School nailing
As school Nailings during be First World War in schools in the German Empire carried out nail men called. For a small donation, pupils were able to drive a nail into a wooden sign with war motifs during a school event . As with the war nails, the money raised was used for charitable purposes to support war invalids , wounded and war orphans .
practice
For the practical implementation of the nail campaigns , the school blackboard factory Gottfried Glasmachers from Essen produced nail shields with war motifs designed by artists such as Carl Ederer , Josef Huber and Edmund Körner . In an advertising brochure, the company offered 28 different motifs, including the iron cross (with oak leaves, with halo), warrior helmet, sword with snake, eagle head with snake, eagle on rock, lion, warship with seagull, soldier with hand grenade, submarine as well as a praying soldier. The various motifs were also marketed as postcards. The students nailed a wooden sign with pre-drilled holes for a donation of 2 to 5 pfennigs with black, silver-colored and gold-colored nails. A round wooden sign with a diameter of around 70 cm offered space for around 3,000 to 4,000 nails, so that a profit of around 70 to 200 marks could be achieved per sign .
School nails found support from school authorities and teachers' associations. They were usually carried out within the school as part of a solemn event at which patriotic speeches were given. After the nailing, the wooden sign was often hung up as a war memorial in schools or classrooms.
development
The phenomenon of war nailing spread from March 1915 with the nailing of the Wehrmann in Eisen in Vienna in Austria-Hungary and in the German Empire . A single school nailing took place on November 2, 1914 in the Kaiserin Auguste-Viktoria-Schule , a lyceum in Schneidemühl in the province of Posen . The 12-year-old student Elfriede Kuhr wrote about this in her autobiography :
"2. November 1914: ... We now have a large 'Iron Cross' made of wood on the wall of the school, into which 1000 iron nails have to be hammered. They are black nails and those that look like silver. When all the nails are driven into the cross, it is really an "iron" cross. Each student can hammer in as many nails as she wants. The black nails cost 5 pfennigs each, the silver 10 pfennigs. I've already driven in two black and one silver nails. It is fun. The proceeds will be used for war purposes. "
In the school area, nailing only appeared on a large scale in 1916, when interest in nailing, which had been taking place publicly since 1915, had already declined significantly, which was due to the war events with costly battles ( Verdun , Somme ) and the poor supply situation for the population. In May 1916, the Essen Association of Youth Donation for War Orphans made an appeal to German teachers to carry out nailing campaigns in schools. In June 1916, the association “ Jugenddank für war-disabled” was founded in Berlin from among the teaching staff for the same purpose . By 1917, both clubs had sold around 22,000 shields to nail. Since other organizations also nailed schools, it is believed that around 30,000 shields had been nailed by the end of the war. Subsequent calculations showed that the school nailing had brought in around 2.5 million marks in revenue. Nailed in all school types (elementary school, middle school, high school) and by boys and girls alike. It is estimated that the majority of the nearly six million German schoolchildren drove in nails during World War I or were present at a school nailing. The nailing was extremely popular with school children, which lasted until the end of the war in 1918.
effect
As a festive school event, nails strengthened the sense of community among the students and had an effect on their families. In relation to the need for funds for war relief, the proceeds achieved reached a modest level. On the other hand, the propaganda effect of school nailing is to be assessed much higher, as it strengthened morale on the “ home front ”.
literature
- Bavarian State Committee: The nailing of war symbols. National Foundation for the Relatives of Those Fallen in the War , Munich 1915, OCLC 634164681 .
- Richard Wossidlo: Suggestions for nailing memorial signs. in: Sunday supplement of the Mecklenburgische Zeitung of October 10, 1915, pp. 2-4, Schwerin 1915, OCLC 603898861 .
- Martin Kronenberg: The importance of the school for the "home front" in the First World War Collections, relief services, celebrations and nailing in the German Reich. (= The Importance of School for the 'Home Front' during World War I. , Dissertation, Universität Göttingen 2010) Göttingen 2010, OCLC 838290876 .
Web links
- "From 1st grade to upper-class" - school nailing in the German Reich on kriegsnagelungen.de
- Dietlinde Munzel-Everling : War nailing in schools. (PDF; 1.86 MB) munzel-everling.de
- Dietlinde Munzel-Everling: War nails - Wehrmann in Eisen - Nagel-Roland - Iron Cross. (PDF; 1.98 MB) munzel-everling.de
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Martin Kronenberg: School fight on the "home front" in World War I: nailing, relief services, collections and celebrations in the German Reich. Disserta Verlag, Hamburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-95425-496-5 , pp. 261 and 327.
- ↑ Jo Mihaly: … there’s a reunion! A Girl's Diary 1914–1918 . P. 94