Nikolaus Ehlen

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Nikolaus Ehlen (born December 9, 1886 in Graach an der Mosel , † October 18, 1965 in Essen ) was a German peace-loving teacher. He is considered to be a pioneer of self-help settlement construction, rooted in Catholicism .

Life

Nikolaus Ehlen was born as the son of the Moselle winemaker Johann Peter Ehlen in Graach near Bernkastel. He felt called to priest at a young age and entered the Trier seminary after graduating from high school . After studying theology for two semesters, however, he changed his plans and studied physics , chemistry , mathematics and philosophy at the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster from 1910 to 1913 . He was a student of Joseph Geyser . After the state examination and doctorate , he switched to the Hohenzollern-Gymnasium Sigmaringen as a study assessor .

From November 1916 he took part as a war volunteer in the First World War in Champagne and before Verdun . He then continued his activities as an assessor in Sigmaringen until it the city Velbert in 1919 as a senior teacher or teacher took over for mathematics and chemistry in their service. Under the influence of Friedrich Wilhelm Foerster's pedagogy , it was important to him to impart self-knowledge and "self- education " to the students. His reform pedagogy is clear from the following self-testimony:

“ One day there was a successful caricature of a teacher on the board of my high school. The director (the one in a black frock coat with a dazzling white collar) comes to me indignantly: 'A shame for this class and school! We'll find out the author. Otherwise he would be severely punished. ' I asked the director for a free hand in the investigation. Then I talked to my class. I praised the successful drawing. - 'But it must be very painful for the old gray professor on the blackboard! You are far too decent for such an offense. I'm expecting the student in my apartment this afternoon who did it. ' And he came. We set the punishment together. From that day on, I had the absolute trust of the old director and my class. "

The inner-city high school in Velbert, where Ehlen worked as a teacher for many decades, was named after him in 1982. In the entrance area of ​​the school there is a bust and, since 2017, an interactive wall installation depicting the life and work of Nikolaus Ehlen.

family

His marriage to Maria Stummel had eight children (Maria, Ludwig, Ruth, Norbert, Elisabeth, Johannes, Genoveva (Veva) and Nikolaus).

Political positions

Ehlen’s older friend and mentor since his early student days, Ernst Thrasolt , introduced him to the ideas of the Catholic youth movement , which developed shortly before the First World War parallel to the existing groups of the wandering bird . Ehlen made a lasting impression in the young movement. The maxims represented by him were based on the reform of life , the Sermon on the Mount and on closeness to nature and homeland.

Under Thrasolt's influence he found the Peace Association of German Catholics . He was also a member of the International Union of Reconciliation . At first Ehlen was also a member of the Center Party , but was excluded from there. In 1928 he stood for election as the top candidate of the radical pacifist Christian Social Reich Party founded by Vitus Heller in the Reichstag election. The 110,000 votes won were not enough for a seat in parliament. On the part of the National Socialists , Nikolaus Ehlen was vilified, imprisoned and banned from writing because of his pacifist and international reconciliation stance. Briefly arrested in 1933, he signed a declaration that he no longer wrote the settlers' magazine Lotsenruf , which he published and was finally banned by the Nazi government in the summer of 1939, in the spirit of the peace movement, but remained unbroken, as emerged from his defensive speech , which was published posthumously in parts. From the Second World War Ehlen returned as a lieutenant in the artillery .

Ehlen gained importance as a pioneer of self-help settlement construction . Thousands of settlers, organized in the Ring Deutscher Siedler (RDS), which he founded , owe him their family-friendly home on their own soil. State and church paid tribute to his services. After his death in Essen on October 18, 1965, the then Housing Minister Paul Lücke paid tribute to Ehlen’s importance for housing construction policy in the post-war period. Nikolaus Ehlen made his hometown Velbert an honorary citizen and named the school of his work after him. Numerous streets in western Germany are named after him and there is a Nikolaus-Ehlen settlement in the Worms suburb of Horchheim.

Quotes

No one may be forced into military service against the majesty of personal conscience.

Awards

  • 1951: Cross of Merit (Steckkreuz) of the Federal Republic of Germany
  • 1961: Large Federal Cross of Merit

Web links

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  1. ↑ a b Barbara Wolandt and Gerd Wolandt: Nikolaus Ehlen - a life for the neighbor (= historical contributions, volume 7). Stadtverwaltung, Velbert 1986, ISBN 3-926133-03-1 ( excerpts ( memento of the original from December 25, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and remove then this note .; PDF; 88 kB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.service-civil-international.org
  2. ↑ Who was Nikolaus Ehlen? Retrieved February 11, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Yvonne Szabo: Velbert School honors its namesake . ( waz.de [accessed on February 11, 2018]).
  4. ↑ Announcement of awards of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. In: Federal Gazette . Vol. 3, No. 250, December 29, 1951.
personal data
SURNAME Ehlen, Nikolaus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German teacher and pioneer of self-help housing developments
DATE OF BIRTH December 9, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Graach on the Moselle
DATE OF DEATH October 18, 1965
Place of death eat