Pioneer afternoon
A pioneer afternoon in the GDR was a regular gathering of all members of the pioneer organization of a school class. The meetings generally took place on Wednesday afternoons and were mostly under the supervision of the class teacher. In 1981, 98 percent of all students of the corresponding age groups were members of the pioneers, so that the pioneer afternoon can be viewed as an extracurricular activity for the respective school class. Pioneer afternoons took place in the school where possible. In addition to the leisure activities, they also served as a political influence.
Contents of the pioneer afternoons
The content of the pioneer afternoons was varied. In addition to more or less non-political leisure activities such as hiking, going to the cinema, theater or zoo, there were also explicitly politically oriented afternoons. Guests could be invited to the pioneer afternoons. Sometimes parents or members of the sponsor brigade were involved, especially on excursions and trips, as in these cases at least one supervisor for every 9 students had to be involved as a supervisor.
The "Handbook for Friendship Pioneer Leaders" mentioned the following aspects and examples:
- 1. Participation in political life
- Examples: research into the political traditions of the working class, political discussions, solidarity with "friendly socialist states"
- 2. Socially useful, productive work and scientific and technical activity
- Examples: work assignments (pioneer subbotnik ), collection of recyclable materials, play and craft streets for other children, museum visits, trade fair for the masters of tomorrow
- 3. Responsibility for learning
- Examples: craft street, knowledge street, learning conference, festival of the Russian language
- 4. Cultural and artistic activity
- Examples: visits to the cinema, theater and museums, book reviews, book reading by the campfire, board games, fairy tale afternoons, singing afternoons
- 5. Sports
- Examples: cross-country runs, ski hikes, netball, soccer, cycling, tobogganing, snowball fights, ice cream carnival, scavenger hunts
- 6. Tourism
- Examples: walking, cycling, skiing and water walks
In the handbook for friendship pioneer leaders it is stated that “it is not possible to differentiate between political and factual activity”. "In accordance with the character of the pioneer organization as a political mass organization, all activities - regardless of the area - have a political character." In reality, this very much depended on the class teacher or leader of the pioneer group.
Ernst Thalmann
The transfer of knowledge about the namesake of the pioneering organization, Ernst Thälmann , the former chairman of the Communist Party of Germany, played an important role . The manual of the friendship pioneer leaders provided for one pioneer afternoon per school year. For example, according to the handbook, students in class one should learn from pioneers in class four why the organization bears his name, collect pictures of workers' leaders, and create a wall newspaper . The knowledge imparted was coordinated with the curriculum in German and music.
Learning conferences
A special form of the pioneer afternoons were the learning conferences, at which the performance level of individual students was discussed in class. At the end of the 1950s and the beginning of the 1960s, when criticism and self-criticism were also used intensively in these meetings, there was a requirement that every student had to formulate a self-commitment in writing that should be an expression of an achievable goal. Later, individual pioneers committed themselves to achieving a certain performance goal in school. In addition, weaker students were offered a learning sponsorship . Under certain circumstances, in subsequent conferences there was a report on the success achieved or the failure of the "learning sponsorship" project.
Recyclables collections
As part of pioneer afternoons, recyclable materials, so-called secondary raw materials, in particular glass and waste paper, were collected and brought to the SERO purchasing points. To do this, the students brought the old materials with them to school or moved from door to door. The money raised was donated for relief campaigns (e.g. in Vietnam ) or used for leisure activities. In the 1979/80 school year, for example, 73 million bottles and glasses, 20,000 tons of scrap, 30,000 tons of paper and 9,000 tons of old textiles were collected by students.
Fonts
- Siegfried Schmidt: Like Ernst Thälmann - loyal and bold. Handbook for Friendship Pioneer Leaders , Der Kinderbuchverlag, 1973.
literature
- Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (Ed.): Free German Youth and Pioneer Organization Ernst Thälmann in the GDR , Verlag Neue Deutsche Gesellschaft, Bonn 1984.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Deutsches Historisches Museum Berlin: Catalog, Stations of Life in Germany, Section Young Pioneer .
- ↑ Siegfried Schmidt: Like Ernst Thälmann - loyal and bold. Handbook for friendship pioneers, Der Kinderbuchverlag, 1973. pp. 254–282
- ↑ Siegfried Schmidt: Like Ernst Thälmann - loyal and bold. Handbook for Friendship Pioneer Leaders , Der Kinderbuchverlag, 1973. p. 255
- ↑ René Börrnert: Ernst Thälmann as a leading figure in communist education in the GDR , dissertation , p. 254 ff.
- ^ Deutsches Historisches Museum Berlin: Catalog, Stages of Life in Germany, Section Thälmann Pioneer, Figure 2
- ^ Deutsches Historisches Museum Berlin: Catalog, Stages of Life in Germany, Section Thälmann Pioneer, Figure 3