Reeducation

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Reeducation (or re-education ) is the name given to the democratic educational work planned and carried out by the Allies in connection with denazification throughout post-war Germany and Austria.

The original US-American name is also used today as a generic term for re-education to overcome National Socialism, which was described in other zones of occupation with other terms : the program was called “Reconstruction” by the British, “mission civilisatrice” by the French and “anti-fascist-democratic transformation” “In the Soviet Zone of Occupation (SBZ). In the US Zone, the concept and term later changed to Reorientation (or Re-Orientation ).

Reeducation and reorientation in Germany

As part of re-education, German citizens were forcibly confronted with their war crimes in the American zone in 1945: The picture shows 30 dead Jewish women near the Czech border who starved to death during a forced march forced by the SS .

What all the occupying powers had in common was the desire to transform Germany into a different society after the end of the National Socialist era . The education policy should be an important element in this process.

A distinction is to be made in the re-education short-term measures , which v. a. aimed at the adult population, and long-term measures , which should ensure the re-education of the younger generation as well as the following generations through a special educational policy.

Immediately after the war, the Western Allies, especially the British and Americans, tried to prevent National Socialist ideologies from surviving through political education . Reeducation used panel discussions and talks, film screenings, radio programs and articles in magazines. In the beginning, occasional information events were held, in which participation was sometimes associated with privileges (e.g. larger food rations or the release of food cards only for participants). After the Buchenwald concentration camp was liberated , the then American commander had a thousand residents of Weimar forcibly guided through the concentration camp. From 1946, the focus was shifted from deterrence through clarification of Nazi crimes to conveying positive content ( reorientation ). It was about the conversion of the Western Allied occupation zones into a democratic German state of western character.

The media , education and culture in particular were used for the long-term development of democratic political education . By the beginning of the Cold War caused realpolitik caused mainly in the western zones that many of the measures were weakened early stage or set. Nevertheless, in some areas they had an impact far beyond the founding of the Federal Republic .

media

Mass media offered the most important access to the sections of the population that were no longer in education and therefore played the most important role in re-education alongside educational policy.

The radio stations that emerged after the end of the war were initially under the direct control of the military governments. The British were the first to involve Germans in programming and to loosen censorship.

As a counter-model to the media of the Nazi era, which was centrally controlled by the Propaganda Ministry , the broadcasters were to be transferred to German control, but remained decentralized and independent of state control. The BBC should serve as a model . This met with resistance from the Germans. As a compromise, the public broadcasters with an equal control body ( Broadcasting Council ) emerged. The individual zones of occupation automatically resulted in a certain decentralization of broadcasting. The basic structure developed in this way for broadcasting has essentially survived to this day.

After a few months, the Soviets and Americans began to issue licenses for German newspapers. A forerunner of these newspapers was the Aachener Nachrichten, published since January 1945 . Every licensing was preceded by an intensive review process, and the newspapers were still under Allied censorship . The most liberal licensing policy was pursued by the British, who, with a view to the reintroduction of democracy, were the first to urge that distribution should be as parity as possible and not just personally oriented. In the American zone of occupation, trustworthiness and a politically unencumbered past of the applicants remained a prerequisite for the granting of a license. From 1947 at the latest, strong, independent newspapers were wanted in all three western zones; for direct censorship could not be reconciled with the democratic conception of freedom of the press. In the Soviet zone, however, censorship became a means of forcing the press to follow the new ideological line.

Many of the daily newspapers that are still important today belonged to these licensed newspapers from the very beginning ( Frankfurter Rundschau , Süddeutsche Zeitung ). In the spirit of the new media policy , magazines ( Der Spiegel , January 1947) and weekly newspapers ( Die Zeit , February 1946), which still shape the press landscape in Germany today, were soon allowed to be founded.

basis

In Order No. 4 , issued in 1946 , the Allied Control Council ordered the segregation and destruction of literature and works of a National Socialist and militarist character; while a limited number of them have been exempted from destruction so that they can be viewed for political and historical purposes.

