Lokstedt high school

The Oberschule Lokstedt was a high school founded in 1931 on the Sootbörn street in Niendorf (then part of Großlockstedt , since 1937 part of Hamburg ) and the forerunner of today's Bondenwald high school . The former Bauhaus- style school building now serves as the Sootbörn artists' house .

The building

Before the first special classes were established in 1931/32 as a forerunner of the later Lokstedt secondary school, a remarkable new school building was already in place. The building of the middle school , in which the new school was accommodated as a guest, was designed by the architects Ernst and Wilhelm Langloh, who were pupils of Walter Gropius and who were also based on Le Corbusier . In 1929 they created a modern building in the Bauhaus style with six regular classrooms for around 200 students and with various specialist rooms and a large auditorium that also served as a gym. (A sports field was only added in 1950.) Her work on Sootbörn in Hamburg-Niendorf quickly became an architectural work of art that attracted specialists from home and abroad. Exterior and interior design were a perfect combination that proved itself in everyday school life.

Creation of the school

The Lokstedt Oberschule, always called Olo by everyone involved, was founded in 1931/1932. At Easter 1931, as the beginning of a secondary school, a first sixth class was set up as a "special class" and housed in the building of the middle school in Niendorf am Sootbörn. A second “special class” followed there at Easter 1932 and was transferred to a private secondary school association, which was gradually recognized as a state-authorized institution by the responsible authorities in Schleswig. In 1934 the young school received new staffing and the headmaster Dr. Hans Reese. In 1937 the school came under the direction of Hamburg.

From the beginning boys and girls were taught together ( co-education ). The headmaster Dr. Hans Reese remained director of the Olo until the war, was drafted in September 1939 and has been missing since 1944. He was represented by various colleagues. From 1942 to 1945, Dr. Bernd Müller the school. No girls were admitted in these years (1939 to 1943). It was only at the end of the war and afterwards that the space and transport problems forced the girls to return.

Continuation

Due to the chaos of the Second World War and the resulting lack of space, not only the middle school and the high school remained dependent on the common building. At times, elementary school classes , the auxiliary school and the economic office were added. In 1950 z. For example, 43 classes with over 1530 students had to be taught in a house that had been designed for 200 students. That meant teaching in several shifts until 1955.

In 1947 the Olo consisted of 14 classes with 361 students. From 1953 the number grew again significantly, for various reasons. In 1955 there were 18 classes with 536 students. At the end of the time in the old building on Sootbörn, the school with the old name of Olo even had around 700 pupils in over 20 classes.

School life

After the war, the Olo experienced a new beginning with 18 new teachers from the war and pre-war times. The new headmaster was Dr. Rudolf Maack, who opened the school on October 3, 1945 with a speech. Maack was a musical person who had made a name for himself in Hamburg and far beyond as a dance theater expert and critic. He made sure that the Olo became an arts school. The teachers Friedel Hollern (music), Marie Vagt (speech training and drama) and Roda Steinke (art) were important supporters.

In the first post-war years, the annual class trips played an important role, as the parents were usually unable to travel with the children. The goals were mostly the school camps , for example “ Puan Klent ” on Sylt . In the early years after the war, for example, a pupil could experience up to ten class trips in the usual eight school years.

Since 1950 the school week has started on Monday morning with half an hour of music and / or reading in the auditorium for all students. On Thursdays the so-called community hour took place in the third school lesson, again for everyone in the auditorium, in which there was a lecture from a subject or an artistic performance. Often artists from abroad were guests. Several festivals were celebrated during the school year. In the summer there was at least one school excursion, on the last day of school before the big holidays the sports festival on the sports field next to the school, in winter a school ball, also with parents, in the Winterhuder Fährhaus (with a raffle to raise money for class trips) and the carnival festival in "Glass box" that the students designed themselves. In addition, various amateur play performances by individual classes during the year and once a year a performance in which students of all ages and teachers were involved. Friedel Hollern composed a musical that was performed by teachers and students. Several times a year, pieces of music were performed by the students, for example on House Music Day. In all of this, the active design by the students was very clear and desired. This was also evident with the class representatives , the student parliament and the school representative . Older students took on so-called sponsorships for younger students who needed special help. A school newspaper, Olo-Post, provided the necessary information and opinions. All of this was promoted by the teaching staff.

It is remarkable how confidently and naturally the new teaching staff implemented this pedagogy immediately after the Second World War and the reign of National Socialism. The college of the first post-war period mostly retired in the late 1960s, with Dr. Maack at the helm in 1967. This ended an era that had primarily been shaped by him.

Reuse

The time of sole use of the Olo in the “glass box”, as everyone involved called the modern building with its many and large window fronts, did not last long. The runway at Hamburg Airport was extended and brought close to the building. As a result, the machines flew more and more frequently with great noise close over the roof of the school. In addition to the noise, there was a risk that a machine could hit the roof or fall. At the end of the 1950s, the Olo had to be relocated. The foundation stone for the new school building was laid on December 1, 1958 at Bondenwald in Niendorf. From 1959 to 1963 the new rooms of the now called Bondenwald Gymnasium could be occupied.

The orphaned 3-story glass box was "reduced" to one floor and served as the school board's furniture store for many years. It was not until 1992 that some artists succeeded in giving the rest of the building a new purpose as the Sootbörn artists' house. Despite the reduction in the number of architectural works of art, something of the will of the Langloh architects can still be recognized and appreciated.

Literature and Sources

Grigat, Horst (ed.): Hamburg-Niendorf, from the Stone Age to the present. Self-published, 2nd edition, Hamburg 1984.
Festschrift: 25 years of high school in Lokstedt 1932-1957
Archive of the Bondenwald grammar school
Langloh, Ernst and Wilhelm: New Sytheses of Technology and Architecture. Stuttgart 1931