Schönbrunn Educational School

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Schönbrunn Castle

The Schönbrunn Educational School , also known as Schönbrunn School or Kinderfreundeschule Schönbrunn, was a pedagogical training facility of the Austrian Kinderfreunde in existence from 1919 to 1924 .

history

The “Reichsverein Kinderfreunde”, which was created in 1917 through the merger of the “Alpine Workers 'Association Kinderfreunde” and the “Workers' Association Kinderfreunde für Niederösterreich”, were left with the military and hospital barracks of the KuK army that had become vacant with the collapse of the monarchy and could be converted into hoards and homes. This resulted in the establishment of further local groups: in addition to the earlier holiday activities, attempts were made to organize more and more afternoon care, which soon led to a lack of trained carers.

The rooms in Schönbrunn Palace , which had been requisitioned by Max Winter , Vice Mayor of Vienna and chairman of Kinderfreunde, since August 1919 , were suitable for a training institute that officially opened on November 12th (school operations had already started in October). Particularly noteworthy in this context is Hermine Weinreb , who comes from a middle-class background and is chairwoman of the Kinderfreunde Wien-Alsergrund, whose vehement demand for such a school made a significant contribution to its realization.

The management was entrusted to Otto Felix Kanitz , who was assisted by the elementary school teacher Anton Tesarek , who otherwise mainly directed the children's group that was housed there at the same time.

The curriculum of the three-year day school corresponded roughly to the upper level of a secondary school, with a special emphasis on psychology, pedagogy and political training. The approximately 25 female students per year (there were only a few male candidates and only two completed the course) were between the ages of 15 and 18.

As of January 1, 1922, there were three courses with a total of 71 students; the third course, started in 1921, was run as a boarding school. After it turned out that there were male interested parties, but practically never came because of their occupation, an evening school was run from 1923 and the day school closed. At that time, however, it was already foreseeable that the emerging world economic crisis would drastically worsen employment opportunities for graduates. The school did not have public rights, so it could not be completed with a Matura . At the instigation of the Reich Secretary for Children's Friends Alois Jalkotzy , the sometimes derogatory so-called “socialist monastery school” had to restrict its operations in 1924 for financial reasons. After the February fights in 1934 (also known as the Austrian Civil War ), the children and their team of teachers were forced to stay in Schönbrunn by the Austro-fascist ones Engelbert Dollfuss government prohibited.

Faculty

The level of training can be evidenced by the names of teachers (excerpt):

Heinz Weiss describes the significance of the Schönbrunn School for the pedagogy of the 20th century as follows:
“The educators allowed the new pedagogy to flow into the work with the children in the child friends' groups, thereby setting in motion an educational snowball system. The result was a fundamental rethink among the teachers of the last century. "

Working group of socialist educators

From the group of around 100 graduates, the Working Group of Socialist Educators (AGsE) was formed - as a private initiative that was tolerated by the party, but was in no way sponsored - in whose environment Karl Popper was often to be found.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Heinz Weiss, exhibition catalog 2007, PDF p. 7.
  2. ↑ Maticka / Zvacek in "75 Years ...", p. 75.
  3. ↑ Heinz Weiss, exhibition catalog 2007, PDF p. 12.
  4. ↑ Heinz Weiss, exhibition catalog 2007, PDF p. 11.
  5. ^ Exhibition catalog 2007, PDF p. 12.

literature

  • Heinz Weiss u. a .: The educators of the Schönbrunn circle. (Exhibition catalog 2007, see web links)
  • Jakob Bindel (Ed.): 75 (seventy-five) years of childhood friends: 1908–1983; Sketches, memories, reports, outlooks. Jungbrunnen publishing house, Vienna-Munich 1983. ISBN 3-7026-5536-0
  • Herbert Gantschacher : About Wilhelm Jerusalem in Witness and Victim of the Apocalypse Exhibition Catalog, ARBOS Vienna-Salzburg-Arnoldstein 2007/2008
  • Uwe Fuhrmann: The Schönbrunn Children's Friends School, in: Messages from the Archives of the Workers' Youth Movement (2011), 2, pp. 57–60.

Web links