Heinrich Grönewald

Heinrich Friedrich Karl Hermann Grönewald (born June 23, 1909 in Einbeck , † May 22, 1957 in Königstein im Taunus ) was a German teacher and journalist.

As a student, he joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany , the Socialist Student Union and the General Free Teachers Union of Germany. He fought against National Socialist ideas at the university and as a journalist. He fled to Buenos Aires via Paris before life-threatening Nazi stalking . Here he continued to work against National Socialism as a teacher and well-known German-speaking journalist in the region.

youth

Heinrich Grönewald was the eldest of three sons of Frieda and Heinrich Friedrich Grönewald. At Easter 1928 he passed the school leaving examination at the newly founded secondary school in Schöningen , where his parents had moved in 1915.

Student and doctoral candidate at the Technical University of Braunschweig

Heinrich Grönewald studied from 1928 up to and including 1930/31 at the Technical University of Braunschweig with the aim of becoming a teacher. He studied with professors Theodor Geiger , Wilhelm Paulsen , August Riekel and Adolf Jensen , who are well-known beyond Braunschweig .

Since May 15, 1929 he was a member of the SPD in Schöningen , in the same year he also joined the socialist student group founded by Hans Löhr at the TH Braunschweig , which saw itself as a Braunschweig branch of the socialist student body in Germany and Austria . At the same time he was also a member of the General Free Teachers Union of Germany , Landesverband Braunschweig, which was part of the left wing of the SPD.

On June 16, 1931, Grönewald acquired the "teaching qualification for Brunswick elementary schools".

During his studies in the Free State of Braunschweig, far-reaching political upheavals took place in the Free State of Braunschweig with the formation of a coalition government from a bourgeois unity list (joint list: German National People's Party , German People's Party , Center Party and business associations) and the NSDAP . After the exam, Grönewald and a large number of fellow students were not accepted into the school service on the instructions of the Nazi Minister for the Interior and National Education, Anton Franzen . He therefore continued his studies from the winter semester 1931/32 - with the aim of attaining the newly created academic degree “Doctor of Cultural Studies” at the TH Braunschweig.

Grönewald earned his living as an assistant teacher in his home town of Schöningen. He also wrote articles for various social democratic newspapers ( Tagespost , Volksfreund / both Braunschweig, Welt am Montag / Berlin, Dortmunder Generalanzeiger / Dortmund and Vorwärts / Berlin) and worked as a permanent contributor to educational journals such as Volkslehrer and Pädagogische Blätter. This journalistic activity had consequences: the author was threatened and insulted. However, the Helmstedt public prosecutor's office discontinued his criminal complaint for "insult, trespassing and coercion" "due to lack of public interest". After he was shot at in his place of residence on February 1st, Grönewald no longer felt safe in Germany. He received a gun license and fled Germany; on March 7, 1932, he crossed the Belgian border with the goal of Paris.

Exile in Paris

Grönewald arrived in Paris on March 8, 1932. He worked as a journalist for publications such as Die Friedens-Warte , École Libératrice , Le Quotidien , Bulletin de la Ligue des Droits de l'Homme . In addition, he volunteered in the secretariat of the “Fédération Internationale des Associations de l'Enseignement” and was thus able to help emigrated German teachers. Grönewald was one of the leading figures in the founding of the Association of German Emigrant Teachers , also known as the Union des instituteurs allemands émigrés ( Union for short ), and coordinated its work in Paris, especially the collaboration with the French elementary school teachers' union , the Sydicat National des Instituteurs (SNI).

In September 1933, Grönewald met with Alfred Dang from the newly founded Pestalozzi School in Buenos Aires in Geneva and agreed with him to work as a teacher. The school was to be founded in 1934 in opposition to National Socialist Germany - on the initiative of German-Argentine opponents of Hitler around the editor of the Argentinian daily newspaper Ernesto F. Alemann and his friend Alfred Hirsch, director of the Bunge & Born company. In 1935 Grönewald left Paris and went to Argentina. His work at the Union led Heinrich Rodensteinstraße continued. He “rented Grönewald's apartment in an eastern suburb of Paris, Fonenay-sous-Bois, [..] and also continued his private group of students for German lessons”.

With only 25 years ago was Heinrich Grönemeyer forest the youngest, who on 29 March 1934 with the in Reichsanzeiger published second Ausbürgerungsliste the German Reich expatriated was. With him u suffered a. Albert Einstein , Oskar Maria Graf and Johannes Robert Becher shared the same fate. As a result of the expatriation, Grönewald became stateless and he no longer had a valid identity document. This delayed the start of his activity as a teacher at the Pestalozzi School, which had been agreed for 1934.

