Walter Gagel

Walter Gagel (born December 17, 1926 in Arnsberg im Sauerland ; † March 18, 2016 in Berlin ) was professor for didactics of political education at the TU Braunschweig from 1975 until his retirement in 1987 . He was counted among the "founding fathers" of scientific political education in the Federal Republic of Germany .

Life

Walter Gagel was the son of the mechanical engineer Georg Gagel (* 1883, † 1936), who last worked as a professor at the Vocational Education Institute in Cologne and grew up in Rodenkirchen (Cologne), where he attended elementary school (1933–1937) and, from 1937, the state school Friedrich Wilhelm High School attended.

After a year of air force helper service and subsequent labor service, Walter Gagel received the certificate of maturity in the summer of 1944 when he was transferred to the lower class . In the summer of 1944 he was called up for military service and in the spring of 1945 he was taken prisoner by the United States and later by the French. He was released from this in the summer of 1948. After a six-month special course for combatants at his old school, the Staatliche Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium in Cologne, he received his school-leaving certificate in the spring of 1949. Gagel thus belonged to the so-called anti - aircraft generation.

Gagel began studying German and history, first one semester each in Bamberg and Bonn, then at the University of Cologne . As his academic teachers he named u. a. Richard Alewyn , Theodor Ballauff , Otto Brunner , Karl Dietrich Erdmann , Theodor Litt , Leo Weisgerber . In Cologne , Gagel received his doctorate in 1955 from the historian Theodor Schieder on the question of voting rights in the history of the liberal parties 1848-1918 (published in 1958 under this title).

After completing his legal clerkship , Gagel returned to the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium in Cologne on February 25, 1961. Since May 21, 1964, as senior student councilor, he was head of the branch office for political education of the State Institute for School Education North Rhine-Westphalia in Volmarstein (Burghotel Volmarstein), near Hagen . Hagen became the family's home and center of life for many years. He held this position until 1975, most recently as a high school supervisor.

Gagel became a founding member of the German Association for Civic Education (DVPB) in 1965 .

In 1970, Gagel was appointed by the North Rhine-Westphalian minister of education, Fritz Holthoff, as one of ten members of the “Guideline Commission for Civic Education” (1970–1987). Walter Gagel took over the chairmanship of the “Handreichungskommission”, which was supposed to support the work of the guidelines commission on an equal footing. Essential components of a social science policy didactics were developed there.

In 1975 Walter Gagel took over a full professorship for political education at the Lower Saxony University of Education / Braunschweig Department, since 1978 part of the Technical University of Braunschweig. In 1984, as part of the reduction in teacher training in Lower Saxony, the subject of social studies in Braunschweig was canceled. He worked in the Department of Political Science and Political Education until his retirement in 1987.

After German reunification , Gagel taught for a short time (summer semester 1991) as a visiting professor at the Institute for Political Science at the University of Halle .

Act

In addition to his own conception, Walter Gagel saw his task as a mediating systematist in the political didactic discussion. It was his concern to teach subject-didactic thinking. When asked “What should good policy teachers be able to do?” He replied: “Think and act in a structured way”.

His most important work, the history of political education in the Federal Republic of Germany 1945–1989 , emerged from lectures at the University of Halle.

For decades, Walter Gagel was publicly visible and influential as co-editor of the two leading journals of political education: Since 1966 the contemporary studies (today society-economy-politics - GWP) and since 1967 the journal Politische Bildung , which he founded.

In this context, he published numerous teaching models that became practically effective. As a textbook author, he worked on the further development of the social studies book See - Assess - Act (with Wolfgang Hilligen ).

Fonts

• Suffrage question in the history of the liberal parties 1848–1918 . Edited by the Commission for the History of Parliamentarism and Political Parties. Cologne Diss. Phil., Düsseldorf: Droste Verlag 1958
• Politics, didactics, teaching . Stuttgart u. a .: Kohlhammer 1979, 2nd edition 1981
• Introduction to the didactics of political education . Opladen: Leske & Budrich 1983, 2000 completely revised and expanded
• Lesson planning : politics / social studies. Opladen: Leske & Budrich 1986 (UTB)
• Practical policy didactics. Multi-perspective teaching analyzes . Schwalbach im Taunus: Wochenschau 1992 (with Tilman Grammes, Andreas Unger)
• History of political education in the Federal Republic of Germany 1945–1989 . Opladen: Leske & Budrich 1994, 3rd edition 2005

literature

Two festivities are dedicated to Walter Gagel:

• Politics lessons in the eighties. Criticism and impulses: Festschrift for Walter Gagel on his 60th birthday. Stuttgart: Klett 1986 (= issue 3 of the journal Politische Bildung)
• The mule searches its way in the fog. Letters to Walter Gagel on his 70th birthday from friends, companions and colleagues. Opladen: Leske & Budrich 1996

Individual evidence

1. ^ Obituary notice from March 26, 2016 in the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung
2. ^ Günter C. Behrmann : The "sober democrat". Encounters with Walter Gagel. In: Political Learning 2016, 1–2, p. 47
3. ^ Rolf Schörken : Air Force Helpers and Third Reich. The emergence of a political consciousness. Stuttgart 2nd edition 1985; Günter C. Behrmann : The “sober democrat”. Encounters with Walter Gagel. In: Political Learning 2016, 1–2, pp. 47–50
4. ^ Walter Gagel: The long way to democratic school culture. Political Education in the 1950s and 1960s. In: From Politics and Contemporary History 2002, No. 45, p. 12
5. ^ Philologists' yearbook = Kunzes calendar, NRW, 1961/62
6. ^ H. Verbeek, Walter Gagel (conference leader): Didactics and trainee training in history. State Institute for School Pedagogical Education Volmarstein: Conference reports issue 17, Volmarstein / Ruhr 1967
7. ^ Rolf Schörken: "Politics" curriculum. From curriculum theory to teaching practice. Opladen: Leske 1974; Walter Gagel / Dieter Menne (ed.): Political lessons. Manual for the NRW guidelines. Opladen: Leske & Budrich 1988
8. ↑ History of the Institute for Social Sciences ( Memento of the original from January 3, 2016 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. . Website of the Technical University of Braunschweig. Retrieved August 17, 2016. 
9. ↑ There were no role models, we started , interview 2004.