St. Mary's Town and Country School

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The St. Mary's Town and Country School was a private, non-denominational and co-educational school in northwest London district London Borough of Camden . The school, which was run as a day school and boarding school after the Second World War, existed between 1937 and 1982. The school was primarily managed by Dr. Elisabeth Paul (née Selver), who fled Germany in 1935. Her fiancé at the time, Heinrich Paul, whom she married in April 1937 in Hampstead , followed her a year later. Both had to leave Germany for political reasons or because of their Jewish descent , which means that their history and that of the school they set up in England are part of the history of schools in exile .

The history of the school

The school was founded in 1932 by a Mrs. A. Geary as St. Mary's School . Little is known about this early phase, which ended with the sale to the Pauls in 1937. The British History Online only states: “St. Mary's Town and Country school started in 1937 when a small school called St. Mary's was taken over in co-operation with Mrs. Ena Curry, of Dartington Hall, as a progressive educational day school. “That is at least misleading, because on the one hand it remains unspecified with whom Ena Curry cooperated, and on the other hand the school still existed under the name St. Mary's School and in the following years did not work as a “town and country school”, but initially as a coeducational day school.

It was Elisabeth Paul with whom Ena Curry (* March 7, 1900, † January 13, 1992) worked together on the new school project. She was the wife of William (Bill) Curry (1900–1962), the longtime director of the reformist Dartington Hall School . How the contact between Dartington Hall School and the Pauls came about is not documented.

How long the cooperation with Ena Curry lasted and why it was ended is also not documented. On the website about St. Mary's School , which is maintained by former students, “Mrs E Paul & Mrs Curry” are still listed as “principals” for 1941. For the years 1942 to 1945 there were no entries about the school in the sources used by the alumni for the evaluation, and in 1946 "Henry GA Paul and Mrs Elisabeth Paul Phd" were named as "principals". Heinrich Paul stayed in this position until 1956. After that, only Elisabeth Paul is listed as director.

It is now interesting who the two people were who took over a private English school together with Ena Curry in 1937. Elisabeth and Heinrich Paul, she Jewish, he Protestant, emigrated from Germany in 1935 and 1936 respectively and acquired St. Mary's School . They both come from Darmstadt , their parents' houses were only about 350 meters away from each other in the same district, the Johannesviertel , which was shaped by the founding era . It has not been established whether they already knew each other because of this neighborhood; however, from the Darmstadt population register data and the documents in the archive of the Frankfurt University it is understandable that both of them studied modern philology in Frankfurt for at least one semester in 1922 . Since the late 1920s at the latest, however, a close friendship must have existed between the two, which led them first to Berlin and then together to emigrate to England.

Elisabeth Paul, née Selver

Elisabeth Paul's life before her emigration has been extensively researched:

The previous history shows that following her doctorate, Elisabeth Selver taught for about two years at the Bergschule Hochwaldhausen and the Paedagogium in Darmstadt and from 1932 on at the private forest school Kaliski (PriWaKi). She had a doctorate in literary studies, but had no dedicated teacher training - in contrast to her partner and husband, who, as a study assessor in Germany , had acquired the qualification for higher education at high schools. What was the pedagogical foundation from which she started her career as director of an English private school? How much was she influenced by the forest school pedagogy that she got to know in 1932/1933 through her work at PriWaKi, or which further reform pedagogical ideas shaped her? Despite these unanswered questions, she was, as far as one can read from the many student memories, at St. Mary's School over the years the dominant person who determined what went on at school. An example of these student memories is that of Ernie Weiss (who came to St. Mary's School in 1937 and moved to Beltane School after the end of World War II ): “The school was owned and run by Elisabeth Paul for most of the time supported by her husband Heinz Paul. ”Elsewhere he specifies this initial assessment:“ Elisabeth Paul was a tall, lively woman who was enterprising, impressive and assertive. Beneath her overpowering macho image, I felt that there was some warmth and empathy that she kept hidden most of the time. She was a linguist and spoke fluent English, French and German. Heinz Paul (we called him 'Higgy' - I forgot why) mainly supported his wife behind the scenes, and maybe that was a masterpiece. I don't remember actually teaching, maybe he wasn't qualified to do it. It presented itself largely as a general factotum. ”And about the time a few years later, during the war, when Heinrich Paul took over a position in the local civil defense, Weiss remembers:“ We all knew that Ms. Paul was the main role in their partnership played and she actually ran the school; we felt that she was very happy to see him doing some important community service. "

Ernie Weiss also draws attention to another life circumstance: the Pauls were childless, but: “The Pauls were foster parents or guardians for a young adult of below average intelligence, Michael. He was a big, strong guy and yet very friendly. His only passion in life was the cinema organ, which he pretended to play most of the time. He was forbidden to use the pianos because he was too clumsy with it, but he hummed and hammered wherever he could, mostly on the peculiar windowsill, with great zeal and energy - but without finesse. "

Elisabeth Paul's mother, Amalie Selver (born August 27, 1867 in Nuremberg - † May 17, 1948 in rugby ) was also part of the family. The Darmstadt rabbi widow also succeeded in leaving Nazi Germany in 1938 and found a new home in England. Her departure must have taken place between March and October 1938, as can be seen from the correspondence between the administrator of Amalie's and Elisabeth Selver's property, which is under state tutelage. This administrator informed the “foreign exchange office at the regional finance president Berlin” on October 3, 1938, “that the mother has also become a foreigner under foreign exchange law because she has also relocated to England, or will not return from a visit to England to see her daughter becomes."

