Paula Prince

Paula Fürst (actually: Paula Fuerst ; born August 6, 1894 in Glogau ; probably died at the end of June 1942 ) was a German reform pedagogue of Jewish origin.

Education and career

Berlin memorial plaque on the house, Kaiserdamm 77–79, in Berlin-Charlottenburg

Stumbling stone in front of her house, Kaiserdamm 101, in Berlin-Charlottenburg

Paula Fürst was the second and youngest child of the Jewish businessman Otto Fürst and his wife Malvine, nee. Rosenberg. After the early death of the father, the mother and her two children moved to Berlin in 1906 . There Paula attended a secondary school for girls, then the Victoria Luise-Oberlyzeum , where she successfully passed the teacher examination in 1914. She then studied French and history at the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin . During her studies she came into contact with Montessori education through Clara Grunwald . Since the young teacher was convinced of the new upbringing , she gave up her studies and devoted herself entirely to Montessori pedagogy.

Fürst acquired a Montessori diploma through studies in Berlin and Rome , which entitles her to run Montessori homes and schools. When the first Montessori class in Berlin was opened at the 9th elementary school in Berlin-Wilmersdorf in 1926, she was put in charge. In addition to her work as a teacher, she often gave public lectures on Montessori education. She always emphasized that the child, unlike the adult, has a right to the development of his own being .

Life and work under the National Socialist dictatorship

Fürst's career was suddenly interrupted in 1933 when the National Socialists " seized power " . The Montessori pedagogy was soon disavowed as un-German pedagogy and banned as incompatible with the National Socialist ideology : “It has been proven that exclusively Jewish ... elements took up the Montessori pedagogy as a welcome method and made propaganda for it. Because 1. the un-German and egoistic attitude suited them, and 2. with the help of the well-thought-out Montessori material, they were able to assert that corrosive power of individualism in the young children, which makes people lonely and incapable of a lively national community " .

Due to her Jewish origins, Fürst was forced to give up her position as a teacher. In the same year, however, she was offered the management of the Theodor Herzl School . After the Nazis' seizure of power, this Zionist- oriented private school experienced a veritable rush of Jewish students, including Adin Talbar , Jakob Hirsch and Jona M. Rosenfeld . Within a year the number of students had increased from 200 to 600. As many pupils of Jewish origin in the general schools were exposed to increased reprisals and harassment , more and more parents registered their children to attend Jewish schools. The few Jewish schools that were allowed by the National Socialists were administratively subordinate to the " Reich Association of Jews in Germany ".

The November pogrom of 1938 also marked a decisive turning point in the National Socialists' school policy. All Jewish private schools were banned. The Reich Association of Jews was given the responsibility to provide school education for Jewish students. Leo Baeck , the chairman of the "Reichsvereinigung", offered Fürst the leadership of the school department in this institution. In this position all Jewish schools in Germany were subordinate to her. After a short period of reflection, she accepted the offer despite the difficult conditions under which this office was to be held. A colleague there became her partner, Hannah Karminski .

The November pogrom led to chaos and dissolution in the Jewish school system in Germany. Many parents and children, but also teachers, tried to escape the incessant National Socialist terror by fleeing abroad. A regular school operation was hardly possible under these framework conditions. Nevertheless, by autumn 1939, Fürst succeeded in restructuring the Jewish school system and ensuring that Jewish pupils received continuous education.

In August 1939, Fürst accompanied a children's transport to London. Britain had relaxed its immigration regulations and allowed 10,000 Jewish children to enter . Although numerous friends and colleagues urged her to take this opportunity to emigrate to England, after completing the task she returned to Germany shortly before the outbreak of World War II. Fürst refused every opportunity to leave Nazi Germany on the grounds that life would lose its meaning if she abandoned the people entrusted to her.

Second World War and last years of life

The outbreak of war on September 1, 1939 heralded a new, even more difficult phase in the field of Jewish schools. At that time, around 9,000 school- age children remained in Germany . Since it had been propagated for years that people of Jewish descent had no future in Germany, the aim of school education had shifted to preparation for emigration ( Hachschara ) as early as 1933 . In August 1941, however, emigration was generally prohibited and the living conditions of the remaining Jewish families became increasingly depressing. Through the consistent application of the Nuremberg Laws , they had been robbed of their material livelihood in many cases and had to endure humiliations in public almost every day. From September 1941 they were deported eastwards to the concentration and extermination camps . During this time, Fürst tried hard to keep the school going well. At the end of June 1942, however, the National Socialist administrative authorities ordered all Jewish schools to be closed with immediate effect. At this point, however, Fürst was no longer in Berlin.

Deportation and murder

On June 19, 1942, the Gestapo surrounded the building of the Reichsvereinigung and selected around 50 employees for the deportation , including Fürst. Five days later, on June 24, 1942, she was deported to Minsk along with 201 other people on the 16th Osttransport (the so-called "Penalty Transport of the Reichsvereinigung") . Most likely she was murdered there or later in an extermination camp in Eastern Europe.

Honors

Berlin has paid tribute to Paula Fürst several times: In November 2000, a memorial plaque for her and the Theodor Herzl School was placed on Kaiserdamm 17-19. Not far from Kaiserdamm, the Charlottenburg Community School was founded in 2009, which was named "Paula-Fürst-Schule" in 2013 and in which many educational reform elements are implemented. A private music school (district of Lichterfelde ) and a street (district of Lichtenberg ) also bear her name.

On June 11, 2015 , a stumbling block was laid in front of her former home, Berlin-Charlottenburg , Kaiserdamm 101 .

In Freiburg im Breisgau , the youth welfare organization's free school has been named after her since mid-2008.

In Fürstenwalde / Spree , the “vocational school of the FAWZ” was renamed “vocational school Paula Fürst der FAWZ GmbH” in 2019.

Fonts (selection)

• Montessori education . In: Westermannsmonthshefte , 1927 / H. 851, p. 42 ff.

literature

• Manfred Berger : Research on the situation of the kindergarten system in the Third Reich. In: Our Youth , 1988 / H. 2, p. 64 ff.
• Manfred Berger: Paula Fürst - a forgotten Montessori teacher. In: Montessori. Journal of Montessori Education. 2005 / H. 3, p. 147 ff.
• Manfred Berger: Leading women in social responsibility: Paula Fürst. In: Christ and Education. 2005 / H. 4, p. 27.
• Martin-Heinz Ehlert: Paula Fürst. From the life of a Jewish educator. Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-938414-76-6 .
• Lola Samrotzski-de Bergé: Women in the service of Montessori pedagogy. Munich 2008 (unpublished diploma thesis), pp. 135–179.
• Adin Talbar (Ed. Of the German version): Memories of the Theodor Herzl School in Berlin. Jerusalem 1998.
• Joseph Walk : Jewish School and Education in the Third Reich. Hain, Frankfurt am Main 1991.

Web links

Commons : Paula Fürst  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• District lexicon on berlin.de
• Paula-Fürst-Strasse. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )
• Literature by and about Paula Fürst in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Prince 1927, 46
2. ↑ quoted from Berger 1988, p. 64.
3. ↑ cf. Samrotzski-de Bergé 2008, pp. 140 ff.
4. ↑ cf. Samrotzski-de Bergé 2008, p. 168 ff.
5. ↑ See Gottwaldt, Schulle: Die "Judendeportationen" [...], 2005, pp. 240–242.