Walther Merck

Walther Merck (born October 18, 1892 in Berlin , † December 7, 1964 in Hamburg ) was a German educator , professor at the University of Hamburg and the first director of the UNESCO Institute for Education ( UIP ).

Life

Merck began studying philology in the summer of 1912 at what was then Friedrich Wilhelms University in Berlin . There he belonged to the Landsmannschaft (later fraternity) Normannia . During the First World War , he initially participated as a volunteer in the Reserve Infantry Regiment 202. During the war he was promoted to lieutenant dR and awarded the Iron Cross, 2nd class .

After completing his studies, Merck was initially a study assessor in Berlin-Johannisthal and later a teacher in Berlin-Oberschöneweide as well as an employee for foreign education at the Central Institute for Education and Teaching in Berlin. In 1927 he became senior director of studies at the upper secondary school in Harburg / Elbe and later high school councilor in Hamburg. He gave up this position in order to be appointed professor for comparative education at the University of Hamburg in March 1950 - making him the first professor of the new subject in Germany. On March 1, 1952, he became the first director of the UNESCO Institute for Education. In 1955 he resigned as director and in 1959 as a professor at the University of Hamburg, his successor was his student Gottfried Hausmann .

Merck was a member of the Advisory Board of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation from 1959 to 1964 . From 1953 to 1963 he was chairman of the board of trustees of the Jugend-Europahaus eV, the first Danish-German youth leisure and conference center in Hamburg-Horn.

Publications

• Denmark: a social test field (collaboration), by Peter Manniche , Bad Nauheim: Christian-Verl., 1953.
• The models of education and their claim to validity , 1955.
• International educational contacts (gift of honor on the occasion of Merck's 70th birthday), by Gottfried Hausmann , Heidelberg: Quelle & Meyer, 1963.