Despite her age, Amalie Selver still supported her daughter's school operations, as Priscilla Wilder, an early pupil recalled in October 2003: “There was Madame Selva or was it Silva? A petite but powerful woman and Elisabeth Paul's mother. She wore a Gürtelgehänge (chatelaine), and many keys dangling from her waist. She was the mistress of the groceries and had the keys to the storage room. She never learned more than a few English words, which forced us to speak German to her. She communicated with Harry (the cook and former groom and groom) using gestures and individual expressive words, either German or English. "

In the memories of the students, which cover all phases of school development between the pre-war period and the late 1970s, Elisabeth Paul plays a significantly larger role than her husband. But her image is not clear, it fluctuates between that of the strict principal and that of a woman who could also be warm-hearted and arouse interests in literature and foreign languages. Priscilla Wilder's memories reflect this positive side of Elisabeth Paul: “Elisabeth Paul, our director, had an enormous influence on me. My love of the language and a certain zest for life filled me with the longing to be part of this European heritage that was so shaped by culture, personal sophistication and refinement. Elisabeth gave me my first pair of high-heeled shoes that I wore when I took my exams at Malvern School for Girls. They were taken away from me as soon as I came back, and I never saw them again. As a teacher and friend, Elisabeth kept encouraging me, and whenever I went back to England I would go to her at the Chiltern Hills nursing home. She was a very bright and passionate woman who preferred her favorites, but I was happy to be one of them. "

Natalie Muzlish, née Besser, who attended St. Mary's School from 1953 to 1961 , remembered 2002 less enthusiastically: “Ms. Paul was a linguist and spoke fluent French and German. She was a formidable (forbidding) person who seemed to tower above everyone. She always believed in acting in agreement with the parents in punishing and disciplining students at every opportunity - and possibly to the detriment of the child. After more than 40 years since leaving school in 1961, I can now look back and see the bigger picture. "

Max Weiner, who was a student at St. Mary's School around 1967 , came to an even more drastic assessment of Elisabeth Paul: “I remember Mrs. Paul, and yes, she was eccentric in her behavior, despite the fact that she was very elegant, a German Lady Bracknell, that's how I think of her. Mr. Paul was always above everything. ”Lady Bracknell is a character from Oscar Wilde's play The Importance of Being Earnest . An analysis of the play said of her: “Lady Bracknell is first and foremost a symbol of the Victorian seriousness and misfortune it produced. It is powerful, arrogant, reckless to extreme, conservative and orderly. In many ways it represents Wilde's negative opinion of the Victorian upper class, their conservative and repressive values ​​and power. "

A recurring moment in the memories of former students are the admission interviews that Elisabeth Paul conducted with the children and their parents. Harry Trigg, who came to school with his sister in 1959, recalled in 2010: “My father, my sister and I were interviewed by Ms. Paul in her office. Had I known the word eccentric at this tender age, I would have applied it to them, as so many have done before me. Lillian and I were escorted out of her office to do puzzle tests while she and our father discussed our educational needs. It appears we were interviewed by someone with a psychiatric background. When we were allowed to re-enter the 'ivory tower', she and our father seemed to have come to some sort of agreement. Mrs. Paul was wearing a fur coat, the office heater was turned on and the window was wide open. She shook the front of her coat to express how hot and stuffy it was in there. She informed me that as a Canadian I was allowed to wear long pants. That was part of the negotiation, as my father informed me later. "

It will later become clear that Elisabeth Paul's eccentricity tended to increase with age and was one of the reasons for the inglorious end of St. Mary's School .

Heinrich Gustav Adolf Paul

As with Elisabeth Paul, the most important features of Heinrich Paul’s life up to their mutual emigration can be traced.

There are no documents that reveal his life in England, and from the many memories of former students of St. Mary's School it can be seen again and again that he was always in the shadow of his wife at school, even though he was the trained pedagogue and one could have expected reform pedagogical approaches from him. The former students could not identify the reasons for this at the time, they can only be deduced from the files on the compensation requested by Heinrich Paul under the Law on Compensation for Victims of National Socialism (more on this in the main article "Heinrich Paul").

Memories of Heinrich Paul

In the schoolchildren's memories, the ironic glances at him predominate: “Heinz Gustav Adolf Paul ('Henry' or 'Higgy') - he loved nothing more than playing the piano for himself in the ballroom or driving away with the dog 'Monty' in his sports car . I think he was actually a composer who sometimes taught German and wrote school reports. ”Gay Marks contributed an unflattering memory from 1947–1948:“ A shriveled (wizened) Mr. Paul told us Greek myths with a fat German Accent and wore a black beret. ”In contrast, it sounds a little more pleasant in the memories of Harry Trigg, based on the years 1966/1967:“ There were the smells of wild flowers in the air, the open fire and storytelling with Mr. Paul at night outside the main house, the open-air theater; it was just a different feeling. "

It has already been pointed out above that Heinrich Paul was involved in civil defense during the war. But even this is judged with ironic distance by the alumni: "He looked very similar to Field Marshal Montgomery when he wore his uniform and beret and was very proud of this resemblance." And also an alleged heroic deed around 1940 During the evacuation of the school to the coast it quickly turned out to be a laughing stock: “On another occasion, we were all escorted to the back of the house when one of us noticed what looked like a mine floating in the waves. Very brave, Mr. Paul crawled Indian style on the water's edge to examine what was going on, and finally came back a little shy (and wet) with a large medicine ball bubble (twice the size of a soccer ball)! "

In the summer of 1961, Karl Rothamel attended St. Mary's School for six months . He was the son of Ludwig Rothamel, a close school friend of Heinrich Paul from their school days in Darmstadt. In 2010, he recalled: “Heinz once told me when I was with him at 38 Eaton Avenue during the week that he was a prisoner of war during the war. It was a good camp, there were all kinds of lessons and a theater group. I suspect that with all the Germans there he was only able to learn the pronunciation of the English language after leaving the camp. ”Heinrich Paul was not a prisoner of war, but an enemy alien intern . For the period 1939-1942 he is assigned to the "German Internees Released in UK" in the English archives, which means that he was allowed to remain in Great Britain after the end of his internment. It is not clear which camp he was in, but it was quite common for both German refugees and prisoners of war to be housed together in British internment camps. His wife was also registered as an internee, but she had the status of an "Internees at liberty", which means that she did not have to go to a camp.

How Rothamel's visit to England came about and about some of the Pauls' post-war habits is shown in the following quotation by Rothamel: “During the summer holidays, Elisabeth Paul regularly visited the island of Ischia in Italy, and Heinz (Heinrich) Paul came to Darmstadt to visit his sister. During one of the visits to my father, Heinz invited me to visit St. Mary's Town and Country School to learn the English language there. I vaguely remember that Heinz's sister's family had built a house and he gave some money to have a room in it. I have never been there and I have no address. ”In a report dated November 4, 1965, which is in Heinz Paul's compensation file, reference is made to two of his sisters who are said to have been 60 and 49 years old at the time .

