Ludwig Auer

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Monument to Ludwig Auer in Donauwörth
The plaque in front of the monument

Ludwig Auer , called Uncle Ludwig , (born April 11, 1839 in Laaber in the Upper Palatinate; † December 28, 1914 in Donauwörth ) was a German Christian educational reformer, elementary school teacher, writer, publisher and entrepreneur.

life and work

Ludwig Auer was the son of a village school teacher. From the age of 6 to 12 he attended his father's elementary school. At the age of 16, Ludwig Auer took care of the vacant school position in Nittendorf on a temporary basis . From 1855 to 1857 he completed the school teachers' seminar in Eichstätt . After completing his training, Ludwig Auer began teaching at the elementary school in his home town, where he briefed 200 children. Auer returned in 1858 as a seminar assistant teacher to his "beloved seminar" in Eichstätt. There he taught for four years at the seminar model school and devoted himself to psychological and scientific studies. In 1864 Ludwig Auer moved to the school in the small and remote village of Schnufenhofen (now part of Seubersdorf ). There the plan matured in him to set up a Catholic pedagogical association to raise and improve the upbringing and education of the people in the spirit of the Catholic Church. To this end, he published the following appeal in 30 magazines and in the Bavarian school newspaper :

" Appeal to all Catholic teachers, clergymen and family fathers: Anyone who, like the undersigned, wishes a closer connection between Catholic teachers and school friends, ... for the time being, please write to Ludwig Auer, school teacher in Schnufenhofen, with his views and advice for further steps , Kgl. District Office Beilngries, Post Daßwang "

- Pedagogical Foundation Cassianeum 1990, p. 8

A few months later, on July 1, 1867, the Catholic-Pedagogical Association in Bavaria was established in Berching , which was renamed the Catholic Educational Association in Bavaria in 1872 . The Bavarian school newspaper , which he had acquired and henceforth called the Catholic school newspaper , served as the association's body . Auer wrote many articles for this trade journal. He founded Monika as a supplement to the Catholic school newspaper . Weekly for the improvement of family education (1869), a year later the literature journal was added.

In 1869 Auer asked to be released from school because he only wanted to work for his club. Ludwig Auer first moved to Stadtamhof , then to Regensburg , and finally in October 1872 to Neuburg an der Donau , where he bought a house for the association in his name and opened a printing house. There was a need for the production of Catholic print products because of the intensified culture war , especially in Prussia, also from outside Catholic institutions, which often moved from Rhenish Prussia , Westphalia and other Catholic areas to the Diocese of Eichstätt . On June 4, 1875, the opening ceremony of the "Cassianeum" founded by Auer together with his wife Philomena took place in Neuburg, which moved to Donauwörth in December of the same year and moved into the Heilig Kreuz monastery acquired by Auer in 1877 , where today there is still one in sponsorship of the school work of the diocese of Augsburg led Catholic secondary school there.

The Cassianeum, named after the holy martyr Kassian , the patron saint of teachers , was a comprehensive institution that was divided into three sections:

  • a scientific department,
  • a practical department and
  • a business department.

To promote the goals of the Cassianeum and for financial security one founded

  • a printing house,
  • a publishing company,
  • an antiquarian bookshop.

Right from the start, the Cassianeum was intended to teach, stimulate and entertain children and adolescents with carefully selected Catholic literature. “Uncle Ludwig”, as Auer was called in Donauwörth, wrote a number of books for young people as well as folk and youth narratives , which appeared primarily in the children's and youth magazines he edited. One example is the particularly successful children's magazine The Guardian Angel. A friend, teacher and leader of the children , which appeared up to 1973, most recently under the titles Freund der Kinder and Freund der Jugend .

Soon the Cassianeum was one of Donauwörth's largest employers - in 1900 it already had 2,000 employees (including editors, prefects, teachers, booksellers, packers, printers, bookbinders and expeditors).

In 1910 Ludwig Auer converted his institution, which was his private property, into the legal form of a foundation , the Pedagogical Foundation Cassianeum .