Pestalozzi School Buenos Aires (1935–1954)

Shortly after his arrival in Buenos Aires in mid-September 1935, Grönewald received an Argentine identity card for stateless persons as an identification document, which he kept during his entire emigration period in Argentina .

In accordance with the objectives of the Pestalozzi School in Buenos Aires , the founder only hired those teachers who were in proven opposition to National Socialism. In addition to Heinrich Grönewald, there were other teachers who had fled Germany such as Alfred Dang (director of the Pestalozzi School), Erich Herrguth (board member of the Pestalozzi Society), August Siemsen (teacher and former member of the Reichstag of the SPD) and Carl Meffert (artist name: Clément Moreau; graphic artist and drawing teacher) to the college. In addition to their citizenship, many emigrants were also deprived of their academic degrees. With Alfred Dang ( University of Giessen ) and Ernesto Alemann ( University of Heidelberg ) this happened in 1938 through their universities. Heinrich Grönewald had also offered his Braunschweig Genoosen Hans Löhr (see above), who meanwhile lived in the Peruvian jungle, a teaching position. However, as he announced to their mutual acquaintance Leo Regener on September 15, 1936, no contract was signed and Löhr was also not sure how to respond to the offer, “because I didn't like the situation in that area at all know".

Heinrich Grönewald taught at the school that is now officially run by the Federal Republic of Germany until 1954. Then he switched to the "Norte School" in Buenos Aires, where he had been offered a director's position.

Journalistic activities

In addition to his work as a teacher, Grönewald wrote articles for the Argentinisches Tageblatt , which had resolutely opposed German National Socialism since 1933 . This happened in bitter opposition to the National Socialist majority of the “German colony” in Argentina.

While emigrating, Grönewald continued to work with the Union des instituteurs allemands émigrés in Paris and the International Teachers' Office (IBSL) in Brussels and acted as head of the South American national group of the “Foreign Representation of German Trade Unions”. From 1940 to 1942 he was editor of the Informaciones para la prensa sudamericana , which transmitted information to the press and radio about the 3rd Reich, its " Fifth Column " in Latin America and about the work of the Committee The Other Germany . He also worked as a freelancer for the American news agency United Press International , as well as for the Bulletin of Erziehungs-Internationale (publisher Kurt Löwenstein ) and for various Latin American magazines (Crítica-Buenos-Aires and Marcha (both Montevideo ); Tiempo ( Caracas ), Exelcior ( Mexico ) and Argencia Periodística Latino-Americana).

Grönewald's reports about a “fifth column” and alleged National Socialist infiltration plans in Argentina met with a wide response. Through his research he became known far beyond the borders of Buenos Aires. He is known as the most renowned German-speaking journalist in Argentina in the 1930s and 1940s.

The relief organization "The Other Germany"

In order to be able to support the growing group of destitute immigrants in Buenos Aires, some emigrants associated with the Argentinisches Tageblatt and the Pestalozzi School founded the political-literary cabaret "Truppe 38", managed by August Siemsen. Members were u. a. Carl Meffert and his wife Nelly, Renate Schottelius, Helga Markus, Heinz and Gerti Bier and Lene Laub. A circle around the founder of the Pestalozzi School founded an anti-fascist aid organization on June 7, 1937, called Das Andere Deutschland (DAD). The aid organization addressed “all good Germans, all honest friends of Germany” and carried out its charitable work on a broad basis. The aid organization founded a newspaper of the same name as the mouthpiece of the DAD for sympathizers and other interested readers.

Grönewald did the entire administrative work of the DAD: Among other things, he maintained contacts with friendly anti-fascist organizations from other nations ( South Africa , Australia and New Zealand ), the democratic press agencies and organs as well as broadcasters. He compiled the informaciones written in Spanish and published them on behalf of the DAD. Ilse Schirmann, his future wife, supported his work.

The congress of German anti-fascists in Montevideo in 1943

“The Other Germany” invited all German anti-fascists in South America to a congress in Montevideo in Uruguay in 1943 on the tenth anniversary of Hitler's Chancellorship . More than 50 delegates and representatives of anti-fascist organizations attended. The response from the Congress was extremely satisfactory. A provisional committee with August Siemsen, Heinrich Grönewald and Erich Sieloff was founded under the name “Alemania Democrática Comité Central Sudamericano”. This was intended to establish the “united front” of all anti-fascist groups in South America and thus the precondition for the desired unification of the German opposition outside Germany. The attempt to unite all anti-fascists, however, did not succeed. Neither loyal communists nor those Jews who preferred their own Jewish ways wanted to join a united front against National Socialism.