If the previous quote from Karl Rothamel gives the impression that only Heinz Paul had contacts in Darmstadt after the war, then that is not correct. After the war, Elisabeth Paul successfully campaigned for the return of her parents' house on Darmstädter Landwehrstrasse, which was first confiscated and then expropriated by the Nazis. In this context she stayed at least once in her native city. From a certificate from the lawyer and notary Dr. Otto Kattler emerges that Elisabeth Selver stayed in Darmstadt on September 11, 1953 and was at Hobrechtstr. 30 lived. With whom is not known, but she repeatedly allowed other Darmstadt residents to represent her in the reparation proceedings and in the subsequent sale of the house, including Elisabeth Noack , a former schoolmate at the Viktoriaschule . Elisabeth Noack has also made several declarations in favor of Elisabeth Paul in her compensation proceedings.

The educational concept of St. Mary's School

Heinrich Paul's experiences as a teacher at the Marienau State Educational Home and the initial cooperation with the Dartington Hall School (see above) naturally suggest that reform-pedagogical approaches shaped the pedagogical concept of St. Mary's School . The school was never, apart from the years of evacuation from London during the Second World War, a classic country school, but always a London city school, which after the Second World War only added the suffix "Town & Country" and the country always understood only as a supplement, but never as an exclusive school basis. "Country House Hedgerley Wood [...] is a week-end house for the boarders; day children can join by arrangement. During the course of the year most junior forms spend one or two weeks at the Country House doing field project work in addition to the normal curriculum. ”Thus, the term“ Country ”in the name of the school rather refers to a school with an attached school camp , but less on a classic country school . In Elisabeth Paul's detailed description of the basic pedagogical features of her school, "Hedgerley Wood", the school's country residence, is hardly dealt with any longer than in the school brochure quoted earlier.

general basics

In this school concept from 1962, the educational goal of the school is postulated in an almost preamble:

“Our goal is to give the child the general education of a creative character, combined with a sound intellectual education and specialized knowledge to prepare for their future career. In order to avoid one-sided intellectualism, the child is encouraged to use common sense, think for himself, and rely on his own judgment; so his knowledge will be connected to life.
True harmony and inner security, our ultimate educational goals, can only be achieved, however, by helping the child find appropriate expression for the creative and spiritual powers within them. (Paul (1962), p. 136) "

That sounds like the classic topos of reform pedagogy , the imperative of pedagogy based on the child. Elisabeth Paul does not fall back on the reform pedagogical classics to concretise her approach, but on Frederick Matthias Alexander and the Alexander Technique he founded . With this method, which aims at the inseparability of all mental, emotional and physical processes, she puts the art pedagogy conceived by Franz Cizek as a further conceptual building block without questioning the importance of the classical school subjects . She proudly points out that for many years art lessons have been in the hands of teachers who have been trained by Cizek himself. (Paul (1962), p. 137) The encouragement of children's creativity, which can develop in a supportive, enthusiastic environment, is also highly valued by Elisabeth Paul.

Priscilla Wilder, a pupil from the first years of the school, recalled in 2003: “The students were primarily the children of artists (musicians, writers, film producers, actors, etc.).” One could assume that the previously mentioned conceptual-pedagogical focuses Artist parents might have moved their children to St. Mary's School . Another quote from Priscilla Wilder suggests, however, that the process ran the other way round, i.e. that a certain parent clientele brought about the further development of the pedagogical concept, because, according to Wilders, the school was more academic in the early days than it was during the war. Wilders adds another interesting aspect from the early days of school. She remembers that the Pauls were still connected to a school in Berlin and that they had the goal of exchanging the children of both schools for a year between schools. How realistic that might have been against the background of the political situation in Germany remains to be seen. Unfortunately, apart from Wilder's memories, there is no further evidence for such a project.

coeducation

Coeducation plays a very central role in Paul's concept: “We believe in coeducation because of, and not despite, the rapidly increasing precocious sex relationships of the younger generation.” (Paul (1962), p. 137) For Paul, coeducation is the basis of a sensible one Sex education, but their approach, citing Goethe, goes beyond:

“Boys and girls should grow up together in an atmosphere that lets them see that they are not developing into men or women only. 'The mature and fully developed adult is not a man or a woman, but both' (Goethe). Male or female qualities can predominate in an adult, but never exclusively. (Paul (1962), p. 137) "

What at first glance sounds like Simone de Beauvoir and her book The Other Sex (“You are not born a woman, you become one.”), Is then counteracted again by gender stereotypes: “The feminine intuitive, irrational one , imaginative and creative approach to life can be developed in harmony with the male contribution of logical and factual thinking in boys and girls. "The young people should become aware of these" complementary potentials ", which then leads to the prevailing urge to play sex as a leisure activity and the urge to would be deprived of its necessity for early sexual experiences without personal commitment. This also helps parents and teachers, who can take away their own fears and insecurities in dealing with young people, because: “A young person who is used to developing the male and female components of his maturing life in harmony becomes immune to it modern sex habits and undesirable developments, which are so often the tragedy of the best in our time. ”(Paul (1962), pp. 137–138) Coeducation is instrumentalized to avert danger.

discipline

From a co-education understood in this way, the path to discipline is not far, and here, too, their supposed dichotomies must first be sought before one's own concept is developed. “Realizing how dangerous both rigid discipline and chaotic freedom are, and that the true discipline is not static but spontaneously develops new behavior patterns, we try to develop a discipline that is not imposed by a prescribed code or set of rules Student self-management is a way of practicing new behavior patterns and gaining insights that will lead to new forms of voluntary discipline. "Voluntary discipline of this kind is often a product of a group process that reveals the immeasurable treasure of goodwill, a sense of justice, and a sense of natural proportion in a child." (Paul (1962), p. 138) School brochure from 1964 placed on the same level as religious and artistic education in terms of its importance for the development of children:

