Marks Haindorf Foundation
The Marks-Haindorf-Stiftung was a charitable corporation under public law in Münster . The main concern of the foundation was the integration of the Jewish citizens of Westphalia. The facility, named after Elias Marks and Alexander Haindorf , existed from 1825 and 1866 to 1940 and maintained a school in Münster.
history
The Marks-Haindorf Foundation was founded on November 28, 1825 as an association for the promotion of handicrafts among the Jews and for the establishment of a school in which poor and orphaned children are taught and future Jewish school teachers are to be trained . During this time the club life flourished, which was also shown in the establishment of numerous comparable Jewish foundations, influenced by the writings of Christian Wilhelm von Dohm .
The Westphalian physician Alexander Haindorf submitted the statutes of the association that he had drafted to the Münster district government on October 17, 1825 . After this had been approved on November 17th, the official establishment of the association could take place and a circular was sent in which he named the establishment of a school as the goal.
“In which both poor and orphaned children, taught free of charge, as well as future useful school teachers, are to be prepared under the guidance of a teacher who has previously been trained in a seminar. The same association also intends, as stated in its statutes [...], to encourage Jewish youth to learn and practice useful crafts. "
The goals of the association were also the improvement of the Jewish education system in the province of Westphalia , civil and constitutional equality of the Jewish population as well as general human education as the ennoblement of humanity . Measured by its orientation towards the reform movement of philanthropism, Haindorf can be seen as an early representative of reform Jewry.
In the spring of 1826 the Jewish elementary school Am Kanonengraben was opened in the city center of Münster. Schoolchildren of different faiths and social classes were accepted, which was made possible by the Jewish community . Classes in co-educational classes were taught by Jewish and Christian teachers. The language of instruction was German, and religious instruction was held separately for Jewish, Protestant and Catholic students. In this context, it was important to Haindorf on the one hand to maintain the respective faith and on the other hand to maintain mutual respect between the groups. Hebrew could be offered as an elective.
In 1826, Ober-President Ludwig von Vincke , who had long approved of Haindorf's commitment, proposed that the association also be responsible for the Rhine Province . This also resulted in a change of name to the Association for Westphalia and the Rhine Province for the education of elementary teachers and the promotion of craftsmen among the Jews . As a private initiative, the association was not allowed to accept any public or private donations, which is why Haindorf endeavors to have the elementary school recognized in a ten-year process. This took place in 1839, not least through a donation of 25,000 thalers by Elias Marks. At the same time, this meant being registered as a Jewish school and thus no longer being allowed to accept students of other denominations.
According to a report by the Münster district government in 1830, the Haindorf elementary school was the most important Israelite school in the Münsterland just one year after it was founded . This is slowly establishing itself as a middle school or higher city school . The elementary school enjoyed a good reputation among the enlightened Christian bourgeoisie in Münster because of its above-average educational standard. In addition, the teachers enjoyed a secure position, as the teaching was not directly interwoven with community life, but relied on other private donors. During this time Salomon Blumenau was a student of the foundation.
Alexander Haindorf died in 1862, his son-in-law Jakob Loeb took over the chairmanship of the association. Under his leadership, it was converted into a public corporation in 1866 as the Marks-Haindorf Foundation .
From 1870 to 1873 Jakob Loewenberg attended the teachers' seminar of the Marks Haindorf Foundation. In his later career he tried to popularize the spirit of the foundation throughout Germany: the synthesis of Jewish tradition with Prussian loyalty to the king and German patriotism. Loewenberg emphasized this in his literary work and his work as a teacher in Hamburg.
In 1878 Felix Coblenz began his teacher training at the Marks-Haindorf seminar.
