National political educational institutions for girls
The National Political reform schools for girls (NPEA) were state boarding schools in the era of National Socialism in Germany , Austria and Luxembourg . These boarding schools corresponded to the National Political Educational Institutions (Napola) for boys and were under the legal supervision of the Ministry of Science under Bernhard Rust . The SA , SS and Wehrmacht also had an influence on them. In contrast to the educational institutions for boys, they did not become the subject of public controversy in the post-war period , as none of their graduates had such an important career that their upbringing in a Napola would have been discussed.
History, organization and structure of boarding schools for girls
The first proposal for the establishment of such schools can be found in a paper by the SA-Standartenführer and Studienrat at the Napola in Potsdam- Neuzelle Fritz Kloppe in 1934. He called for gender equality under National Socialism. Both sexes should be able to contribute to the National Socialist worldview, men in war and women by giving birth to children for the “ Führer ”.
Achern
The school in Achern was aimed at pupils from the Upper Rhine and its neighboring areas. The school was housed in the Illenau , a former sanatorium and nursing home. On December 19, 1940, this was closed by order of the National Socialist rulers. Most of the former patients had fallen victim to the Nazi euthanasia murders. The school in Achern started operations in October 1941 with a seventh and eighth grade in an outbuilding in Illenau. One month after moving to Illenau, on November 17, 1941, the school had to leave the school building; After three months, because of the contradiction of the Ministry of Finance, it had failed to finance further elite institutions for girls from the Reich budget. The school was renamed and continued as the " Deutsche Heimschule Schloß Iburg ". She would have been the only Napola for girls on German soil.
Hubertendorf-Türnitz
After the annexation of Austria , the Federal Educational Institutions (BEA) came under German control in 1938. The first boarding school was at Hubertendorf Palace in Blindenmarkt , Lower Austria ; it had previously been an Austrian school for girls. The structure of this school was similar to that of the National Political Educational Institutions for Boys; the classes were also referred to as trains. There were trains 1–8 (corresponding to classes 5–12). When the BEA was converted into a boarding school, the pupils of non-Jewish origin were taken on if their parents so wished. The school was divided into two parts, the upper level was in Hubertendorf, the lower level, train 1–4, in Türnitz , since no suitable building could be found.
Colmar mountain
After the occupation of Luxembourg was from August Heissmeyer on Schlossberg in Colmar-Berg , another boarding school founded. Colmar-Berg was built according to the typical procedure of these boarding schools by creating a “subsidiary”. The school in Hubertendorf-Türnitz served as the mother institution and provided its 11th grade and three teachers for the subsidiary institution. Schoolchildren “from all parts of the Reich” and “also Luxembourgers” could apply for the ninth grade of the first year of 1941. Further classes should gradually be built up accordingly. At the beginning of the 1943/44 school year, according to today's class counting, the school comprised grades eight to eleven with a total of 92 students. Colmar-Berg was the most luxurious of the schools with 200 rooms and 16 bathrooms. On the first floor there was the reception room, which was decorated entirely in red and gold and the ceiling of which is decorated with many colorful coats of arms. There was also a very large dining room. In addition, there was a playroom with a grand piano, a game and pool table.
After the liberation of France and the approaching front, the school received the order to leave on August 28, 1944. Schoolchildren and teachers were briefly accommodated in the Napola Bensberg. Since they could not stay there, they were taken to Reichenau , where the girls' boarding school resumed its schooling in October 1944. When the Allies invaded the school in 1945, it was closed.
Selection of the students
In order to be able to make a selection, the teachers received a “leaflet” that stipulated the criteria according to which they should judge the pupils: The candidates should be physically completely healthy, “ racially impeccable ”, “clean” in character and suitable for community life and be gifted. The girls were tested in several subjects.
In addition, tests of courage took place for the candidates; mostly they looked like that non-swimmers had to jump from a tower into the water, from which they were then taken out by older students who could swim well. If schools did not have a swimming pool, the following alternative tests of courage were used: The applicants had to shimmy over a rope that was a few meters above the ground or a slope or they had to jump into a jumping mat from the first or second floor of a building . These tests of courage served to put the candidates' “strength of character” to the test.
Completion of the entrance exam
At the end of the entrance examination, the names of those who had passed the examination were called in front of the assembled applicants. The selection at the boarding schools was intended to make it clear what high demands the Nazi state placed on its future elites; At the same time it should be made clear that these girls would be generously sponsored by the state.
teachers
The teachers had to meet two criteria: they had to have a state-recognized teaching qualification and be particularly suitable for boarding school service. Applicants should be under thirty years of age. Most of the teachers were appointed to boarding schools by the Ministry of Culture without ever having applied there; only female, single teachers were allowed to teach. They were expected to be young, nature-loving and womanly educators. The teachers were supposed to convey the ideal image of the National Socialist woman , with long braided hair and traditional costume .
Lesson content
The NPEA had to follow the educational focus of their school program: 1. “Character education”, 2. “Physical education” and 3. Scientific “intellectual education”. The NPEA was set up in line with the Nazi education concept. The genders were strictly separated from one another and taught, educated and trained in a gender-specific manner . Even in exceptional cases, for example due to the war, the NPEA did not educate both sexes together, nor did both sexes indiscriminately with the same program.
