Wilhelm Flitner

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Grave of Wilhelm Flitner, Elisabeth Flitner and Susanne von Bargen, b. Flitner

Wilhelm August Flitner (born August 20, 1889 in Berka ; † January 21, 1990 in Tübingen ) was a German educator . From 1926 he was an associate professor at the University of Kiel and from 1929 to 1958 a full professor at the University of Hamburg , was a representative of the humanities direction in education and one of the leading reform pedagogues of the Weimar Republic and the first decades of the Federal Republic.

From 1951 to 1961, as chairman of the school committee of the West German Rectors' Conference, Flitner had considerable influence on the reform of the upper school level, which, while adhering to a basic canon, wanted to enable clear accentuation by the students themselves.

Life

Memory of Wilhelm Flitner, Jena, Carl-Zeiss-Platz

Wilhelm Flitner studied German, English, history and philosophy in Munich and Jena from 1909 . In Jena he was active in the free student movement and belonged to the Sera circle around the publisher Eugen Diederichs ; There he met his future wife Elisabeth Czapski , daughter of the Zeiss board member Siegfried Czapski, who had died in 1907 . One son from this marriage is Andreas Flitner , later also a professor of education. Wilhelm Flitner studied with Herman Nohl , Dilthey's last assistant , among others . A lifelong friendship with the philosopher Rudolf Carnap remained from Nohl's circle of friends . In Jena, Flitner received his doctorate from Wilhelm Rein in 1912 with a thesis on August Ludwig Hülsen and his union of free men .

From 1914 to 1918 Flitner took part in the First World War. He then taught as a teacher at grammar schools (since 1920 a student councilor in Jena) and was instrumental in founding the Jena Adult Education Center in 1919, which he headed from 1919 to 1925. His successor was Adolf Reichwein . In 1922 he completed his habilitation in Jena with a thesis on the fundamentals of didactics . He was a founding member of the Hohenrodter Bund (1923–1930) and was significantly involved in the development of theory on popular education. In 1926 Wilhelm Flitner was appointed associate professor for philosophy and education at the Pedagogical Academy in Kiel and from there as a full professor at the University of Hamburg in 1929 , where he headed the seminar for educational science and the pedagogical institute, which since the Teacher Education Act of 1926 has been responsible for Teacher training was responsible (until 1936 and again after the Second World War).

The relationship between humanities education and its leading representatives to National Socialism has been the subject of controversial discussion within educational science in the Federal Republic of Germany since around 1985. In 1923 Flitner briefly joined the SPD, otherwise he was non-party. In a speech at the Hamburg Senate's constitutional celebration on August 11, 1930, Flitner defended the Weimar Constitution and advocated its educational mandate . The events after the “ seizure of power ” by the National Socialists and over the years of the “Third Reich” have been historically processed in detail for the University of Hamburg. Flitner was the last dean before 1933. After various unsuccessful attempts to intervene in the course of 1933 in favor of colleagues who were threatened by the National Socialists and the authorities and who were later dismissed, and endangered by the Jewish origin of his wife Elisabeth Czapski , Flitner tried together Bruno Snell and Emil Wolff to preserve “niches of freedom of thought”. Nevertheless, his name can be found on the list of signatories of the confession of the German professors to Adolf Hitler in November 1933. However, there are doubts about the authenticity of the Hamburg “signatures”. Flitner renounced open opposition and was a member of the Nazi teachers' association and the National Socialist People's Welfare (NSV) . In the course of 1933 and emphatically since 1935, Flitner distanced himself from National Socialism; his certificate of discharge from the university had been signed by the head of the Hamburg university authorities since 1937, but was not handed over. Teacher training was withdrawn from the university in 1936 and relocated to the newly founded college for teacher training. Flitner therefore dealt with questions of general humanities during this time, especially with Goethe's late work. Later, his seminars were meeting places for the Hamburg “White Rose” , whose supporters he counted alongside the physician Rudolf Degkwitz .

Just three days after British troops marched into Hamburg on May 3, 1945, Flitner began the reorganization of the University of Hamburg together with other professors known within the university as opponents of the National Socialist regime such as Rudolf Laun , Bruno Snell and the later rector Emil Wolff . Flitner initially resumed his lecturing activities improvised and after the reopening of the university again took over the management of the Pedagogical Institute and the teacher training assigned to it (until 1958). From 1951 to 1961 Flitner was chairman of the school committee of the West German Rectors' Conference and organized the Tutzing talks on university entrance qualification (until 1961 ). In this role he shaped the reform of the upper secondary school.

In the Weimar Republic from 1925 Flitner published the journal Die Erbildung together with Aloys Fischer , Theodor Litt , Herman Nohl and Eduard Spranger , of which he was also editor. In the March 1933 edition of Education , two articles by Spranger and Flitner appeared , which basically deal with the so-called seizure of power by the National Socialists in a positive way, albeit with a cautionary undertone. The next issue was followed by two essays by Martin Havenstein and Theodor Litt, which directly opposed the Nazi teachings. In 1935, Flitner resigned from the editorial office because he refused to comply with the publisher's request to join the Reichsschrifttumskammer and to adapt the magazine to the spirit of the times. In 1937 Flitner, Litt, Nohl and Fischer left the editors of Education . In 1943 the magazine was discontinued. After the Second World War, Flitner co-founded the magazines Die Sammlung (1945-60) and Der Evangelische Erzieher (since 1949). In 1955 Flitner founded the magazine for pedagogy together with Fritz Blättner , Otto Friedrich Bollnow , Josef Dolch and Erich Less .

