Pestalozzi School Montevideo
The Pestalozzi School in Montevideo was founded in the Barrio Peñarol in 1935 . It emerged from a parents' initiative that opposed the National Socialist coordination of the German school in Montevideo, and thus differs from other German-speaking schools in exile , which were mostly founded by emigrated teachers.
The history of the Pestalozzi school
A branch of the German school was located in Peñarol , a barrio in Montevideo. In 1933 she had opposed an attempt at conformity by the National Socialists. The fight for this school lasted two years. Then, on February 24, 1935, a general assembly of the school association took place, for which the National Socialists had only issued tickets for their members and sympathizers - around 60 people. Those who did not have such a ticket (around 150 people) were refused entry to the meeting by the Nazis and the Uruguayan police.
The excluded parents gathered in a bar opposite and decided to found their own school based on the model of the Pestalozzi School in Buenos Aires.
The school
The attempt to “create a new school of pedagogical objectivity and human culture” was initially difficult. The first support came from the Hungarian workers' association in Peñarol, which provided a room for the school in its clubhouse, where Hungarian children were also taught. In May 1935 it was able to start operations. With the support of the “Culture Club of German-Speaking Workers (KKdA)”, parents soon formed a German-Hungarian school association. At the beginning of 1936 a building for the school was found in Peñarol, whose self-image was:
“It is independent of party politics, it serves all upright and free Germans who reject the Hitler dictatorship and who wish to bring up their children in the spirit of democracy and equality of human rights. The Pestalozzi School regards it as its duty to impart real knowledge to the children and it further regards it as its sacred duty to set the spirit of enlightenment and progress against the spirit of injury. "
Classes in the new school began on March 10, 1936. All elementary subjects were taught in German and Hungarian, and the state-required instruction was also in the national language of Spanish. Since the school did not receive any official support, the school association continued to organize support campaigns and also maintained contacts with the Pestalozzi School in Buenos Aires.
While Schnorbach quotes a former student who is said to have attended the Pestalozzi School in Peñarol from 1939 to 1945, the Kießling school only existed until 1940. In comparison to the Pestalozzi School in Buenos Aires , he found that the school was in Peñarol was not able to develop so successfully. She lacked financial support and the support of the German emigrants. After they had acquired basic knowledge of the Spanish language, they would have sent their children to Uruguayan state schools. This may also have something to do with the fact that the political situation in Uruguay began to change: in 1938 general elections were held which were won by Terra's brother-in-law, Alfredo Baldomir . During his presidency, democratic rights became more important again.
literature
- Sonja Wegner: Refuge in a foreign country. Exile in Uruguay 1933–1945 . Verlag Association A, Berlin / Hamburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-86241-407-9 .
- Hermann Schnorbach: For a different Germany. The Pestalozzi School in Buenos Aires (1934–1958) . dipa-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1995, ISBN 3-7638-0353-X .
- Wolfgang Kießling: Exile in Latin America. 2nd expanded edition. Verlag Philipp Reclam jun., Leipzig 1984.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hermann Schnorbach, For Another Germany. P. 203; also: Wolfgang Kießling: Exile in Latin America. Pp. 123-125.
- ↑ Wolfgang Kießling: Exile in Latin America. P. 124.
- ↑ German Unity Against Fascism , Montevideo, No. 2, July 1939, p. 2, quoted from: Wolfgang Kießling: Exile in Latin America. P. 124.
- ↑ Hermann Schnorbach, For Another Germany. P. 204.
- ↑ Hermann Schnorbach, For Another Germany. P. 205.