“Not unlike religion and art, a creative group spirit permeates the mind and gives peace; a continuous expansion of consciousness gives the individual new opportunities to understand the hitherto unknown. This is sustainable and healthy, it transforms teachers and learners alike. Freed from personal factors, when authoritarian burdens and competitive pressures are removed, the teacher's abilities and the individual abilities of the learner come into play, while all group members are creatively united with the task. As a result, children enjoy learning as a meaningful and enriching intellectual discipline. Spurred on by a new sensitivity to moral values, they will accept school rules and direct correct behavior as an integral part of human relationships. In this way, children ultimately develop into individuals who are able to make vital decisions and act with concentration and control. "

Non-denominational

In addition to co-education, interdenominationalism is another hallmark of St. Mary's School . Paul speaks out against religious instruction that sees itself as religious instruction and instead advocates teaching spiritual values ​​that pervade all areas of life. She quite consciously refers to a quote from Carl Gustav Jung , according to which the conscious is only a part of the spiritual and therefore never capable of spiritual perfection; for this the unlimited expansion of the unconscious is necessary (Paul (1962), p. 138)

The place where the awareness of the spiritual values ​​should take place is the morning meeting.

“The readings during the morning meeting are based on selected texts from the major religions as well as from various philosophical traditions, including stories and legends. Their interpretation during the brief conversations that follow are intended to express the truth that all religions are one and that, despite their various manifestations, their values ​​make sense if they are not binding. The children follow these conversations and readings with increasing seriousness, and we believe that the atmosphere created is reflected in their own creative work. (Paul (1962), p. 138) "

The memory of Michael Noble Jackson, born in 1934 and a student at St. Mary's School from mid-1946, gives an impression of the morning meetings : “The school meeting in St. Mary's was very different from a normal one, if only because of the number of students different religions practiced, although Christianity and Judaism were in the majority. The gathering began with classical music, followed by a thematic address by Ms. Paul or the highest-ranking member of the teaching staff, and ended with the school announcements after which teachers and students began teaching. ”In many student memories, despite the propagated non-denominationalism, is mostly of Bible study the talk. Did they not understand the concept or did it just go down badly with them? Andy Crown recalled teaching spiritual values ​​in the 1969-1970 school year in 2009: “Mrs. Paul was teaching us the Bible or religion or whatever it was and they expected us to be very stoic. Unfortunately it was the dawn of an era, and we were just reaching an age that just required such dogmatic approaches to be questioned. These classes weren't always pleasant. ”Phoebe Joseph, a child from Vienna who started school in 1938, sees things even more positively in 2008:“ We had Bible lessons and I was very interested in them. It was the first time I heard stories like this. I think I liked hearing about Jesus because I felt abandoned and ignored by parents and elders. "

free writing

In July 1956, the school published a small booklet ("An Anthology") containing poems and stories written by students at the school since 1940. Elisabeth Paul and Jon Silkin describe the starting point in their foreword:

“In 1940 the children from this school were evacuated to Yarkhill Court, near Hereford. There they enjoyed the safety and beauty of the landscape, but at the same time were plagued by fear. Most of their fathers fought. Their mothers endured the battle for London . The children were encouraged to write war poetry in the hope that it would help them deal with their fears, which were expressed in aggressive war games. The result was a poetry group consisting of boys and girls aged 8 to 14 who read and wrote poetry together. "

That was the origin of what Elisabeth Paul still firmly integrated into her concept in 1962 as “free writing”. For Paul, imaginative writing is a natural gift of childhood, a drive that comes from within, which, when used methodically, can become an important factor in mastering skills and knowledge. Especially in the junior school, the school's entrance classes, spontaneous activity such as free writing gives children as much joy, freedom and satisfaction as playing. Referring to Friedrich Froebel , for her free writing at this age is "not trivial, but very serious and of deep importance". (Paul (1962), p. 139)

Free writing is an extension of Franz Cizek's Child Art concept, which tended to emphasize the importance of childish painting. In 1956, as in 1962, this concept is the basis for Elisabeth Paul’s educational work at St. Mary’s School :

“The painter Cizek discovered children's art more than 50 years ago and opened the door to a new educational approach that not only trained the mind, but also took into account the great and previously largely ignored forces of the unconscious. The creative power, innocence and unsuspecting profundity that can be found in these poems and stories are possibly the result of an education that no longer allows these deeper forces to be restricted by the one-sided consciousness of adults. "

The role of the teacher

Children who have been raised to develop their inner powers, who are able to express their own feelings and thoughts, their experience and knowledge, become immune to inadequate external pressure and can relax and take the next step in their school career, wherever but there are still other requirements waiting for them: "With the specialization necessary for academic work, a new differentiation sets in: Logical thinking must be systematically developed and become an essential factor for the learning process of the senior school." (Paul (1962), p . 140)

In order for this to be successful, the teachers must also be in a position to be adequate classroom companions for these children - especially when further problems arise during puberty that can impair the school learning process. Paul puts a lot of emphasis on the role of the teacher personality, to which she attaches more importance than the teaching subjects and techniques. The teacher must go from the intellectually trained specialist who applies the usual training methods to the "humane being who is responsible for a humane situation".

“The real meaning is the 'interpersonal relationship', the growth and change in everyone involved, teachers and students alike. The student's contribution changes accordingly: he imparts the wealth of his unconscious knowledge, which the teacher accepts and respects. The teacher mediates as he teaches and the student as he learns. (Paul (1962), p. 141) "

Learning in groups

Elisabeth Paul has already drawn attention to the importance of group processes in connection with the discipline. The group constitutes for them the working context guided by the type of teacher outlined above, in which an atmosphere of harmony, peace and order prevails. In this way, learning is freed from external constraints for the children. Together, “gives the children a sense of achievement that has the reward. The group therefore does not need any external stimuli or external incentives such as competition: it creates and lives through its own values, which are transmitted through two-way communication - from teacher to student and from student to teacher. "(Paul ( 1962), p. 142)

Paul also sees that such group processes work better with younger students than with older students, and the question arises as to how group dynamics and more academic work can be reconciled. She is inspired by her interest in audio-visual methods and integrates this into lessons with large groups of different ages and levels of ability. Using the example of French lessons, it looks like this:

