ministry of Education. A three-person management team consisting of Otfried Galm (director), H. Siegle (deputy director) and Dr. Jürgen Pyschik (educational director).
Although two designated Social Democrats, Galm and Pyschik, who did not even belong to the right wing of the party, were seconded to the school, the new school management was felt for years by students and teachers as an authoritarian foreign body who was sent to forcibly straighten the school to something that was perceived as "normal" by right-wing forces. The SPD feared that it would lose approval in its own camp due to more and more scandal reports about the Ernst Reuter School (which were often motivated by campaign strategy, strongly exaggerated or even made up). In particular, Galm was therefore always titled and treated as a right-wing conservative during his tenure, as there was nothing politically right of him at the school. He died early in 1996 in office at the age of 55 and left the students of the Ernst Reuter School I with a foundation that encourages initiative and community spirit.
In the mid-1980s, it was decided, due to the falling number of pupils, not to accept any more pupils at Ernst-Reuter-Schule I and instead to refer them to Ernst-Reuter-Schule II . The Ernst-Reuter school I should be phased out gradually to this Decision by the specific whereabouts to continue school. This discussion took place at the time of a fierce school policy debate in Hesse, due to which the CDU was calling for the "abolition of the compulsory promotion stage" and "socialist social teaching" with massive tones.
The discussions reached a preliminary climax after the city of Frankfurt decided to solve the shortage of space in Frankfurt vocational schools by storing them in rooms at Ernst Reuter School I that became vacant due to the falling number of pupils . The attractive property on the ERS I site offered excellent conditions for this. Since it was not decided at the same time to move the Ernst Reuter School II from its prefabricated building, which was only intended as a provisional facility and which has since become dilapidated, there were concerns that the "Ernst Reuter School Experiment" should be ended altogether.
After violent protests by students, parents and teachers in Northwest City in 1986, parts of the Ernst-Reuter-Schule II gradually moved back into the rooms of Ernst-Reuter-Schule I and the further move-in of vocational schools stopped.
Pedagogical new beginning of the Ernst Reuter School II
When the move began, it was also decided to limit the new admission capacity of the Ernst Reuter School II to six parallel classes in order to enable meaningful educational work. Due to the changed spatial situation, the Ernst-Reuter-Schule II was able to design the never-before-known “principle of manageability”. Schoolchildren were taught according to age group in different parts of the building, which become a personal reference point for them. The number of subject teachers per class is reduced to a manageable size. The teachers' room for one year is in the immediate vicinity of the classrooms.
Integrative school
From 1989 the pedagogical concept of integration was expanded to include the element of integrative teaching (see also school integration ), in which pupils with disabilities and non- handicapped pupils are taught together in one school. For this, the rooms of the school are structurally redesigned accordingly.
The concept is very popular in the districts (Niederursel, Praunheim, Heddernheim) and leads to the establishment of two new integrative kindergartens in the catchment area of the school.
In 1995, the general conference of the school finally decided on a binding "conception of joint teaching". This divides the six parallel classes into three mixed classes and three regular classes (i.e. without handicapped students), with one mixed and one regular class forming partner classes that are spatially adjacent and are taught by the same team of teachers, so that optimal supervision is guaranteed at all times is.
For pupils with disabilities, a special concept of career-oriented measures is being drawn up in cooperation with special schools and vocational schools. They are also given the opportunity to stay at school beyond the 10 years of regular schooling.
Fire in the old ERS II building
In 1994 there was arson in a workshop of the Ernst Reuter School II . Due to the consequences of the fire, the construction defects of the makeshift building, which was originally intended as a temporary measure, but was used for much longer than planned for grades 9 and 10, are drastically revealed: As was common at the time, asbestos and other toxic substances were used in the building to protect against fire the fire had been transported through the ventilation system in the entire wing of the school building and represented a potential hazard. This led to the immediate suspension of the old building and makeshift accommodation of students in the former ERS I .
