Hermann Neuton Paulsen

Hermann Neuton Paulsen (born July 24, 1898 on the Hallig Süderoog ; † February 5, 1951 in Husum ) was a German educator and owner of the Hallig Süderoog in the North Frisian Wadden Sea.

Life

Hermann Paulsen was a son of the farmer Martin Anton Paulsen (born April 26, 1854 in Süderoog , † April 5, 1927 in Pellworm ) and his wife Nicoline, née von Holdt; (* May 17, 1863 in Hallig Hooge ; † February 24, 1901 in Süderoog). The maternal grandfather was the farmer Hans Peter von Holdt auf Hooge .

Paulsen and his siblings initially received lessons from a private tutor. Afterwards, Pastor Hansen prepared him on Pellworm for a visit to the local high school, in whose quarter he entered at Easter 1913. He lived in a boarding house for schoolchildren and joined the Husum group of the "Wandervogel e. V. “. He had a country home in Rödemis and exchanged ideas with many groups that were in Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg and the wider region.

In 1915 Paulsen volunteered for military service as an upper-tertian. The battle for Verdun caused him a physical shock. At the end of the war he was working far away from the front as a telephone operator and had neither a school leaving certificate nor vocational training. He then worked as a paramedic in a volunteer corps in the Baltic States, as a nurse in a youth prison in Copenhagen, in a youth secretariat in Stuttgart and in youth care in Friedrichstadt. In 1921/22 he attended an agricultural school in Heide.

Based on his experience as a soldier, Paulsen believed that proper nationalism could only be based on nations respecting one another. In addition, he was of the opinion that understanding between the peoples could only be implemented in the long term if subsequent generations took over the idea. He saw this as the task of the wandering bird .

In the aftermath, under the impression of the war experiences, he began to enable male young people - initially between 1924 and 1926 on Hallig Hooge , then since 1927 on the Hallig Süderoog , which is owned by his family - to enable international meeting holidays in order to promote understanding and mutual respect to be created in school age. The later growing up should never again take up arms against one another.

His endeavor was to bring boys from different countries and from very unequal social backgrounds together in order to let them come into contact with the healthy life on the agricultural Hallig - and thus with the practical side of life. He was guided by the idea that by doing things together - through games and sports as well as doing everyday work together - a friendly getting to know one another can be made possible.

The holiday stay in the meeting place on the beautifully scenic Hallig should also be “an opportunity for the young to get to know the peculiar North Frisian islands and their people. You should be happy in the wide, endless sea, in the arched sky, in the splendor of the blooming Hallig flowers and in the nimble flight of the sea birds. "

Adolescents from Switzerland , Hungary and especially from Scandinavian countries , who came to Süderoog through his future wife Gunvor Gustavsson, spent a carefree holiday on the “Hallig der Junge”, during which they were involved in the Hallig life, which is characterized by ebb and flow .

From 1927 until well into the 1950s, his educational work on international reconciliation and understanding continued. The National Socialist rulers tried in vain to integrate him and his work into the National Socialist People's Welfare . From 1930 he was assisted by his future wife Gunvor Gustavson (born October 3, 1906 in Falun ; † 1985 ibid.), Who had a position at the Swedish Ministry of Social Affairs. They both married on April 22, 1948 and had no children.

After the death of her husband, Gunvor Paulsen continued to work in his favor. She took in German refugee children and young people of different nationalities and social origins. In the 1950s she founded the “Süderoog Foundation”, which enabled her to develop a work of friendship until 1958. The foundation could not bear the costs permanently; Gunvor Paulsen also did not manage the facility adequately from Stockholm. The state of Schleswig-Holstein therefore took over all the buildings in April 1971.

With his ideas, Paulsen was an early pioneer of European unification . The driving force behind his work was idealism and a sense of responsibility towards young people, as well as the will to facilitate understanding across national borders. In 1975 the Ludwig-Nissen-Haus in Husum placed a memorial in the hall of the Hallighaus on Hallig Süderoog in the form of a "Hermann Neuton Paulsen Memorial". Today the island school on Pellworm also bears his name.

literature

• Fritz Brunner: Between the pirate tower and the rescue beacon , Verlag Sauerländer & Co., Aarau, approx. 1930 (youth novel)
• Joerg Ziegenspeck (ed.), Hermann N. Paulsen (collaborator): Pedagogy on the Hallig Süderoog; Memories from friends and co-workers . Institute for Adventure Education, Lüneburg 1990, ISBN 3-88456-073-5 .
• Brar V. Riewerts: With heart and a fresh breeze. Hermann Neuton Paulsen and Hallig Suederoog . Neubauer 1991, series: Pioneers of modern experiential education. 24, ISBN 3-88456-087-5 .
• Brar Volkert Riewerts: Paulsen, Hermann . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 8. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1987, pp. 268-270.

Web links

• Literature by and about Hermann Neuton Paulsen in the catalog of the German National Library
• Brief presentation of the Hallig
• Activities of the Institute for Adventure Education
• Finding aid of the North Friesland district archive with documents on Hermann Neuton Paulsen (PDF file; 25 kB)
• Homepage of the Institute for Adventure Education

swell

1. ↑ Riewerts, Brar Volkert: "With a heart and a fresh breeze - Hermann Neuton Paulsen and the Hallig Süderoog", Verlag Nordfriisk Instituut , Bredstedt, 1996, p. 29.