After Ludwig Auer's death, his two eldest sons took over the management of the foundation. Among them and Auer's grandson Max Auer, a Roman Catholic priest who also sexually abused the children, the foundation 's Heilig Kreuz children's home , which opened in 1916, developed into a horrific facility with terrible grievances, in which the inmates stayed until the home was closed Tortured, ill-treated and scarred for their lives by educational staff in the 1970s. A paternalistic spirit with strict chains of command and obedience, which goes back directly to Ludwig Auer's educational concept, was, according to the working group, which examined the history of the facility in 2018 on behalf of the diocese of Augsburg , formative for the house from the beginning and has defended itself made practically impossible against grievances for the pupils. Peter Kosak, the director of the Cassianeum, called the processes described "monstrous".

The middle school in Donauwörth is named after Auers. Furthermore, a street, a monument and a park remind of Ludwig Auer. After the revelations through the publications from 2019, a memorial may also be built in Donauwörth for the victims of his pedagogy.

Cassianeum magazines (selection)

  • Catholic school newspaper (founded 1868)
  • Monika. Weekly paper to improve home education (founded 1869)
  • From the past and the present (founded in 1872, taken over by the publisher in 1874)
  • Guardian Angel. A friend, teacher and guide of the children (founded 1875)
  • Ambrose. Journal for the boards of the Christian men's associations and for the pastoral clergy (founded 1876)
  • Notburga. Magazine for servants (founded 1877)
  • Raphael (founded 1879)
  • Honorary award for God, King and Fatherland (founded 1880)
  • Echoes of the Annals of Our Lady of Lourdes (founded 1881)
  • Kneipp leaves (founded 1891)
  • Sheets of Institutional Education (founded 1911)

Works as a (youth) writer

  • Maria von Brabant (1897, five-act tragedy)
  • Klaus the Servant (1886)
  • Franzi the housewife (1885)
  • Swabian folk tales (1886)
  • Funny in Honor (1887)
  • The School Ludwig (1887)
  • The Besentoni von Birkenfeld (1890)
  • From the children's world. A picture book (1890)
  • Joseph Schoderer, merchant and wine merchant in Donauwörth (1904)

monument

The Munich sculptor Eugen Mayer-Faßold created the “Onkel Ludwig” memorial for Donauwörth. The inauguration took place on the occasion of the 50th anniversary celebration on June 4th, 1925.

literature

  • Johannes Traber: The Cassianeum in Donauwörth. Festschrift for the 25th anniversary of its existence . Donauwörth 1900 Internet Archive .
  • Heinrich Kautz:  Auer, Ludwig. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1953, ISBN 3-428-00182-6 , p. 431 ( digitized version ).
  • Pedagogical Foundation Cassianeum: Ludwig Auer on his 150th birthday. Donauwörth 1990.
  • Christiane Schloms: Ludwig Auer. A Christian educational reformer at the end of the 19th century. Donauwörth 1994.
  • Cassianeum Pedagogical Foundation: 1875–2000. 125 years of Auer. Donauwörth 2000.
  • Manfred Berger : Auer Verlag, Donauwörth. In: Kurt Franz, Günter Lange, Franz-Josef Payrhuber (Hrsg.): Children's and youth literature. A lexicon. Meitingen 1995–2009, 22nd supplementary delivery October 2004, pp. 1–13.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Information on the life and work of Ludwig Auer on the Cassianeum homepage , accessed on February 23, 2019.
  2. ↑ a b Christopher Beschnitt: Catholic children's home has been a place of horror for decades. In: Katholisch.de , February 21, 2019, accessed on February 23, 2019. See also the final report .
personal data
SURNAME Auer, Ludwig
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Uncle Ludwig
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German elementary school teacher, writer, publisher and entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH April 11, 1839
PLACE OF BIRTH Laaber
DATE OF DEATH December 28, 1914
Place of death Donauwörth