Gerold Becker

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Gerold Ummo Becker (born April 12, 1936 in Stettin ; † July 7, 2010 in Berlin ) was a German educator and pedagogue criminal . He was from 1972 to 1985 Head of reform educationally oriented Odenwaldschule in Heppenheim district of Ober-Hambach . According to an independent final report on the “ sexual exploitation of schoolchildren at the Odenwald School from 1960 to 2010”, he was one of the four “ main perpetrators ”.

Life

Gerold Becker was the third of four children. His father was Heinz Becker, a private lecturer at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel in the field of agricultural management and was born in Deichhof, Stadland in the Wesermarschland . His mother was Frieda Elisabeth Strack, born in Bonn in 1901 . The parents were married on June 7, 1930 in Kiel . Becker passed his Abitur in 1955 at the Domgymnasium in Verden with "brilliant grades". He studied architecture for a few semesters and then switched to Protestant theology . After completing his studies with the grade " satisfactory ", Becker started his vicariate , which he broke off in Linz . He then took up a degree in pedagogy and psychology and until 1968 was assistant to Heinrich Roth at the pedagogical seminar of the University of Göttingen , the managing director of which was the educationalist Hartmut von Hentig . He did not complete a dissertation project. Becker was close friends with Hentig for many years. There was speculation about the nature and proximity of their relationship without any really verifiable statements. The educational scientist Jürgen Oelkers suspects "a lifelong dependency" about which more can hardly be said. During Becker's lifetime, a couple relationship between the men simply became visible, since both were considered homosexual . Becker dedicated his book Rethinking the School (1993) to Hentig . In the third volume of his memoirs, Hentig reported in 2016 that Becker entered into a love affair with him in order to overcome his pedosexuality :

“Gerold was looking for me in order to free himself from the dependence on the boys. His love for me - I firmly believe it was love - should save him from his own abyss. She doesn't have it. "

Without having completed a teacher training course and without an examination as a teacher, Becker taught at the Odenwald School from 1969 to 1985, initially as an upper level coordinator, and since 1972 as headmaster. He then worked as a research assistant at the Hessian Institute for Educational Planning and School Development (HIBS) in Wiesbaden .

In 1978, Becker was one of the two laudators for the award winner Astrid Lindgren at the award ceremony of the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade . While Becker suddenly emphasized in his speech how “vital it is for a“ growing up ”person to“ make friends with his instinctual world ”,“ if his ego is not to be constantly endangered by the attacks from the ambush of the repressed ” , Astrid Lindgren's acceptance speech is a vehement plea for a non-violent upbringing of children.

Becker worked in the educational field a. a. in the practical learning working group, a cooperation project between the University of Jena and the Robert Bosch Foundation . Among other things, he was a long-time advisor to the Helene-Lange School in Wiesbaden and speaker for lectures and workshops for reform-pedagogical schools.

From 1986, Gerold Becker was chairman of the board of the Association of German Landerziehungsheime ; he resigned in 1999 after the first allegations of sexual abuse. He was also managing editor from 1986 to 1999, and since 2002 co-editor of the quarterly magazine for education and society Neue Sammlung .

After his time at the Odenwald School, Becker worked again increasingly for the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD). From 1993 to 1997 he was a member of the Presidium of the Evangelical Church Congress . From 1991 to 1997 Becker was part of the Chamber for Education and Upbringing of the EKD and in 1994 a member of the preparatory committee of the EKD Synod "Growing up in Difficult Times - Children in Community and Society".

Since 1994 he lived in Berlin. Becker died on July 7, 2010 at the age of 74 of a lung disease.

Positions

The reform pedagogy of Hermann Lietz particularly shaped Gerold Becker's pedagogical attitude. Becker campaigned for a new understanding of school. In his ideas of an "ideal school" he was significantly influenced by the ideas of Hartmut von Hentig. He advocated a concept of independent learning and largely non-dominant structures in schools. In his opinion, this included a different understanding of the teacher-student relationship than is practiced in state schools. In a lecture at the 10th international Wagenschein conference in 1996 at the University of Göttingen under the heading The Other Role of the Teacher , Becker addressed this:

“But at least: in almost all rural education centers, the teachers were asked to play a different role than that of only teaching: they should 'educate' and feel and behave (Lietz had just emphasized this again and again) as 'comrades and friends' of their pupils - an unheard of change compared to the idea of ​​the above all disciplined, strict and just teacher of the 'normal' state school, in which any kind of human closeness, so to speak, forbade itself because it was likely to impair his 'objectivity'. "

Sexual abuse

According to press reports, the then director of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Hellmut Becker , received a message from his godson in 1970 that Gerold Becker had abused him. In a conversation he suggested to Gerold Becker to undergo therapy, which he refused. On Becker's 80th birthday in 1993, Gerold Becker published a book in honor of Hellmut Becker entitled Lust and Burden of Enlightenment .