“In our particular case, between 60 and 70 children gather at what has been called" French Without Reading "in a room equipped with a small stage, television, tape recorder, film projector, and films. This large group of children, led by two or three bilingual French teachers, meet for a long time. Under these circumstances, when the different levels of proficiency begin to interact, an atmosphere is created in which the flow of language becomes continuous and the language in all its complexity is experienced as a whole. Fairy tales dramatized by the younger generation, learned in class before the notes and performed in front of the older students, encouraged good execution. The ear of the older pupil is already trained to recognize that the intonation of the younger children is more precise than their own and that they are of course less inhibited. In this way, the older children can benefit from the linguistic skills of the younger ones. The pieces are then recorded on tape and played back for oral practice with the younger ones who enjoy it very much. (Paul (1962), pp. 142-143) "

For Paul this is a natural way of penetrating the culture of a language, and the use of mechanical aids in no way neglects the important role of the teacher. He has to be a group teacher and at the same time be far more than a language teacher who just follows his textbook. He has to act, stimulate improvisation and confront the children with situations that make them feel like they are in a foreign country. The children must always retain the feeling of lightness, they must work in a concentrated manner without being aware of the concentration required from them. If this succeeds, such group lessons will be really fun for the children and will release relative energies that will enable teachers and learners to do their task in new and different ways. Such a continuous expansion of consciousness reveals previously unknown spiritual spheres, opens them up for more self-knowledge and self-awareness and finally culminates in a maturation process that continues in further life. (Paul (1962), p. 144)

In the end - almost twenty years after the end of the Second World War, the youthful counterculture began to unfold worldwide, the Beatles and Rolling Stones were on their way to dominate the musical scene - this concept, which had previously sounded quite optimistic and emphasized new approaches, experiences a lot cultural pessismistic phrase:

“Education today is challenged to review its structure from the perspective of a fast-paced world and to inspire the younger generation to break through the boredom and frustration that are the cause of their revolt. Only by following the common everyday tasks, staying true to the cause at hand and aligning it to the overwhelming future problems, will education meet the demands of our time and prepare the younger generation for a future that opens up before it with exciting opportunities that but also presents a vision of horror that is more threatening than anything any previous generation has ever had to grapple with. (Paul (1962), p. 145) "

St. Mary's School throughout its history

The beginnings in the pre-war period

Priscilla Wilder, nine in 1937, attended school, which was then in Belsize Park Gardens in London. According to Wilder's memory, the school consisted of two adjoining houses. The students were mostly children of artists, including Ellen, the daughter of Stella Adler and a son of the singer Paul Robeson . English, German and French were taught from the lowest grades, science and sport were not so present. But there was already the opportunity to play tennis or go swimming. At that time the school was still a day school.

The first, only two-year, school phase ended very abruptly on September 3, 1939, when Great Britain declared war on Germany.

The war years

That St. Mary's School was evacuated in its entirety was not a matter of course, as Ernie Weiss notes in his memoirs:

“Perhaps it should be explained that only a small minority of children were evacuated with their schools when the war broke out when the war broke out. This was only available at private schools and mainly for those whose parents could afford the school fees. Mass evacuations began with the start of the Blitzkrieg bombing several months after the war broke out. Many children have been evacuated from London and the major urban industrial areas to escape the worst of the "Blitzkrieg". (A second wave of evacuation occurred in 1944 when the V1 ('doodlebugs') attacked Kent and Greater London.) "

Weiss points out that most London children were not evacuated with their schools, but sent to foster parents without their parents, mostly in rural and less industrialized provincial areas. Many had been sent to the north of England and attended local schools, where they were often confronted with prejudice from the local population. The evacuation of St. Mary's School is proving to be a privilege from this perspective.

How quickly such a privilege could be called into question is reported by Ernie Weiss using the example of his sister, who attended St. Mary's School with him . In 1940 their father was interned in a camp: "For this reason, with the resulting lack of money, my sister Marian had to return home and attend a local state elementary school in Highgate Village to save costs." afterwards the school that his sister had to go to and makes it clear once again what a different educational concept St. Mary's School stood for: “When I saw Marian's 'new' school, I was horrified. St. Michael's Primary School had separate entrances for boys and girls, in front of which they had to wait in rows outside until the bell rang, regardless of the weather. Class sizes were often over 40, learning was largely determined by routine, and discipline was enforced with the threat of corporal punishment. The cane was shown a lot and used a lot! This antiquated and destructive system was not atypical of British government education in the mid-twentieth century - a regime designed to humiliate and submit. "

Evacuation to the south coast

The school first moved - under the direction of Elisabeth Paul and Enna Curry - to the nearby Wedderburn Road. The actual evacuation then took place immediately afterwards. The school moved to a house in the small town of Beesands on the Devon coast . Many of the students are said to have come from Jewish refugee families who had escaped from Germany.

Priscilla Wilder provides a few more details about her stay in Beesands . At that time, parents and relatives came with me to support the school. “My mother came along as a teacher, and she was accompanied by my aunt Margie, my father's sister, who did the housekeeping / kitchen. I slept in a room in a fisherman's hut with my mother and aunt. We all shared the same feather bed, which I remember as wonderfully warm! "

Staying in Beesands may have been safer than in London, but the effects of the war were clearly felt here as well - as a lack and due to omnipresent dangers:

“School supplies were scarce or even non-existent. We used slate from a local quarry for writing purposes and we shared a few textbooks. There was no library in town and books were borrowed. We couldn't swim because the beach was mined and the fishermen had little space to protect their boats from mine accidents. The beach was shelled by the 'Air Force', but no mines exploded, and I don't remember any injuries to the children or fishermen. The biggest problem for everyone was the oil spill caused by ships sunk in the English Channel. The oil soaked the sea birds and poisoned the fish. The fishermen only pulled out large tar balls in their nets and contaminated fish and crabs through them. In the end, they only caught a few crabs, although Beesands was famous for its abundance of these creatures. "

Ernie Weiss remembers his time in Beesands more optimistically than Priscilla Wilder:

