Heinz Guttfeld

Heinz Guttfeld (born April 10, 1904 in Luckenwalde ; † June 14, 1995 in Israel ) was a German-Israeli scientist who set up the meteorological service in Israel. In 1950 he took the name Mordechai Gilead .

School and study

Heinz Guttfeld was born as the son of a Jewish retailer in Luckenwalde (Brandenburg). Guttfeld had to leave high school at the age of sixteen because inflation had ruined his father's small business. From 1922 he completed a commercial apprenticeship in a bronze factory in Luckenwalde and then worked as an assistant in the same company.

From 1927 to 1929, Heinz Guttfeld took part in the second workers' high school graduate course at the Kaiser-Friedrich-Realgymnasium (the later Karl-Marx-Schule ) in Berlin-Neukölln and passed the school -leaving exam here in 1929.

Heinz Guttfeld studied mathematics, geography and meteorology in Berlin, Freiburg and Frankfurt am Main from 1929. In 1932 he graduated as a middle school teacher. However, his goal was to go into teacher training, to become a teacher at a pedagogical academy. For this reason, supported by a scholarship from the German National Academic Foundation , he began a doctorate in education with Hans Weil in Frankfurt. As a result of the National Socialist seizure of power, both were expelled from the university before the proceedings were completed and emigrated to Italy.

Political activities before emigration

From 1929 to 1932, Heinz Guttfeld was a member of the Young Socialists and was also active in the Kinderfreunde movement and in the Friends of Nature . During his studies he was a member of the Red Student Union and gradually moved away from his rather social-democratic political background. According to a letter from Leon Trotsky , he was already a member of the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany in 1931 .

Emigration to Italy

Heinz Guttfeld and Hans Weil emigrated to Italy in October 1933. They both worked at the rural school in Florence before they founded the school on the Mediterranean Sea together in 1934 . While still in Italy, Heinz Guttmann married Ellen Ephraim in 1934 (born 1908 in Bernstein / Neumark , died 1972 in Israel). Ellen Ephraim had graduated as a gymnastics teacher in 1929 and worked as a gymnastics teacher and head of the children's home of the UOBB -Loge in Dresden before emigrating . She also worked as a sports teacher in the school on the Mediterranean . In 1935, Heinz Guttfeld and Ellen Ephraim left school. Feidel-Mertz attributes Guttfeld's departure to the fact that he was no longer able to work as a teacher due to his lack of language skills. This is indirectly confirmed by him in an interview by making it clear that he first learned English in Palestine and then learned Hebrew with some difficulties.

Moved to Palestine and lived in Israel

Heinz Guttfeld and Ellen Ephraim moved to Palestine in 1935 after Guttfeld had received a C certificate from the British mandate administration . He immediately became a member of the Histadrut union and the HOG ( Hitachduth Olej Germania ), a self-help organization of German immigrants. Until 1936 he carried out statistical studies for the “Kupath Milweh l'Olej Germania” loan fund, which was founded as a cooperative by the HOG, and also for the British mandate administration.

In January 1937, Heinz Guttfeld began his career as a meteorologist. He belonged to a group of emigrated scientists who, as the “German Group”, were of great importance for the establishment of the geosciences, hydrology and meteorology in Palestine and later in Israel. Guttfeld first worked for the Palestinian Weather Service and then from 1940 to 1945 for the British Air Force's aviation weather service. In 1947/1948 he worked for the Hagana Meteorological Service before becoming director of the Israeli Meteorological Service after the establishment of the State of Israel. Heinz Guttfeld held this position until his retirement in 1971.

Heinz Guttfeld adopted the name Mordechai Gilead in 1950. He lived with his wife, Ellen Ephraim, in Ramat Gan , near Jerusalem. The couple had two children, Michael, born in Ramat Gan in 1939, and Yohanan, born in Jerusalem in 1944.

International activities

From 1947 to 1971, Heinz Guttmann was Israel's permanent representative to the World Meteorological Organization , a specialized agency of the United Nations . On behalf of the UN, he also worked as an advisor in development aid, including in Nigeria, Ghana and Nepal. He was a member of the American Meteorological Society and was from 1963 on the editorial board of the international journal Agricultural Meteorology (today: Agricultural and Forest Meteorology ).

Fonts

• Edgar Rosemann, Hans Weil, Heinz Guttfeld: Call for the founding of a Jewish work and education center , Frankfurt am Main, Kettenhofweg, April 8, 1933. This text, previously only mentioned by Joseph Walk , contains “113 pages of a detailed technical and theoretical curriculum [ ..] and the basics of successful educational work ”.