Officially, boarding schools followed the curriculum of high schools. They joined the already existing forms of high school in their curriculum. However, the institutions followed their own plans in the area of physical exercise, music and religion classes. So religion was not taught, the number of hours for music and sports was increased. The following subjects were taught in the sixth to twelfth grades: German studies and German , history , geography , arithmetic / mathematics , biology , chemistry , physics , the foreign languages English and Latin , art education , music , housekeeping , handicraft , nursing / health and employment studies. However, the female upbringing took place only to a limited extent in comparison to other girls' schools. The focus was on physical and character education .
Sports
Sport was the second most important point of the planned curriculum. The ministry justified the high sporting demands placed on boarding schools with the fact that a perfect sporting education does not reduce cognitive performance, but rather promotes them by “increasing energy and health”. In the morning, the students had to do a 15-minute morning exercise. Depending on the weather, there were also outdoor running and gymnastics exercises. There was more physical education in boarding schools than in other schools. The sporting exercises of the planned curriculum for these schools included athletics , gymnastics , gymnastics , swimming and folk dance as well as skiing and riding lessons . (The sports offer at the Napolas for boys was significantly more extensive, depending on the school, field sports , boxing , fencing , sailing , gliding , rowing , shooting and motor sports were also offered there.) Outside of boarding school life, the students also had to perform in sports, in sports Competitions in direct measurement with other schools or at (supra) regional sporting events up to state championships. The inspection stipulated participation in the following competitions: apparatus and floor gymnastics , ski championship fights, sports festivals of the bans of the Hitler Youth (HJ) responsible for them , regional and Reich youth championships, summer solstice games of all institutions. The essential components of physical education were: daily sports, team games and competitions.
Character education
The aim of character education at the NPEA was to shape the pupils' personality according to National Socialist standards. It was in the service of a type that served the purpose of “ breeding ” a special “type of human being”. The National Socialist national comrades should not develop into individuals on the basis of self-realization, but internalize and embody the Nazi criteria. Character shaping was the main point of education. The comradeship sought by the National Socialists was expressed in forms of control and rule in which difference and autonomy were rejected. The NPEA students had to exercise the Nazi forms of control and rule in their class groups and to exclude those who did not meet the demands placed on them.
Education for class and national community
The class community was the basis of community education in these schools. Boarding school accommodation and the remote location of the schools deliberately sealed off families and friends and kept contacts with friends and family to a minimum. Classmates and teachers should replace family and friends. This replacement was not voluntary, but a requirement of the boarding schools and also served to remove parental authority . A lot of time was spent with classmates and teachers, up to 24 hours a day. Often the whole class slept in one large dormitory. The bedrooms became smaller and smaller for the older age groups, which then also reduced the number of students in one room. How many shared a room depended on the spatial possibilities of the individual boarding schools; There were no single rooms at the schools. The most important rule about them was that the students should show responsibility towards their comrades. Offenses should be reported immediately to avoid collective punishment.
Under the national community also missions were understood: The services expressed themselves in work in weaving and spinning mills . There were also assignments during grape harvests, "Eastern assignments" in the Warthegau , wood collecting, hospital visits , training to become a nurse's assistant in hospitals in the area and work aids in kindergartens.
The official aim of these services and missions was to train the schoolgirls to be good leaders . However, the services and missions primarily served to educate the character regarding the willingness of the students to work. Readiness for action was expected and demanded by the students at all times, not only in everyday school life, but also towards members of the people during their services and missions. In this context, willingness to work meant that the students should do their utmost to achieve the expected performance and to show willingness to meet the demands and requirements placed on them.
The boarding school and the Association of German Girls
The first inspector of the boarding schools, Joachim Haupt , and Reich Minister Bernhard Rust were against cooperating with the Hitler Youth . It was not until August Heißmeyer in 1937 that all female pupils from boarding schools should join the Association of German Girls (BDM). Membership in the BDM became an admission criterion for the elite school. However, the students were not assigned to the respective local sub-organization, but formed their own groups. The uniforms, ranks in schools as well as work and home evenings of the school program were adopted from the BDM model. The uniform was not an institutional costume and was only worn during operations.
literature
- Horst Ueberhorst : Elite for the dictatorship. The National Political Educational Institutions 1933–1945 . Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 1985, ISBN 3-7610-7232-5 .
- Stefanie Jodda-Flintrop: "We should become intelligent mothers": National political educational institutions for girls . 3. Edition. Books on Demand, 1985, ISBN 3-8391-2663-0 .
- Stefan Baumeister: Nazi leadership cadre. Recruiting and training until the beginning of the Second World War 1933–1939 . Hartung-Gorre, Konstanz 1997, ISBN 3-89649-160-1 .
- Ursula Aumüller-Roske: Women's life. Images of women. Women's story . Centaurus, Pfaffenweiler 1988, ISBN 3-89085-277-7 .
- Ursula Aumüller-Roske: The National Socialist Educational Institutions for Girls in “Greater Germany”: Small Careers for Women? In: Lerke Gravenhorst (ed.): Daughter questions: Nazi women's history. Kore, Freiburg / Br. 1990, ISBN 3-926023-81-3 , pp. 211-236.