Friedrich Lembke

Friedrich Hinrich Lembke (born November 22, 1869 in Pinneberg ; † October 4, 1958 in Berlin ; buried in Heide ) was a German educator and journalist.

Professional Activities

Friedrich Lembke was a son of Hans Hinrich Lembke (born April 18, 1843 in Zennhusen , † December 19, 1923 in Hemme ), who worked as a gardener and businessman. His mother's name was Wilhelmine Sophie, née Lanzau (born October 1, 1847 in Stolpe; † April 27, 1925 in Hemme.)

Lembke had nine younger siblings and spent childhood and youth in Hemme from 1871. From 1876 to 1885 he attended the local elementary school and worked here as a school assistant before finishing school. He then took private lessons in languages, history, and natural history with the aim of becoming a teacher. After that he taught for some time as a sub-teacher in Hohenfelde . From 1887 to 1890 he completed the teachers' seminar in Bad Segeberg , where he passed the first teacher examination. He then worked as a second teacher in St. Annen .

In 1892 Lembke passed the second teacher examination in St. Annen. From 1894 to 1899 he was the first teacher in Wentorf. During this time he took on matters in the village that went beyond school matters. He set up a money and sales cooperative and was involved in the Wentorf electoral district of the Reichstag for the leading reformer Adolf Damaschke . In 1899 Lembke received a call as a middle class teacher and organist to Delve , where he was also involved in the cooperative system. He set up a savings and loan fund and worked as its rendant . He also founded a training school.

In 1901 Lembke accepted a call from the industrial and commercial advanced training school in Heide. It was the first full-time position for a trade school teacher in Prussia. Together with Rector Hans Siercks, Lembke created several textbooks. In addition, Siercks, Lembke and the secondary school teacher M. Dennert created in Altona in 1903 the “magazine for the entire advanced training system in Prussia”. During this time, Lembke also published in the field of cooperatives and gave corresponding lectures.

In 1903 Lembke won a scholarship in a teachers' competition. He used it to visit Danish folk high schools. The impressions stimulated him to consider setting up rural adult education centers in Schleswig-Holstein similar to the Danish educational institutions. At the same time, other German adult education centers were being set up in North Schleswig. Unlike them, he did not want to participate in Danish-German national political conflicts. That is why he chose Holstein as the school location. The "Association for rural adult education centers in Schleswig-Holstein" was created at his suggestion. The association set up its first teaching facility in Albersdorf in 1906 , which Lembke headed as director. In the meantime, as editor he worked on “The Schleswig-Holstein rural adult education center. Journal for Popular Education in the Country “. The school in Albersdorf only existed for a short time after a fire that destroyed the facility in 1909.

Because of his practical and journalistic work in the field of cooperatives and rural advanced training schools, Lembke developed contacts with the Prussian government and the "German Association for Rural Welfare and Homeland Care", which has existed since 1896. For this reason he received a call to Berlin in 1909. He got a job at the association founded by Heinrich Sohnrey and led by him. In 1951, Sohnrey handed over management to Lembke. At the same time, Lembke took over the editing of the magazine “Das Land”, which Sohnrey published in the “Verlag der Deutschen Landbuchhandlung”. Most of Lembke's other publications on social policy, local history and regional history were also published by this publisher.

From 1926 Lembke represented the association at meetings of the International Country Life Commission . In 1909 the state entrusted him with the management of teacher training courses at rural advanced training institutions in the Brandenburg area. This activity, which ended around 1930, he exercised in addition to the club work. Also in 1909 he took over the editing of the "Journal for rural advanced schooling" in Prussia and worked there until 1924. From 1922 to 1935 Lembke also taught at the Agricultural University in Berlin .

After the National Socialists seized power, the association for which Lembke worked was "brought into line". From 1934 he initially worked as a specialist department manager in the Reichsbund Volkstum und Heimat (Reichsbund Volkstum und Heimat) and in the following year he switched to the Nazi cultural community as a consultant . Due to the self-made assumption that he would not be able to carry out his work here as before, he ended this activity in 1936.

Retired journalism

Lembke went back to Heide, where he spent his retirement and continued to publish. He had been working with the West Holstein publishing house Boyens & Co. for a long time. During the Second World War , in particular , he took part in the publishing house and editing of the Heider Anzeiger . In addition, he was responsible for the 69th to 71st year of the “Dr. L. Meyn's Schleswig-Holstein House Calendar ”, which appeared between 1939 and 1941. During this time he summed up his life and wrote many concepts, memoranda and other works, most of which remained unpublished.

Since the early 1940 Lembke has been writing his "Memoirs of a Rural People's Educator". In 1952 he finished the record with "Volksschule und Volkshochschule im Lande". Based on his career, he wrote concepts for the “self-organization of rural schooling and education”, published in 1947. This also resulted in “The Schleswig-Holstein Country School. Retrospect and Outlook ”from 1951. In 1943/44 he compiled a report on the establishment and work of the German Association for Rural Welfare and Home Care. Since the association's archive and the inventory of the Deutsche Landbuchhandlung were destroyed towards the end of the war, Lembke's work is an important source for the history of this association.

During the war, Lembke noted his “guiding principles for the creation of independent laws for German peasantry”. Based on an updated version of this work, he tried from 1945 to restore rural welfare in accordance with Sohnrey's ideals. These included, for example, the “Mittelstelle für Sohnrey-Arbeit” from 1946 or the “Working Group for Country Life”, founded in 1949.

After the end of the war, Lembke worked, ultimately unsuccessfully, to re-establish old contacts and build new ones. His activities had little to do with what was actually happening at the time; no developments in the post-war years can be clearly traced back to him. Lembke understood the concept of “country life” to be an old rural society, which, however, was already changing significantly. He himself thought conservatively and saw decentralized, economically independent action as the basis of a social constitution in rural society. However, these views were considered outdated after the war.

family

Lembke married on January 28, 1894 in Bordelum Maria Magdalena Johannsen (born April 2, 1868 in Büttjebüll , † May 30, 1953 in Heide). Her father was compatriot Marten Johannsen, who was married to Margaretha Boysen. The Lembke couple had two sons and four daughters.

literature

• Reimer Kay Holander : Lembke, Friedrich . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 13. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 2011, pp. 300–304.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Reimer Kay Holander: Lembke, Friedrich . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 13. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 2011, p. 300.
2. ↑ Reimer Kay Holander: Lembke, Friedrich . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 13. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 2011, pp. 300–301.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Reimer Kay Holander: Lembke, Friedrich . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 13. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 2011, p. 301.
4. ↑ ^{a b c d} Reimer Kay Holander: Lembke, Friedrich . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 13. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 2011, p. 302.