German Educational Reconstruction Committee

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German Educational Reconstruction Committee (abbreviated: GER or GER) was a project founded by German emigrants in Great Britain in close cooperation with the Labor Party , which dealt with the planning and preparation of a reorganization of the education and training system in post-war Germany. It was founded in London in 1943, and the organization was officially canceled in 1958.

Reeducation or Reconstruction?

The Allied occupying powers made plans for the time after a victory over Nazi Germany from an early stage. The defeated country should be transformed into a peaceful and democratic society after its military defeat, and education policy should be an important building block in this process. The corresponding plans ran the Allies under different names: The Americans were under the term re-education (or re-education) summarizes the British spoke of Reconstruction , the French from Mission civilisatrice and the Soviets of antifascist democratic transformation .

The term reeducation , coined by the Americans, has remained an umbrella term to this day and means re-education . This concept was not without controversy.

“Re-education”, understood as primary education, expressed not least the power imbalance between the winners and the vanquished. In a small study by the former British education officer Ronald Wilson, however, it is also shown that this designation was controversial in England when it first appeared - after Wilson it was first used by the British diplomat Lord Vansittart in 1941. 1943 was in England with the aim of "convincing the coalition government that it was important to enable educational specialists and teachers from German-speaking Europe who had fled to Great Britain to return to the education system in their home country as soon as possible after the end of the war." the free association “German Educational Reconstruction Committee” (GER) was founded. German emigrants were instrumental in this. Wilson wants to show that early on in the British discussion the intentionally and emotionally different concept of "educational reconstruction" played a role alongside that of "re-education". In the real course of occupation policy, however, the focus was initially on “re-education”, in the American zone of occupation as well as in the British zone and analogously to the French zone. As part of the Potsdam Agreement, the military governments tried during the first period of occupation to use «re-eclucation» as an instrument for the introduction of democracy according to their own model. "

Against this background, it is certainly no coincidence that an organization co-founded and supported by German emigrants felt more committed to the concept of reconstruction than to reeducation in terms of its name . In terms of their own self-image, many emigrants did not feel they were defeated, but as representatives of the other Germany or the true Germany . “With the term reconstruction, the organization deliberately set itself apart from the re- education concept and the projects from the American perspective. She wanted to express that the goal should not be understood as a re-education of the entire people, but as a constructive contribution in the sense of political and educational assistance in the reconstruction in an emerging time of helplessness and helplessness in Germany. "

What was the German Educational Reconstruction ?

The extensive archive material on the GER is stored today in the archive of the "Institute of Education" at University College London . On the homepage there, the question of what the GER is is answered as follows:

“German Educational Reconstruction (GER) was a volunteer organization founded in London in 1943 with the aim of preparing refugee German educators for their return to Germany. Her main focus was on restructuring the German school system according to 'democratic principles'. After the war, the focus shifted to promoting German-British relations; GER acted as an information office and promoted communication and exchange between British and German educators. GER has carried out a wide variety of activities, including organizing conferences, lectures and study groups, working with other volunteer organizations, organizing youth exchanges and youth work, publishing and distributing memoranda, brochures and textbooks. GER was dissolved in 1958. "

Even if the focus here is on influencing post-war developments in Germany, there was also another task, and it was aimed at the British population, who were very skeptical of Germans. A German emigrant, Fritz Lustig, who came to England in 1939, describes it as follows:

“For years I had been used to pretending not to attract attention at all, not to make mistakes. In England, I thought, everything will be different. But the mood towards refugees, especially Jews from Germany, was bad. And with my German name and German accent I had to hold back again, speak as little as possible, and not attract attention. "

Many of the founders of the GER should not have been unfamiliar with such experiences. Many of them had just returned to England from internment camps on the Isle of Wight , Canada or Australia because they had been treated as enemy aliens despite their anti-Nazi attitudes . They now wanted to "provide objective educational work to a reserved British population and to influential public and political bodies about the situation in Germany and the German people in order to be able to present the image of the German in a differentiated manner." This is also confirmed by Fritz Eberhard with regard to himself Attempts to educate the English public:

“These were all attempts to provide information in England and to make necessary propaganda against a one-sided image of Germany. The counter-propaganda was directed primarily against Vansittart . That name was a program. For a long time he was the constant first advisor to the British government [..] This man was for many years the highest official in the British state, and he was the first propagandist against Germany. "

In order to be able to realize this double objective of educating the British public and preparing a democratic Germany, the GER set itself four tasks for its work:

  • To collect and evaluate information about the real intellectual and educational situation in Germany.
  • To develop proposals for the reorganization of German education for the British administration and for future employees or providers of institutions of the education system.
  • Collection of all educational forces of the German emigration.
  • Establishing contacts with UK and international educators and youth leaders.

The foundation of the GER

If you follow Fritz Borinski, then the founding of the GER is due to a happy coincidence. On the return trip from internment in Australia to England in November 1941 he talked to another ex-intern about the future. His interlocutor wanted to become English, to become a soldier, to defend his new homeland. Borinski wanted to remain German, believed in and hoped for the defeat of Hitler and wanted to “prepare the construction of a free Germany with friends in exile”.

In mid-1942, Borinski was living in London, and received a letter from Ilmari Federn , Karl Federn's son . Ilmari Federn had overheard Fritz Borinski's conversation on the voyage in November, told his parents about this conversation on arrival, and his mother, in turn, “talked about it with the wife of a senior official on the Board of Education, with whom she was well acquainted ". Feder offered a contact through a Mrs. Wood.

