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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 December 2008
In the Third Reich a high percentage of the civil servants in the cadres of functionaries of the National Socialist Party on the local and district levels were teachers. It is thus not surprising that some historians who studied the elementary school teaching profession in the Weimar Republic began their research with assumptions about the “ideological affinities” of teachers to fascism and discussed “the specific predispositions that made it easy for them to identify with National Socialism.” The German Teachers' Association, one scholar wrote, “proved to be more a precursor than an opponent of fascism.” At its national congress in May 1932, another historian related, the representatives of the chapters voted for a policy which, in effect, abandoned the democratic republic and “indirectly helped those political forces that would create a dictatorship in Germany within a year.” In 1932 and 1933, on the other hand, recruiters for the National Socialist Teachers’ League often complained about “hard and difficult soil” and “unpenetrable” regions.
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22. Jahrbuch des deutschen Lehrervereins 1931 (Berlin, 1931), 102–5; ibid., 1933 (Berlin, 1933), 98–101. The smaller Catholic Teachers’ Association tied to the cohesive Catholic subculture also reported a loss of members. Pädagogische Post: Katholische Zeitschrift für Erziehung und Bildung, 11 February 1932, pp. 80–81; ibid., 13 October 1932, p. 515; Katholische Schulzeitung für Norddeut-schland: Organ der Zweigvereine des katholischen Lehrerverbandes Schlesien, Brandenburg-Pommern, 26 October 1932, pp. 708–09.
23. The central leadership of the German Teachers’ Association in Berlin criticized the referendum campaign as an attack on the democratic state. The proposed Freedom Law in the referendum threatened cabinet ministers who were responsible for the ratification and implementation of the Young Plan with imprisonment for high treason. Allgemeine deutsche Lehrerzeitung, 31 October 1929, pp. 892–95; ibid., 14 November 1929, pp. 939–40.
24. Chaim, Seeligmann, “Vorläufer des nationalsozialistischen Lehrerbundes,” Der Lehrer und seine Organisation, ed. Heinemann, , 305–14Google Scholar; Johannes, Erger, “Lehrer und Nationalsozialismus: Von den traditionellen Lehrerverbänden zum nationalsozialistischen Lehrerbund,” in Erziehung und Schulung im Dritten Reich, ed. Manfred, Heinemann (Stuttgart, 1980), Part II, 213ffGoogle Scholar. Despite the leadership of such activists as Julius Streicher in Nuremberg, the membership of the Bund völkischer Lehrer Deutschlands grew slowly, from around 450 in 1924 to 900 in 1927.
25. Erger, , “Lehrer und Nationalsozialismus,” 223.Google Scholar
26. In the sample of Nazi Old Fighters in the teaching profession in Jarausch’s statistical study, 31.6 percent of the teachers who joined the Nazi Party before 1933 also belonged to the German Teachers’ Association; the corresponding figure for the National Socialist Teachers’ League was 26.3 percent. See table A.17 in Jarausch, , The Unfree Professions, 255.Google Scholar
28. Nationalsozialistische Lehrerzeitung 5, November 1930, p. 3.
29. Willi, Feiten, Der nationalsozialistische Lehrerbund. Entwicklung und Organisation: Ein Beitrag zum Aufbau und zur Organisationsstruktur des nationalsozialistischen Herrschaftssystems (Weinheim, 1981), 40ff.Google Scholar
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31. On Knoop’s life, see Westfälische Schulzeitung, 10 June 1933, p. 339. On the effects of the government’s stabilization policy and downsizing of the civil service on the young generation of teachers in 1923–1924, see Allgemeine deutsche Lehrerzeitung, 25 July 1924, pp. 4493–98. See also Andreas, Kunz, Civil Servants and the Politics of Inflation in Germany, 1914–1924 (Berlin 1986), 370ff.Google Scholar
33. Pädagogische Post, 12 November 1931, pp. 745–46; see also ibid., 5 March 1931, p. 158; ibid., 30 April 1931, pp. 292–94. Johannes Brockmann, the chairman of the Westphalian provincial branch of the Catholic Teachers’ Association of Germany and a Center Party deputy in the Prussian Landtag, stated in early 1931 that it was “urgently necessary that a clear and unambiguous statement on the National Socialists’ position in cultural and school politics be expressed by the church leadership.” In the spring of 1931, another Catholic educator, Joseph Güsgens urged the Catholic School Organization, a mass parents’ movement closely tied to the Center Party, to state publicly its opposition to National Socialism’s views on education and the schools. He aired his own opposition to National Socialism’s political authoritarianism and racism. This evidence was overlooked when Heinrich Küppers wrote that Catholic teachers misread National Socialism and that the Catholic Teachers’ Association was unwilling to take a decisive stand against it until the second half of 1932. More convincing is Klaus Scholder’s contention that “the impression of a solid front and an implacable antagonism between Catholicism and National Socialism was quite general and dominant” by the spring of 1931. Heinrich, Küppers, Der Katholische Lehrerverband in der Übergangszeit von der Weimarer Republik zur Hitler-Diktatur (Mainz, 1975), 93–102Google Scholar; Klaus, Scholder, The Churches and the Third Reich, trans. John, Bowden (Philadelphia, 1988), 50:132ff.Google Scholar
