Theodor Wilhelm

Theodor Wilhelm (born May 16, 1906 in Neckartenzlingen ; † November 11, 2005 in Kiel ) was Professor of Education in Kiel from 1959 to 1972. As a lecturer in teacher training, he was a main proponent of education during the National Socialist era . Wilhelm also used the pseudonym Friedrich Oetinger in the post-war period .

Life

Wilhelm was the son of a Protestant pastor. His father sent him to new humanist boarding schools. Both influences shaped his later life.

In 1929 he received his doctorate with a historical thesis on the English constitution; a year-long student exchange took him to England, which made him want to go into the diplomatic service. That is why he wrote a second, legal dissertation in 1933 on "The Idea of ​​Professional Civil Service" and in the same year became a consultant at the German Academic Exchange Service . In 1936 he was released again, but remained editor of the foreign-policy oriented International Journal for Education until the end of the war . In 1938 he became a lecturer in educational science at the college for teacher training in Oldenburg , and from 1939 to 1945 he was a soldier.

After the war he returned to Oldenburg as a grammar school teacher until he was able to return to teacher training at the Flensburg University of Education in 1951 . In 1959 he moved to the University of Kiel as the successor to Fritz Blättner . In 1972 he retired and dealt with the student movement and the educational reform in a negative and critical way, because he recognized in it a return of the "state deification".

His former assistant Hermann Giesecke noted in an obituary that Wilhelm also lived his concept of partnership in his own relationship.

Act

Before 1945 During National Socialism, Theodor Wilhelm, in his role as editor of the International Journal for Education, published many articles that defended National Socialist education . In some cases he also carried out war propaganda. He also justified the Shoah in an article in 1944, in which he described the persecution of the Jews as a European task, and in Hungary in particular the “European dimension of the Jewish problem” was evident. At the same time as this article was published, the German troops began the systematic murder of the Hungarian Jews (cf.The annihilation of the Hungarian Jews )

Wilhelm was heavily criticized for his work in the service of National Socialism , among others by Wolfgang Keim and Benjamin Ortmeyer. Gudrun Hentges says that “Wilhelm’s political position leaves no doubt that he spread racist and anti-Semitic ideology and advocated the extermination of the Jews.” Wilhelm evaded criticism, among other things, arguing that he was not an educator at all at this time , and he wrote his propaganda articles on behalf of the Nazis. He described his membership in the SA as a "joke" and the SA as a "sports association".

After 1945 1951 he published " Turning Point in Political Education ", from 1953 on with the title " Partnership ". He wants to lead political education out of the tradition of German idealism with its fixation on the state and seeks connection to the sober pragmatics of the American educator John Dewey in order to save the next generation from being seduced by educational ideologies. In the final part, Wilhelm develops his theory of partnership, which he sometimes still calls "education for cooperation". Wilhelm wants peace (with the Nazis and with people like himself). This becomes clear when he points out in what is known as “anti-prejudice education”: “Whether refugees or displaced persons, whether 'Nazis' or 'anti-fascists', whether emigrants or resistance fighters, everyone harbors his secret grudge against the other he is the one Revenge grants, but not the body ... "(p. 227) Wilhelm continues:" It is obvious that this condition not only prevents the normalization of German self-confidence, but also in the way of peace and thus cooperation in general stands. ”(p. 227) We learn:“ This is exactly how all collective judgments today such as 'the' Nazis and 'the' resistance fighters only lead us away from the people. The result is bitterness and separation instead of peace and partnership. ”(P. 230) He describes the distinction between resistance fighters and Nazis as“ the cancerous evil of our public life ”. (P. 237) It turned out that Wilhelm's assessment of political education in the Nazi dictatorship is a trivialization and relativization of Nazi crimes and at the same time represents a program for the integration of the burdened educationalists and the burdened teachers. Nevertheless, the book acted as an initial point for a reorientation towards political education .

Until 1957 he worked with the Metzler publishing house in Stuttgart , his “Pädagogik der Gegenwart” was published in the Kröner and became a standard work on West German pedagogy, the first principled pedagogical accounting with the tradition of German state metaphysics. However, the criticism of Nazi politics and the “final solution” that it “led to chaos” is not a real criticism, but rather a trivialization. In 1977 Wilhelm assumed a so-called “race problem in Europe” and otherwise largely excluded the problem of the causes and consequences of anti-Semitism, apart from minimal passages.