That Mrs. Wood was Phylis Wood, the wife of Sydney H. Wood. He was a good expert on education in the Weimar Republic and an acquaintance of Carl Heinrich Becker . Woods was "Head of Teacher Education since 1938 (..). He also headed the Ministry's Intelligence and External Relations Department for eight years. At the end of World War II, he was instrumental in founding England's Emergency Training Colleges for former soldiers and women. Since the war he has represented the ministry at the International Education Conference in Australia. "

When the Second War broke out, Wood had already suggested that the British Council in England extend cultural hospitality to the Germans, Austrians, Poles and Czechs who had found refuge here. His initiative for cultural hospitality for refugees, which was rather unusual for the time, was initially overtaken by reality. The German bombing raids on England and the invasion of France forced the British Council to devote its energies to the Allied soldiers, sailors and airmen for the time being. But as early as 1941, Wood again urged the government to take steps to help German teachers and social workers in England prepare for a return to Germany after the war. But even this attempt was unsuccessful. After several attempts by Wood to support German refugees were unsuccessful, he and his wife Phyllis began to think that they would have to take action on their own.

That was the starting point for the invitation to Fritz Borinski, who three weeks later was followed by a joint meeting with Werner Milch . Especially at the request of Phyllis Wood, Minna Specht was soon called in . The three developed a plan that was agreed with the Woods: “We agreed: no large, expensive organization, no loud publicity, no theoretical discussions and constructions at the green table, but a small working group of trustworthy people who worked in silence and ready for practical consequences, ie should be serious about going back to Germany at the appropriate time. "

Other people joined this core group around Borinski, Milch and Specht in winter:

They were all not only refugee teachers or social workers, but refugees for political reasons and political convictions. Unlike the members of the Free German League of Culture in Great Britain , who were mostly close to the Communist Party, these GER founding members were more oriented towards the Social Democrats and cooperated with the Labor Party , which is why the GER is also a project of the Union of German Socialist Organizations Great Britain applies. In addition to SOPADE , the exile organization of the SPD , it was mainly organizations that split off from the SPD during the Weimar Republic (such as the SAP ) or wanted to influence it from outside as a left opposition (according to the ISK ). Many people emerged from the Union who shaped the post-war social democratic policy in West Germany.

A decisive step forward for the work of the still loose alliance came in February 1943 through Bertha Bracey , who was able to provide £ 100 from a Quaker fund. This made it possible to employ Borinski and Milch as secretaries and to finance Minna Specht as “Research Assistant”. That was the starting shot for the GER as an organization. In April 1943 the committee was given a board , chaired by Sydney H. Wood, while Phyllis Wood served as treasurer. Other board members were:

At the second meeting of the board on June 3, 1943, the hitherto unnamed committee was given its name and responsibilities were determined: “While the board distributed the work of GER to the outside world and provided funding, the pedagogical planning on the German side should be done be determined by a main committee, a 'Standing Committee', to which, in addition to the secretaries, the heads of the working groups and representatives of the German churches and trade unions belonged. The board and the standing committee worked well together. ”“ In search of a broader basis for an education concept, the individual working groups within the organization dealt with proposals for the entire education system. In order to fully substantiate and legitimize its own ideas, GER not only dealt with the German situation, but also intensively studied the English educational system, both in its theoretical basis and in its concrete educational and upbringing practice. Bulletins summarized the partly comparative studies. The members of GER held weekend conferences, they met with English educators and English students. Contacts with other organizations in England and abroad were important for the work. This created connections to German prisoners of war in England and also to emigrant organizations. There were contacts to comparable groups in the USA, Sweden and Switzerland. "

Activities in England until the end of the war

Self-qualification and concept development

The importance of self-qualification as preparation for returning to Germany has already been pointed out above. A very broad program served this purpose.

“In the search for a broader basis for an education concept, the individual working groups within the organization dealt with proposals for the entire education system. In order to fully substantiate and legitimize its own ideas, GER not only dealt with the German situation, but also intensively studied the English educational system, both in its theoretical basis and in its concrete educational and upbringing practice. Bulletins summarized the partly comparative studies. The members of GER held weekend conferences, they met with English educators and English students. Contacts with other organizations in England and abroad were important for the work. This created connections to German prisoners of war in England and also to emigrant organizations. There were contacts to comparable groups in the USA, Sweden and Switzerland. "

GER also published a small series of publications, "A series of pamphlets", which dealt with various aspects of education and cultural life in Germany:

  • Minna Specht and Alfons Rosenberg: Experimental Schools in Germany
  • Helmut von Rauschenplat: Vocational Training in Germany
  • Fritz Borinski and Werner Milch: "Jugendbewegung", the Story of German Youth, 1890–1933 (ready shortly)
  • Charlotte Jacob: Experiments with Uprooted Children (ready shortly)

The four aforementioned writings had already appeared in 1945. "In active preparation" were:

  • Kurt Emmerich and Karl E. Meyer: Christian Education in Post-War Germany
  • Werner Milch and Ernst Schoen: The German Broadcasting System
  • Hans Liebeschütz (and others): Teaching History in German Schools
  • Fritz Borinski: The Future of German Adult Education
  • Erich Hirsch: Youth Welfare in Post-War Germany
  • Heinz Schuerer: Public Libraries in Germany

A work on The German Volkshochschule that Fritz Borinski had begun in 1942 could neither appear in this series nor as an independent publication. It was first published in 2014.