In 1998, according to the Odenwald School, the first allegations of sexual abuse were made against the former headmaster Becker; two affected old school students, Andreas Huckele and Thorsten Wiest, had written to the headmaster at the time, Wolfgang Harder, expressly advising him of Becker's sexual assaults during her school days in the 1980s and asking for a statement. A corresponding article on this in the Frankfurter Rundschau in 1999 only triggered an internal debate in the Odenwald School. Investigations by the public prosecutor's office were initiated, but were immediately discontinued due to the statute of limitations . In an article in the Frankfurter Rundschau from March 2010, former students accused him of abusing reform-pedagogical approaches for his pedophile inclinations and of disguising them with pseudo-pedagogical theses. The then head of the Odenwald School, Margarita Kaufmann, confirmed the existence of the allegations and spoke, among other things, of the fact that one of Becker's students was allegedly "abused up to 400 times". Victims of abuse who evaded Becker, or witnesses who sought help and wanted to make the incidents public, were systematically discredited by Becker, according to Kaufmann.

The German writer Amelie Fried , a student at the Odenwald School in the 1970s, asked Becker to apologize personally to the victims in a guest article in the FAZ . Shortly afterwards, Becker asked his victims, as well as all persons and institutions with whom he had worked, to apologize in a letter to the Odenwald School and renewed an offer to talk to him after the allegations in 1998. The then taz author Christian Füller called for "a public tribunal" in view of the fact that Becker and his accomplices could no longer be prosecuted because the crimes were statute barred. The Odenwald School as a whole needs to change and the reform pedagogy there also needs a “public process”. The Zeit editor Reinhard Kahl wrote: “Gerold Becker (...) has meanwhile apologized to the victims, but in a form that reminds of the delay announcements of the railway. Nothing of self-reflection . He had not previously addressed the allegations, which had already been made in 1998, and he had parried the questions of his friends and acquaintances with the counter question: 'Do you trust me to do this?' So far not a word about this transfer of shame to the questioners either. “No charges were brought against Becker because of the statute of limitations. In a final report, Becker is named as one of the main culprits. 86 male victims between the ages of 12 and 15 are attributed to him. According to the President of the Court, he must a. D. and member of the “independent educators of the Odenwald School” found Brigitte Tilmann to be a “pedophile in a permanent state of sexual arousal”.

Fonts

  • Arbeitsgemeinschaft Free Schools (Ed.): Manual Free Schools. An overview of educational positions, providers, types of schools and schools. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1993. Contribution by Gerold Becker, pp. 231-269
  • Body. Friedrich, Seelze 2002. With a foreword by Gerold Becker.
  • Frithjof Hager, Gerold Becker, Jürgen Zimmer (eds.): Education Makes Responsibility. What future for the Federal Republic? Reclam, Leipzig 1994, ISBN 3-379-01504-0 .
  • Gerold Becker, Annemarie von der Groeben (ed.): Order and disorder. A book for Hartmut von Hentig on his 80th birthday. Beltz & Gelberg, Weinheim 2005, ISBN 3-407-25406-7 .
  • Johannes Bilstein, Gerold Becker, Eckart Liebau (eds.): Creating spaces. Friedrich, Seelze 1997.
  • Social learning as a problem in school. On the question of boarding school education. In: Walter Schäfer / Wolfgang Edelstein / Gerold Becker: Problems of Schools in Social Change. The example of the Odenwald School. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt a. M. 1971, pp. 95-148.
  • Headmaster stories . In: Gerold Becker, Jürgen Zimmer (ed.): Lust and burden of enlightenment. A book on the 80th birthday of Hellmut Becker , Beltz, Weinheim 1993, ISBN 3-407-83130-7