“We had a wonderful time. During this first 'Indian Summer' we, the younger groups, often walked around naked in the closed garden. Even in the first winter we mostly played on the beach and on the shore. I don't remember much of the class. I think we were divided into three groups: for the few under six, for about six of us between six and eight, roughly the same number between eight and eleven, and very few older children. I only remember three employees during the first year: the bosses, Mr. and Mrs. Paul, and Mrs. Eaves (accompanied by their two children Priscilla and their younger brother John, who was my senior for two or three years) . "

Moving to the west of England

Apparently due to the events of the war, the school was relocated again - away from the coast, into inland in western England , at Yarkhill Court near Hereford . It is unclear exactly when that was, after France's defeat or later in the run-up to the Allied landings in Normandy. Priscilla Wilder's very detailed recollections read: “The night before D-Day we were evacuated to Yarkhill, Herefordshire . The train stopped in Bristol, which had been practically flattened by incendiary bombs the night before. Fires were burning everywhere and I remember being scared because my grandmother lived there. My father was on the platform and told us that the family would be safe. "

The school stayed in Yarkhill Court until the end of the war. Yarkhill Court was a small Victorian mansion next to a farm and near the River Frome . The accommodation was on three floors, but there was only one bathroom. The students could volunteer to work in the kitchen garden, they could help picking hops, and there were pottery classes. The barn was used to put on plays in French and German. On the six-month weekend, the pupils were allowed to camp “wild” on public grounds, and Heinrich Paul joined the Home Guard in London .

Ernie Weiss reports that the school gained many new students despite the war years. There were also new teachers and the form of teaching changed: “As we got older, our classes became more formal than those at Beesands. There was a strong emphasis on languages ​​and the arts - but less on the hard sciences. Learning was usually done in mixed age and skill sessions, and we were divided into small groups to work on our own topics, problems and projects. We had round table spelling games weekly and I will never forget how to spell 'unnecessary' because that was around the table of about 14 of us at least four times before the correct answer was given. "

It was probably also a sign of the school's growth that, towards the end of the war, students were still being quatted because the actual school building had become too small. Six boys therefore moved in with a single woman about a mile from the school. "There was no bath or running water, just a hand pump outside and a traditional rural outhouse with two seats above the ground and on the highest point of the typical and beautiful house garden."

For Ernie Weiss, whose memories of St. Mary's School were consistently positive, the end of the war was also the end of his school days at St. Mary's School .

“The war in Europe ended when I was 12, about two months before the end of another school year. It was time to move to secondary school, which my parents thought it would be better to move to school as there were few qualified secondary teachers at St. Mary's. So I went to Beltane School , another independent but much larger and more progressive school [..]. My time at St. Mary's had been happy, despite the upheaval caused by the war and despite the fact that some of us had been made boarding school students at a much earlier age than normal.
We were all well looked after, treated well, and protected from the worst of the Blitzkrieg . While I wouldn't have passed the public school entrance exam , a few lighter-colored students did so, so I suspect we received decent basic education with a solid foundation from which to develop into decent members of society. Most of all, most of us were happy and protected from war damage. "

The school in the post-war period

After the end of World War II, the school returned to London in 1946 and became St. Mary's Town & Country School . The day school reopened in two large houses at 38-42 Eton Avenue, and the following year a country branch opened at Stanford Hall , near Rugby .

Stanford Hall

The most successful period for the school had begun, and Heinrich and Elisabeth Paul were now the school management. During this time, theoretical instruction gained in importance and more scientific subjects were introduced. The large picturesque area was used and there was more sport: horse riding, tennis, football and athletics were introduced. The large ballroom was used to provide opportunities for music and dance. The two schools were run in close connection with each other, students and staff alternated between the two.

In 1949, the school left Stanford Hall , which was in need of renovation, and continued its work on London's Eton Avenue, but was still called St. Mary's Town and Country School . Elisabeth Paul's residence and boarding school were set up in Belsize Park Gardens.

In 1954 was near Chinnor in the Chiltern Hills , the property Hedgerley Wood ( location ) were acquired. To Hedgerley Wood , which was acquired with a small swimming pool and all facilities for games and projects included a large forest area. It was a weekend home for a small group of boarding and day pupils and also for a French-English summer school for children. The lower grade (“Junior School”) regularly spent a week or more there with their class teachers in the summer months.

The school continued to be popular and in 1960 was officially recognized as “efficient”. In 1969 it was proposed that a house on Glenloch Road, which had previously been used for boarding school students, teachers' quarters and a laboratory, be converted for school operations. While in 1951 144 girls and boys of all ages, including 17 boarding school students, attended school, in 1974 there were 186 girls and boys between the ages of 4 and 16.

The end of school

At the turn of the year 1979/1980 two former students from St. Mary's School were in London and took the opportunity to visit their old school again, of which they had been students in the late 1960s, and Elisabeth Paul.

“We arrived at the familiar steps on a cold winter morning and rang the bell. After a while a woman answered the door, who turned out to be woman 'A', who had in between been promoted from cook to teacher. She told us that the school had deteriorated a lot over the past few years and that there were only a few dozen students left. She offered to take us upstairs to see Mrs. Paul. She would like to see us, said Ms. A.
We climbed the steep wooden stairs and I realized that while I was a student I had never been so high up, so close to Ms. Paul's 'center of power'. I was feeling a little nervous. We were shown into a very dark room, and there was Frau Paul, piles of white hair pinned to her head, straight back, her eyes piercing. We explained who we were and why we had come, but we soon realized that Ms. Paul was no longer in touch with reality. She listened to us in silence and then began to tell us about her life. She was visited by angels, she said. You come to her to calm her down. The poet Verlaine would be one of them, and Mr. Neville (we hadn't known he was dead). She talked a little more about the school, but I wasn't really listening. I thought how sad it was that she was sitting there in her wonderful school that is collapsing around her.
I don't remember what Ginny and I were talking about when we left. Mrs. Paul and her angels were both ridiculously funny and painfully sad, but I can't remember whether we laughed or cried or both. "

What these two former students noticed was apparently hidden from the state school inspectorate, even though the school had "been visited quite often by the inspectors in recent years, according to the Education Department" ". It was not until the end of the summer of 1982 that St. Mary's School was closed by the school authorities. At the time it was just being attended by seven students, and: “In the last few days of 'Town and Country' there were seven teachers, one per child, who generally worked without pay just to help the children through O levels to get."