The theory of the school (1967/1969) limits the task of the school to its technical core, the teaching in order to acquire technical and professional competence. Further social and societal tasks are rejected. Unlike Saul B. Robinsohn , he did not call for a revision of the curriculum , but advocated traditional ancient language teaching.

He translated the "Serenity Prayer" prayer of Reinhold Niebuhr as the " Serenity Prayer ", the pseudonym Friedrich Christoph Oetinger he took it, because this is a similar philosophy took as his ancestor mother, Johann Albrecht Bengel .

In 2006 Günther Groth dedicated a commemorative publication to him in the Pädagogische Rundschau for his diverse work .

Fonts

• The English constitution and pre-March German liberalism: a representation and criticism of the constitutional image of the liberal leaders . Stuttgart 1927
• The idea of ​​the professional civil service: a contribution to the political theory of German early constitutionalism . Tübingen 1933
• Culture and cultural policy 1941. In: Friedrich Berber (Hrsg.): Yearbook for foreign policy. Born August 8, 1942, August Gross, Berlin
• (pseudonym Friedrich Oetinger :) Turning point in political education: partnership as an educational task . Stuttgart 1951
• (republished as :) partnership. The task of political education . 2nd edition, Stuttgart 1953, and 1956³
• Kerschensteiner's Pedagogy: Legacy and Doom . Stuttgart 1957
• Pedagogy of the Present (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 248). 5th, completely reworked edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 1977, ISBN 3-520-24805-0 (EA 1959, 1960², 1963³).
• Basic fonts of the German youth movement . Introduction by Werner Kindt. Düsseldorf 1963
• School theory. High school and secondary school in the age of science . Stuttgart 1967, ext. 2nd edition 1969
• Treatise on the compromise. For further education of political consciousness , Metzler, Stuttgart 1973, ISBN 3-476-30020-X .
• Beyond emancipation. Educational alternatives to a magical concept of freedom , Metzler, Stuttgart 1975, ISBN 3-476-30031-5 .
• The talk of the partner. On future social attitudes , Ed. Interfromm, Zurich 1980 (Texts + Theses, Volume 129), ISBN 3-7201-5129-8 .
• Nursing case state school. Addendum to "Theory of Schools" , Metzler, Stuttgart 1982 (focal points of educational policy, volume 9), ISBN 3-476-30249-0 .
• Functional change in the school. The foundation of school learning in the age of increasing information density , Neue-Deutsche-Schule-Verlagsgesellschaft, Essen 1984 (New Pedagogical Efforts, Volume 94), ISBN 3-87964-250-8 .
• Departure into the European age. A political-pedagogical reflection at the end of the 20th century , Metzler, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-476-30324-1 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Theodor Wilhelm in the catalog of the German National Library
• Theodor Wilhelm on his pseudonym "Friedrich Oetinger"

Individual evidence

1. ^ Obituary with Giesecke's curriculum vitae
2. ↑ We are to be reeducated . In: International Journal for Education , 13, Issue 3 1944
3. ↑ The cultural power of Europe in the war . In: International Journal for Education , 13, Issue 1/2, p. 8
4. ↑ Wolfgang Keim: Pedagogues and Pedagogy in National Socialism . Frankfurt am Main 1991, ISBN 3-631-42650-X
5. ↑ Benjamin Ortmeyer, ISBN 3-89573-077-7 Excerpt from the book "Jüdische Schuelerinnen" ( Memento of the original from July 16, 2007 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. ( MS Word ; 457 kB; accessed in September 2011; DOC file) 
6. ↑ Gudrun Hentges: Debates on political pedagogy and education before and after 1945 . Theodor Litt : Theodor Wilhelm (pseudonym: Friedrich Oetinger) as examples . In: Christoph Butterwegge , Gudrun Hentges (ed.): Old and new rights at the universities . agenda Verl., Münster 1999, pp. 159–176, excerpt
7. ^ Th. Wilhelm: Metamorphoses in National Socialism. Comments from a victim . In: Neue Sammlung 29 (1989), p. 498 506.
8. ↑ About my guilt . Interview in: Martin Kipp , Gisela Miller-Kipp (Ed.): Explorations in the semi-darkness . 1995.
9. ^ Theodor Wilhelm: The conversation from a distance , issue 339/1996
10. ↑ Wilhelm was surprised that the prayer was awarded to Oetinger for a long time, see Wilhelm about his translation of the Serenity Prayer from: Pedagogy in Self-Presentation , Volume 2, p. 329ff. ( Memento of the original from May 3, 2006 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.