Waldhof - Academy for Further Education
The Waldhof - Academy for Further Education (originally Volksbildungsheim Waldhof eV ) is an institution for free adult and further education with its own educational program and a conference center in Freiburg im Breisgau .
history
In 1896/97 the Waldhof was built by the Berlin factory owner and councilor Rudolf Henneberg , whose wife Johanna, b. von Böckh, from Freiburg. At that time Littenweiler was not yet a district of Freiburg, but an independent village with about a thousand inhabitants. There, the North German built himself a retirement home on the slope above the Dreisamtal on the site of the former Pfisterhof, which had burned down a few years before: a stately property with its own source for the water supply, farm buildings, stables, coach houses and a large gate entrance. It was surrounded by an extensive park in which numerous trees, including exotic ones, were planted. The coat of arms of the builders can still be seen on the gable of the house: a hen on a mountain and a jumping goat. Next to it the year 1897 in Gothic digits.
In 1900 he returned to Berlin, where he was temporarily a member of the Reichstag. He sold the property to the young doctor Dr. Ernst Beyer, who opened a sanatorium here in the same year. In the following years he added more rooms and redesigned the park for his purposes. In 1908, Dr. Beyer owned the house, but kept a large part of the property in his possession.
The new owner of the Waldhof was Franz Karl Wilhelm Gaeß (1853–1915). The chemist, landowner and knight of the Baden Order of the Zähringer Löwen came from a respected Freiburg family. His father Franz Dominik Michael (d. 1888) was a merchant and already owned land in Littenweiler. His aunt Elise was married to Bernhard von Beck (royal Prussian general doctor, d. 1894). The property apparently served Gaeß as a summer residence. Gaeß died in 1915, the house stayed with his wife and their three daughters, who gave receptions there in the summer months but did not take sufficient care of the building structure.
In 1941 the house was in extremely poor condition and was up for sale again. Wilhelm Maier from Schwenningen bought it for his son Otto, who lived as a merchant in Shanghai and wanted to return to his home in the Black Forest. But that year the uninhabited villa was initially confiscated for war purposes and opened as an auxiliary hospital in November. After the end of the war, the University Dermatology Clinic was housed in the Waldhof, as the main building in Herdern was damaged by bombs.
In 1950 the villa was offered for sale to Joseph Epp, who later became the ministerial director in the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Culture. Together with his wife Eleonore and others, Epp founded a home for youth and popular education at Ortenberg Castle in 1948 in order to give new impetus to adult education, which had suffered a severe setback as a result of National Socialist rule and war. The Volksbildungsheim Waldhof eV, which was officially opened in 1951, was based on the models of the Scandinavian and Swiss folk high schools .
The secretariat of the Volkshochschulen in southern Baden was also located in the newly founded institution of independent adult education . Until the 1980s, the Waldhof was also the center of teacher training for the Freiburg High School Authority.
In 1984 a guest house was built in the park, which is part of the educational facility, with its partially listed trees. Since 2010 the Waldhof has had the additional designation Academy for Further Education.
Task and program
The non-profit Waldhof, which is financially supported by the state of Baden-Württemberg in accordance with the Further Education Promotion Act, offers a wide range of educational opportunities in the form of block events: lectures and seminars on topics from the humanities and natural sciences, art, regional and ethnology, religion and philosophy; Artistic and creative; Dance and movement courses; Day trips and study trips. The educational offer is open to all interested parties.
The Waldhof serves as a conference venue for groups from German and foreign universities, clinics, business associations, authorities, social institutions and the like. for their further education.
Ideally and financially, the Waldhof is supported by the Association of Friends of the Waldhof eV.
literature
- The story of the Gaeß family in Freiburg. Klaus Rommel, Lingen 2011.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ It is reported that during the First World War the central heating system, which was modern at that time, was frozen and no longer repaired, which made the stay in winter rather inhospitable.
Coordinates: 47 ° 58 '34.6 " N , 7 ° 53' 49.1" E