Hubert Bollig

Hubert Bollig (born October 27, 1899 in Billig , Euskirchen ; † September 7, 1986 ) was a German anthroposophical pedagogue , founder and director of the school and the Waldhaus youth welfare home and resistance fighter against National Socialism .

Life

Hubert Bollig was born in the village of Billig as the son of a main teacher and raised a strict Catholic. After four years of elementary school , he attended a humanistic grammar school in Bonn . In the final phase of the First World War , he volunteered for military service.

After graduating from high school , he studied philosophy , economics , German and history , but broke off his studies in 1923 to become a teacher . He renounced a career as a civil servant, which he saw as too restrictive. Instead, he was interested in the anthroposophy of Rudolf Steiner , who had also developed the educational concept for the founding of the Waldorf schools in 1919 .

In 1931, together with Heinz Ritter , he founded the Waldhaus educational institute in Malsch (Karlsruhe district) , which still exists today under the name Waldhaus Waldhaus School . The Waldhaus was anthroposophically oriented and mainly took in young people who were considered difficult to educate . At the beginning, mentally handicapped children and young people were also accepted. Hubert Bollig came into conflict with the National Socialist state when the Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich had the Anthroposophical Society banned. Although the forest house was anthroposophically oriented, it could continue to operate without restrictions. In 1938 co-founder Heinz Ritter left the Waldhaus.

On September 2, 1939, at the beginning of the Second World War, the forest house was cleared and occupied by the Wehrmacht because of its proximity to France . Hubert Bollig was able to bring 33 of the 40 children to relatives or parents, and with seven children he started looking for a suitable replacement building. This search took about a year. Meanwhile, Bollig was able to place the children in Oberlengenhardt and Simmerberg , among other places . Then Bollig found suitable accommodation in Bodman on Lake Constance. But shortly after the purchase, conflicts arose with the seller, who wanted to cancel the purchase agreement after he learned which children were to move in there. Now Bollig came increasingly into conflict with the Nazi regime, which wanted to withdraw his license because he was an anthroposophist. Eventually, the Stockach district administrator refused to run his nursing home.

At this time, Operation T4 began to murder people with disabilities, who put at least two of his pupils at risk. He was able to successfully prevent murder in both of them. He was able to give one of the children to a home in Basel, in safe Switzerland. For Otto Nicolai , who had Down syndrome , he had an expert report drawn up with the help of a doctor, which saved this child from murder. In September 1940 he returned to Malsch, where he was able to continue running the home despite all opposition. In 1941 it was finally dissolved by the Gestapo , and Bollig was placed in protective custody for three weeks . He was then subject to an occupational ban that lasted until the end of the Nazi regime. He stayed with his wife in the Waldhaus, where he also took in Otto Nicolai, who from then on lived under his care. To earn a living, he set up a wood workshop. In 1943 he was drafted as a soldier in the Wehrmacht and stationed in Denmark.

After the end of the Second World War , he temporarily headed the Malscher Sparkasse. In 1948 he reopened the Waldhaus. He headed the school until 1976 and even kept the management of the home until 1978, i.e. until he was 79. His son Starkmut then took over. Bollig died on September 7, 1986. The school and home still exist today.

Private life

Hubert Bollig married a eurythmist named Mathilde on October 3, 1925 . The couple had six children, the youngest was Irene Bollig, who later became a doctor of biology and artist Irene Buchanan .

literature

• Adalbert Metzinger : People in Resistance - Central Baden 1933–1943 (=  special publication of the Rastatt district archive, volume 13 ). regional culture publishing house, Rastatt 2017, ISBN 978-3-89735-978-9 , p. 92-96 .

Web links

• Hubert Bollig on Kulturimpuls.org

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Official website. Waldhaus youth welfare service, accessed on September 2, 2019 .