Friendship for seven decades

Friendship for seven decades. Circular letters from German teachers 1899–1968 is the title of a collection of letters published in 1991 by Heinz Jansen in Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag . These are testimonials from the graduates of the Royal Teachers' Seminar in Stuttgart , who completed their training in 1899.

history

Shortly before completing their training, the 26 young women who had been working towards their exams at the Royal Teachers' Seminar in Stuttgart between 1897 and 1899 decided to keep in touch with each other and to regularly send out circulars . These letters were handwritten in a book that was passed on personally or sent by post. According to the regulations from the first decades of this contact, each participant was allowed to keep this book for fourteen days; the rotation enabled the young women in the first few years to report about their fates roughly every year. This system worked for decades and was not abandoned until 1968, when only a few of the 1899 graduates were still alive. In the nearly seven decades in which the teachers wrote their newsletters, 14 volumes filled up. Of these, the first three, which cover the period from 1899 to 1908, and the last four, which cover the decades from 1938 to 1968, have been preserved; the rest were destroyed in World War II .

The last entry was made by Johanna Jansen, b. Keller, on July 12, 1968. In it, shortly after her 90th birthday, she reported on the death of her colleague Maria Mattes and stated: “None of the three of us who remained wanted to succeed her as the» editor «of the circular books. Thus, after almost 70 years, our chronicle fell asleep. I will no longer send the books on their way; I want to close Volume 14 with this letter. For whom, why? Perhaps for a descendant who is interested in the life and fate of working women before the turn of the century. ”Johanna Jansen lived until 1982. The circular books that were in her household were forgotten until H. Jansen left the estate Mother came across the old documents again, aroused interest and finally published a selection of these letters. On the back of this book, the collection of letters is described as a "unique document that traces the unusual and everyday life stories of women pioneers in women's emancipation and occupation".

The exam, which the young women took in 1899, entitles them to employment as teachers in the lower and middle classes of the higher girls' schools in Württemberg , but most of the graduates did not make use of it at first, but continued their education, often abroad. Many initially accepted governess posts in various countries; four became nuns and z. Sometimes used in this capacity in mission schools in exotic areas.

The collection of letters did not receive a stormy reception from the general public, but is regularly quoted.

A similar system of circulars was developed by the course that took its examination in 1901. Its manuscripts are now in the Baden-Württemberg State Archives .