After the classes withdrew in the summer of 1995, increased asbestos levels were still found in the classrooms in August 1995, so that the classes had to move to ERS I again . 1996 draw the students then converted to classrooms building container in the school yard of the former ERS I .
The European School was finally built in 2002 on the former site of ERS II on Praunheimer Weg . This is a private school that essentially looks after the children of employees of the European Central Bank and other EU organizations in several languages.
Expansion of the Ernst Reuter School II
Since 1999, the Ernst-Reuter-Schule II has been accepting eight parallel classes for the first time. In 2000 the classrooms for natural sciences are completely renovated and modernized. In the following years the school was completely renovated.
Abolition of the KoSchu also at the ERS II
With a decree from 2004, the Hessian state government also abolished the collegial school management at Ernst-Reuter-Schule II and replaced it with a permanent school management from August 2005. This resulted in a continuation of the policy of “normalizing” the former model school, which began at ERS I in 1984 .
Educational model experiments at the Ernst Reuter schools
In the 1970s and 1980s, a wide variety of educational model experiments took place for the first time at both schools, some of which have become commonplace for everyday school life today, but at that time caused a great stir and in some cases massive outrage.
Support level and course system
Classes 5 and 6 are taught in the form of a support level , i. In other words, all students learn together, regardless of whether they have received a recommendation from the elementary school for a main, secondary or high school education. Instead, the students are closely observed in their learning behavior and encouraged individually, e.g. B. through supplementary courses and individual support. The fact of different learning styles and speeds is taken into account through internal differentiation rather than through social separation.
In grades 7-10, the class association is retained as it has been established in the support level. Based on the results of the support level, however, the students are differentiated into E and G courses (extension and basic courses) in important core subjects depending on the level of performance. This is mainly done in German, English, mathematics and the natural sciences. A pupil can be at a different level in each of these subjects, or he can move up or down at the end of each school year. At the end of class 9, the grades obtained and the course affiliation decide whether a transition to the 10th class (Ü10) is possible and thus the option of a secondary school leaving certificate or even the transition to the upper secondary level (Ü11) is given.
In the E and G courses, the students meet their peers from the parallel classes in the classroom, while the original class group from the support level in the subjects of social studies and physical education is retained. The class teacher is therefore always the social science teacher.
In the compulsory elective area, too, the students find themselves in new class constellations: on the one hand in the foreign language / polytechnic area, in which they choose a foreign language or a technical subject depending on their interests, on the other hand in the MTK area, in which they either take a course from the range in music, art or Choose works.
The principle of the class association is also continued in the upper level of the gymnasium at the Ernst Reuter School. Although advanced courses are chosen as in other upper secondary schools, advanced course pairs (such as Bio-Gm, German-English, math-physics or the like, depending on voting behavior) are always combined into a class that is also combined in the other subjects completed the class and went on a class trip together.
Again and again the conservative school policy in Hesse has fought vehemently against this course system and the long social communalisation of different learning levels and family origins.
Social theory
The subject of social studies (Gl) represents a summary of the teaching content of the classic subjects geography , social studies and history , whereby the creation of cross-references between the contents is desired and the weekly number of hours is increased accordingly (up to five hours per week). Contents from related areas such as law and economics are also incorporated into the curriculum.
Since social studies is always taught by the class teacher, the student career counseling, pedagogical support and the handling of organizational tasks also take place in this context.
The importance of the subject changed in the upper school, but the integration of history remained until the mid-1980s. As long as history and social / political science were taught in one subject, the subject in the upper level was called community studies (Gk) , later, when history was taught separately, community theory (Gm) .
A typical curriculum for social studies at the Ernst Reuter School from 1971 can be found in the Wikipedia main article social studies .
The politicization associated with the centralization of the subject of social studies and the deliberate reflection of the students on their own path in life against the background of political contexts, which was formulated as a learning goal, was always a thorn in the side of conservative educational politicians and was vehemently opposed, especially in Hesse, and defamed as "socialist indoctrination".