In addition to the small brochure already mentioned, Minna Specht also developed “within the framework of the ISK and for the German Educational Reconstruction Committee” (GER) concepts for school policy in post-war Germany and for re-educating the German youth who grew up in the Nazi ideology (“Change of opinion. The Education of the German Youth after the World War ', London 1943). "

Remembrance of the cultural heritage

Since 1944 the GER has organized a collection of excerpts and shorthands, "which after the war could be used as writings for young people or for use at adult education centers and teacher training centers in the service of a new German education". The result of the collection were 82 reading sheets (booklets), the inner thread of which was to arouse interest in the values ​​of other cultures, to contribute to understanding with each other and with other nations, and in general to provide “help for a democratic and peace-loving education”. The production of the collection turned out to be difficult:

“The production and collection of the manuscripts faced great difficulties: few refugees had suitable books, most of them lacked a typewriter, there was also the shortage of paper during the war, and the greatest inhibition was the lack of time, since all employees were fully professional were busy and also worked on German and English organizations. The difficulties were overcome in group work, in which one often recommended or loaned a suitable book, another put together the excerpt, a third took care of copying, and still others gave collated, professional advice or suggested changes. "

In addition, there were the scarce material and financial resources for producing the reading sheets , as Martha Friedländer's correspondence with Werner Milch repeatedly shows. Paper was scarce, postage costs had to be financed, sometimes there was a donation from the ISK fund, and sometimes the GER fund was supposed to pay for advanced expenses. In addition, the cooperation was made more difficult, since many votes could only be made in writing, which was time-consuming and sometimes led to the loss of letters or manuscripts.

The reading sheets had a wide range of topics , ranging from Albert Schweitzer or Fridtjof Nansen to Erich Kästner and Franz Werfel to the Indian author Dhan Gopal Mukerdschi or the Chinese Chiang Yee. Most of the reading sheets were written in German, but “some English and one French reading sheets are intended to introduce new material with progressive content to foreign language teaching”. During the time of emigration, many reading sheets were reproduced only with the simplest means. The first questions about licensing law arose, reprinting rights were obtained, in some cases even denied. For the post-war period it was apparently planned to publish the reading sheets in cooperation with German publishers. A letter from Werner Milch dated August 8, 1946 to Martha Friedländer, who was still in England at the time, shows that GER had given Richard Schmidt power of attorney to negotiate with publishers on his behalf. Richard Schmidt (1884–1966) was the owner of the Robert Peppmüller bookstore in Göttingen and a long-time ISK member. After the world war he joined the SPD and was one of the re-founders of the Philosophical-Political Academy .

In London, a “Textbook Officer” had been checking schoolbooks from the Weimar Republic since October 1944 for their usability in post-war Germany. This work was continued in the British “Textbook Section” in Bünde : “After preparatory work in London in 1944, the textbook department of the education department was founded in Bünde in July 1945 to take on the important task of producing teaching material that was used by National Socialism, Militarism and other Nazi doctrines are unaffected. ”The publisher and textbook committee conference , at which the concept of the reading sheet was presented on November 22, 1946, was also located in the vicinity of this textbook department . There and in follow-up conferences, contacts were made with West German publishers, as Martha Friedländer reported to Werner Milch. In the run-up to such a conference, she wrote on April 27, 1947 that the aim was to get contracts with four publishers under one roof and then to talk about the difficulties involved: “Everything comes to a standstill again. Perhaps I will see the gentlemen [publishers] in Bünde, where I am going to a three-day meeting tomorrow. There is a lot to be said for offering a publisher in the French zone as well. The great distance speaks against it. Each sheet requires frequent correspondence about all kinds of questions, a letter to Cologne zu Schaffenstein often takes 8 days. It would also be good if there weren't too many publishers involved, which is also very complicated. ”After the conference, however, a ray of hope emerged, as she was able to report to Werner Milch on May 5th: some reading sheets should be in the course of the summer Published by Westermann in 1947 , others by Märkischer Verlag . At the same time, however, she also reported that the denials of reprint rights were increasing, both on the part of German and American publishers.

Whether the hopes on the part of the GER have thus been fulfilled, “that we have succeeded in making a good contribution to the rebuilding of German education and that our efforts can soon reach their goal in the printing and publication of the present manuscripts “Must remain open. Neither the catalog of the German National Library (DNB) nor the online catalog of the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research can find clear evidence of this. However: On the already quoted page of the London Institute of Education on the “inventory overview reading sheet ” there is a reference to a dispute with the Georg-Westermnaan-Verlag over the publishing rights for Alan Alexander Milne's book Winnie-the-Pooh . A forty-page booklet was published just about this in 1948 in the series Westermann-Texte , edited by Fritz Schneider. The only text directly attributable to the GER appeared in this series: La Vie de Pasteur (Extraits) / Pasteur Vallery-Radot. As school reading ed. by German Educational Reconstruction, arr. by Fritz Oeding . It is unclear whether other reading sheets in this series have worked.