literature

• Werner Röder, Herbert A. Strauss (Hrsg.): Biographical manual of German-speaking emigration after 1933. Volume 1: Politics, economy, public life. Saur, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-598-10087-6 .
• Hildegard Feidel-Mertz (Hrsg.): Schools in exile. The repressed pedagogy after 1933. Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Reinbek near Hamburg 1983, ISBN 3-499-17789-7 .
• Henriette Hättich (Ed.): Democracy needs democrats. Student funding as a socio-political task. Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Student Support Department, Bonn 2015, ISBN 978-3-89892-850-2 . ( PDF; 9.1 MB )
• Anne Betten (Ed.): Language preservation after emigration. The German of the 1920s in Israel. Part 1: Transcripts and audio documents. Niemeyer, Tübingen 1995, ISBN 3-484-23142-4 . (including the transcript of an interview with Mordechai Gilead on pages 70 ff.)
• Anne Betten, Myriam Du-nour (Ed.): Language preservation after emigration. The German of the 1920s in Israel. Part 2: Analyzes and Documents. Niemeyer, Tübingen 2000, ISBN 3-484-23145-9 . (including the transcript of an interview with Mordechai Gilead on pages 134/135)

Web links

• Mordechai Gilead: Brief Biographical Review
• Leon Trotsky : Letter to Heinz Guttfeld, Marin Sevenick, Arnold Lutz and Karl Osner dated December 14, 1931 (in French)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Unless otherwise stated below, all biographical information is based on the Biographical Handbook of German-speaking Emigration after 1933 (p. 222), which has hardly changed in the short portraits by Feidel-Mertz, Schools in Exile (p. 238) and Henriette Hättich, democracy needs democrats (p. 28) are the basis.
2. ↑ For the history of these courses, compare: Henriette Hättich (Ed.): Democracy needs democrats. Student funding as a socio-political task.
3. ↑ For the history of this reform school, compare: Fritz Karsen and the Karl Marx School in Berlin-Neukölln ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ He described the living conditions during this time very clearly in the interview documented by Anne Betten, Anne Betten (Ed.): Language preservation after emigration. Part 1, p. 70ff.
5. ↑ An attempt to study biology, too, he broke off because he had no knowledge of Latin and did not want to catch up on the Latinum. Compare on this: Anne Betten (Ed.): Language preservation after emigration , part 1, p. 70ff.
6. ^ Anne Betten (ed.): Language preservation after emigration. Part 1, p. 70ff.
7. ↑ The statement about this funding is based on the interview printed by Betten: Anne Betten (Ed.): Sprachbewahrung nach der Emigration. Part 1, p. 70ff. It is possible, however, that he was additionally or exclusively funded by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation . Compare on this: Henriette Hättich (Ed.): Democracy needs democrats. Pp. 20-21.
8. ^ Leon Trotsky: Lettre à Heinz Guttfeld, Marin Sevenick, Arnold Lutz et Karl Osner
9. ^ Feidel-Mertz: Schools in exile. P. 238.
10. ^ Feidel-Mertz: Schools in exile. P. 238.
11. ^ Anne Betten, Myriam Du-nour (ed.): Language preservation after emigration - the German of the 20s in Israel. Part 2, pp. 134/135.
12. ↑ The immigrants were divided into four categories: Category A (immigrants with their own property). Category B (immigrants with a secure livelihood). Category C (immigrants with secure employment prospects). Category D (immigrants on request, i.e. family members and specialist workers). See: Immigration certificates for Palestine ( memento of the original from December 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
13. ↑ The name in Latin letters from 1932 to 1939 was Hitachduth Olej Germania ( Hebrew הִתְאַחְדוּת עוֹלֵי גֶּרְמַנְיָה Hit'achdūt ʿŌlej Germanjah , German 'Vereinigung der Olim Deutschlands' , HOG; as in the title of Hitachduth Olej Germania's bulletin ), between 1940 and 1942 Hitachdut Olej Germania we Austria ( Hebrew הִתְאַחְדוּת עוֹלֵי גֶּרְמַנְיָה וְאוֹסְטְרִיָה Hit'achdūt ʿŌlej Germanjah we-Ōsṭrijah , German 'Association of Olim Germany and Austria' , acronym: HOGoA; see. Bulletin of Hitachdut Olej Germania we Austria ), then from 1943 to 2006 Irgun Olej Merkas Europa ( Hebrew אִרְגּוּן עוֹלֵי מֶרְכַּז אֵירוֹפָּה Irgūn ʿŌlej Merkaz Ejrōpah , German 'Organization of the Olim Central Europe' ; as in their organ: MB - weekly newspaper of Irgun Olej Merkas Europe ), since then the association has been called the Association of Israelis of Central European Origin ( Hebrew אִרְגּוּן יוֹצְאֵי מֶרְכַּז אֵירוֹפָּה Irgūn Jōtz'ej Merkaz Ejrōpah , German 'Organization of those from Central Europe' ; see. Title of the Yakinton / MB journal: Bulletin of the Association of Israelis of Central European Origin ).
14. ↑ Hebräisierung and Zionist educational work: The History of HOG
15. ↑ On the history of the HOG
16. ↑ German Antecedents of the Department of Geography at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem: Historical Perspective ( Memento of the original from April 24, 2012 on WebCite ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
17. ↑ On its history: History of The Israel Meteorological Service (IMS)
18. ^ Joseph Walk: Jewish School and Education in the Third Reich , Verlag Anton Hain Meisenheim GmbH, Frankfurt am Main, 1991, ISBN 3-445-09930-8 , p. 311 (note 378)