Gotthold Stettner

Gotthold Stettner (born December 17, 1871 in Vaihingen an der Enz , † January 21, 1946 in Klingenberg ) was a German senior teacher and geologist .

Life

Gotthold Stettner was the son of the deacon and householder at the Vaihingen hospital. He attended elementary school in his hometown for three years and then switched to the Vaihingen Latin School. After two and a half years at this school, he switched to the Latin school in Kirchheim unter Teck , probably after the loss of his father, who died in 1883. If the latter had the plan to let his son study, Gotthold Stettner's guardian only sent the young man to the private Protestant teacher training institute in Tempelhof near Crailsheim . After a few stops in other places, including Neuenbürg , where he met his future wife Martha Bühner, with whom he had two daughters, Gotthold Stettner was permanently employed in Heilbronn in 1902 . From 1904 he taught at the boys' middle school there. In 1925 he became a senior teacher.

Gotthold Stettner was largely self-taught when it came to the natural sciences. In Crailsheim he had contact with the senior medical officer Dr. Mühlberger, who was interested in zoology and whose library Stettner could use. During his time at the seminar, he also set up a herbarium of around 2000 plants ; Hofrat Blezinger listed the plant species he had newly discovered in the Crailsheim district in an article in the Süddeutsche Apothekerzeitung.

Stettner became a member of the Association for Patriotic Natural History in Württemberg in 1891 and published at least 25 papers in its annual journals by 1930. He was supported in particular by the curator Oskar Fraas and his son Eberhard . He worked on several special geognostic maps for Württemberg and was also involved in excavations, but also came to his own research results. In 1896 and 1897 he was able to attend courses on the biology of freshwater animals and development history as well as a microscope course at the Technical University in Stuttgart .

He advised municipal and state authorities on geological issues, for example when it came to the construction of the elevated water reservoir on the Wartberg , the construction of the Karl-Wüst-Bridge or the construction of the Pfühlsee in Heilbronn. In particular, he dealt with the possibilities of water supply. Emil Beutinger described Stettner as "one of the most scientifically significant geologists of all." An essay entitled Mineralquellen in Heilbronn , in which he referred the possibility of such occurrences to the area of ​​dreams, caused quite a stir.

However, Stettner was not only interested in science, but also came out with publications on education and school policy. He was an active member of the Württemberg elementary school teachers' association, in whose association magazine in 1903 his essay on the curriculum issue. Basic lines of a theory and practical design of the curriculum appeared. In this article he criticized the backward curricula in Württemberg, which had held up pedagogical progress for a whole generation and had "put annoying, if not to say unworthy, shackles" on the teachers. Stettner, influenced by reform pedagogy, in particular probably also by Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi and Georg Kerschensteiner , took the view that modern teaching should above all stimulate the self-employment and independence of the students, and explained that local studies as a source of observation for natural life, human and cultural life is of particular importance here. Another book followed in 1918, Our School System and the Rise of the Gifted . Stettner showed himself to be an advocate of the common elementary school, which was introduced in 1919, and the tripartite school system. In 1925 he gave a lecture that was published in the supplement to the Württemberg teachers' newspaper. It is entitled The Geology of the Heilbronn Basin in the Home School and contains, perhaps influenced by Eduard Spranger's book The Educational Value of Local Studies, a plea for children to literally "wander" around their home. During the Weimar Republic he fought against downsizing and for the recruitment of young teachers, and he was also involved in the discussion of the Reich School Act, which was never passed. Like Theodor Heuss , with whom he had been friends since 1903, he spoke out against denominational schools and published several articles on this subject.

Stettner was also politically active beyond school matters. From 1897 to 1933 he was a member of the German Democratic Party . In 1914 he was involved in this party as an election campaigner and speaker and was even to become a candidate for the state parliament after the abdication of the Württemberg king. He was a supporter and supporter of Friedrich Naumann , who won the Reichstag mandate of the Heilbronn constituency in the 1907 runoff election. After the end of the First World War he got involved in the council of intellectual workers in Heilbronn and worked out a work program for it. He committed to democratic principles and remained true to his convictions in 1933.

After arguments with members of the NSDAP he was forced to change his place of residence for the time of his retirement and moved to Klingenberg, which at that time belonged to the Brackenheim district .

In 1951 the Gotthold-Stettner-Weg in Heilbronn was named after Gotthold Stettner. It is located near the former teachers' college on the Wartberg.

Natural history museum in Heilbronn

In 1913 the Unterländer branch association for patriotic natural history was founded. The most important goal of this association, of which Stettner was secretary from 1913 to 1935 or 1936, was the establishment of a natural history museum. This was founded in 1916 as the Robert Mayer Museum and housed in the former morgue of the old cemetery . The collection, brought together mainly from foundations from the citizenship, comprised fossils, an almost complete collection of all mammals and birds in Germany, a butterfly and insect collection and a lias - dinosaur . Stettner, who headed the geological department of the association, contributed the main part to the geological-mineralogical department of the museum. The building in the cemetery quickly became too narrow, but the museum was not able to move into other rooms until 1935.