Planning and implementation

For the long-term re-education of Germany, the restructuring of the education system was a high priority. During the war, the later occupying powers had already made more or less extensive preparations for the corresponding measures, sometimes at joint conferences.

The concrete planning and implementation of the measures for the education system nevertheless differed among the individual Allies in their zones of occupation:

US zone of occupation

The United States wanted after the war close all schools in Germany, party and SS -Schulen should be completely abolished. After the denazification of the teaching staff, the curricula and all teaching materials, the elementary, middle and vocational schools should be reopened as soon as possible. The Allied Control Council should then develop programs for universities and high schools . The duration of US President Eisenhower estimated to be around 50 years of hard work. US Army General Lucius D. Clay , military governor of the American government in Germany from 1947 to 1949, took the view that the occupation would have to be maintained for at least a generation if the goals set were to be achieved.

British zone of occupation

The British wanted to denazification "reliable" German in the reconstruction (Reconstruction) participate in the German education system. In addition, there were hardly any concrete plans.

French zone of occupation

France planned to set up the French school system in the French occupation zone in the long term after denazification . Concrete plans for the immediate post-war period or "post-dictatorship" were also largely lacking.

Soviet occupation zone

The most far-reaching plans existed in the Soviet Union, since it wanted to introduce socialism in occupied Germany in full, based on its own model. Measures planned included: nationalization of industry and land reform ; Removal of all Nazi-charged and politically "unreliable" persons from public offices and their replacement by persons with communist, social democratic or at least anti-fascist views, if possible by those persecuted by the Nazi regime; Introduction of the comprehensive school ; new school administration, new textbooks and classroom redesign were already in preparation during the war.

Education policy between 1945 and 1949

Schools in all zones were closed immediately after the occupation. The primary problems (housing shortage, food supply, influx of refugees, etc.) of the military administrations as well as the lack of qualified personnel often pushed questions of education policy into the background, in spite of their importance. The ideologically justified standstill in the Allied Control Council also led to extensive autonomy of the zones, even if the Allies had drafted a common guideline for re-education .

Concrete measures in the individual zones

The concrete measures for re-education in the individual occupation zones were

in the Soviet occupation zone

• “Renewal of the teaching staff” through the dismissal of all Nazi-burdened teachers; Employment of new teachers who were persecuted or dismissed from school service during the Nazi era; New teacher training in 4-8 month courses.
• Abolition of Nazi school books and books from the Weimar period ; new school books had already been prepared during the war or were produced quickly.
• Curricula were initially provisional, then completely redesigned by politically “harmless” teachers committed to anti-fascism .
• The schools reopened on October 1, 1945.
• Abolition of all private and denominational schools , religious instruction became voluntary.
• Introduction of the socialist unified school with influences from reform pedagogy through the participation of school reformers from the Weimar Republic .
• The founding of the SED , which was under strong Soviet influence, deprived social groups of the opportunity to participate in education policy outside of party.

in the British zone of occupation

• Teachers were divided into categories according to their political past: black (party officials etc.), gray (suspicious persons), white (harmless). “Black” teachers were finally fired and only “white” teachers were to teach. Due to a lack of staff, from 1947 "gray" teachers were employed after so-called "tanning courses". T. again set.
• Establishment of pedagogical faculties at all universities, initially, however, young teacher training in a maximum of one-year courses; Exchange programs for teachers.
• At first, school book reprints from the Weimar period and occasionally "harmless" Nazi books were used. Then slowly the creation of new books by German authors followed.
• Curricula should be freed from Nazi ideology and militarism, but in principle be the responsibility of Germany.
• The schools were reopened in autumn 1945 (reasons: pressure from the opening of schools in the Soviet Zone, feared neglect of the youth), with the introduction of the three-tier school system as in the Weimar period.
• Free school education, e.g. T. freedom from learning materials .
• The admission of selected political parties (1945) and the founding of the federal states (1946) led to increased influence of German social groups, especially the churches.
• In Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony , a six-year elementary school was introduced through cooperation between the SPD and the British military administration.
• In the British zone, the countries were the first to receive cultural sovereignty .
• In several larger cities libraries were set up, which were named "The Bridge". In some cities this name has survived to this day, e.g. B. in the name Bridge of Nations as an epithet for the cultural office and the city library in Oldenburg (Oldb) . In other cities, the name “Die Brücke” has been retained for foreign-language holdings in public libraries, e. B. in Düsseldorf and in Osnabrück .