Further information on the reading sheets can be found in a study by Gisela Teistler. Although she speaks of reading books , she obviously means reading sheets : “The publications initiated by the GER contained not only two collections, but also Stifter's Hagestolz in another series of GER reading books, which was obviously not continued. [..] Two issues of the Heroes of Peace series (in the History group) were also published by GER (Curie; Valery-Radot). Also published by the educational publisher Schulz in Berlin von Wiechert: From the loyal companions. - Other materials appeared in Göttingen in the publisher Public Life, which were not necessarily intended for school use, which is why they are not included in the list of new school books here (Silone: ​​Der Fuchs; Keller: We are all responsible; Traven: Oil and Land; Sejfullino: The runaway; Benedict: Race research and race theory). "

The aforementioned Hagestolz by Adalbert Stifter is shown in the DNB catalog as GER reading book 1 . The two collections to which Teistler refers have also been published by Westermann:

  • Of nature and human life. Poems from the time from Goethe to Dehmel , published in 1947 as GER reading book 2 ;
  • The Rainbow. An anthology of German poems from Liliencron to the present , published in 1948 as GER reading book 3 .

Elsewhere, Teistler mentions the series Heroes of Peace , initiated by the GER , “whose publication has now been supported with the help of Eckert's working group . [..] As early as September 1946, the publication of this series was decided at a meeting of the Braunschweig State Textbook Committee [..]; However, the first volumes did not appear until 1948, which once again shows the bottlenecks in the paper supply. ”Eleven issues appeared in this series, the specialty of which was that they did not draw attention to the great statesmen and war heroes of history . Instead, they dealt “with everyday benefactors and heroes of peace in a selection of short biographies of various important personalities for humanity such as Abbe, Curie, Edison, Beethoven, Nansen, Pasteur, Kagavam Schweitzer, Livingstone, Rasmussen and Tolstoy. [..] Here, too, a different approach to history was chosen, which should also serve as an education for peace. "

Personal preparations for the return to Germany

In Hildegard-Feidel-Mertz's estate there are documents that prove that early thought was given to which people could be won over to rebuild the education system in post-war Germany. It was not only about emigrants in England, but also in many other emigration countries. So z. B. in the list even Alfred Dang on that at the time of the Pestalozzi School Buenos Aires worked. A first list of July 21, 1944 comprised 198, which, however, had been published by the "Central European Joint Committee" and had been sent to GER by Fritz Demuth . Demuth was the head of the Emergency Association of German Scientists Abroad and had excellent contacts with emigrated German scientists. However, it is unclear whether the list he sent came from him or was more a product of the “Central European Joint Committee”. This committee was namely an institution of the "Ministry of Economic Warfare, parent of the Special Operations Executive, formed by Churchill to 'set occupied Europe ablaze' by sabotage, assassination and a multitude of dirty tricks", in which, for example, Hilde Meisel .

Further such lists exist from 1946, which can be assigned to GER itself. They are apparently based on applications from emigrants willing to return, who presented themselves with a résumé, an overview of the activities at that time and future plans. An example from the list of 86 names is Dr. Max A. Warburg, the son of Aby Warburg . Max Warburg was living in the Netherlands at the time and was a teacher at the Quaker School in Eerde . In his letter of application dated September 11, 1945, written from Holland, it says:

"During the last year, under the pressure of German occupation in this country, the problem of German re-education has become a most imperative concern to my wife and me." (See attached manuscripts!) «Our efforts to enter Germany have until now been in vain. As isolated individuals we shall hardly ever have a chance to get there lacking any contact with the competent authorities and organized groups working for the purpose we have chosen. Obviously Holland, on these regard, is a dead end. " (Already applied via B.Bracey and the Quakers to be put on the GER list, membership is applied for.) "Belonging to your association would free us from a feeling of isolation which is gradually overcoming us here (though individually we are meeting.) with some understanding and would give us some hope to reach our Goal before becoming apopleptic or beeing blessed by the next war.

The quote is interesting not only because it says something about the emotional state and the hopes of people who have already lived in emigration for 12 years, but also because of the two insertions in round brackets that come from a person responsible at GER.

The first insert refers to a more than three-page concept "A Project for Adult Re-Education in Germany", which Warburg had attached to his application and in which he justified his ideas about a necessary re-education. His main concern is the 17 to 25-year-old Germans and the many ex-soldiers among them. In this group he sees the young people who, on the one hand, were particularly strongly influenced by Nazi ideology in school, or those who were deprived of the opportunity to a comprehensive education due to their military service. Warburg advocates intellectual and political re-education and sets its own accent in the discussion about the terms “re-education” and “reconstruction” mentioned above. For him these are not mutually exclusive concepts: “Reconstruction and re-education are essentially the same thing. They are closely related. Technical reconstruction will be dead machinery without a spiritual and intellectual foundation, and theory without practice will be a lie. [..] The German youth must be offered a constructive and inspiring idea, a purpose in life that replaces the militaristic ideology. ”The second inset refers once more to the Quakers as important cooperation partners of the GER. Their support for the politically persecuted in Germany and then by Emigrants and emigrant institutions still seem to be a subject of research only incidentally, there is a lack of comprehensive overall representations in German-speaking countries. Warburg himself was a teacher at a school in exile , the Quaker School Eerde , which could only be founded with the support of the Quakers. Bertha Bracey was an important fundraiser for this school - as was the case when the GER was founded.

Max Warburg and his wife Josepha did not return to Germany, but moved from the Netherlands to England in 1947.

post war period

“After the war, most of the active German members of the GER returned to Germany as soon as possible. As a result, the GER experienced what could be called an identity crisis. Its original goal was achieved, its members moved to Germany, and so in 1946 the issue of the dissolution of the organization was discussed. It was the resigning German members who felt it was necessary to maintain the British interest in German education. Therefore, the GER adopted new statutes with new and expanded goals to create a strong and lasting relationship between Great Britain and Germany in the field of education and social affairs. "

This somewhat generalized description of the situation is not entirely accurate. Returning to Germany wasn't as easy as Fritz Eberhard remembers.