Diagnostic sheets instead of grades
In 1970 the attempt was started to evaluate the pupils instead of with grades of 1–6 using diagnostic sheets. However, this experiment is soon half-heartedly discontinued, as it met with sharp resistance in the social environment of the time. Instead of diagnostic sheets or classic grades, the experimental evaluation is now based on points from 0 (6-) to 15 (1+).
Practice models (PraMods)
In cooperation with the Wilhelm-Leuschner-Schule in Wiesbaden and the Integrated Comprehensive School Buseckertal , the so-called PraMods (practical models) for German lessons, and later also for the subject of social studies, are being developed for German lessons and appear in the Material Comprehensive School series.
For the subject of mathematics, an attempt is made to teach students in grades 5 and 6 instead of classes in courses with differentiated levels of achievement.
Choice between polytechnics and foreign languages
In order to achieve the integration of secondary school, secondary school and high school students in one class, the opportunity was created to choose between a range of foreign languages and practical subjects. In grades 7 and 9, each student had the opportunity to choose another subject. In the foreign languages there was the choice of French, Latin, Greek, Spanish, Russian and Italian (the full range, however, in some cases only from grade 9). In Polytechnik the choice between wood workshop, metal workshop, leather workshop, chemical engineering and cooking. There was a further possibility for additional language choice for the pupils who attended the upper school from grade 11, so that pupils who had chosen polytechnics twice in the lower secondary school could learn the second foreign language required for the Abitur. In order to enable the polytechnic offer, special high-quality workshop rooms were set up in the school buildings.
In addition to the polytechnic lessons, there was also a compulsory elective for all students in MTK ( music-technical course ), which covered the subjects works, art and music.
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From the mid-nineties, computer science is also offered as part of polytechnic classes. Before that, there was a changing offer in this subject starting with Computer AG in the mid-1980s, at that time equipped with a single Luxor ABC80 computer. (The founders of TOM Productions Christian Männchen and Andreas Tofahrn also emerged from this first working group .) The main initiators of the computer working groups are the brothers Jürgen and Peter Poloczek at the Ernst Reuter School I and Matthias Kraus at the Ernst Reuter School II . The two schools have been completely networked since 1997 (first with BNC cabling on their own and later as part of the renovation by the city of Frankfurt) and have the internet domains: ers1.de and ersii.de.
Since June 2016, the computer network at Ernst-Reuter-Schule II, which is over 21 years old, has been taken over by the educational (centralized and restrictive) network of the city of Frankfurt. The free network still exists at ERS 1.
"Students design their school"
In 1974 a project “Pupils design their school” was started, in which the aim was to have the wall surfaces of the school designed by the pupils themselves in order to create a greater sense of identification with the school.
Non-hierarchical interaction between students and teachers
In the 1970s and 1980s, schoolchildren in grades 7–13 were often close to their teachers and were more friendly than hierarchical with one another. We knew a lot about each other, including in the area of private life. It was common for students and teachers to meet in private life. The extensive newspaper archive in Heimo Eiermann's private apartment in the north end of Frankfurt (Wolfgangstrasse) was just as popular as various studios of teachers who were active as artists or the former farmhouses in the surrounding area, which were converted into weekend homes , which were often inhabited by teachers' shared apartments. Various relationship crises and unusual constellations as a result of living in a shared apartment / commune were also in the pupils' perception.
As part of the hierarchy-free approach, there was a wide range of educational approaches from anti-authoritarian education to approaches that were more similar to the ideas of modern collegial management or measures to develop teamwork and corporate democracy.
Due to the constraints of everyday school life ( discipline , grading), this relaxed relationship was often put to the test. Often grades were not simply awarded by the teacher, but rather they were discussed in class and checked to see whether there were gaps in fairness, distortion of perception or pedagogical inconsistencies. A serious and disciplined discussion procedure had to be found here so that there would be no “grade inflation” that would have damaged either the reputation of the course or even the school.