34. In comparison, the Deutsche Lehrerinnenzeitung followed more strictly the policy of political neutrality adopted by the German Women Teachers’ Association. The occasional articles on National Socialism in the newspaper were confined to a mild defense of the women’s movement in response to the polemics in the Nazi Party’s press. See, for example, Deutsche Lehrerinnenzeitung, 10 May 1932, pp. 155–57. On the German Women Teachers’ Association in the Weimar years, see Doris, Kampmann, “‘Zolibat — ohne uns!’ — die soziale Situation und politische Einstellung der Lehrerinnen in der Weimarer Republik,” in Frauengruppe Faschismusforschung, Mutterkreuz und Arbeitsbuch: Zur Geschichte der Frauen in der Weimarer Republik und im Nationalsozialismus (Frankfurt, 1981), 79–104Google Scholar; Elizabeth, Harvey, “The Failure of Feminism? Young Women and the Bourgeois Feminist Movement in Weimar Germany 1918–1933,” Central European History 28 (1995): 1–28.Google Scholar
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38. Schlesische Schulzeitung, 8 April 1920, p. 157; ibid., 5 May 1920, p. 189; Lehrerzeitung för Ost-und Westpreussen, 2 April 1921, p. 181. On the exodus of Germans from the territories ceded to Poland, see Richard, Blanke, Orphans of Versailles: The Germans in Western Poland 1918–1939 (Lexington, KY, 1993), 32ff.Google Scholar
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40. Arthur, Hennig, “Der Junglehrer als Typus,” in Von den Enterbten der Schule: Ein Junglehrerbrevier, ed. Bannert, Willy Hans (Berlin, 1927), 16, 23–24Google Scholar; Max, Simoneit, “Das seelische Schicksal der schulfremden Junglehrer,”Google Scholar in ibid., 25–38; Der Junge Lehrer: Werkblatt des katholischen Junglehrerbundes des Deutschen Reichs: Beilage zur Pädagogischen Post, 12 May 1927, p. 66; ibid., 12 May 1927, pp. 69–70; ibid., 26 May 1928, pp. 73–74.
41. Der Junge Lehrer, 12 January 1927, pp. 2–4.
42. Paul, Kluke, “Abseits! Zum Problem der staatsbürgerlichen Geisteshaltung des schulfremden Junglehrers,” in Von den Enterbten der Schule, ed. Bannert, , 78–91Google Scholar. This view is confirmed by J. E. Pülke, a teacher in Westphalia, who observed in 1927 that Catholic young teachers were divided into two camps in their opinions on the democratic state. Concerns about the “resentment and hostility toward the state stirring in the embittered hearts” of young teachers were expressed by Bernhard Bergmann of Düsseldorf, when he gave the main address at the convention of the Catholic Young Teachers’ League on 4 August 1927. He appealed to young teachers not to succumb to morose resignation and negativism and to stay loyal to the republic. Der Junge Lehrer, 28 July 1927, p. 99; ibid., 28 September 1927, pp. 121–23.
43. Allgemeine Deutsche Lehrerzeitung, 2 July 1931, pp. 544–45; Pädagogische Post, 29 October 1931, pp. 701–02.
44. In the elections for the student union (Allgemeiner Studentenausschuss) at the Pädagogisches Institut in Leipzig, the Nazi slate won 39.4 percent of the votes cast in 1931. In 1932, the votes for the Nazi slate increased slightly in absolute numbers, and, with a lower turnout, the number of students voting for the other partisan lists of candidates dropped steeply. Neue sächsische Schulzeitung, 9 March 1932, p. 75. On the attraction of students in the Pädagogische Akademien to National Socialism, see Breyvogel, , Die soziale Lage, 196.Google Scholar
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50. A more extensive discussion of the conflicts over school reforms is given in my forthcoming book entitled “Schoolteachers, Educational Reform, and the Politics of Culture in Weimar Germany.” See also Wolfgang, Wittwer, Die sozialdemokratische Schulpolitik in der Weimarer Republik (Berlin, 1980)Google Scholar; Günther, Grünthal, Reichsschulgesetz und Zentrumspartei in der Weimarer Republik (D¨sseldorf, 1968)Google Scholar; Ludwig, Richter, Kirche und Schule in den Beratungen der Weimarer National-versammlung (Düsseldorf, 1996)Google Scholar; Detlef, Lehnert and Klaus, Megerle, “Problems of Identity and Consensus in a Fragmented Society: The Weimar Republic,” in Political Culture in Germany, ed. Dirk, Berg-Schlosser and Ralf, Rythlewski (New York, 1993), 43–59.Google Scholar
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53. Nationalsozialistische Lehrerzeitung, 8 June 1931, pp. 6–7; ibid., 6 June 1933, p. 10.