The graduates in 1899

• Katherina Baumann, later Mater Aquina, became a nun immediately after completing her training and taught at a monastery school in Tettnang and at the adult education center in Tettnang. She died on October 4, 1952.
• Klara Dieterich, later married. Grünvogel, first became a private teacher with a family of landowners in the Palatinate, then went to Paris and then became a tutor to Baron von Knigge in West Prussia . In 1904 she married a postal worker; after 1945 it was used again in school service. She died on October 1, 1957.
• Erika Mayer, later Mater Hermanna, became a nun and initially worked as a teacher in Austria . Even before the First World War , she went to Japan , where she became head of the grammar school of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and taught Michiko Shōda , among others . She was a sister of Rupert Mayer . She died in 1955.
• Marulla Hesse, a sister of Hermann Hesse , was the tutor of a Baltic baron until 1902. After her mother died, her father took her over as a "secretary". After his death she became a teacher at a Protestant daughter institute. After her death on March 17, 1953, Hermann Hesse wrote an obituary for her, which is also printed in the letter collection.
• Martha Entreß, later Mater Hildegunde, first worked as a private tutor in France after graduating, then at a convent school. She became a religious and taught temporarily in Copenhagen and from 1937 to 1955 in Brazil before moving to the mother house of her order in Liège . She died around 1970.
• Johanna Hanke, later married. Iltis, initially studied further in Stuttgart, then worked as a tutor and educator and in 1905 married a lecturer at the University of Strasbourg . She died in 1945.
• Klara Ißler worked at a school near Frankfurt, then became a tutor at an institution for single girls and died before the outbreak of the First World War.
• Johanna Keller, later married. Jansen was initially a private tutor in England and France, then she went to an evangelical mission school in Tunis , which she later took over. In 1911 she married a widower who had two sons and with whom she had three more children. She died in 1982 at the age of 104; The circular books were found in her estate.
• After stays in France, Holland and England, Maria Kleemann worked at a secondary school for girls in Württemberg. She died in 1963.
• Ottilie Krimmel first became a private teacher in France, then at the Katharinenstift in Stuttgart. During her stay in Stuttgart she continued studying before she became a tutor in Italy in 1902 for the Casanova family. In 1905 she returned to Stuttgart and took a position at the secondary school for girls. She now also studied biology and geology and became a member of various scientific associations. According to H. Jansen, she died in 1971, according to other sources not until 1976. Ottilie Krimmel was one of the participants who expressed herself skeptically to critical of the regime and politics during the Third Reich .
• Berta Stahl, later married. Kusenberg, first taught in Stuttgart and also studied at the Polytechnic before she became tutor to Baron von Boeselager at Eggermühlen Castle in 1903 and then to a French count. She later supported her father, an entrepreneur, with secretarial services. She died in 1951.
• Ottilie Perrenon, later married. Langbein, soon after graduating, married a doctor who would later become President of the State Medical Association of Württemberg. She died in 1964.
• Emma Knies, later married. Lehner, after graduating, became a tutor for an entrepreneur and then with a landowner in the Caucasus , then, because her parents found this too dangerous, with a landowner in Pomerania . She died in 1954.
• Maria Mattes was an educator in the houses of the nobility for many years before she was employed at the monastery school in Stuttgart. She died in 1967 or 1968. She stayed in contact with the Hobe-Gelting family at Castle Gelting for decades.
• Clara Wagemann, later married. Mayer, worked in Stuttgart, where she also continued studying. She married an entrepreneur who died during World War I and later lived with one of her daughters.
• Fanny Fink, later married. Müller, was a private teacher in Paris until 1904 and died during the First World War.
• Helene Mollenkopf, later married. Müller, was a private teacher in Bavaria, Belgium and Obernzell until 1906 , then she worked at the Protestant Institute for Higher Daughters in Korntal . She died in 1962.
• Anna Rauscher continued her studies after graduating as a teacher, then went to Paris, England and Scotland as a private tutor and worked for Lord Tenant, among others. She later became a professor and interpreter in Stuttgart. She died in 1950.
• Frida Heintzeler, later married. Reiniger, was in England until 1901, then studied further in Stuttgart and then became a tutor for a factory owner in southern Germany before she married. She died in 1961.
• Sofie Riecke was first a private tutor to a judge, then she worked at the Royal Olgastift in Stuttgart. She died in 1941.
• Mathilde Stein, later married. Römer, first worked as a private tutor in Westphalia, then as a teacher in Bad Godesberg , and died in 1944.
• After her engagement was dissolved, Hermine Schmid continued her education at the University of Geneva and then became a tutor to a clergyman in northern Germany. Together with her sister, she later ran a farm and a sawmill in Cappel (Öhringen) , which she had inherited before the First World War. She died in 1966.
• Maria Schneider also took exams in Bavaria after studying in Paris. She then worked as a teacher in Ludwigshafen and studied in Heidelberg on the side. After the Second World War she was appointed acting headmistress at the age of 70. She died in 1954.
• Martha Schrenk was a private tutor for the forest officer Tein in Hinterriß until 1905 , after which she headed a Protestant private school. When she had to interrupt this activity due to illness, she studied in Geneva; later she was a teacher again. She died during World War II.
• Agnes Bezold, later married. Schwarz, was a private tutor for a baron and an entrepreneur before she married a hotelier and died in 1944.
• Josephine Haaga, later Mater Sidonia, first taught in Stuttgart at the Catholic Higher School for Daughters and became a religious in 1902. A little later she was transferred to South Africa, where she died in 1970 as a superior.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Heinz Jansen (ed.), Friendship over seven decades. Circular letters from German teachers 1899–1968 , Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag 1991, ISBN 3-596-10635-4 , p. 336
2. ↑ For example, in Wolfgang Gippert and Elke Kleinau, Intercultural Transfer or Alienation in Foreign? German teachers in Victorian England , in: Zeitschrift für Pädagogik 52 , Issue 3, May / June 2006, pp. 338-349, pp. 342 u. ö.
3. ↑ Baden-Württemberg State Archives
4. ↑ Ottilie Krimmel at www.leo-bw.de