Philanthropist (Frankfurt am Main)

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I. E. Lichtigfeld School
Philanthropist Frankfurt.jpg
type of school Elementary school , high school
founding 1804/1966
closure 1942
address

Hebelstrasse 15-17

place Frankfurt am Main
country Hesse
Country Germany
Coordinates 50 ° 7 '16 "  N , 8 ° 41' 14"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 7 '16 "  N , 8 ° 41' 14"  E
student about 550
management Noga Hartmann
Website www.lichtigfeld-schule.de

The Philanthropin ( German : Place of Humanity ) was one of the schools of the former Israelite community in Frankfurt am Main . It existed from 1804 until the National Socialists closed it in 1942. With up to 1,000 students, it was the largest and longest-running Jewish school in Germany.

The listed building in the Nordend district was built in 1908 as a school building according to plans by Georg Matzdorff (1863–1930). The artistic design of the facade came from Julius Obst (1878–1939). Since the 2006/2007 school year it has been the seat of the I. E. Lichtigfeld School , a primary school (grades 1-4) with a grammar school (grades 5-9) (in the form of an all-day school ) of the Jewish community in Frankfurt, which was re-established in 1949 .

After the war, the building served as the administrative center of the Jewish community from 1954 to 1978, which it sold to the city in 1978. From 1986 to 2004 the Philanthropin was a town house and seat of the Hoch Conservatory .

In March 2004, the Philanthropin was handed over to the Jewish community in a ceremony and, after extensive renovations, officially opened on October 31, 2006.

history

The establishment goes back to the merchant and imperial court agent Mayer Amschel Rothschild . In 1803, his accountant Siegmund Geisenheimer founded an association in Frankfurt's Judengasse to establish a school and educational institution for poor Jewish children . It was opened in 1804 and school lessons took place in Judengasse. In 1805 the authorities gave permission to open a school outside the ghetto in Schäfergasse. The first main teacher and later director of the school was Michael Hess .

Then around 1840 the school house of the Israelite community was built on the former wooden yard of the Jews in the Rechneigrabenstraße 14/16. At that time it was considered the most beautiful schoolhouse in town. In 1845 the philanthropist and the elementary school moved into the building, which had previously been housed in the composting yard immediately south of the Dominican monastery . As one of the first schools in Frankfurt, the Philanthropin received a gymnasium in 1860 , which was then replaced by a new building in 1881/1882, which in addition to the gymnasium also contained a preschool and a director's apartment. From 1861 to 1870 the linguist Lazarus Geiger worked here as a teacher. In 1877 the Philanthropin finally had about 900 students and consisted of a preschool, a secondary school and a girls' school . This affected the term of office of Hermann Baerwald , who headed the school from 1868 to 1899.

In 1908 the school moved from Rechneigrabenstrasse to the building at Hebelstrasse 17, which was designed by Georg Matzdorff and Ernst Hiller (engineer) . The director of the Philanthropin at that time was Salo Adler , who had headed the school since 1900.

As a state-recognized school, the Philanthropin was also open to non-Jewish students from the start. His motto For Enlightenment and Humanity was an indication that after the dissolution of the ghetto there was also a changed and modern worldview. The teachers working at the Philanthropin in the 19th century represented a religious reform movement which no longer regarded the ritual laws as binding and which had an impact far beyond Frankfurt. From 1855 until his death in 1867, Sigismund Stern , a representative of liberal Reform Judaism, was director of the Philanthropin. Already in 1844 the liberal rabbi Leopold Stein had been engaged, whereupon the chief rabbi Trier resigned from his office. This led to the establishment of the Orthodox Israelite Religious Society , which, with financial help from the Rothschild family, built its own synagogue and school. They were created in 1851 on the property of a stonemasonry at the corner of Rechneigrabenstrasse and Schützenstrasse.

Towards the end of the 19th century, the number of students at the Philanthropin fell to around 450; the children of Jewish parents increasingly attended the town's general schools. The Jewish community ended up having to spend more than half of its tax revenue on the philanthropist. Since the beginning of the 20th century, there have been signs of a stronger re-Judaization, so that even Orthodox parents sent their children to the Philanthropin again. From 1928 it was possible to attend school from kindergarten to high school.

The philanthropist first experienced a heyday in the 16 years of the school management by Otto Driesen . The ex-diplomat, author of Der Ursprung Des Harlequin (1904) and scientific-pedagogical work such as Education for Joy as a Basic Moral Attitude (1928) developed the philanthropist from a traditional Jewish school to a progressive school work. With the expansion to include various branches of the school, the Philanthropin now offered care and training opportunities from kindergarten to university entrance qualification. Among other things, Driesen founded a women's school with boarding school as early as 1922. This Jewish women's school, unique in the German Empire, was very popular from all parts of the country and abroad.