in the American zone of occupation

The measures taken were largely similar to those in the British Zone. The following were different:

• Influenced by John Dewey , the USA strived for a unified secondary school based on the American model as a means of “democratization”. However, this failed due to massive resistance from the churches and the Christian Democrats.
• Introduction of democratic structures in schools ( SV )
• On July 3, 1946, the International Youth Book Exhibition opened in Munich. It was an exhibition of books for children and young people and was the first international exhibition in Germany after the Second World War.

in the French occupation zone

• The teacher question was treated in a similar way to the other western zones.
• Books from the Nazi era were banned; to replace books from Switzerland , Luxembourg and France (partly translated) and new ones were commissioned.
• Abolition of the German curricula; French were used instead; religious education became voluntary.
• The exemplary character of French culture should become clear, as well as historical connections between the occupied territories and France, French should become the first foreign language.
• Start of school operations in September 1945 based on the model of the Weimar Republic.
• France had prepared for a long period of occupation and had long-term plans to switch to the French school system : single schools independent of religion, French grading system, central high school diploma. There was strong resistance from German interest groups (especially the churches).

Joint development of the western zones

Call for "re-orientation" in the American zone of occupation

Through the constitution of the federal states and the successive cession of cultural sovereignty to the federal states, German interest groups quickly gained influence on educational policy. This led to a consolidation of the re-introduced three-class school system of the Weimar style .

Britain and France had severe economic problems rebuilding their own countries and therefore struggled to bear the cost of the occupation. The US eventually took over half of the British occupation costs and launched the Marshall Plan (economic aid for all of Europe). This made the USA the dominant Western occupying power, which also set the tone in education policy.

The USA had a great interest in a strong, non-socialist Germany and pushed the concept through with the other Western Allies. They increasingly withdrew from official internal German politics, and the Federal Republic of Germany was founded in 1949. Western Allied rights that still existed in the FRG were regulated by the occupation statute until 1951 ; some continued until 1990.

The Western integration concept and the questionable nature of “ democratization from above” led to the withdrawal of the Western Allies from the official educational policy in their occupation zones.

Culture

With high-quality cultural offerings, the aim was to encourage Germans to reflect on their own classical tradition and to generate a positive attitude towards the new political systems through culture. Examples of these offers include a. a traveling exhibition with paintings of French modernism, Shakespeare performances (with Laurence Olivier , among others ), performances by the New York City Ballet and the Moscow Bolshoi Ballet .

Follow-up developments after 1949

In the 1950s, the GDR's standardized school was partially deprived of its educational reform elements. The rapid and radical introduction of the standardized school in the Soviet occupation zone and the GDR also led to an ideological burden on this type of school in West German perception. As a result, the unified school ( comprehensive school ) had a comparatively worse position in the educational policy discussion in the Federal Republic than in other countries.

Also in the 1950s, the six-year elementary school in the northern German states was abolished again by Christian Democratic governments.

Although all occupying powers had spoken out against private schools and denominational schools, the conservative forces in West Germany persisted during the Adenauer era to maintain and even expand these types of schools.

In North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria, the Catholic Church, together with the CDU and CSU , opposed all reform efforts of the Allies, so that - apart from the higher education of teachers and the exemption from school fees - conditions in Weimar were largely restored .

The Allies' measures in the media sector had a more lasting effect, albeit more structurally than in terms of content: today's press in Germany, but especially public broadcasting, still clearly shows the form that was given to them between 1945 and 1949.

