Friedrich Eppensteiner

Friedrich Eppensteiner (born November 29, 1880 in Stuttgart , † April 8, 1970 in Tübingen ) was a Tübingen teacher and councilor as well as a sports official.

Life

Weimar Republic

After Friedrich Eppensteiner received his PhD phil. in history at the University of Tübingen in 1914, from 1925 he was a long-time teacher of German, history and foreign languages ​​at the Oberrealschule (later Kepler-Oberrealschule ) in Tübingen. Eppensteiner was professionally and socially involved. For many years he was deputy chairman of the Württemberg Philologists' Association . He was a member of the DDP and was the deputy head of the local group. As a representative of this party, he ran for the Tübingen municipal council. During the election campaign in autumn 1931, he was personally attacked by the National Socialists . Nevertheless, he was elected to the local council at the time. He was only a local councilor for a relatively short time, because after Hitler came to power, the council was forced to disband on March 31, 1933 as a result of the "Gleichschaltung". Eppensteiner's career advancement to senior studies director failed in 1933 due to complaints from the National Socialists. He became an ex officio member of the NS teachers' association , but he did not join the NSDAP .

Third Reich

Over time, Eppensteiner not only came to terms with National Socialism, but also became one of the most committed advocates of National Socialist ideology at the Kepler School. There he took over ideological instruction, a subject that the Nazis had introduced to replace religious instruction in order to convey National Socialist ideology to the young people. Only teachers “who lived under National Socialism” were allowed to teach ideology. And Eppensteiner obviously lived it too, because in his curriculum report from 1942 he wrote: “More fundamental and stricter than the draft for the syllabus demands, I have the teaching task set there, the youth in the final questions of life in the spirit of the National Socialist Introducing Weltanschauung 'the aim is to awaken an attitude based on National Socialist ideas' - with topics such as' Humor in difficult life situations as a soldier man's virtue', 'Contempt for death', 'Eternal German soldierhood', 'Divine work in history ( on the occasion of Führer's birthday) '. ”During the school holidays, in the school camps, but also on other occasions, he gave pithy speeches in which he adored the National Socialist leaders, especially the Führer. He also demanded that "the greatest emphasis must be placed on influencing the pupils' will to defend themselves".

After the Second World War

In 1945, when a successor for Kuno Fladt was being sought to take the post of headmaster, Eppensteiner applied for her. In the justification he wrote that he had "openly criticized Hitler's war policy" and that he would otherwise have been a first-class opponent of the Nazis. His application was rejected - it is not clear why. His age may have played a decisive role: he only had one year left to work. Because in the denazification proceedings a good six months later, the Tübingen Chamber of Rulings on February 15, 1946 voted for Eppensteiner's remaining in office because he was "unencumbered". At the end of the school year, Eppensteiner was retired in 1946. Around this time, however, he became head of the combined Tübingen sports clubs.

He was very involved in it, writing essays and giving speeches. These activities were recognized by the Württemberg Sports Association and the Württemberg Athletics Association as well as in the specialist press. This positive reception gave him the incentive to prepare a larger historical-theoretical work on sport in the early 1960s, which was published in 1964 under the title Der Sport. Essence and origin, value and shape was published. It is - as the author himself calls it - a systematic and critical presentation of all aspects of sport.

As in the past for the Tübinger Chronik , Eppensteiner wrote again and again after retirement for the “ Schwäbische Tagblatt ” on communal topics and became a valued commentator. His topics included a .: the outdoor swimming pool, the development of the Neckar slopes, the landscape protection and the monument to the fallen in the city ​​cemetery . His contributions were characterized by a characteristic punctuation.

On his 80th birthday in 1960, the "Schwäbische Tagblatt" recognized him as one of "the most prominent personalities in our city". At the same time, the article stylized him as a victim of National Socialism, which he certainly wasn't. For every major birthday he received a personal letter of congratulation and thank you from the respective high school authority president. In 1965, Dr. Götz on his 85th birthday: "You have had a formative effect on your numerous students that will never be forgotten." This illustrates the way in which Nazism was dealt with in the Federal Republic of Germany long after the Second World War.

Friedrich Eppensteiner was married and had two children. The son Christian Friedrich died in Russia in September 1941.

Publications

• Rousseau's influence on the pre-revolutionary pamphlets and the outbreak of the revolution , Tübingen: Mohr 1914 (dissertation, University of Tübingen 1914)
• The sport. Essence and origin, value and shape , Munich, Basel: E. Reinhardt 1964

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Martin Ulmer: Destroyed Democracy ... , pp. 28–29
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Michael Kuckenburg: The National Socialist Teachers Association using the example of Tübingen , lecture at the Tübingen Cultural Office on October 14, 2016
3. ↑ Friedrich Eppensteiner: Foreword to Der Sport ... , p. 11

literature

• Martin Ulmer: Destroyed Democracy. Tübingen city councils forcibly resigned in 1933. A documentation , ed. from Geschichtswerkstatt Tübingen, Tübingen 2013, ISBN 978-3-941818-16-3 (= Kleine Tübinger Schriften, 39)
• Prof. Friedrich Eppensteiner 80 years old. A memorial sheet for citizens and teachers . In: "Schwäbisches Tagblatt", November 29, 1960
• Inside the city ... In: "Schwäbisches Tagblatt", November 15, 1946