“I left in 1945 with the help of the Americans, in a discarded bomber to Brussels, then by car to Maastricht. I waited there and went back to Cologne, by the way, together with Rosenberg, who later became chairman of the DGB. The visit to Cologne was arranged by the Americans. While the English initially did not allow any emigrants home, the Americans were ready to bring suitable emigrants to Germany as sourdough, so to speak - they showed us Cologne and asked us after we had seen this terrible field of rubble: “Are you really still making waves to Germany? We will also bring you back to England. "We all wanted to go to Germany."

But even then, when it became more possible to travel to Germany, not all German members of the GER returned to Germany immediately, and there was still activity in England.

“The Wilton Park warehouse played a special role in this . It was one of many British camps for German prisoners of war. About 4,000 prisoners of war, less than a percent of all prisoners of war in England, were able to attend one of the demanding academic courses that were offered there for later educational multipliers in Germany between January 1946 and June 1948. Some young Germans who visited Wilton Park in 1947 later decided to work in adult education. "

Overall, however, it is obvious that the focus of the work has now shifted to activities in and for Germany. With the help of a sister organization based in Bonn, various kinds of aid were initiated. The GER organized the dispatch of tons of books for distribution to German universities, schools and libraries. These materials were advertised intensively in Great Britain, as this appeal from Sydney H. Wood and the GER sect at the time, Erich Hirsch shows:

“We would like to ask your readers for books, brochures, magazines and school equipment for Germany. Germany has been culturally isolated for fourteen years and many valuable books in libraries and private homes were destroyed by the Nazis and by acts of war. If a stable Germany is to emerge from the current chaos, it is essential that a large number of men and women are trained in the shortest possible time, and this is only possible if enough teaching material is available. The need for books and magazines is desperate, especially in the areas of education, technology, politics and business. German schools also need exercise books, pens, chalk and other school supplies. We feel like there are many people who have a superfluous book or two on their bookshelves, or magazines that they have no further use for after reading them. "

Personal encounters were no less important, and soon after the end of the war. “At the instigation of GER, German representatives of the educational system were invited to England very early after the defeat of National Socialism. Under the leadership of Adolf Grimme , Lower Saxony's minister of education, a German delegation visited England in June 1946. In lectures, meetings and discussions with English and German colleagues, with high officials and ministers, with representatives of the military government, with politicians, with educators, journalists and German prisoners of war, they reported on the spiritual and material conditions in Germany. "And about an" Oxford Conversation ”reported Die Zeit on June 9, 1949, when British and German economists met for the first time after the war. “The fact that the economists of the two countries were brought together as the first specialist meeting was in more than one respect a fortunate move by the German Educational Reconstruction, that private organization supported by the spirit of humanity, which has nothing of the smack of its name chosen seven years ago Has."

The youth exchange was also one of the important activities of the GER under its post-war secretary Erich Hirsch. English youth groups were given the opportunity to travel to Germany, while conversely, German youth groups and individuals as well as study trips to England were financed and arranged by the GER. In this context, the harvest operations in England seem to have been a special highlight.

“The Harvest Camp program was another way that Germans could travel to England. It has its origin in the Ministry of Agriculture. The program included male, female and disabled students visiting camps in Middlesex, Oxfordshire, Lincolnshire, Essex and Wiltshire to help with farm and harvesting work. The initiative to involve German students came from the German supply department of the Foreign Office. The campers were expected to work at least 36 hours a week. Due to the initiative of the GER, university and college students from the British, American and French zones of Germany were able to participate. Work clothes were provided, waterproof ones from the War Department and clothing and shoes from private sources. Campers participating under the auspices of GER were encouraged to save their camp wages in order to finance a holiday in England for the post-harvest period. The GER worked together with its members and contacts to be able to accommodate German harvest workers after their stay in the camps in British houses in Great Britain. In 1954 the Ministry of Agriculture decided not to operate any further camps. From the 1955 season, some camps were taken over by the National Farmer's Union or private overseers. In 1958 the GER decided not to repeat the harvest program. "

From 1946 to 1951 the GER published its own magazine, the Bulletin supervised by Paul P. Bondy . The bulletin initially appeared alternately in German and English, later only in English. The main focus of the reporting was the activities of the organization and the conditions in Germany. The archive of the “Institute of Education” at “University College London” sees the publications of the Bulletin as an important source for social history research to this day. "It is therefore a valuable resource for social history and on the changing attitudes between Britain and Germany."

The end of the GER

The normalization of conditions in post-war Germany led to a gradual change in the meaning and ultimately also a loss of importance of the work of the GER. It was a process that began in the mid-1950s and finally led to the end of the GER activities in 1958.

“By the mid 1950s the GER was competing with other organizations in the field of Anglo German relations. Many felt that the period of reconstruction was coming to an end also that the promotion of Anglo-German exchange was being carried out successfully elsewhere. This raised the questions of the necessity and relevance of the GER. In an atmosphere of changing British attitudes towards Germany and increased competition for charitable funding the GER was finally wound up in 1958. "

swell

The extensive archive material about the GER is in the UCL Institute of Education Library (IoE-Library). However, there is no full-text archive accessible online, only thematically sorted collections.