The closure of the school had two reasons, which were mutually reinforcing: the inactivity of the state school supervision and the increasingly unpredictable behavior of the eighty-seven-year-old Elisabeth Paul, who continued to run the school at the time of the closure.

In England in the mid-1970s, state supervision of private schools was greatly reduced. The last major inspection of St. Mary's School took place before 1976. That year, the inspection system was changed so that state inspectors were only allowed to observe formal standards, but not the school as a whole, including its financial situation was more relevant to the exam. So the inspectors weren't bothered by the increasingly strange teacher-student relationship, on the contrary: after their last visit in 1981, when they noticed the sharp drop in enrollments and, as former teachers say, they were told about the difficult situation in When the school had come, they decided not to do anything to hasten the inevitable closure.

It was not the school situation, which had long since become untenable, that led to the closure, but tax debts. Whether on purpose or because she could no longer assess the situation at all: Elisabeth Paul had probably not paid any leases for the school buildings for a long time, wage payments to teachers were outstanding and, above all, no wage tax had been paid, so that at the time (July 1982) outstanding claim in the amount of GBP 84,000 existed, at that time around 360,000 DM.

Two remaining teachers told the Daily Telegraph that the headmistress had become increasingly "self-important and introverted". She would no longer have been willing to accept help or seek advice on financial matters. Instead, she preferred to read aloud to Victor Hugo's texts.

How little Elisabeth Paul was able to understand her situation at the time is made clear by the fact that, despite the closure, she still insisted on reopening the school “as soon as the business debt thing is settled”. In order not to jeopardize this goal, she also kept silent about her real age, because "if the children knew how old I am, I could no longer be a headmistress".

Nevertheless Elisabeth Paul was still very wealthy at that time. Margot Norman reports on two large houses in Hampstead, a property in the south of France and a house in Oxfordshire with 15 hectares of land. The latter was probably still Hedgerley Wood , which once stood for the country part of the school name. But that fortune was now frozen, and the old lady sat in her house in Belsize Park Gardens, smartly dressed and surrounded by books, living on her own terms on goat cheese, honey and tomato soup, refusing to go near a doctor, using no soap or toothpaste (she brushes her teeth with her fingers), continued to profess the Alexander Technique and waited for the laws to take their course and for her to have another chance.

There are no further reports on the period between September 1982 and November 1985. On November 1, 1985, the Hampstead & Highgate Express published an article entitled, “A bankrupt woman's house was sold 'at a bargain price'.” It describes Elisabeth Paul as having been “mentally ill” since the beginning of the year, and it goes in the article on the background of the sale of her home in Belsize Park Gardens. The fact is that this house had been sold for GBP 225,000 at the instigation of the bankruptcy trustee in July 1985 and has now been put up for sale again by the new owners for GBP 350,000 just a few months later. How this could happen when Ms. Paul’s debts are said to have been around GBP 300,000 by now, remains unclear. A government spokesman only commented succinctly: “The priority of the trustees is to realize the assets for the creditors as quickly as possible. The fact that the house is now on the market for more money is an entirely different matter. "

Elisabeth Paul probably didn't notice any of this, including what happened to the rest of her property ( Hedgerley Wood and the house in southern France). According to her death certificate, she died on February 4, 1991 in the London "Elmhurst Residential Home", a facility that now specializes in dementia and Alzheimer's disease of pneumonia ( bronchopneumonia ). She was almost 96 years old.

Schoolchildren & the teaching staff

There are some statements about the students at the school that cannot be verified or can only be verified very inadequately: for example, whether it was mainly children of artists who attended school, or whether children who emigrated from the school before and during the Second World War German Reich were particularly well represented. Certainly, however, seems to be what Ernie Weiss (see above) described quite clearly: the parents had to be able to pay the school fees for this private school. On the other hand, there is no one who has become so well known in German-speaking countries that it is worth mentioning here. However, there is a very comprehensive overview of the school's many students on the St. Mary's School alumni website .

One of the former students should still be mentioned here: Norman Barrington. We owe him the websites about St. Mary's School , on which many alumni have compiled their memories of the school. Born on February 14, 1952, Norman Barrington, who attended school from April 1961 to July 1968 as a boarding school student, was one of the pioneers of the pirate broadcasters and has long worked as a DJ for Radio Caroline . He lives in Scotland today.

The list of the school's staff is also very extensive. It is difficult to judge whether they had any significance beyond school. The only exception: Harrison Birtwistle , who is considered one of the most important modern composers in England. From when to when he worked at St. Mary's School is not known.

The St. Mary's School in the film

As part of a BBC project, a film was made in 1966 about two children, a boy and a girl, who both lived in Gibson Square, Islington . The boy comes from the working class and lives in a basement apartment, the girl lives in a large house and attends a private school. The parents of these two children talk about the education they are giving their children and their expectations of what their children will do when they leave school. The working class family sends their son to a public school and has little idea of ​​the educational methods used there. The upper-class family, on the other hand, decided to send their daughter to a private progressive school.

