Wilhelm Oberdörffer

Wilhelm Oberdörffer (born April 14, 1886 in Hamburg ; † May 16, 1965 there ) was a German high school supervisor .

Live and act

Wilhelm Oberdörffer was the son of a sound artist. From 1904 to 1908 he studied philosophy and history at universities in Berlin , Freiburg and Kiel . From 1912 to 1921 he taught as a senior teacher at the Heinrich-Hertz-Realgymnasium in his hometown. He then received a call as assistant to the high school authorities, where he was promoted to high school council in 1925. He took over the supervision of higher schools and private schools. As a consultant for the German school system abroad, he also oversaw the school-leaving examinations held there.

During the time of National Socialism Oberdörffer belonged to the DVP . Therefore, he was able to remain in office after the seizure of power . In 1933 he joined the NSDAP . Oberdörffer did not contradict the guidelines of the new education policy and showed himself to be a loyal civil servant. At the same time he tried to stand by people who suffered from the personnel policy of the National Socialists. He campaigned unsuccessfully for Ludwig Doermer , who had had to give up his position as state school supervisor, and helped the Jewish professor Ernst Friedländer get a job in foreign service. Until 1939/40 he used personal acquaintances to help existing private schools and Jewish educational institutions.

On September 12, 1940, Oberdörffer surprisingly applied for dismissal from civil service. At the same time he resigned from the NSDAP. The reason he gave was that, as part of the mandatory genealogy research, he had determined that he had a Jewish great-grandmother. A supervisor of all teachers in secondary schools must "unconditionally and unreservedly" meet all the requirements that are placed on NSDAP members, according to the pedagogue. It was presumably an advanced reason for termination. For him, the decisive factor in resigning from office and leaving the party was probably that he did not consider it possible to continue to act humane in office.

From 1940 to 1950 Oberdörffer headed the personnel department of the Reemtsma cigarette factories . In the meantime he was briefly active again in school administration: On behalf of the military government under Mayor Rudolf Petersen , he took over the provisional administration of the entire school system in Hamburg in mid-May 1945. After 14 days of service, School Senator Heinrich Landahl received the post. Reasons for the dismissal were probably that Oberdörffer had joined the NSDAP early on and had also belonged to the DVP. He subsequently advised the school administration on rebuilding the Hamburg school system, but no longer performed any official functions.

Oberdörffer was involved in several organizations throughout his life. He participated in the work of the Patriotic Society , in the advisory board of the university and in the overseas club , whose overseas days he designed. He ran the board of trustees for the reconstruction of the Hamburg State Opera , which took place from 1953 to 1955. He also acted as managing director of the Foundation for the Promotion of the Hamburg State Opera. This resulted in the Wilhelm Oberdörffer Prize, which is awarded annually to talented musicians and ballet dancers in 1966 .

literature

• Uwe Schmidt: Oberdörffer, Wilhelm . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 2 . Christians, Hamburg 2003, ISBN 3-7672-1366-4 , pp. 302 .