Colonial women's school in Rendsburg

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Colonial women's school, students at the passage of the ship of the line Silesia

The Rendsburg Colonial Women's School (KFS) was responsible for training women for household and agricultural tasks in the former German colonies from 1926 to 1945. The "Kolo" was on the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal, today's Kiel Canal .

history

The German colonies were lost to the Versailles Peace Treaty in 1919 ; but the Weimar Republic continued to support the Germans and their businesses in the now former colonies, which were expected to be recovered. For example, on the proposal of the Women's Association of the German Colonial Society and the Reich Ministry of the Interior, the German Women's Colonial School was founded in Rendsburg on March 24, 1926 . She started teaching on May 1, 1927 with eight students. The courses included theoretical and practical training for domestic and agricultural professions in the former and recaptured German colonies, mainly in Africa. The subject matter covered activities such as cooking, dairy and cheese making, cattle breeding, slaughtering, growing fruit and vegetables, carpentry, tailoring, hygiene and nursing. By 1930 the teaching business had run in and the school developed from a mixture of adult education center and agricultural women's school into a colonial technical school in the true sense of the word. Around Easter 1930 Karl Körner became director of the school, who held this position until the last years of the war.

Hanna Reitsch , a pupil who went to school around 1930 and wanted to become a missionary doctor, described the training: “In addition to cooking, washing, dishes and many other things, we learned how to handle chickens, ducks and geese, mutton and pigs, we had to cobble, locksmith and glass, were allowed to ride and shoot. Since school time was seen as preparation for a later life in the colonies, we also had English and Spanish language lessons and optionally lessons in the Kisuaheli or Herero language. ”She also wrote about the school:“ So we learned about normal housekeeping there in addition to running a farm, milking, slaughtering, making sausage and cheese, running a dairy business, soling shoes, turning, making a fence, making tools, riding and shooting. "

Similar schools

A similar school concept could already be found in the colonial school established in Weilbach (Flörsheim) from 1911 to 1914 . The house itself had been used as a rural women's school by the Reifensteiner Association for Economic Women's Schools in the Country , which Ida von Kortzfleisch had brought to life. In addition to their two-year home economics training for high school graduates , women were also prepared for life in the German colonies at the Weilbacher Reifensteiner School . Among other things, the colonial courses conveyed specific botanical and food-specific knowledge in a five-semester training course. Because of the poor medical care, (often separate) courses in gynecology and obstetrics were also offered to the pupils of the colonial schools. The teaching farm Brakwater near Windhoek in German South West Africa (now Namibia ) also belonged to the Reifensteiner schools . Its owner, Helene von Falkenhausen, had already run the colonial school in Witzenhausen and then emigrated herself.

Another colonial school for women before the First World War was the Colonial Housekeeping School in Carthaus near Trier , which was run by the Franciscan Sisters of Nonnenwerth .

marine

Students of the colonial school during the passage of the 1st torpedo boat half flotilla

A specialty of the school was its connection with the Reichsmarine and the Kriegsmarine . Passing warships gave signals in front of the Rendsburg swing bridge and were greeted by the students. Hanna Reitsch described the sequence of events when a German warship passed by: “Every warship that went through the canal felt connected to our fun girls' school. When the siren wailed from afar, we rushed from the kitchen and washroom, from the garden and the stable to the bank and lined up. The ship then stopped and glided slowly and gravely past us, while a funny shout rang out from over here and there. ”“ Potatoes with little slips of paper and greetings on them were thrown over and over, and the gentlemen were invited to our school's annual summer festivals almost always naval officers of those crews. ”“ If the ships passed through our school during the night, there were special regulations for us to only waved modestly, dressed in dressing gowns, at the windows, which were lit as bright as day by the bright headlights of the warships. This naval connection with our colonial school often led to connections for life. "

Nazi era

During the time of National Socialism , typical Nazi topics such as "national political education", "hereditary theory", "hereditary health theory" and "race studies" were included in the curriculum. From 1936 the number of female students rose to around 60. With the takeover of the former German colonies , which was possible at any time from 1938, the school was expanded from 1939. New buildings were erected and the number of female pupils rose to around 120 to 130 by 1942. In January 1940, the school's own newspaper Mitteilungsblatt of the Colonial Women's School in Rendsburg wrote : “But the school is already preparing for all the new, big and beautiful tasks, which will probably be connected with the victorious end of the war. ”The victories of the Wehrmacht in the first years of the Second World War (September 1939–1942) promoted the colonial school. After the invasion of Poland , a branch of the school near Czestochowa was set up in the General Government .

