James Krüss Primary School

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James Krüss Primary School
Entrance to the James Krüss Primary School in September 2006
Entrance to the James Krüss Primary School in September 2006
type of school primary school
founding 1894
address

Siemensstrasse 20

place Berlin
country Berlin
Country Germany
Coordinates 52 ° 31 '58 "  N , 13 ° 20' 10"  E Coordinates: 52 ° 31 '58 "  N , 13 ° 20' 10"  E
carrier State of Berlin
student 452 (status: 2005/2006)
Teachers 37 (as of 2004)
Website thgberlin.de/949-2/

The James Krüss Primary School is an open all-day school in Berlin-Moabit . The school building dates from 1896 and is a listed building . The school has been named after the children's and youth author James Krüss since 1967 . After a process of merging the James Krüss Primary School, Moses Mendelssohn High School and Theodor Heuss Gymnasium over several years, the Theodor Heuss Community School started as a school for grades 1–13 in the 2013/14 school year.

history

1894–1896: foundation and construction

A steadily growing number of inhabitants in Moabit led to the construction of several “double schools” at the end of the 19th century - girls and boys were still taught separately. On April 1, 1894 , the city of Berlin acquired a 5,679 square meter property from the Grundrenten-Gesellschaft for 229,090 marks  . On August 6th of the same year a building application was submitted, which was approved after only 11 days. The planning of the buildings was the responsibility of the town planning officer Hermann Blankenstein . The school was officially founded on October 1, 1894 under the name “206. Community school Berlin (girls) ”. The first students were housed in a residential building at Stromstrasse 48.

The earthworks and foundation work began a short time later on October 19th. After ten months, on August 23, 1895, both the school building and the residential building were completed in the shell and the work shifted to the interior. On March 23, 1896, the buildings were taken down by the police and the 206th community school moved into the rear of the schoolhouse on April 1st. The front part was taken from the “212. Community School Berlin (Boys) ”. A special feature was the central section of the cellar, where a "shower bath" was one of the first to be installed in Berlin . The total cost of the building at 414,140 marks seemed well spent.

Rear of the former residential building

1918-1933

In the first two winters after the end of the war there was still such a shortage of coal that schools had to be merged and lessons had to be cut significantly. In 1919, warm soup was distributed to the children for breakfast on Siemensstrasse. Thanks to donations from Quakers , there was even a free hot lunch for one year in 1920. The school books were also distributed free of charge to pupils in need.

The separation of church and state in the Weimar Republic was also reflected in the school: there was no common school prayer, as was the indication of religion on the school leaving certificate. On April 1, 1921, the parents' meeting in the auditorium discussed “May our school become secular?”. The approximately 15 percent of the students in the area who were canceled from religious instruction were to be placed in their own school and the 206th community school was up for debate. In the end, a “collective school” was opened in Waldenserstrasse, where the children did not receive any religious instruction.

The “Curriculum for the Schools of the City of Berlin 1924” provided for modern guidelines for learning: The pupils should not learn by heart, but experience and independently acquire the knowledge. With the new curriculum came a new name - “206. Elementary School Berlin ". From Easter 1928, school beginners were taught exclusively in the Sütterlin script .

1933-1945

The central school administration in Berlin was dissolved on June 30, 1938. From then on, each district took on the administration of its schools itself and had to set up its own education authority. In this context, the school was slightly renamed “6. Tiergarten elementary school, Berlin ”.

In the first week of the war in 1939, there was initially no teaching because the teachers helped with the distribution of food cards and vouchers. After that, school operations ran normally and the school building was not shut down until the beginning of winter. During this time, lessons took place alternately in the morning and afternoon on Wiclefstrasse.

In May 1943 only three teachers were still working at the school, in August the students and remaining teachers were relocated to the vicinity of Rastenburg . During the air raids on November 23 and 24, 1943, the gymnasium was destroyed and parts of the outer walls and ceilings torn down. Other schools in Moabit were hit harder, three school buildings were completely destroyed. At the end of 1944, the Telefunken company still used the school building to accommodate French foreign workers.