In 1963 Flitner received the Goethe Prize from the Alfred Toepfer Foundation FVS. In 1964, the Theological Faculty of the University of Tübingen awarded him an honorary doctorate.

He died on January 21, 1990 and was buried in the Nienstedten cemetery in Hamburg.

Works

  • August Ludwig Hülsen and the League of Free Men. Jena 1913. (Dissertation)
  • General pedagogy . Stuttgart 1950. (15th edition 1997. ISBN 3-608-91882-5 )
  • The self-image of educational science in the present. Heidelberg 1957.
  • University entrance qualification and high school. Heidelberg 1959.
  • The upper school level. Heidelberg 1961.
  • European customs. Origin and structure of occidental forms of life. Zurich 1961 (revised as The History of Occidental Life Forms . Munich 1967).
  • Basic mental education. Studies on the theory of basic scientific education and its cultural basis. Heidelberg 1965.
  • Selected educational papers. Concerned v. Heinrich Kanz (with biography and bibliography). Paderborn 1967.
  • Wilhelm Flitner (Ed.): Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi: Selected writings. Godesberg 1949. (New edition thoroughly and supplemented by Udo Grün Weinheim 2001. ISBN 3-407-22089-8 )

The collected writings have been published by Schöningh-Verlag Paderborn since 1982 . v. Karl Erlinghagen † / Andreas Flitner / Ulrich Herrmann :

Web links

Commons : Wilhelm Flitner  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Fritz Laack: The interlude of free adult education . Bad Heilbrunn 1984, p. 624 ff.
  2. ↑ Wolfgang Klafki: The current controversies in German educational science about the relationship between humanities education and National Socialism. Marburg, 1998, http://archiv.ub.uni-marburg.de/sonst/1998/0003/k10.html
  3. ↑ Ulrich Herrmann , Jürgen Oelkers (ed.): Pedagogy and National Socialism , Weinheim / Basel, Beltz Verlag, 1988.
  4. ^ Rainer Hering: Wilhelm Flitner . In Hamburg biography . Lexicon of persons (Eds. Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke), Hamburg, Christians Verlag, 2003, Volume 2, pp. 125–126.
  5. ↑ Hamburg State Archives: Education and School in the New People's State . Speech by Professor Dr. Wilhelm Flitner at the constitution ceremony on August 11, 1930 in the Hamburg Music Hall. State Archive Hamburg 135-1 I-IV
  6. ^ Eckart Krause, Ludwig Huber, Holger Fischer (eds.): Everyday university life in the "Third Reich". The Hamburg University 1933-1945 . Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin and Hamburg 1991, 3 volumes.
  7. ↑ a b Peter Borowsky, The Philosophical Faculty , in: Eckart Krause, Ludwig Huber, Holger Fischer (eds.): University life in the "Third Reich". The Hamburg University 1933-1945 . Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin and Hamburg 1991, Vol. 2, pp. 441-458
  8. ^ A b Hans Scheuerl: On the history of the seminar for educational science , in: Eckart Krause, Ludwig Huber, Holger Fischer (eds.): University life in the "Third Reich". The Hamburg University 1933-1945 . Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin and Hamburg 1991, Vol. 2, pp. 519-535
  9. ↑ Barbara Vogel , university professor and state , in: Eckart Krause, Ludwig Huber, Holger Fischer (eds.): University life in the "Third Reich". The Hamburg University 1933-1945 . Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin and Hamburg 1991, vol. 1, p. 50 u. P. 80.
  10. ↑ a b Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945 . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Second updated edition, Frankfurt am Main 2005, p. 156.
  11. ↑ Hans Fischer, Völkerkunde, in: Eckart Krause, Ludwig Huber, Holger Fischer (eds.): Everyday university life in the "Third Reich". The Hamburg University 1933-1945 . Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin and Hamburg 1991, vol. 2, p. 597 u. P. 605
  12. ↑ Klaus Saul: Teacher Training in Democracy and Dictatorship , in: Eckart Krause, Ludwig Huber, Holger Fischer (eds.): University life in the "Third Reich". The Hamburg University 1933-1945 . Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin and Hamburg 1991, vol. 1, p. 391ff.
  13. ↑ Helmut Peukert : Reflection at the place of responsibility. Challenge through Wilhelm Flitner's pedagogical thinking. Zeitschrift für Pädagogik 26. Beiheft, Weinheim and Basel, Beltz Verlag 1991, pp. 15–27.
  14. ↑ Hans-Harald Müller, Joachim Schöberl, Hamburg “White Rose”, in: Eckart Krause, Ludwig Huber, Holger Fischer (eds.): Everyday university life in the “Third Reich”. The Hamburg University 1933-1945 . Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin and Hamburg 1991, vol. 1, p. 427
  15. ↑ Hans Scheuerl, Educational Science, in: Eckart Krause, Ludwig Huber, Holger Fischer (eds.): University life in the "Third Reich". The Hamburg University 1933-1945 . Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin and Hamburg 1991, vol. 2, p. 527
  16. ^ Arnold Sywottek, Outlook: About the beginnings of the "University of Hamburg", in: Eckart Krause, Ludwig Huber, Holger Fischer (eds.): Everyday life at the university in the "Third Reich". The Hamburg University 1933-1945 . Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin and Hamburg 1991, vol. 3, p. 1389
  17. ^ Wilhelm Flitner: Memories . Schöningh Verlag, Paderborn 1986, p. 374.
personal data
SURNAME Flitner, Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Flitner, Wilhelm August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German educator
DATE OF BIRTH August 20, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Berka
DATE OF DEATH January 21, 1990
Place of death Tübingen