When it became clear in 1942 that a short-term takeover of colonies was no longer foreseeable, the aim of the trained schoolgirls was directed to the conquered eastern areas. In accordance with Hitler's policy, who viewed German colonial possession in Eastern Europe as a priority and not in Africa, the eastern territories conquered during the war had been annexed to the German Reich as the Generalgouvernement, Reichskommissariat Ostland and Reichskommissariat Ukraine , and from 1942 former pupils of the colonial school were sent to the east without, however, giving up the school's original mission to train women for deployment in overseas colonies.

When the conquered areas in the east were largely lost again between mid-1943 and mid-1944, and all civilian resources were urgently needed for the armaments industry and the Wehrmacht, the Rendsburg Colonial Women's School was also supposed to be closed, but Reich Interior Minister Heinrich Himmler let the school continue to operate. Due to the catastrophic war situation in the spring of 1945, not only were the current course completed with the exams on April 15, 1945, but the school was also closed. Nevertheless, the school was preserved; but in October 1945 the last pupils finally left Rendsburg. In total, around 1,100 women graduated from the school, of which around 800 received a diploma.

Hanna Reitsch wrote in 1975: “One of our teachers at the time, Fräulein Dreves, maintains contact with us 'Kolo students' of all ages ... sometimes even now living in Africa through circulars and annual meetings that she organizes former ›Kolo students‹ come over ... "

Location and last use

The main, residential and farm buildings were located between the street Am Gerhardshain and the canal bank. After the closure, the building complex was used by the Heimvolkshochschule and the Nordkolleg Rendsburg . In 1977 it was demolished to make way for the expansion of the Kiel Canal. A memorial stone commemorates the school on the site of the former main building.

See also

German colonial school for agriculture, trade and commerce

literature

  • Karsten Linne: Rendsburg: Between dreaming about Africa and “Eastern use” - the colonial women's school . In: Ulrich van der Heyden and Joachim Zeller (eds.): Colonialism in this country - A search for traces in Germany. Sutton Verlag, Erfurt 2007, ISBN 978-3-86680-269-8 , pp. 131-136.
  • Dorothea Siegle: "Carriers of genuine Germanness". The colonial women's school in Rendsburg . Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 2004, ISBN 3-529-02806-1 .
  • Monika Mattlener: ... women from Hagen were also a 'Kolo'. Self-image and development of the colonial women's school in Rendsburg. In: Fabian Fechner u. a. (Ed.): Colonial pasts of the city of Hagen , Hagen 2019, ISBN 978-3-00-063343-0 , pp. 123-125.

Web links

Commons : Koloniale Frauenschule Rendsburg  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The official name was Koloniale Frauenschule Rendsburg mbH .
  2. ↑ Karsten Linne: Germany beyond the equator? The Nazi colonial planning for Africa . Ch.Link Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-86153-500-3 , p. 38
  3. ↑ a b Hanna Reitsch: Flying - My Life . Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1981, ISBN 3-453-01301-8 , pp. 28-29
  4. ↑ Hanna Reitsch: The indestructible in my life. Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-453-01073-6 , page 52
  5. ↑ Heike Lattka: Once only an imitation of the large baths Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, October 20, 2011, page 59
  6. ^ Johannes Kramer: The rural domestic education system in Germany, dissertation at the University of Erlangen, Fulda 1913
  7. ^ Daniel Joseph Walther: Creating Germans Abroad: Cultural Policies and National Identity in Namibia . Ohio University Press, 2002, ISBN 978-0-8214-1458-3 ( google.com [accessed March 8, 2016]).
  8. ↑ Martha Mamozai: Herrenmenschen - Women in German Colonialism , Rowohlt, Reinbek 1982, page 144
  9. ↑ Hanna Reitsch: The indestructible in my life. Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-453-01073-6 , page 53
  10. ↑ Hanna Reitsch: The indestructible in my life. Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-453-01073-6 , pages 53-54
  11. ↑ Karsten Linne: Germany beyond the equator? The Nazi colonial planning for Africa . Ch.Link Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-86153-500-3 , pp. 35 and 175
  12. ↑ Karsten Linne: Germany beyond the equator? The Nazi colonial planning for Africa . Ch. Link Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-86153-500-3 , pp. 34-37
  13. ↑ Hanna Reitsch: The indestructible in my life. Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-453-01073-6 , page 55
  14. ↑ Third plaque of the "Kolo School" stolen . In: Schleswig-Holsteinische Landeszeitung from May 26, 2012
  15. ^ Information from the city of Rendsburg

Coordinates: 54 ° 17 ′ 16.5 "  N , 9 ° 38 ′ 57.3"  E