The possible failure of such participatory approaches was part of the attempt. Everyone involved was aware of this, and a project was abandoned by the teacher if it threatened to fail or if the students took too much freedom that endangered the educational purpose of the undertaking.
Sex education classes
The sex education classes introduced in the school in the 1970s led to violent moral outrage, which sparked wild fantasies about the real conditions at this school in the public at the time. This fantasy was fueled by the fact that a great many lecturers and employees of the ERS had just escaped the "radical decree" which was strictly applied at the time and, knowing about it, tried to establish a relatively hierarchical relationship between students and teachers at the ERS. It was feared that sooner or later young teachers and students who used dozen of each other and spoke impartially about sexuality would come closer to each other intimately.
When a high school teacher finally became pregnant by one of her 13th grade students, fears about the impending moral decline even seemed to be confirmed. However, disciplinary proceedings were suspended after the two married a few weeks later after the student graduated from high school.
Bicycle AG
The notorious alternative project artist Lui Tratter initiated in the framework of the discipline Polytechnic in the 1970s and 1980s, together with Uli Pfotenhauer called Bike AG, were where welded together by the students from old bicycle parts new, some crazy bike constructions and installation objects. In particular, recumbent bikes were mass- produced in the Fahrrad-AG and popularized in Frankfurt. At that time, recumbents could only be purchased in the bicycle workshop of the Ernst Reuter School.
A disciplinary measure against Tratter and the related transfer leads to a protest by the students which is associated with a sensational school strike. Tratter and his colleague Pfotenhauer had enabled a student who had been expelled from school for arson in the chemistry laboratory, at their own expense in their private car and in their free time, to participate in the school ski leisure time, because they excluded participation in this high point of the school career Ernst Reuter students as pedagogically counterproductive. This action led to a deep crisis for the KoSchu at Ernst-Reuter-Schule I and was an essential part of a recurring conflict of competencies with the Hessian Ministry of Education.
During his time as a teacher at the Ernst Reuter School, Tratter was also a founding member of the Sponti collective worker self- help (ASH) in Heddernheim , Bonames and finally in the crab mill near Oberursel , where social work was practiced with difficult young people in the early days and later self-made Bicycles and restored antiques were sold.
Auto AG
From 1975 the so-called Auto-AG came into being, in which students could prepare for driving school lessons. Theory and practical exercises were carried out. The predominant practical exercises took place with an old black Opel Record on the very winding school grounds. The advantage that all participants were able to park, change gears and were familiar with the handling of a vehicle in slow and extremely difficult situations if they then went to driving school. This enabled them to concentrate fully on the traffic and required fewer driving and theory hours accordingly. By means of a special decree and a successful test in the Auto AG, it was possible to obtain the driving license from class 1 and / or 3, without restriction, at the age of 17 1/2.
Ballet and theater
From the mid-1970s there was a range of in-school ballet lessons led by the music teacher Cornelia Hasper, which caused a sensation with annual staging of self-choreographed performances. Cornelia Hasper later taught rhythmic education at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts , before studying again and opening a practice as a psychoanalyst .
After Cornelia Hasper left the company, regular theater productions in the Theater AG of Hans-Jürgen Demetz took over the position. A highly acclaimed success was the performance of Antigone by Sophocles in 1986. In 1991 the school theater studio in Frankfurt moved to the Ernst Reuter School.
Skiing leisure
All 7th grade school classes go to a skiing holiday together once during their school days. The required sports equipment is loaned to the students by the school and is maintained by a working group in the so-called ski cellar throughout the year. The inventory of the ski cellar consists essentially of used skis donated by parents and restored by the ski group students, and is supplemented by income generated during the annual ski bazaar, where things were sold in a flea market and mulled wine is served to the parents has been. The initiators of the ski cellar and the skiing leisure time were Lui Tratter , Kristina Pomereke and Ernst Siering. In the 1980s, people regularly drove to Neukirchen am Walde in Upper Austria on the Wildkogel .