To mark the 25th anniversary of the museum, Stettner wrote a newspaper article in which he praised the fact that hardly a second association museum would have put together such a collection so quickly under such conditions, and that 146 scientific lectures had been given since it opened. At this point in time, in 1941, Stettner no longer had any function in the association and no longer had access to the museum. After a conflict with local NSDAP giants, in particular with the head of the Robert Mayer Oberschule Adolf Geiger, in 1935 he was forced to resign from his offices in the club and museum and to move his residence away from Heilbronn. The museum was closed indefinitely in the year the war began, and the association was dissolved in 1940. The museum was destroyed in the air raid on Heilbronn on December 4, 1944. Stettner, whose health had already suffered from the clashes of the past few years, including biliary colic and a nervous breakdown, had tried to save the collection by outsourcing it; Lord Mayor Valid and other responsible persons had not listened to his request. The destruction of the museum and the unsuccessful attempt to obtain compensation in 1945 hit Stettner deeply and probably contributed to a deterioration in his health. In 1946 he died in Klingenberg.

Triassic pyramid in Heilbronn

Triassic pyramid in the courtyard of the Heilbronner Dammschule, status 2007

In the courtyard of the dam school there is a 4.80 meter high geological pyramid that was erected in the summer of 1912 for educational purposes. This Triassic pyramid shows the layer structure of the rocks in the Heilbronn area. The pyramid was the fourth of its kind in Württemberg and at the time of its construction was considered suitable for the “most modern object lesson”. Not counting the voluntary work of the teachers and other fellow citizens, it cost 2,600 marks and was the result of Stettner's efforts to organize a rock collection that the teachers' college in Heilbronn had received from the then war minister Theodor von Wundt . In 1915 Stettner wrote a description of the pyramid.

literature

• Bernhard Müller: “With democratic greetings!” Gotthold Stettner (1871–1946) . In: Christhard Schrenk (ed.): Heilbronner Köpfe VI . Heilbronn City Archives, Heilbronn 2011, ISBN 978-3-940646-08-8 , pp. 209–228
• Gerhard Schwinghammer and Reiner Makowski: The Heilbronner street names . Edited by the city of Heilbronn. 1st edition. Silberburg-Verlag , Tübingen 2005, ISBN 3-87407-677-6 , p. 84

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bernhard Müller: “With democratic greetings!” Gotthold Stettner (1871–1946) . In: Christhard Schrenk (ed.): Heilbronner Köpfe VI . Heilbronn City Archives, Heilbronn 2011, ISBN 978-3-940646-08-8 , pp. 209–228, here p. 213 f.
2. ↑ Bernhard Müller: “With democratic greetings!” Gotthold Stettner (1871–1946) . In: Christhard Schrenk (ed.): Heilbronner Köpfe VI . Heilbronn City Archives, Heilbronn 2011, ISBN 978-3-940646-08-8 , pp. 209–228, p. 211
3. ↑ Quoted from Bernhard Müller: “With democratic greetings!” Gotthold Stettner (1871–1946) . In: Christhard Schrenk (ed.): Heilbronner Köpfe VI . Heilbronn City Archives, Heilbronn 2011, ISBN 978-3-940646-08-8 , pp. 209–228, here p. 216.
4. ↑ Quoted from Bernhard Müller: “With democratic greetings!” Gotthold Stettner (1871–1946) . In: Christhard Schrenk (ed.): Heilbronner Köpfe VI . Heilbronn City Archives, Heilbronn 2011, ISBN 978-3-940646-08-8 , pp. 209–228, here p. 217 f.
5. ↑ Bernhard Müller: “With democratic greetings!” Gotthold Stettner (1871–1946) . In: Christhard Schrenk (ed.): Heilbronner Köpfe VI . Heilbronn City Archives, Heilbronn 2011, ISBN 978-3-940646-08-8 , pp. 209–228, here pp. 209 f.
6. ↑ Bernhard Müller: “With democratic greetings!” Gotthold Stettner (1871–1946) . In: Christhard Schrenk (ed.): Heilbronner Köpfe VI . Heilbronn City Archives, Heilbronn 2011, ISBN 978-3-940646-08-8 , pp. 209–228, here pp. 225–228
7. ↑ Quoted from Bernhard Müller: “With democratic greetings!” Gotthold Stettner (1871–1946) . In: Christhard Schrenk (ed.): Heilbronner Köpfe VI . Heilbronn City Archives, Heilbronn 2011, ISBN 978-3-940646-08-8 , pp. 209–228, here p. 209.
8. ↑ Bernhard Müller: “With democratic greetings!” Gotthold Stettner (1871–1946) . In: Christhard Schrenk (ed.): Heilbronner Köpfe VI . Heilbronn City Archives, Heilbronn 2011, ISBN 978-3-940646-08-8 , pp. 209–228, here p. 210