Paul Brohmer

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Paul Brohmer (born November 8, 1885 in Sangerhausen ; † January 30, 1965 in Kiel ) was a German biologist and biology didactic , founder of the basic biological work Fauna of Germany and a paradigmatic, important and leading representative of Nazi biology didactics.

Life

Paul Brohmer was born in Sangerhausen in 1885 as the son of a railway assistant. After finishing school ( elementary school attendance at the preparatory institute ) he attended the Protestant teachers' seminar in Erfurt . He completed his scientific studies at the University of Jena in 1909 with a doctorate . During his studies he became a member of the Association of German Students Jena . After that he was briefly the private assistant of Ernst Haeckel , from 1910 seminar teacher and senior teacher at Protestant teacher seminars. His further life is dominated by functions in this area.

The fauna of Germany

Brohm was a representative of of Georg Kerschensteiner justified work school movement in biology class. He wrote the identification books for the excursion methodology established by Cornel Schmitt . In July 1914 the Quelle & Meyer publishing house published the first edition of Fauna von Deutschland , the first book with which it should be possible to identify all animal species living in Germany. It complemented the Flora von Deutschland founded by Otto Schmeil and Jost Fitschen in 1903 .

In retrospect, Brohmer described this book as a “risk” that could only “be solved by a young man”, “who was not yet aware of all the difficulties, the obstacles and the existing shortcomings and who was aware of all the objections and other obstacles With a smile, put aside ”(preface to the 9th edition 1964). Only after the publication of the first edition did Brohmer find employees who could make constant improvements and additions; these employees were not only zoologists, but also zoologically trained teachers who did both the technical and educational work. One of the constant improvements in fauna was the inclusion of new marine fauna. Brohmer published them up to the 9th edition in 1964.

The principles of fauna were and are:

  • A one-volume work that can be carried with you on excursions without any problems requires a high information density and restriction to the information necessary for animal identification.
  • Completeness of the species spectrum (which is problematic in invertebrates, especially insects).
  • Instead of the picture guide, Fauna uses identification keys with small sketches of the characteristics that are important for identification. The technique of identification keys only enables the identification of objects, i. H. mostly dead animals and not from observations, such as are common in ornithology .
  • The animals are arranged according to the taxonomy .
  • The book should be suitable for teaching at universities and schools, but it should also be able to be used by interested biologists and laypeople.

Brohmer's fauna is still part of the basic literature for biology studies, for example, and animal identification exercises are often carried out with the Brohmer .

Politicization of science teaching

As early as the Weimar Republic , Brohmer expanded his learning goals to include a state-political dimension. This is made clear by the title "Education for the State of Mind through Industrial Biology Lessons" (1923) as well as the geopolitical objective of "getting hold of as many oil fields as possible", although Germany "is now excluded from these places in the sun ", as he was in 1929 in The natural history lesson suggested for chemistry class.

As part of his professional advancement, Brohmer was appointed lecturer at the Kiel Pedagogical Academy, which was founded as a result of a reorganization of the Prussian elementary school teacher training (transformed into a college for teacher training under the Nazi regime ); a year later he became professor of biology there. At the beginning of the 1930s he was deputy director of this college.

Rise in the National Socialist state

In January 1933, after Hitler was appointed Chancellor of the Reich , Brohmer and the director of the university hoisted the swastika flag over the university building, thus publicly advocating National Socialism . He agreed to the reorganization of the university through the law to restore the professional civil service . From May 1, 1933, he took over the chair for genetics, racial studies, biology and the methodology of teaching natural history. On the same day he joined the NSDAP and became a member of the NSLB . He signed the confession of professors at German universities and colleges to Adolf Hitler , which was published on November 11, 1933 (one day before the Reichstag election).

In 1934 he was given the “permission to hold lectures on racial politics ” as a group speaker and became a district clerk for racial education in the NSLB and clerk for school issues in the cultural community's Schleswig-Holstein Gaudienststelle. Since the HfL was closed due to the war and after the death of its director from 1939 to 1941, he switched to the Elbing College of Teacher Education in 1940 , which was continued as a teacher training institute in 1941 . During the war he directed advanced training courses for biology teachers.

At the same time, Brohmer wrote numerous school books and teaching aids that translate the new racial ideological orientation of Nazi biology didactics into school practice. Several of these works have appeared in multiple editions. Here he merged factual information on biology, ecology and heredity with elements of Nazi ideology. Brohmer demanded:

“It must be emphasized again and again in the classroom that the biological laws that have been determined in animals and plants also apply to humans. B. has worked out about the inheritance phenomena in these living beings, can generally be transferred to humans. "

After 1945

As part of the denazification after the end of the Second World War, Brohmer was one of the few German university teachers who were dismissed. He was released by the British Military Government .

In the Soviet zone of occupation his writings Mensch - Natur - Staat: Basic Lines of a National Socialist Biology (Diesterweg, Frankfurt a. M. 1935), biology lessons and ethnic education (Diesterweg, Frankfurt a. M. 1936), biology lessons taking into account race and heritage (Zickfeldt, Osterwieck 1936) and The Lessons in Life Studies (Zickfeldt, Osterwieck 1943) placed on the list of literature to be discarded.