The legal provisions on re-education and denazification remained unaffected by the Basic Law (see Art. 139 GG).

See also

• Germany 1945–1949
• America house
• 3-phase model from Lewin
• German Educational Reconstruction Committee
• Education system in the GDR
• Press history 1945–1949

Movie

• Germany - Made in USA. How US agents steered post-war Germany. Documentation, Germany, 45 min., 1999, director: Joachim Schröder, production: WDR -Nachtkultur, first broadcast May 26, 1999, table of contents ( memento from December 25, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) by WDR
• How do I become a democrat? Re-education through film. Documentary, commissioned by ZDF , in collaboration with Arte . Directed by Dieter Reifarth, Absolut Medien 2002, 89 min. As DVD 2014, subtitles in German, English, French. Contains excerpts from the American-British newsreel "Welt im Film" as well as from educational, propaganda and documentary films of the time. ISBN 3-8488-4037-5 (2 DVDs; with original texts as extras on .pdf) exact content, material used
• Overgames essay documentary, Lutz Dammbeck, 164 minutes 2015, works on the topic of re-education and tries to classify the poor source situation in a cultural-historical interpretative way

literature

• Kurt Lewin : The solution of social conflicts. Selected Treatises on Group Dynamics. Christian, Bad Nauheim 1953, again in 1968
• Hans-Werner Fuchs, Klaus-Peter Pöschl: Reform or Restoration? A comparative analysis of school policy concepts and measures of the occupying powers 1945 - 1949. Minerva, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-597-10523-8 .
• Manfred Heinemann (Ed.): Re-education and reconstruction. The educational policy of the occupying powers in Germany and Austria. Klett-Cotta , Stuttgart 1981, ISBN 3-12-933300-2 .
• Ellen Latzin: "Reeducation" - "Reorientation": Theory and practice of central concepts of American occupation policy after 1945 , in: Elisabeth Kraus (Ed.): The University of Munich in the Third Reich. Articles , part 1. Herbert Utz Verlag , Munich 2006, ISBN 3-8316-0639-0 .
• Christoph Marx : Reeducation and Power Politics: The Reorganization of the Berlin Press Landscape 1945 - 1947 . Ibidem Verlag, Stuttgart 2001 ISBN 3-89821-085-5 .
• James F. Tent : Mission on the Rhine: Reeducation and Denazification in American-Occupied Germany. University of Chicago Press 1982, ISBN 0-226-79358-3 .
• Dominique Vogel: "Tomorrow you will be the state!" Re-education in school books in the French occupation zone 1945–1949. In: Yearbook for Research on the History of the Labor Movement , Issue 1, 2006

Web links

• Wolfgang Benz : Democratization through denazification and education . BpB, July 13, 2005, in: Information on Political Education , 259
• Elke Kimmel: Re-Education and Re-Orientation . Federal Agency for Civic Education , BpB, October 31, 2005
• Reeducation in the occupied zones: school, university and educational policy , article by Jochem Kotthaus in the future needs memory , October 26, 2004

Individual evidence

1. ↑ on the emergence of the media landscape in post-war Germany
2. ↑ Control Council Order No. 4
3. ↑ Ursula Heuenkamp (Ed.): Guilt and Atonement? War experience and interpretation of war in the German media of the post-war period (1945–1961). Amsterdam 2001, pp. 528-529
4. ↑ Norgaard, Noland. Eisenhower Claims 50 Years Needed to Re-Educate Nazis. In: The Oregon Statesman. October 13, 1945, p. 2, accessed November 19, 2014.
5. ↑ Federal Agency for Civic Education : The Long Road to Democratic School Culture. Political Education in the 1950s and 1960s. November 12, 2002, accessed January 14, 2016.
6. ↑ In Resolving Social Conflicts - Field Theory in Social Science , Lewin deals with the question of how Germany could be democratized through re-education. See also Kurt Lewin: The special case Germany of 1943 ( Memento of the original from June 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. where Lewin ponders the reasons for most Germans agreeing to mass extermination.