  • GER - General: The German Educational Reconstruction (GER): An introduction page offers a brief introduction. At the foot of the page you can go directly to the inventory overview or call it up directly via the following link: IoE Library: inventory overview GER
  • The IoE library also offers a more structured access to the very extensive material: German Educational Reconstruction (GER): War and Peace From this page, links open to a total of four subject areas:
    • Understanding the organization: to get a better understanding of what the GER was, who they represented and their philosophy start with the central administrative papers, bulletins and reports.
    • Help Schemes: the GER includes a number of post-war schemes, including: encouraging British people to help German Prisoners of War, the repatriation of German educationist, training for social workers, and the collection of books to be sent to Germany.
    • Exchanges & Visits: one of the GER's central roles was to organize a range of exchanges between Britain and Germany. Such exchanges could be for particular groups (eg drama, football), activities (eg harvest camps), exchange holidays, or information gathering visits made by German educationists from as early as 1947.
    • Correspondence: a substantial part of the collection comprises correspondence files between a large number of people. The catalog includes the names of all those who wrote to the GER, so a simple name search on the catalog is the best way to find any items that may be in the collection.
  • On the search mask IoE library archive search , additional thematic or person-related overviews of the archive material can be created.
  • IoE library archive search: inventory overview Sydney Herbert Wood
  • The origin of the GER reading sheet. In: Hildegard Feidel-Mertz: Education in exile after 1933. Education to survive. Pictures of an exhibition. dipa publishing house, Frankfurt am Main, 1990, ISBN 3-7638-0520-6 , pp. 239–241. Feidel-Mertz added the following comment to this text: “Presented at the publishers and textbook committee conference in Bünde on November 22nd. 1946 by Martha Friedländer. ”This gives the impression that Martha Friedländer was also the author of this text. Waltraud Strickhausen, on the other hand, assumes that this text probably comes from Werner Milch and refers to the name of the document in the GER archive of the London Institute of Education: “The Secretary (GER): The origin of the GER reading sheet. Presented at the publisher and textbook committee conference in Bünde on November 22, 1946 by Martha Friedländer. In GER, Document No. 1278/1 and 2. “
    The document quoted by Strickhausen comes from the inventory
    • GER / 4/4 - Reading sheet production (1943–1949) of the IoE-Library , which also contains the complete correspondence of Martha Friedländer in connection with reading sheets . There is no reference to this lecture, nor to Martha Friedländer's participation in this event, which took place three months after her return to Germany. Doubts are also appropriate because Werner Milch informed Martha Friedländer on August 8, 1946 that the GER had given Richard Schmidt (Göttingen) a power of attorney from the GER to negotiate the reading sheets .