Norte / Goethe School (1954–1957)

After 15 years of teaching at the Pestalozzi School, Grönewald accepted the offer on April 1, 1954 to teach at the Escuela del Norte school in Martinez / Buenos Aires. This school was the first official school that the Federal Republic of Germany maintained in Argentina again after the war.

Efforts to re-integrate in Braunschweig

In a letter dated October 20, 1946, Heinrich Grönewald applied again for employment in the Brunswick civil service. His professional goal was to be employed in the Lower Saxony school service and immediately to be seconded to the school service abroad in Buenos Aires. It was not until three and a half years later, in spring 1950, that the President of the Lower Saxony administrative district of Braunschweig replied and asked for information as to whether Grönewald would maintain his application for re-employment in the Braunschweig school service and for the allocation of living space within the city of Braunschweig.

Heinrich Grönewald then traveled to Germany for a few weeks at the beginning of November 1950. The President of the Lower Saxony administrative district of Braunschweig appointed him from January 15, 1951, as a civil servant on revocation and as an unscheduled teacher. He was given six months' leave to manage his personal affairs in Argentina.

In order to be able to make claims for reparation , a second trip to Germany became inevitable for Grönewald. As a political emigrant, according to the then valid legal regulations, he would otherwise not have been able to assert any claims for reparation for the injustice inflicted on him. Grönewald delayed this second trip for a long time. In February 1955 he was given a deadline for the last time with the request "to start his service by October 1, 1955, otherwise a revocation of the civil service relationship must be considered." However, because of a serious illness of his wife, Heinrich Grönewald was forced to Postpone trip to Germany. It was only shortly after Christmas 1956 that he said goodbye to his wife and eleven-year-old daughter and began his second post-war trip to Germany.

In February 1957, Grönewald reported on an unpleasant discussion for him at the Ministry of Culture in Hanover. He was told that he would have to complete a shortened legal traineeship and make up for the second state examination for the teaching profession that he had not received. The same fate had overtaken Grönewald's old comrade Hans Löhr six years earlier, who after returning from Peru at the age of 55 first had to take the second state examination before he could get a teaching position.

He directed his protest against this order directly to the then Federal President Theodor Heuss . He hoped - as it rightly turned out - with its help to be released immediately for foreign school service and to be able to continue running the Norte school. Since the recruitment process was delayed for weeks and Grönewald's financial situation was very tight, he briefly taught at a private interpreting school, the Bach School, in the Rettershof estate near the Fischbach district of Kelkheim . During this time he rented a guest house in nearby Königstein. Heinrich Grönewald died there on May 22, 1957 at the age of 48, presumably of a heart attack, alone in his pension room. The letter with the long-sought formal exemption from school service in Lower Saxony and the posting to the Norte School in Buenos Aires arrived two days after his sudden death.

Publications

• Poll among French school children about the Germans. In: Pedagogical Control. 1932, No. 2, pp. 76-79.
• How children feel about the world war and the French. A survey of 14-15 year old girls in a primary school class in Dortmund. In: Der Volkslehrer. 1932, No. 24, p. 3.
• Nation and War in the Judgment of German School Children. In: Pedagogical Control. 1932, No. 6, pp. 248-252.
• The history books and moral disarmament. In: The Peace Watch. 1932, pp. 206-209.