School social work
From 1976 there is the social work in schools (SiS) project, which is sponsored by the Arbeiterwohlfahrt , in which social workers and social pedagogues came to the school in addition to the usual teaching staff . The head of the institution was the social worker Jürgen Spiegelberg. The facility was also supported and financed by the Youth Welfare Office of the City of Frankfurt and the Pedagogy Department of the University of Frankfurt, as well as other public institutions.
The SiS was initially brought into being for purely practical reasons, in order to cope with concrete educational problems (aggressive behavior, vandalism, truancy, refusal to attend). Later, the task of school social work also included the development of concepts for social learning , the integration of different social classes, and the promotion of equal opportunities . In addition to the break meetings, the SiS offers various leisure groups (aircraft construction, magic, juggling, sports) and organizes school camps in the summer and winter holidays. In addition, it offers career counseling for the students in the leaving classes .
In addition, a school psychology service was set up and two qualified psychologists were hired. Their office was on the top floor of the administration building.
A so-called break meeting was created for the students in every part of the school building . It was a comfortably furnished space in the style of a youth center - mostly with play tables, drinks and snuggly mattresses (in the school jargon, Knutschecke ), where the students could stay during the breaks and in free periods and were supervised and looked after by social workers. In addition to the smooches, board games were the most popular leisure activity during the long breaks and in free hours. There were a total of three class-specific break meetings (one each for grades 5 + 6, 7 + 8 and 9 + 10), as well as a central, larger contact point for the upper school students on the upper floor of the "canteen".
School canteen
In the park-like outdoor area of the school yard, a school canteen will be opened, which will sell snacks and initially only fried snacks (French fries, sausages, beef sausages, potato pancakes). The offer is later expanded to include a regular lunch menu. In schoolchildren's jargon, this - officially known as a day care center - was simply called “Die Kantine” or “Die Kante” in the 1970s and 1980s, which was still slightly wicked and hopelessly overcrowded during breaks. A large break meeting was set up on the upper floor and was supervised by the SiS (social work in the school).
The canteen has always been the communicative “center” of student life and largely taboo for unloved teachers. Things that were not intended for teachers' ears were exchanged here. Due to its location on the edge of the school grounds, it acquired the character of a kind of castle that belonged to the students alone, comparable to the communication center (KOZ) in the student house of the Frankfurt University .
The walls and tables were almost completely filled with small graffiti from ballpoint pens and marker pens. Thousands of short messages and small paintings were scratched into the tables with a pointed ballpoint pen or knives until there was no more free space. Masses of thrown tea bags often hung from the ceiling after the students noticed that they got stuck there and dried up and gradually condensed into a stalactite cave-like work of art. Table football, billiards and backgammon were played on the upper floor.
In the entire area of the canteen, of course, as in the break rooms of the upper level building, students over the age of 16 smoked. There was no law or order or public awareness whatsoever to offend. In the upper area of the canteen even marijuana is said to have been consumed.
The teachers' jazz band had their practice room in the basement of the building.
Today the canteen is called the school restaurant Poggibonsi and has more of the character of a regular cafeteria operation in a small format. The school's music hall is on the upper floor.
International student and teacher exchange
Between 1979 and 1987 there was a regular exchange of pupils and teachers between the Ernst Reuter School II and a school in York ( England ). In the subject of English, a model experiment is being started under the name “Learn and Do”.
From 2002 to 2007 there was a student exchange with Flagstaff, Arizona. ERS II is a member of the German-American Partnership Program (GAPP), a collaboration between the educational exchange service of the Conference of Ministers of Education and the Goethe-Institut New York . So far, 20-26 students have gone to Flagstaff in the spring to attend high school there for 4 weeks . After the 4 weeks we went on a 5-day round trip to the Grand Canyon , Lake Powell , Phoenix and Las Vegas . In the summer, the American youth came to Frankfurt.