Entrance to the school's former home in August 2006

1945–1951: reconstruction

"All sorts of rubbish", remnants of military equipment and even weapons from the Volkssturm and the Soviet army were stored on the school grounds after the war. The district office made some “ rubble women ” available for the clean-up work. Windows and doors in the buildings were bolted and partially barricaded to prevent the stolen furniture for heating. After a two-year break, classes were finally continued on July 3, 1945 with nine teachers. In the autumn, they went to a nearby school, where the window panes had been preserved and the rooms could be heated. However, from December 3 to Christmas there was a coal shortage, so classes were suspended and the students only returned a few times a week to do their homework .

The repair of the building went very slowly due to a lack of materials and money. The roof was first covered in damaged areas in the summer of 1946. The glassless windows were initially nailed up with cardboard, only gradually until April 1948 the lower and middle parts of the windows were glazed. With the introduction of the Westmark , the situation improved and the restorations went faster. In 1951, the school received the all-important heating system and sockets in every classroom.

1951–1965: expansion

The change in the Berlin School Act on school structure turned the elementary school into a primary school on July 1, 1951. The new name was chosen soberly: “3. Tiergarten Primary School, Berlin ”.

1965-1986

The school management contacted James Krüss in 1967 , because all Berlin schools had to rename and the choice fell on the children's and youth writer. James Krüss told the students more "than a well-known politician", so the reasoning at the time. With his consent and in his presence, the school renamed itself on October 23, 1967, "James Krüss Primary School", which it still bears today.

Tuition on Saturdays was also common until the 1970s. At the beginning of 1970, however, the Berlin schools were given the opportunity to independently introduce one or two non-teaching Saturdays per month. 100 percent of the teachers and 96.4 percent of the parents voted for two days off, so that the students of the following year had more free time.

In the course of the recruitment of foreign workers at the end of the 1970s, the proportion of particularly Turkish and Yugoslav students increased. The school responded with special preparatory classes to promote the German language and hired a Turkish teacher. By 1984 the proportion of foreign students had risen so sharply that "regular foreigner classes" were set up. The school principal Rast reported in the 1985/86 school year that out of 19 classes, he had six pure “foreigner classes” and that the proportion of foreigners in the entire school was 54 percent.

Community school pilot project

Since the school year 2008/2009, the James-Krüss-Primary School has been in cooperation with the Moses-Mendelssohn-Oberschule, in the Berlin-wide pilot project community school, then in the school year 2010/2011 merged with the Moses-Mendelssohn-Oberschule to form a joint school under the new name First community school in Berlin-Mitte. Since the 2013/14 school year the school has been called Theodor Heuss Community School.

List of Rectors

  • 1894–1902: Johannes Michealis
  • 1902–1905: Ewald Wassermann
  • 1905–1906: Friedrich Zilz
  • 1906–1920: Friedrich Meinke
  • 1920-1938: Otto Labuda
  • 1938–1945: Hans Buechler
  • 1945–1946: Charlotte Reimann
  • 1946–1965: Fritz Paulus

Sources and further information

Main literature

  • With us in Moabit. Commemorative publication of the James Krüss primary school for the 1986 summer festival. Schneider, Berlin 1986

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Theodor Heuss School. In: thgberlin.de. January 17, 2014, accessed February 10, 2018 .
  2. a b Fritz Paulus: To the chronicle of the school. In: With us in Moabit. Schneider, Berlin 1986, pp. 48-49
  3. ^ Fritz Paulus: To the chronicle of the school. In: With us in Moabit. Schneider, Berlin 1986, p. 58
  4. Manfred Rast: From the life of the school (1970–1986). In: With us in Moabit. Schneider, Berlin 1986, pp. 81-83

Web links

Commons : James-Krüss-Grundschule (Berlin)  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files