Ernst Gideon Malherbe

Ernst (Ernie) Gideon Malherbe (born November 8, 1895 in Luckhoff , † November 30, 1982 in Durban ) was a South African educational scientist and university rector. He appeared as one of the proponents of free access to an equivalent higher education for all population groups.

Life

In his early youth, Malherbe and his parents and siblings saw the looting and destruction of their parents' home, a parish in the Orange Free State , by British soldiers. The family fled the war in the Cape region . The family's ancestors were Huguenots and immigrated to southern Africa.

His father was Reverend Ernst Gideon Malherbe (1868-1956) and his grandfather Ernst Gideon Malherbe (1821-1911).

Malherbe went to school at the De Villiers Graaff Institute High School in the Boland region . He then studied pedagogy at Victoria College , earning his Higher Teacher's Diploma and Masters degrees . He then went to the United States . During his stay he attended lectures at Columbia University's Teachers' College , earned another master's degree and eventually a doctorate on the history of education in the field of South Africa to the Ph.D. In 1924 he returned to South Africa and took on his first academic position as senior lecturer for education with Fred Clarke at the University of Cape Town . During this time his early work Education in South Africa appeared .

As a young scientist he took an active part in the editing of the report on the Poor Whites Problem in the Carnegie Commission (1928–1932, Carnegie Commission of Investigation on the Poor White Question in South Africa ). In it he works as an educational commissioner and author of section 3 (education report), which is entitled Education and the poor white (German for example: "Education and white poverty").

Malherbe was one of the founding members of the National Commission of Education and the Bureau of Educational and Social Research ( Nasionale Buro vir Opvoedkunde and Maatskaplike navorsing , later Raad vir Geesteswetenskaplike Navorsing / RGN) and was its first director from 1929 to 1939.

At the end of the 1930s, after the outbreak of World War II , Prime Minister Jan Smuts ordered the formation of an army corps of information experts headed by Malherbe to ward off anti-subversive activities in the armed forces and to influence the motivation of the operation . The group consisted of liberal-minded professionals such as Alfred Hoernlé and Leo Marquard. During this time, Smuts appointed the educator Malherbe as director of military intelligence ( Military Intelligence ). From now on, arguments against Nazi propaganda and overly defensive sentiments were positive and more oriented towards South Africa. Malherbe was also the director of the Army Educational Services between 1942 and 1945 .

In 1946, in a contribution (1946) to the honor of Alfred Hörnlé, Malherbe noted in retrospect that the post control of all members of the South African armed forces during the war showed a tendency towards greater tolerance towards non-Europeans and increased esteem for this group of people would have. He attributed this observation to impressions in the South African troop units, which had made experiences with other Africans and especially with Abyssinians during their operations .

Even before the end of World War II, Malherbe was appointed Principal of Natal University College .

Between 1943 and 1965 he worked as a principal or vice-chancellor at the University of Natal . During his tenure, the University College achieved the status of a full university (1949), it was able to expand to its original location Pietermaritzburg in Durban, a special medical school was established ( University of Natal Medical School , 1951) and the then University of Natal won considerable in size and importance.

family

Ernst Malherbe was married to Janie Antonia Nel (1897–1986), whom he had met at Victoria College and married in 1922. She worked as a teacher before the marriage and became known as a distinguished writer for contemporary magazines. With the outbreak of the Second World War, she entered voluntary service, served in Military Intelligence and as editor of the soldiers' magazine IC digest .

Honors

• Malherbe received honorary doctorates from the University of Sydney , University of Cambridge , Queen's University , University of Melbourne , McGill University , University of Cape Town , University of Natal , Rhodes University , Witwatersrand University (1968) and University of St Andrews .
• In 1967, Malherbe was President of the Johannesburg- based South African Institute of Race Relations .

swell

• JW Macquarrie: Dr Ernst Gideon Malherbe . In: Natalia 13 (1983), pp. 85-87, online at www.natalia.org.za (English)
• Rosemarie Breuer: EG Malherbe 1896-1983 . at www.stellenboschwriters.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ernst Gideon "Ernie" Malherbe . on www.remembered.co.za (English)
2. ↑ ^{a b c} University of KwaZulu-Natal: University of KwaZulu-Natal, Campbell Collections: Malherbe, Ernst Gideon / Papers . on www.campbell.ukzn.ac.za (English)
3. ^ Ernst Gideon Malherbe: Education in South Africa (1652-1922) (a critical survey of the development of educational administration in the Cape, Natal, Transvaal and the Orange Free State) . Dissertation at Columbia University , bibliographical entry in worldcat
4. ^ Entry in the catalog of the Australian National Library . on www.catalogue.nla.gov.au (English)
5. ^ Anonymus, Columbia University Libraries: First Inquiry Into Poverty . on www.columbia.edu (English)
6. ^ Ernst Gideon Malherbe: Race attitudes and education . SAIRR, Johannesburg 1946 (English)
7. ^ University of KwaZulu-Natal: University of KwaZulu Natal: History . on www.ukzn.ac.za (English)
8. ^ University of Natal Medical School: The Medical School's History . on www.scnc.ukzn.ac.za (English)
9. ^ Allan Jackson: A short history of the University of Natal . on www.fad.co.za (English)
10. ↑ University of Witwatersrand: Honorary Degrees ( Memento of the original from July 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . at www.wits.ac.za (English) 
11. ^ SAIRR : A Survey of Race Relations of South Africa 1968 . Johannesburg 1969, p. 26