Irma Stoss

Irma Stoss (born January 2, 1887 in Valparaíso ; † May 9, 1975 in Reinbek ) was a German teacher and headmistress .

Life

Irma Stoss was born in Chile as the daughter of a Hamburg merchant and spent her childhood in Toruń . After the death of her father, she attended the private Luisenschule for girls in Bergedorf . After training as a drawing teacher for high schools and teacher training institutions from 1904 to 1906, she worked from 1908 to 1911 as a teacher at the Luisenschule. After passing the school leaving examination in Braunschweig , Stoss studied history, geography and mathematics at the University of Göttingen from 1912 to 1918 . She completed her studies with a state examination for teaching at secondary schools. She then went through pedagogical training at what is now the Helene-Lange-Gymnasium , which at the time was one of the first state high school for girls.

Irma Stoss worked from 1921 to 1924 as a senior teacher at the Luisenschule and then until 1933 at the German Oberschule on the Lübeckertorfeld. She was elected deputy elected headmistress here for six years. Together with the headmistress Alice Pollitz , Stoss initiated new educational methods, including working groups on current political issues, annual work, school trips and class trips. In addition, she tried to implement self-administration for the students.

When he started teaching at the state secondary school for girls, Stoss became involved in the women's movement. From 1921 to 1929 she was chairman of the association of academically educated teachers founded by Emmy Beckmann . From 1924 to 1933 she was the editor of the German Teachers 'Newspaper , which was the organ of the General German Teachers' Association . In 1927, Stoss became chairman of the regional association of Hamburg teachers' associations. Shock advocated the academization of the colleges of the higher girls' schools, the equal rights of female and male teachers and equal opportunities for students of both sexes. On the 40th anniversary of the foundation of the Federation of German Women's Associations , the teacher called for women to play a more active role in public life.

Stoss was re-elected as deputy headmistress on February 16, 1933, but a few months later, on July 12 of the same year, she was deposed by the National Socialist government and given a new position as a teacher at the Curschmannstrasse girls' college. It is difficult to believe that “German women are still regarded as equal to men,” said Stoss on this measure in one of the last editions of the German teachers' newspaper that she edited. From 1933 to 1945 Irma Stoss organized informal meetings of the women's movement, which took place in her private apartment. The gatherings were attended by activists who had been dismissed or transferred. Shock never wanted to become a member of a National Socialist organization and was able to successfully defend himself against joining until the end of World War II .

After the end of the war, Stoss took over the management of the secondary school for girls on Curschmannstrasse. She was committed to rebuilding the women's movement in the Hanseatic city and was one of the founders of the German Association of Women Academics in 1948 . She also co-founded the working group for girls and women’s education . From 1951 to 1963, Stoss edited the magazine Mädchenbildung und Frauenschaffen .

Irma Stoss died on May 9, 1975 in Reinbek.

literature

• Uwe Schmidt: Stoss, Irma . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 4 . Wallstein, Göttingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-8353-0229-7 , pp. 336-337 .