After the National Socialists came to power in 1933, the conditions for the Jewish community and the philanthropist deteriorated increasingly. Driesen tried to point out the possibilities of this country through exhibitions in Palestine. On October 1, 1938, the Reich Ministry of Science, Education and National Education revoked the philanthropist's status as a public school. After the Reichspogromnacht , numerous teachers at the Philanthropin were arrested. Two of them, Brooks and Ernst Marbach , died as a result of their imprisonment. Otto Driesen emigrated to France with his wife before he was arrested. His last sign of life was a letter from September 1941. In April 1939 the Jewish community had to sell the building to the city for a small amount.

The secondary schools had to be closed on April 1, 1941, and the elementary school on June 30, 1942. Rabbi Leopold Neuhaus and Chief Cantor Nathan Saretzki led the last church services for Frankfurt Jews in the Philanthropin. As early as December 1941, students and teachers of the Philanthropin were deported and most of them were murdered in the concentration camps .

After the Philanthropin's closure in World War II, the building was initially used to accommodate foreign workers, then as a reserve hospital, and later as a branch of the community hospital and the university clinic.

From 1954 the building belonged again to the Jewish community, which established its administration here. In addition, the Philanthropin's former gymnasium was home to the Die Crank cinema . In April 1966 there was an unsuccessful attempt to reopen the Philanthropin as a school. In 1978 the Jewish community decided to sell the building to the city of Frankfurt in order to use the proceeds to finance the Jewish community center in the Westend district . The city of Frankfurt subsequently used the building as a meeting place for citizens and had it extensively renovated from 1984–1989. From 1986 to 2004 the Philanthropin was the seat of the Hoch Conservatory and the venue of the Free Drama Ensemble in Frankfurt .

Then the building was converted back into a school and the conservatory moved into a new building in Frankfurt's Ostend . The renovation costs of the Philanthropin of over 15 million euros, excluding the installation costs, were borne by the state of Hesse, the city of Frankfurt and the Jewish community.

The IE Lichtigfeld School

The Jewish community in Frankfurt am Main was the first Jewish community in Germany to re-establish a school after World War II. The I. E. Lichtigfeld School , established as a primary school in 1966, is named after its founder Isaak Emil Lichtigfeld , who was the state rabbi of Hesse and municipal rabbi in Frankfurt from 1954 to 1967.

At the beginning of the 2006/07 school year, the school, which had been housed in the Jewish Community Center in Frankfurt's Westend since 1966, moved to Philanthropin with its 445 students and around 60 teachers. The school was previously a primary school with an entry level and a special level, which was expanded to become an all-day school with an upper secondary level ( secondary level I ). There is a cafeteria where students can dine.

The primary school has a two-year entry level, already with 30 lessons per week, and the following three-year differentiated primary level. The children are admitted at the age of five and from then on are subject to compulsory schooling in Hessen. All pupils pay a monthly tuition fee that is not low, depending on the age group. Socially disadvantaged families and families who have registered several children as schoolchildren can apply for a discount.

From the 2008/09 school year, the two-year entry level was relocated back to the Jewish Community Center in Frankfurt's Westend due to the enormous increase in pupils.

The school also aims to teach its students about Jewish traditions and way of life, knowledge of the Jewish religion and the Hebrew language ( Iwrit ). The profane teaching (secular elementary teaching) is also partially networked with Jewish topics. For example, in specialist German and Jewish and Israeli authors treated in social studies is Holocaust theme. All students visit a former concentration camp . Non-Jewish students are also accepted. The teaching staff consists only partially of Jewish teachers.

Known teachers

Known students

literature

  • André Griemert: Civil Education for Frankfurt Jews? The early philanthropist in the controversy over Jewish emancipation. Tectum, Marburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-8288-2400-3 .
  • Albert Hirsch: The Philanthropist in Frankfurt am Main . Waldemar Kramer publishing house, Frankfurt am Main 1964.
  • Renate Kingma, Traces of Humanity, Help for Jewish Frankfurters in the Third Reich. CoCon-Verlag 2006, ISBN 3-937774-33-5 .
  • Eugen Mayer: The Frankfurt Jews. Published by Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1966.
  • Gerlind Schwöbel : The almond branch should bear flowers again. Memories of the philanthropist in Frankfurt for the 200th anniversary. Lembeck Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 3-87476-448-6 .
  • Norbert Bischoff: Otto Iwan Driesen. Educator, patriot, victim. Self-published, Segnitz 2004.
  • Inge Schlotzhauer: The Philanthropist 1804-1942. The school of the Israelite community in Frankfurt am Main . Frankfurt 1990. ISBN 3-7829-0398-6 .
  • Peter Bloch : My teachers . Frankfurt 2008. (Contains portraits and partly photos of the philanthropist teachers Arthur Galliner , Henry Philipp, Ernst Marbach , Erich Narewczewitz, Julius Plaut, Nathan Saretzki and Leopold Neuhaus ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Our roots are our strength. In: lichtigfeld-schule.de. Retrieved March 19, 2020 .
  2. ↑ school management. In: lichtigfeld-schule.de. Retrieved March 19, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Alexa Blum: The Isaak Emil Lichtigfeld School in Philanthropin . In: Hessian State Center for Political Education and Office for Multicultural Affairs of the City of Frankfurt am Main (Ed.): Religion, Migration and Society . Waldkirchen 2010, pp. 165–169.