In 1901, the placement of apprenticeships in the craft industry was discontinued due to the growing importance of natural sciences and technology . The foundation thus gave up an area originally set out in the statutes. At the same time, the Jewish community in Münster grew and with it the number of students. The time of the German Empire under Wilhelm II was the last heyday of the Haindorf elementary school, the spirit of Reform Judaism gaining in importance throughout Germany around 1900. From 1900 to 1911 Meier Spanier was head of the teachers' seminar at the Marks-Haindorf Foundation. His students were allowed to visit the Münster Zoo free of charge , which was made possible by the friendship between Eli Marcus , a former student of the foundation and a wealthy businessman, and the zoo director Hermann Landois .
In 1905, an expert report by the Higher Presidium of the Province of Westphalia described the school's methods: In general , a good spirit blows in the local institution: the seminarians are brought up in and for national and patriotic sentiments.
At the beginning of the First World War , the four seminarians of the last seminar class volunteered for the army. The then director Moritz Katz wrote to the Provincial School College:
- At the beginning of the mobilization, the four pupils of the first seminar class volunteered for the flags and were found fit. Two are already set. Julius Kaufmann is currently serving in the Metz Infantry Regiment No. 67 in Münster, Emil Kanowitz in the 8th Hussar Regiment in Paderborn. According to their reports, the other two will be called up for army service in the next two weeks.
The parents of the students turned out to be particularly willing to donate. The war loan of the pupils of the Marks-Haindorf Foundation was the huge sum of 309,800 marks. The foundation's environment provided 2.5% of the provincial capital's total war bonds with only about 50 students.
In 1926 the teachers' college was dissolved, and in 1933 all municipal subsidies were canceled. As a result of the November pogroms in 1938 , the Marks-Haindorf Foundation also suffered vandalism and anti-Semitic riots on its premises. On December 17, 1938, the state subsidies were canceled without replacement.
From 1939, the building served as one of the 14 “ Jewish houses ” in Münster, into which Jews were forcibly committed before they were deported to the extermination camps. The Marks-Haindorf-Stiftung ceased to exist in 1940 when it was forcibly transferred to the Reich Association of Jews in Germany .
The school building at Am Kanonengraben survived the Second World War and the anti-Semitic terror, an information board commemorates the foundation. From 1949 until the new Münster synagogue was rebuilt in 1960, the building housed the Jewish community center. In the Jewish Museum Westphalia , the Marks Haindorf Foundation is mentioned in connection with Alexander Haindorf's life's work. The Marks-Haindorf-Stiege street is in the immediate vicinity of the Marks-Haindorf-Stiftung building .
principal
- Joseph Gutmann (1895–1900)
- Moritz Meier Spanier (1900-1911)
- Fritz Leopold Steinthal (1919–1938)
- Julius Voos (1938-1942)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Freund, p. 34.
literature
- S. Braun: The Marks-Haindorf Foundation . In: HC Meyer: From the history and life of the Jews in Westphalia . Frankfurt 1962.
- Barbara Ernst: The Marks Haindorf Foundation - a Jewish teachers' seminar in Münster as an example of the assimilation of Jews in Westphalia in the 19th century . Munster 1989.
- Susanne Freund: Jewish educational history between emancipation and exclusion - the example of the Marks Haindorf Foundation in Münster (1825 - 1942) . Verlag Schöningh. Münster u. Paderborn 1997. ISBN 3-506-79595-3
- Arno Herzig : Alexander Haindorf's importance for pedagogy in Westphalia. In: Westfälische Forschungen 23 , 1971. S. 69ff.
- Gisela Möllenhoff; Rita Schlautmann-Overmeyer: Everyday school life of Jewish children in Münster . In: Jewish families in Münster 1918-1945 . Part 2.1: Treatises and documents 1918–1935. Verlag Westfälisches Dampfboot, Münster 1998.
- Wilhelm Schulte: Westphalian heads. 300 life pictures of important Westphalians . Aschendorff, Münster 1977. ISBN 3-402-05700-X , pp. 100f.
- Hans-Joachim Schoeps : Alexander Haindorf (1784-1862) . In: Westfälische Lebensbilder , Vol. 11, Münster 1975. pp. 97–111