literature

  • Fritz Borinski: The history of GER [German Educational Reconstruction Committee]. In: The Collection. Magazine for culture and education. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1948, pp. 49-55.
  • Fritz Borinski: German Educational Reconstruction. Review and memory. In: Hellmut Becker, Willi Eichler, Gustav Heckmann (eds.): Education and politics. Minna Specht on her 80th birthday. Verlag Public Life, Frankfurt 1960, pp. 77–89.
  • Hans-Dietrich Raapke: adult education. In: Christoph Führ, Carl-Ludwig Furck (Hrsg.): Handbuch der deutschen Bildungsgeschichte , Volume VI: 1945 to the present. First volume: Federal Republic of Germany. Verlag CH Beck, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-406-32467-3 .
  • Josef Olbrich: History of adult education in Germany. Leske + Budrich, Opladen 2001, ISBN 3-8100-3349-9 .
  • Hildegard Feidel-Mertz : Estate in the German Exile Archive
  • Fritz Eberhard : Work against the Third Reich. (= Contributions on the subject of resistance. 10). German Resistance Memorial Center, Berlin 1981. (online; PDF)
  • Gisela Teistler: School books and school book publishers in the occupation zones of Germany 1945-1949. Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 2017, ISBN 978-3-447-10733-4 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hans-Dietrich Raapke: Adult education. P. 556.
  2. ^ Josef Olbrich: History of adult education in Germany. 2001, p. 322.
  3. ↑ Introduction: German Educational Reconstruction (GER): An introduction . The link to the overview of the extensive archive material: London Institute of Education: inventory overview GER . "German Educational Reconstruction (GER) was a voluntary organization founded in London in 1943 with the aim of helping German refugee educationists to prepare for their post-war return to Germany. Their main consideration was the restructuring of the German school system on 'democratic principles'. After the war the emphasis shifted toward promoting Anglo-German relations by acting as an information bureau and means of communication and exchange between British and German educationists. GER undertook a wide variety of activities, including organizing conferences, lectures, and study groups; co-operating with other voluntary bodies; arranging visits and youth work; publishing and distributing memoranda, pamphlets and textbooks. It was wound up in 1958. "
  4. ↑ Fritz Lustig, quoted from the article I have been an illegal immigrant for 76 years by Sebastian Borger, in: Frankfurter Rundschau , issue 272 of November 21, 2016, pp. 14-15.
  5. ^ Josef Olbrich: History of adult education in Germany. 2001, p. 321.
  6. ^ Fritz Eberhard: Work against the Third Reich. P. 25.
  7. ^ Josef Olbrich: History of adult education in Germany. 2001, p. 322.
  8. ↑ a b c d e f Fritz Borinski: German Educational Reconstruction. Review and memory. In: Hellmut Becker, Willi Eichler and Gustav Heckmann (eds.): Education and politics. Minna Specht on her 80th birthday. Verlag Public Life, Frankfurt, 1960, pp. 77–89.
  9. ↑ 1938 Ilmari Federn was secretary of the organization Universelle de Langue Internationale "Occidental" ; see also: Ilmari Federn in WorldCat
  10. ↑ a b c d London Institute of Education: inventory overview Sydney H. Wood
  11. ^ Sydney Wood to Give Lecture On German Education Revived. In: The Cornell Daily Sun. October 29, 1948, in the Cornell University Archives . "[..] after having been the head of the teacher training division since 1938. For eight years he was also in charge of the ministry's department of intelligence and foreign relations. At the end of World War II he was instrumental in the establishment of England's Emergency Training Colleges for ex-servicemen and women. Since the war he has represented the ministry at the International Education Conference in Australia. "
  12. ↑ Werner Burmeister is not to be confused with the SA and NSDAP member Werner Burmeister . Biography of the anti-fascist in: Guthrie Moir, Beyond hatred . Lutterworth, London 1969, p. 86. Then p. 87 - 102 A report by Burmeister about his time as an enemy alien in Canada 1940 - 1941 (engl.)
  13. ↑ There is an article about the social philosopher in WIKIPEDIA-EN: en: John Macmurray
  14. ^ Josef Olbrich: History of adult education in Germany. 2001, p. 322.
  15. ^ Josef Olbrich: History of adult education in Germany. 2001, p. 322.
  16. ↑ Some of these writings can be found in the DNB catalog using the search term “German Educational Reconstruction”. The following list can be found on the back of the Specht / Rosenberg brochure.
  17. ↑ This co-author of Minna Specht is not the mystic and symbol researcher Alfons Rosenberg , to whom the DNB catalog is incorrectly linked, but a former study assessor at the Karl Marx School (Berlin-Neukölln) , who fled to England after his release from school and worked for the BBC. Compare with Minna Specht , Item 2.
  18. ↑ Compare this with Fritz Eberhard
  19. ^ Fritz Borinski: The German Volkshochschule. An Experiment in Democratic Adult Education under the Weimar Republic. Edited, introduced and provided with annotations and a prosopographical appendix by Martha Friedenthal-Haase, Verlag Julius Klinkhardt KG, Bad Heilbrunn, 2014, ISBN 978-3-7815-1968-8 .
  20. ↑ Ilse Fischer: Minna Specht - a political educator . The book was reissued in 2005: Change of heart in the DNB catalog.
  21. ↑ a b c d e f The origin of the GER reading sheet
  22. ^ Holdings GER / 4/4 - Lesebogen Production (1943–1949) of the IoE Library
  23. ↑ Books he has translated into German can still be found in numerous antiquarian catalogs.
  24. ↑ Chiang Yee in WIKIPEDIA-EN: en: Chiang Yee
  25. ^ Holding GER / 4/4 - Lesebogen Production (1943–1949) of the IoE Library, Document 1337
  26. ^ PPA members: Richard Schmidt & Stadtarchiv Göttingen: The Peppmüller bookstore under the direction of Anni and Richard Schmidt
  27. ↑ Simone Lässig: The textbook as a political issue , Der Tagesspiegel, August 14, 2014.
  28. ^ David Phillips: Investigating Education in Germany. Historical studies from a British persepective. Routledge, London and New York, 2016, ISBN 978-1-138-85421-5 , p. 66. “After preliminary work in London during 1944, Textbook Section of Education Branch was set up in July 1945 in Bünde to take on the important task of producing teaching material untainted by nationalsim, militarism and other Nazi doctrines. "
  29. ^ Holding GER / 4/4 - Lesebogen Production (1943–1949) of the IoE-Library, Document 1359 / 1-2
  30. ^ Holding GER / 4/4 - Lesebogen Production (1943–1949) of the IoE-Library, Document 1361 / 1-2
  31. ↑ Winnie the Pooh / AA Milne. Arranged by Fritz Schneider
  32. ^ La Vie de Pasteur (Extraits) in the DNB catalog