The entire film contribution is no longer available in the BBC archive, but the aforementioned Norman Barrington came into possession of a copy and edited an excerpt of about eight minutes from it - the one that the aforementioned girl from the upper class in his school , St. Mary's School . Different attitudes of everyday school life are shown: children reading stories they have written aloud, excerpts from French lessons, etc., and headmistress Paul talks about the goals of the school and its methods. The film is a short, but quite impressive document that also gives a good impression of Elisabeth Paul's personality. Still images from it, which contrast the seventy-year-old at the time with images from 1928 and 1932, can be seen on the school homepage.

swell

literature

  • Elisabeth Paul: St. Mary's Town and Country School , in: Hubert Alwyn Thomas Child (Ed.): The independent progressive school , HUTCHINSON & CO. (Publishers) LTD, London, 1962, pp. 136-145. The book served the self-portrayal of progressive schools in England. Elisabeth Paul's essay in it, which touches only a few aspects of the school's history, describes the pedagogical concept in detail. It is available online at: Elisabeth Paul: St. Mary's Town and Country School . In the book, although not available online, Elisabeth Paul is followed by a contribution from AS Neill about Summerhill .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Results for Birth, Marriage, Death & Parish Records
  2. ^ British History Online: Hampstead: Education
  3. ^ Elisabeth Paul: St. Mary's Town and Country School
  4. ^ Dartington Archives
  5. ↑ In the “Dartington Archive” there is also a “GA Paul” with whom Curry corresponded in the correspondence from William Curry under the title “Prospective Staff” from 1936 to 1938. Dartington Hall School (B) 1931-1957 30: Prospective Staff . According to information from the “Devon Archive and Local Studies Service” dated February 24, 2017 (see sources), this is not about (Heinrich) Gustav Adolf Paul, but about a “George Paul, writing from Cambridge (England)”.
  6. ↑ a b c d e f g h St. Mary‛s School: The early History
  7. ↑ Or even just acquired: It is not yet clear what the aforementioned cooperation with Ena Curry actually meant.
  8. ↑ ST. MARY'S: THE TOWN & COUNTRY SCHOOL
  9. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Ernie Weiss - one of the Pauls' school's first pupils
  10. ↑ At that time, the school's land branch was located in Stanford Hall (see below)
  11. ↑ Brandenburgisches Landeshauptarchiv (blha), Potsdam, files on the ordered asset management and expropriation of Elisabeth Selver, inventory Rep. 36 A - G 3097
  12. ↑ a b c d e f g h Early History
  13. ↑ Character Analysis Lady Augusta Bracknell : "Lady Bracknell is first and foremost a symbol of Victorian earnestness and the unhappiness it brings as a result. She is powerful, arrogant, ruthless to the extreme, conservative, and proper. In many ways, she represents Wilde's opinion of Victorian upper-class negativity, conservative and repressive values, and power. "
  14. ^ A b c St. Mary's School: The staff
  15. ^ Enemy Aliens and Internees, First and Second World Wars . Details about Paul's internment are unfortunately only available for a fee.
  16. ↑ http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C15110155
  17. ↑ In an application for reparation for damage to body and health in accordance with the Federal Compensation Act, Elisabeth Paul asserts in February 1965 that her stay in Ischia had been strict cures at her own expense for three years, which she will take up again now, i.e. in 1965. (Compensation file Elisabeth Paul - Reg.No. 173.318)
  18. ↑ Heinz Paul Compensation File - RG.Nr. 79,770
  19. ↑ Darmstadt District Court. Land register file for Volume 26, Sheet 1251 of the Land Register of Darmstadt, District III (House Landwehrstrasse 12 in Darmstadt)
  20. ↑ Compensation file Elisabeth Paul - Reg.Nr. 173.318
  21. ↑ a b Quoted from the school prospectus from 1964, which can be viewed via a link on the St. Mary's School: The School website.
  22. ^ Elisabeth Paul: St. Mary's Town and Country School . Insofar as this article is quoted in a German translation below, the only reference given at the end of the quotation is “(Paul (1962), S.)”.
  23. ^ A b c St. Mary's School: AN ANTHOLOGY 1956
  24. ↑ Belsize Park in the WIKIPEDIA-EN
  25. ↑ Colloquially in England the German V1 weapons were referred to as "doodlebugs". The name actually stands for a variety of flying insects.
  26. ↑ Unless otherwise stated in the following sections, the facts reported are based on translations from the English Wikipedia article. There, however, not all of the facts are proven, including the move to Wedderburn Road cited here, which does not appear in the few schoolchildren's memories from that time.
  27. ↑ There is little evidence for this claim in the English Wikipedia article, which is not documented there. On the school website “Town & Country School Guestbook / Blog” it becomes clear from some of the school memories that they were refugees from Germany or Austria, and Ernie Weiss also draws attention to the arrival of Jewish refugee children in his memories: “I remember of the arrival of Paul and his cousin Natascha, Jewish refugees from Vienna who actually witnessed the Nazi invasion of the Austrian capital - a situation that I found astonishing and that they managed to escape. ”( Ernie Weiss - one of the Pauls' school's first pupils ) Ernie Weiss himself was of German descent. On the website “Alumni” there are many names that suggest German origins, but it should be borne in mind that the school's heyday was after the Second World War and therefore it is no longer easy to conclude that German pupils had previously had refugee status can. On the other hand, some English-sounding surnames are often anglicized German names.
  28. ↑ In the English Wikipedia article it says: "When France surrendered, with the threat of a German invasion, the school was relocated inland." There is no source that proves this early date of the relocation.
  29. ↑ Ernie Weiss remembers that the hops originally grown for breweries were used during the war to produce a khaki color.
  30. ↑ The buildings are displayed on Google Maps: ( Location ). A map section with the other places in London that were important for the school can be found on the page St. Mary's School: The School
  31. ↑ The house can be rented today for several purposes: Stanford Hall
  32. ^ British History Online: Hampstead: Education
  33. ↑ a b c d e f St. Mary's School: Town & Country's Demise
  34. ↑ Historical exchange rates
  35. ^ A b St. Mary's School: Town & Country's Demise
  36. ^ Elmhurst Residential Home
  37. ^ Norman Barrington: About me
  38. ^ Offshore disc-jockey Norman Barrington and Norman Barrington's Radio Pages
  39. ↑ Norman Barrington: “The video 'six sides of a square' by the BBC did not survive at all at the BBC, however back in 1966 they sent the full program to the featured girls father, and she in turn sent me a copy. It was I that edited it down to only feature the parts regarding Town and Country. "Mail from July 15, 2017.
  40. ↑ St. Mary's School: Mrs. Paul
  41. ↑ 36A Oberfinanzpräsident Berlin-Brandenburg Rep. 36A Oberfinanzpräsident Berlin-Brandenburg, 1919-1948 (inventory)
  42. ^ Amalie Selver compensation file

Coordinates: 51 ° 32 '42.3 "  N , 0 ° 10' 7.6"  W.