literature

• Peter Bussemeyer: 50 years of the Argentinisches Tageblatt - becoming and rising of a German newspaper abroad. Buenos Aires, 1939.
• Frank Erhardt (Hrsg.): Paths of life under dictatorship - contributions to the history of Braunschweig under National Socialism. Appelhans Verlag, Braunschweig 2007, ISBN 978-3-937664-59-0 .
• Hildegard Feidel-Mertz , Hermann Schnorbach: teachers in emigration. The Association of German Immigrant Teachers (1933–39) in the traditional context of the democratic teachers' movement. Special edition for the Max Traeger Foundation. Beltz Verlag, Weinheim ISBN 3-407-54114-7 .
• Hildegard Feidel-Mertz, Hermann Schnorbach: Association of German teacher emigrants - Union des Instituteurs Allemands Emigrés. Information sheets and programs 1934–1939. Beltz Verlag, Weinheim / Basel, ISBN 3-407-59006-7 .
• Hildegard Feidel-Mertz (Hrsg.): Schools in exile. The repressed pedagogy after 1933. Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Reinbek near Hamburg 1983, ISBN 3-499-17789-7 .
• Hildegard Feidel-Mertz: Education in exile after 1933. Education for survival - pictures and texts in an exhibition. dipa-Verlag, Frankfurt 1990, ISBN 3-7638-0520-6 .
• Georg Ismar: The press war: Argentine daily newspaper and German La Plata newspaper 1933-1945. Knowledge Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-86573-179-1 .
• Karl Kohut, Patrick von zur Mühlen (ed.): Alternative Latin America. German exile during the Nazi era. Vervuert Verlag, Frankfurt 1994, ISBN 3-89354-913-7 .
• Holger M. Meding, Georg Ismar (eds.): Argentina and the Third Reich, media and real presence, ideology transfer, consequences. Knowledge Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-86573-362-7 .
• Heinrich Rodenstein: Emigration (1933–1945). Memories - thoughts. Braunschweig Christmas 1975. see also under www.beepworld.de/members95/heinrich-rodenstein/ (unpublished manuscript)
• Hermann Schnorbach (ed.): Teachers and schools under the swastika. Documents of the resistance from 1930 to 1945. Athenäum Verlag, Königstein / Ts. 1983, ISBN 3-7610-8275-4 .
• Hermann Schnorbach: For a »Different Germany« - The Pestalozzi School in Buenos Aires (1934–1958). dipa-Verlag, Frankfurt 1995, ISBN 3-7638-0353-X .
• Sebastian Schoepp: Das Argentinisches Tageblatt 1933–1945. A “bourgeois combat newspaper” as a forum for emigration. In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte . Volume 43 (1995), Issue 1, pp. 75–113 ( PDF ).
• Winfried Seelisch: The other Germany. - A political association of German emigrants in South America. Thesis. Otto Suhr Institute, FU Berlin approx. 1970, DNB 964206056 .
• Tini von Poser: Conveying the image of Germany at German schools in Argentina during the National Socialist era between 1933 and 1939 - an aspect of immigration. Master thesis. Free University of Berlin, Latin American Institute; Version released by the author with changed names of the interviewees. 2006
• Patrik von zur Mühlen: Latin America as an escape destination. German emigration 1933–1945: political activities and socio-cultural integration. Verlag Neue Gesellschaft, Bonn 1988, ISBN 3-87831-472-8 .
• Michael Wetter: Heinrich Grönewald. Student and PhD student at the Technical University of Braunschweig. A life for education in Braunschweig, Paris and Buenos Aires. Hahnsche Buchhandlung Verlag, Hanover 2011, ISBN 978-3-7752-8803-3 .
• Michael Wetter, Daniel Weßelhöft: Victims of National Socialist persecution from 1930 to 1945 at the TH Braunschweig. Olms-Verlag, Hildesheim 2010, ISBN 978-3-487-14359-0 .
• Günter Wiemann: Hans Löhr and Hans Kock: political walks , Die Vitamine-Verlag, Braunschweig 2011, ISBN 978-3-00-033763-5 .
• Bernd Wulffen: German traces in Argentina. C. Links-Verlag, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-573-7 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ This right to award doctorates was granted to the Department of Cultural Studies of the TH in the course of the integration of elementary school teacher training into academic teaching and was part of the reforms promoted by Hans Sievers . Michael Wetter, Daniel Weßelhöft: Victims of National Socialist Persecution 1930 to 1945 at the TH Braunschweig , pp. 19-20
2. ↑ ^{a b} Hildegard Feidel-Mertz, Hermann Schnorbach: Teachers in Emigration , p. 102
3. ↑ Michael Hepp (Ed.): The expatriation of German citizens 1933-45 according to the lists published in the Reichsanzeiger . tape 1 : Lists in chronological order. De Gruyter Saur, Munich / New York / London / Paris 1985, ISBN 978-3-11-095062-5 , pp. 4 (reprinted 2010).
4. ^ Hans Löhr: Letter of September 15, 1936 from the Peruvian city Requena to Leo Regener, in: Günter Wiemann: Hans Löhr and Hans Koch - political walks , p. 108
5. ^ Günter Wiemann: Hans Löhr and Hans Kock: political walks , p. 139