In 1948 he prepared an exonerating report for the denazification authorities ( Persilschein ) for his colleague Adolf Bracker , who u. a. SS sports advisor and member of the SS association Lebensborn eV .

Brohmer's books continued to be published in the publishers he had supplied before 1933 and 1945, with a focus on animal science. Paul Brohmer died in Kiel on January 30, 1965.

Publications

  • 1913 with Otto Schmeil : Tierkunde for teacher training institutes. Based on the scientific work by Otto Schmeil (3 volumes)
  • 1914: fauna of Germany. Quelle & Meyer, Leipzig
    • as editor: Fauna von Deutschland. A book of identification of our native fauna. 6th edition, Heidelberg 1949; 11th edition, obtained from Wolfgang Tischler , ibid 1971
    • Matthias Schaefer: Brohmer - Fauna of Germany. 22nd edition, Quelle & Meyer, Wiebelsheim 2006, ISBN 3-494-01409-4
  • 1917: Sexual education in the teachers' college. Teubner, Leipzig
  • 1923: Education for state sentiments through industrial biology lessons. AW Zickfeldt, Osterwieck a. H.
  • 1925: Animal identification book. Quelle & Meyer, Leipzig
  • 1929: Natural history lessons. Leipzig
  • 1933: Agricultural crop pests. J. Beltz, Langensalza / Berlin / Leipzig
  • 1933: Biology lessons and ethnic education. Diesterweg, Frankfurt am Main
  • after 1933 (no year) Race Studies, school notebook for biology lessons in elementary schools
  • 1934: Biology lessons taking into account race and heritage. The National Socialist Education Idea in School Lessons. Zickfeldt, Osterwieck / Harz (3rd edition 1936)
  • 1935: Man - Nature - State. Diesterweg, Frankfurt am Main
  • 1936: Die Deutsche Lebensgemeinschaften, Volumes 1–5. Zickfeldt, Osterwieck / Berlin
  • 1936: The partnerships in the service of National Socialist education. In: German education. Aug./Sept. 1936, pp. 497-506.
  • 1940: Combating racial sins by the National Socialist state (=  school books for biology lessons in elementary schools (biology) ). Osterwieck 1940–1943.
  • 1943: Biology lessons and ethnic education. Frankfurt a. M.
  • 1950: corridor and meadow. Guide through the native habitats. Quelle & Meyer, Heidelberg
  • 1950–1955: Germany's flora and fauna. Quelle & Meyer, Heidelberg
  • from 1950 co-author of Georg Stehli: Which animal is that?
  • 1964: Fauna of Germany. 9th edition, Quelle & Meyer, Heidelberg (last edition with Brohmer as editor)

literature

  • Hans-Christian Harten, Uwe Neirich, Matthias Schwerendt: Racial hygiene as an educational ideology of the Third Reich. Bio-bibliographical manual. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-05-004094-7 ( preview on Google Books ).
  • Detlev Franz: Biologism from above. The image of man in biology books . DISS, Duisburg 1993, ISBN 3-927388-38-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Harten Neirich, Schwerendt 2006, p 187 at Google Books
  2. ↑ Detlev Franz: Biologism from above.
  3. ^ Astrid Klußmann, Andreas Pfaff, Katharina Reinsdorf, Christiane Schimmer: Adolf Bracker, a lecturer at the college for teacher training during and after the Third Reich. In: Ibid., Pp. 132-154.
  4. ↑ Louis Lange (Ed.): Kyffhäuser Association of German Student Associations. Address book 1931. Berlin 1931, p. 28.
  5. ↑ a b Harten, Neirich, Schwerendt 2006, p. 44 at Google Books
  6. ↑ Ines Jowanowitsch, Christiane Müller, Miriam Schlink: The development of biology teaching in Germany. Proseminar paper, 2002
  7. ↑ Preface to the 22nd edition at DeutschesFachbuch.de ( Memento from July 29, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  8. ^ Paul Brohmer: Fauna of Germany. 21st edition, together with Herwart Bohlken, Hans Reichenstein, K. Sattler and Eberhard G. Schmidt, provided by Matthias Schaefer . Quelle & Meyer, Wiebelsheim 2002; 23rd edition, ibid 2010, ISBN 978-3-494-01472-2 .
  9. ↑ Günter Höffken: On the institutionalization and development of the middle school in Prussia from 1872 to 1945 with special consideration of chemistry lessons, Chapter 5
  10. ↑ a b c uni-kiel.de: The synchronization of teacher training at the Kiel teacher training center
  11. ↑ a b c d uni-kiel.de: Specialist in racial studies: Professor Paul Brohmer
  12. ↑ http://www.vervielte-schueler.org/1933-45.htm
  13. ↑ George L. Mosse, quoted in: Benjamin Ortmeyer: Fates of Jewish Students in the Nazi Era. Bonn 1998, ISBN 3-89573-077-7 , p. 12 ( PDF ).
  14. ↑ http://www.polunbi.de/bibliothek/1946-nslit-b.html
  15. ↑ http://www.polunbi.de/bibliothek/1947-nslit-b.html
personal data
SURNAME Brohmer, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German biologist
DATE OF BIRTH November 8, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Sangerhausen
DATE OF DEATH January 30, 1965
Place of death Kiel