Union college "Fritz Heckert"

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Union college "Fritz Heckert"
activity 1946 - September 30, 1990
Sponsorship Free German Federation of Trade Unions
place Bernau near Berlin
country GDR
Rector Overview of all leaders
Students several thousand
Part of the school ensemble,
recorded in 2013

The trade union college "Fritz Heckert" in Bernau near Berlin (district Waldfrieden ) was the central educational institution of the Free German Trade Union Federation (FDGB) of the GDR from 1946 until it was liquidated in 1990 . Here the training and further education for leading functionaries of the FDGB took place and there were courses for foreign union cadres from Africa , the Middle East , Latin America and Asia .

history

1946 to 1990

The Free German Trade Union Federation (FDGB), which was founded after the Second World War , immediately began training and further education for trade union officials and founded its own school in Berlin for this purpose. The first course was held on May 20, 1946 in the building of the Berlin-Köpenick Administration School . On May 2, 1947, the management of the facility moved the FDGB school to Bernau into the ensemble of buildings built in 1930 according to plans by Bauhaus architect Hannes Meyer as a union school . The school was given the honorary name Theodor Leipart (former ADGB chairman). She kept this name until 1951.

In 1951 the decision was made to convert it into a higher educational institution, which was opened on January 6, 1952 as the university of the trade unions and was named after the KPD politician Fritz Heckert . Until 1956, only economists were trained. The name "Fritz Heckert" , the university of the German trade unions used from 1956, was changed in 1971 to the "Fritz Heckert" trade union college on the FDGB's federal board .

In connection with the steadily increasing number of students, the FDGB had some extensions and new buildings carried out on the site in the late 1950s and - on behalf of the World Trade Union Federation - students from friendly countries in Africa and Asia were also invited.

Visiting student at the trade union college, 1986

In 1987/88 a new boarding school was added. The so-called teachers' housing estate was built in the immediate vicinity of the site of the trade union college .

Lumumba oak

On May 5, 1961, participants in the 2nd Afro-Asian trade union course planted the Lumumba oak tree in honor of the Congolese politician Patrice Lumumba , who was murdered in January. The tree is (meanwhile) in front of a new school building that was only built in 2003/04.

In the period from 1947 to 1990, thousands of young cadres studied at the university, who from 1957 graduated as social scientists . In addition to many foreign students, future union officials from all functional levels learned here . Heads of the FDGB holiday facilities and directors of the social insurance offices also completed their training at the university. The study period was three years or five years in distance learning with partial compensation due to company delegation of the student. The main focus of education was the practice of union participation and representation of interests in companies, the implementation of comprehensive labor law, occupational health and safety. In addition, the requirements of the statutory social security system, cultural and sports policy and the history of the German and international labor movement were conveyed. The last course took place in 1989/1990 and on September 30, 1990 the university was closed with the dissolution of the FDGB.

After 1990

Former employees of the union college founded the Märkische Heimvolkshochschule Helenenau after the fall of the Wall and the peaceful revolution , which until 2007 offered an independent educational program with a European network.

There are training and residential buildings, playgrounds and sports facilities as well as an outdoor pool on the site. From 1991 to 1998 , the state of Brandenburg operated the University of Applied Sciences for Public Administration in the buildings of the closed union college , but then gave up this location. The entire building complex was then extensively renovated and placed under monument protection by the early 2000s . The Barnim Gymnasium , the Upper School Center I of the Barnim district and parts of the Brandenburg state authorities have set up in some buildings .

University director

Source: FDGB Lexicon

Literature / documents

Web links

Commons : "Fritz Heckert" union college  - collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Details in the BStU Federal Archives , accessed on December 28, 2018.
  2. ↑ Armin Krejsa: construction Member information. (pdf) The history of the Waldfriedener Housing Cooperative eG Bernau (GEWAWO). In: Grünwald Werbegesellschaft mbH. Housing cooperative “Aufbau” Strausberg eG, July 10, 2018, p. 36 , archived from the original on September 17, 2018 ; accessed on December 14, 2018 (here page 29).
  3. ^ FDGB-Lexikon, Berlin 2009 . Research association SED state at the Free University of Berlin. Retrieved April 22, 2019.


Coordinates: 52 ° 42 ′ 23.5 "  N , 13 ° 32 ′ 38.5"  E