Walter Isaacson (educator)

Walter Isaacson (born July 18, 1910 in Dinslaken , † March 1999 in London ) was a German educator who took up his first teaching position at the Jewish rural school home in Herrlingen and, after emigrating to England, taught at the Bunce Court School . Walter Isaacson died in London and was buried in Israel.

origin

Walter Isaacson was the son of the cattle dealer Louis Isaacson (born November 4, 1874) and his wife Fanny (born October 1, 1874, nee Stern). The three children Walter (* 1909), Emmi (* February 4, 1912) and Bernhard (* September 29, 1915) resulted from the marriage. All of them managed to escape to England in 1939, while Emmi and Bernhard Isaacson emigrated to Australia in 1950.

School and study

From 1919 to 1928 Walter Isaacson attended the municipal high school in Dinslaken, where he also passed the Abitur. He then studied German, history and philosophy in Freiburg, Cologne and Bonn. He received his doctorate in Bonn in 1933 with the grade “very good”. His dissertation is recorded in the catalog of the German National Library , but there he is confused as an author with the American journalist and biographer of the same name. According to Jenny Heymann's memories, he also passed the state examination with distinction and was one of the last Jewish students to be admitted to the clerkship.

Herrlingen

In the spring of 1934 Walter Isaacson came to the Jüdischge Landschulheim Herrlingen as a teacher , where his brother Bernhard is said to have stayed between 1935 and 1936. Even if Walter Isaacson, who was never just called “Saxo”, had little practical teaching experience, he quickly became a very popular teacher and colleague.

"" He was familiar with Jewish culture and tradition. I think he loved his Judaism. Since he lived and thought as a liberal Jew, he was also able to build the necessary bridge to the many among us who had alienated themselves from Judaism through assimilation. As a strong personality with a pronounced self-imprint, life in the community was not always easy for him, but he understood it masterfully with his students. They loved him and his lessons. He knew how to tie her up and make her think. Above all, it was the history lessons in which he masterfully understood how to incorporate Jewish history into world history. We adults also became a little wise through Saxo. ""

With so much enthusiasm for his person, it comes as no surprise when a report on the 1935–36 school year says: “In history class, Dr. Isaacson was even more noticeable than in the German class, since he had almost exclusively given Jewish history and general history in two courses. "

Lucie Schachne , who researched the history of the Jewish rural school home in Herrlingen very meticulously, does not mention Walter Isaacson in her short biographies or in her own biographical information at the end of her book. The two were once very close. While Schachne was still a student at the time, they met in Herrlingen before Schachne continued her training in Berlin. In 1939, before they left Germany, the two married.

Bunce Court School

The Isaacson family survived the November 1938 pogrom physically unscathed, but their property became a victim of flames or state-organized robbery of Jewish property. Walter Isaacson was in Bonn at the time, and then began to prepare his family's escape. It took place in January 1939, and Lucie Schachne was also there.

Walter Isaacson and Lucie Shakhne found employment at the of Anna Essinger led Bunce Court School . Lucie Schachne became a housemother and taught the youngest in Biblical history, Isaacson gave history lessons for which he was consistently praised, for example by Leslie Baruch Brent: Another outstanding teacher was Walter Isaacso [h] n ('Saxo'), who gave us the Scripture taught. Our curriculum was limited to portions of the Old Testament only, but he had the ability to talk about biblical times as if it were breaking news that I listened intently.

The Bunce Court career of the "phenomenal teacher" Walter Isaacson came to an abrupt end when Isaacsohn separated from his wife Lucie and left school in 1942.

Further stations

After Bunce Court School, Walter Isaacson taught history and Latin at London's Kilburn Grammar School from 1942 to 1963 . In 1949 he married Inge Reich, the granddaughter of Markus Reich , the founder of the Israelitische Taubstummenanstalt . The daughter Alizia, who lives in Israel, comes from this marriage.

Walter Isaacson wrote his own translation of Franz Rosenzweig's Star of Redemption into English, but it was never published. At the end of his life he started to draw, often with motifs related to his origins in Dinslaken. He lived in a Jewish old people's home in London, where he died in March 1999. He was buried in Israel.

In Gladstone Park Flower Garden in London a plaque on Walter Isaacson recalls. Its inscription reads:
These Rose Beds were planted
in memory of the late
Doctor Walter Isaacson
senior historymaster at
Kilburn Grammar School
and his wife Inge
The work was made possible
by donations from
their daughter Alizia
and grateful former pupils

Works

• History of the Lower Rhine-Westphalian District from 1648–1667 , Philosophical Dissertation, Bonn, 1933.

literature

• Lucie Schachne: Education for intellectual resistance: The Jewish country school home in Herrlingen 1933-1939 , dipa-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1986, ISBN 3-7638-0509-5 .

Web links

• Stolpersteine ​​laid in Dinslaken in 2015: the Isaacson family
• Anne Prior: memories of a "phenomenal teacher"

Individual evidence

1. ↑ On the Stolperstein laid in Dinslaken, the year 1909 is engraved as the year of birth for Walter Isaacson. ( Stolpersteine ​​laid in Dinslaken in 2015: Isaacson family ). On the website epidat - epigraphic database of the Steinheim Institute of the University of Duisburg-Essen, however, the following data is given: “The son Louis Isaacson, who was born on November 4th, 1874, was a cattle dealer. He was married to Fanny geb. Stern, who was born on October 1st, 1874 and emigrated to England. They had three children: Dr. med. Walter Isaacson, who was born on July 18th, 1910, emigrated to England, his daughter Emmi Isaacson, who was born on February 4th, 1912, emigrated to Australia. The son Bernhard Isaacson, who was born on September 29th, 1915, also emigrated to Australia. ”Here again Walter Isaacson's doctorate is incorrectly stated.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Anne Prior: Memories of a "phenomenal teacher"
3. ^ Dissertation by Walter Isaacson in the catalog of the DNB . The author name leads to a wrong GND.
4. ^ ^{A b} Jenny Heymann: Contributions to the design of the country school home , in: Lucie Schachne: Education for spiritual resistance , pp. 122–124
5. ↑ Quoted from Lucie Schachne: Education for Spiritual Resistance , p. 144
6. ↑ Lucie Schachne: Education for Spiritual Resistance , p. 267
7. ↑ Leslie Baruch Brent: A Sunday Child? - From a Jewish orphanage to a world-famous immunologist. Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-8305-1702-3 , pp. 84-85
8. ↑ Michael Trede: The returnee. ecomed verlagsgesellschaft, Landsberg 2003, ISBN 3-609-16172-8 , p. 108
9. ^ History of Kilburn Grammar School . A detailed school history can be downloaded from the website, which also documents Isaacson's presence there on page 78.
10. ↑ The plaque can be found by searching for Isaacson on the John Yugin's Plaques website .