The exchange concept with the USA has currently changed. In March 2008 the Ernst Reuter students went to Prescott for the first time , not far from Flagstaff. However, with a thematic focus on “human impact on biodiversity” - in both countries, school grounds and surroundings outside the school are examined in detail. This will lead to further interesting biological questions. In a compulsory elective course, these topics are dealt with in English, the first bilingual project at ERS II.
There is currently a student exchange with France at the Ernst-Reuter-Schule -II .
Project weeks
From the mid-1980s, the concept of the project week found its way into the classroom. The entire teaching process is thematically limited in all subjects to a major overarching topic. The project week ends with a public exhibition in which the work results are presented. In addition to the official project weeks, which the teaching staff decided and organized, the student representatives were given the right to conduct their own project week on a topic of their own choosing once per school year, using the school's resources.
School Medical Service (SSD)
The school medical service of the Ernst Reuter School is made up of 14 students, 8 of whom have completed full first aid training. The SSD is fully occupied with 14 students. New students only move up when an SSD member leaves or leaves school.
The one world shop
The One World Shop was founded in the 2000s by the teacher E. Bentrup. The project supports a school in El Salvador by selling fair trade goods and donating the proceeds to El Salvador. A school is supported with the donations. In addition, Father Shay Cullen is supported with his project in the Philippines .
Teaching staff and image
In the 1970s and 1980s in particular, the staff at the Ernst-Reuter-Schule consisted of very young university graduates, who were also distinguished by the fact that they were highly qualified and had developed their own innovative educational concept, which they had at Ernst-Reuter -School wanted to put into practice, which offered special freedom for this purpose. There was often talk of a real educational subculture that was cultivated and cherished at the school.
The composition of the teaching staff of many special and in a special way self-confident characters was both a blessing and a curse for the school. On the one hand, the fact that the school administration was democratically elected from among its members meant that a school principal of the Ernst Reuter School was seen as the best of the best. After his election, he was usually offered a lucrative position elsewhere, which led to frequent new elections and the associated destabilization of the KoSchu system.
On the other hand, the fact of the presence of innovative and creative minds (mostly from Frankfurt's left-wing spontaneous scene) aroused the impetus in conservative circles in the city, who regularly scandalized even the smallest incidents at the school in the press and in the city's public discourse, to a systematic one and to lead a massive campaign against the image of the Ernst Reuter School. The uniqueness, conceived as an elite school (only based on the left-alternative understanding), was successfully turned into its opposite in the public consciousness: the Ernst Reuter School is a school at which failures in other schools receive a cheap and level-less degree, so to speak " given ”.
As part of the “normalization” of the Ernst Reuter schools in the 1990s, the predominantly left-wing teaching staff was systematically broken up and distributed to different schools.
Often artists and other specialists from all possible fields were also accepted into the teaching staff:
Teaching staff from the 1980s (selection)
- Lui Tratter , project artist, social worker, ski instructor and bicycle builder. Taught polytechnics.
- Thomas Zach , artist from Praunheim , known for designing numerous churches in the area. Taught MTK, art and Catholic religion
- Cornelia Hasper dance teacher with a focus on ballet. Taught music.
- Peter Poloczeck Mathematics teacher and pioneer for the school subject of computer science in Hesse. Taught mathematics and physics, later also computer science.
- Heimo Eiermann , anarchist artist and political intellectual from the north end of Frankfurt . Taught German, social studies and MTK.
- Hans-Jürgen Demetz Spanish teacher and theater pedagogue. Taught German and Spanish.
Well-known students
- Peter Feldmann (* 1958 / Abitur 1979): Lord Mayor of Frankfurt am Main
- Thomas Wolff (Abitur 1989): Author and publisher
- Ulla Meinecke (Abitur 1972): Chansonniere
- Ernst Stötzner : actor
Remarks
- ↑ Names of the subject teachers in the 1980s: Latin / Greek / Russian: Wolfgang Knorr, Spanish: Hans-Jürgen Demetz, Italian: Susanne Gawantka, Russian: Dio Klose
- ↑ Assess young people