literature

  • Jens Brachmann: Tatort Odenwald School. The perpetrator system and the discursive practice of coming to terms with incidents of sexual violence , Julius Klinkhardt Publishing House, Bad Heilbrunn 2019, here the chapter: The main perpetrator Gerold Becker , pp. 142–287, ISBN 978-3-7815-2299-2
  • Jürgen Oelkers: Education, Elite, Abuse. The “career” of Gerold Becker. Beltz Juventa, Weinheim 2016, ISBN 978-3-779-93345-8
  • Jürgen Dehmers : How loud should I still scream? The Odenwald School and sexual abuse. Rowohlt, Reinbek 2011, ISBN 978-3-498-01332-5 .
  • Christian Füller : Fall of Man. How the reform school abused its ideals. Dumont, Cologne 2011, ISBN 978-3-8321-9634-9 .
  • Tilman Jens : Fair game. The Odenwald School - a lesson from perpetrators and victims . Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 2011, ISBN 978-3-579-06744-5 .
  • Andreas Späth, Menno Aden (Hrsg.): The abused republic - Enlightenment about the Enlightenment . Verlag Inspiration Un Limited, London / Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-9812110-2-3 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Heike Schmoll: The gentlemen from the magic mountain. In: FAZ. Retrieved March 15, 2010 .
  2. ↑ Claudia Burgsmüller, Brigitte Tilmann: Final report on the previous reports on the sexual exploitation of pupils at the Odenwald School in the period 1960 to 2010. (PDF; 395 kB) Retrieved on September 8, 2011 .
  3. ^ A b Christian Füller: Odenwald perpetrator called by name . In: taz , December 17, 2010
  4. ^ Marvin A. Hayssen: The Hayssen Family. In: The Hayssen Family. Retrieved July 6, 2011 .
  5. ^ University of Kiel: Personnel and course directory. (PDF; 55.7 MB) In: Personnel Directory. Retrieved July 6, 2011 .
  6. ↑ SWR2, SWR2: Refurbished? Accessed March 31, 2020 . From minute 5:46
  7. ↑ Heike Schmoll: History of the Odenwald School: The virtuoso of abuse . In: FAZ.NET . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed April 1, 2020]).
  8. ↑ Jeannette Otto: Who was this man? . Interview with Jürgen Oelkers . In: Die Zeit from February 18, 2016, p. 64.
  9. ↑ Jürgen Oelkers: Pedagogy, Elite, Abuse. The “career” of Gerold Becker . Beltz Verlag, Weinheim 2016, p. 14.
  10. ↑ Hartmut von Hentig in an interview: "I saw this man with envy" . Spiegel Online (schulspiegel), March 14, 2010: "Hentig: Gerold Becker is my friend and since 1994 my neighbor in the same house"
  11. ↑ Hartmut von Hentig: Still: My Life. Memories and comments from the years 2005 to 2015. Was mit Kindern, Berlin 2016, p. 477 f., Quoted from Hanna Kiper : When in doubt for the friend and partner. The attack on the victims and their advocates as a strategy of defense - To deal with the memoirs of Hartmut von Hentig. In: Zeitschrift für Sozialpädagogik 16 (2018) 1, p. 90.
  12. ↑ Jeannette Otto: Who was this man? . Interview with Jürgen Oelkers. In: Die Zeit from February 18, 2016, p. 64.
  13. ↑ Gerold Ummo Becker: In Search of the Vanished Land (PDF), speech on the award of the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade 1978 in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt. Peace Prize of the German Book Trade 1978 Astrid Lindgren, Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels, p. 9 ff .; see. Astrid Lindgren: Acceptance speech. «Never violence!» , P. 6 ff., Accessed on January 8, 2020
  14. ↑ Practical learning. ( Memento from March 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) pl-jena.de, accessed on April 26, 2010
  15. ↑ G. Becker: Characteristics of a good school . ( Memento from March 31, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF) In: Winterhuder Talks 2005
  16. ↑ Jonas Seufert: The Protestant Eros , Zeit online , June 20, 2019.
  17. ↑ Christian Füller: Gerold Becker is dead In: the daily newspaper online from July 9, 2010; Obituary notice , Süddeutsche Zeitung , July 10, 2010.
  18. ↑ Hartmut von Hentig in an interview: "I saw this man with envy" . Spiegel Online (schulspiegel), March 14, 2010
  19. ↑ archiv.ub.uni-marburg.de
  20. ↑ Much more abuse victims? FAZ Online, March 21, 2010
  21. ↑ Die Tagespost , April 12, 2010
  22. ↑ fr-online.de
  23. ↑ Jörg Schindler: Abuse of an elite school: "Sexual service providers". In: Frankfurter Rundschau Online. Accessed on March 7, 2010 : "The first allegations against the long-time rector Gerold Becker, who headed the OSO from 1971 to 1985 and is now seriously ill, were made public a good ten years ago."
  24. ↑ Jörg Schindler: Abuse at the Odenwald School: bullied, beaten, raped. In: Frankfurter Rundschau Online. Accessed on March 7, 2010 : "Because they could no longer bear the fact that Becker continued to rush from podium to podium as a sought-after salesman, a total of five old school students turned to the public and reported on their experiences with the pedophile teacher."
  25. ^ Jörg Schindler: Reform School in the Twilight. In: taz. Retrieved March 7, 2010 .
  26. ↑ Christoph Ruf: One would hardly have believed that a person with a fine thread would do that. In: Spiegel Online . Retrieved April 12, 2010 .
  27. ↑ Amelie Fried: Amelie Fried about the Odenwald School: "The saving hell". In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Online (faz.net). Retrieved March 14, 2010 .
  28. ↑ Former headmaster apologizes. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Online (faz.net). Retrieved March 19, 2010 . “Pupils whom I have sexually harassed or injured through advances or actions in the years in which I was an employee and head of the Odenwald School should know: I deeply regret that and I apologize for it. This request expressly refers to all effects that those affected only became aware of later. ”Becker also apologizes in the letter to“ people and institutions with whom I have worked over the past forty years and who have been damaged by my behavior are". Although it has been said in the past few weeks that Becker could no longer be contacted because of an illness, he now writes: "I will repeat once again the willingness I expressed twelve years ago to talk to affected students."
  29. ↑ Christian Füller: Abuse of a reform school: Why we need an Odenwald tribunal. In: Spiegel Online . Retrieved April 15, 2010 .
  30. ↑ Hartmut von Hentig has to talk . In: Die Zeit , No. 17/2010
  31. ↑ No charges against ex-headmasters . FAZ.NET, June 16, 2010
personal data
SURNAME Becker, Gerold
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Becker, Gerold Ummo (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pedagogue, educationalist and educator
DATE OF BIRTH April 12, 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH Szczecin
DATE OF DEATH July 7, 2010
Place of death Berlin