  33. ↑ Gisela Teistler: school books and educational publishers in the zones of Germany from 1945 to 1949. 2017, p 179. The mentioned by Teistler Publishing Public life belonged to the ISK and was led by Hanna Bertholet (born Grust, and after his first marriage Hanna Fortmüller (born January 24, 1901 in Hannover - † 14 July 1970 Brazil)) . She was an IJB and ISK member, a student in the adult department of the Walkemühle Landerziehungsheim and worked on the publishing management of the ISK organ Der Funke . In exile, she lived in France and Switzerland, where she worked politically and in helping victims of fascism. In 1946 she returned to Germany and became the director of the publishing houses for Public Life and the European Publishing House . For more detailed biographical information on Hanna and René Bertholet see: Martin Rüther, Uwe Schütz, Otto Dann (Eds.): Germany in the first post-war year. Reports from members of the Internationale Kampfbund (ISK) from occupied Germany in 1945/46. KG Saur, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-598-11349-8 , p 552. The site is available online: Hanna and Rene Bertholet at Google Books . The pedagogical publisher [Berthold] Schulz from Berlin, which was also mentioned , was - alongside Cornelsen Verlag - one of the leading textbook publishers of the post-war period: “These two publishers, which were able to develop rapidly as start-ups in the British sector, dominated the textbook scene until 1949 West Berlin and shared by far the largest share of textbook production in the western sectors. The British military government seems to have supported the Pedagogical Publishing House in particular when part of the earlier school book production could take place with special permission in the printing company of the previously unlicensed Velhagen & Klasing publishing house in Bielefeld. ”(Gisela Teistler, p. 208) Around 1955 she sees the publishing house in decline (Gisela Teistler, p. 210), which was also due to the fact that the publishing house had published works in its early years, the rights of which originally belonged to Diesterweg Verlag and which the latter took back in 1949. (Gisela Teistler, p. 222). Fritz Wuessing was an important author of the publishing house .
  34. ↑ Adalbert Stifter: The pride of the hag in the treatment of Fritz Groß , Westermann, Braunschweig, 1947. The search term GER reading book does not lead to any further hits in the DNB catalog.
  35. ↑ Gisela Teistler: school books and educational publishers in the zones of Germany from 1945 to 1949. 2017, p. 414. In the DNB catalog, only these two titles are listed using the search term GER reading book .
  36. ↑ Gisela Teistler: school books and educational publishers in the zones of Germany from 1945 to 1949. 2017, p. 191. The search term Heroes of Peace will display the titles of this series in the DND catalog.
  37. ↑ Gisela Teistler: school books and educational publishers in the zones of Germany from 1945 to 1949. 2017, p. 192.
  38. ↑ Hildegard Feidel-Mertz: Estate in the German Exile Archive , PPE 71
  39. ↑ The correspondence between Demuth and GER is in the archives of the "Institute of Education" at the "University College London": Letters from F and W Demuth, of the Emergency Society for German Scholars in Exile, to Werner milk, 1944-1946
  40. ^ Life and Death of Hilda Monte
  41. ↑ a b Hildegard Feidel-Mertz: Estate in the German Exile Archive , PPE 309
  42. ^ "Reconstruction and re-education are essentially the same thing. They are closely interdependent. Technical reconstruction will be dead machinery without a spiritual and intellectual fundament, and theory without practice will be a lie. [..] German youth must be offered a constructive and inspiring idea, a purpose of life replacing militaristic ideology. "
  43. ↑ See: Max Adolph Warburg and Josepha Einstein
  44. ^ "After the war most of the GER's active German members returned to Germany at the earliest opportunity. As a result the GER experienced what might be called an identity crisis. Its original objective had been achieved, its members were departing for Germany, and so, in 1946 the topic of winding the organization up was discussed. It was the departing German members who felt it was necessary to keep a British focus of interest in German education alive. Therefore the GER adopted at new constitution with new and broadened aims of creating a strong and lasting relationship between Britain and Germany in the field of education and social service. "
  45. ^ Fritz Eberhard: Work against the Third Reich. Pp. 22-23.
  46. ^ Josef Olbrich: History of adult education in Germany. 2001, p. 323.
  47. ↑ SH WOOD, ERICH HIRSCH Mind, Volume LVI, Issue 222, April 1, 1947, pp. 191-b-191 , also as Mind about doi . "We wish to appeal to your readers for books, pamphlets, periodicals and educational equipment for Germany. Germany has been culturally isolated for the past fourteen years, and many valuable books have been destroyed in libraries and private houses by the Nazis and by acts of war. It a stable Germany is to emerge from the present chaos it is imperative that large numbers of men and women should be trained in the shortest possible time, and this is a possibility only if sufficient educational material is available. The need for books and periodicals is desperate, particularly those dealing with educational, technical, political and economic subjects. German schools also need exercise books, pencils, chalk, and other school equipment. We feel that there are many people who have a spare book or two on their bookshelves, or periodicals for which they have no further use, after having read them. "
  48. ^ Josef Olbrich: History of adult education in Germany. 2001, p. 323.
  49. ^ Oxford Conversations
  50. ↑ The quote is originally from the IoE page about Sydney H. Wood. Due to a changed archive access it can no longer be called up, but the IoE still offers comprehensive access to materials via the Harvest Camps: IoE Library Archive Search: Harvest Camps inventory overview . "The Harvest Camp scheme was another means whereby Germans could travel to England. It had it's origins with the Ministry of Agriculture. The scheme included male, female, and disabled students, who visited camps in Middlesex, Oxfordshire, Lincolnshire, Essex and Wiltshire to assist with agricultural and harvest work. The initiative to involve German students came from the German Supply Department of the Foreign Office. Campers were expected to do at least 36 hours of work each week. By the intervention of the GER University and High School Students from the British, American and French Zones of Germany were able to attend. Clothing was supplied, with water proofs coming from the War Office, and clothing and shoes from private sources. Campers who attended under the auspices of the GER were encouraged to save their camp wages to finance a holiday in England after the harvest was completed. The GER worked with its members and contacts to provide hospitality for German campers in British homes during their post-camp stay in the UK. In 1954 the Ministry of Agriculture took the decision not to run future camps. From the 1955 season some camps taken over by National Farmer's Union or private wardens. In 1958 the GER made the decision not to repeat the Harvest scheme. "
  51. ↑ Waltraud Strickhausen: "The desire to return to Germany honors him". The Germanist Werner Milch in exile and the Marburg “Newer German Literature” after 1945. In: Kai Köhler, Burghard Dedner, Waltraud Strickhausen (eds.): German studies and art studies in the “Third Reich”. Marburg developments 1920–1950. KG Saur Verlag, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-598-24572-6 , p. 442.
  52. ^ Holdings GER / 4/4 - Lesebogen Production (1943–1949) of the IoE Library, Document 1337