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58. Neue sächsische Schulzeitung, 11 May 1932, p. 141.
59. Neue sächsische Schulzeitung, 26 March 1932, p. 91.
61. Deutsche Lehrerzeitung, 28 October 1932, pp. 443–44, 448; ibid., 9 September 1932, pp. 367–68; Schulpflege, 30 July 1932, pp. 338–46.
62. Neue sächsische Schulzeitung, 4 March 1931, p. 41; ibid., 9 March 1932, pp. 75–76; ibid., 24 August 1932, p. 214. On the high intensity of the Nazi agitation in Saxony, see Benjamin, Lapp, Revolution from the Right: Politics, Class, and the Rise of Nazism in Saxony, 1919–1933 (Boston, 1997), 188ffGoogle Scholar; Claus-Christian, Szejnmann, Nazism in Central Germany: The Brownshirts in “Red” Saxony (New York, 1999), 55, 75–76.Google Scholar
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64. Lehrerzeitung für Ost- und Westpreussen, 21 October 1932, 429–31.
65. Neue sächsische Schulzeitung, 25 November 1931, pp. 314–15.
66. Westfälische Schulzeitung, 23 July 1932, pp. 401–7, 409.
67. See, for example, Bölling, , Volksschullehrer und Politik, 209–16Google Scholar. Bölling’s reconstruction of the German Teachers’ Association’s response to the challenge of National Socialism in 1932 is based too heavily on the views of Georg Wolff, the chairman of the executive board. The strategy of neutrality and “dialogue” recommended by Wolff “was contested and not adopted at the national congress in 1932. The German Teachers’ Association during these fateful years has a more complex history than the story of its last chairman’s political myopia and opportunism. This difference in interpretation in no way diminishes the value of Bölling’s careful research on this professional organization during the Weimar Republic.
69. Allgemeine deutsche Lehrerzeitung, 2 January 1932, pp. 1–3.
72. Ibid., 26 March 1932, Beilage, pp. 2–4.
73. Allgemeine deutsche Lehrerzeitung, 30 April 1932, p. 331. See also the article written by Ernst, Müller of Dortmund in Preussische Lehrerzeitung, 26 03 1932, pp. 1–3Google Scholar. For the objections to Wolff’s strategy voiced by Karl Trinks and other members of the Saxon Teachers’ Association, Sächsische Schulzeitung, 3 February 1932, pp. 77–82; ibid., 9 March 1932, pp. 194–96; Vertreterversammlung des sächsischen Lehrervereins vom 21. bis 23. März 1932 in Zwickau, 62–63.
74. Schlesische Schulzeitung, 28 April 1932, p. 329.
75. Schulblatt der Provinz Sachsen, 11 February 1932, p. 56.
76. Preussische Lehrerzeitung, 27 February 1932, pp. 1–2; ibid., 21 April 1932, pp. 3–4. At the congress of the German Teachers’ Association in May 1932, Pretzel contended that it was “not the most essential task of the leadership at this time to protect the Constitution” but to ensure the unity of the association. Although he admired the democratic state ideal, he confessed openly that he did not consider the “existing form of the republic” to be the best state. Deutscher Lehrerverein, Verhandlungen der 40. Vertreterversammlung am 17. und 18. Mai 1932 in Rostock, (Berlin, 1932), 91ffGoogle Scholar. On the failure of the German State Party to revitalize the liberal movement and the pessimism and resignation of liberal Democrats in these years, see Jones, , German Liberalism and the Dissolution of the Weimar Party System, 378ff.Google Scholar
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78. The Schulwissenschaftlicher Bildungsverein in Hamburg had a membership of 416. After the congress this organization broke its loose ties to the German Teachers’ Association. Günther’s Nazi sympathies were revealed when he joined the Kampfbund für deutscher Kultur in Hamburg.
79. Verhandlungen der 40. Vertreterversammlung, 91ff, 118–19, 122.
80. See the report of the congress in Westfälische Schulzeitung, 28 May 1932, pp. 277–82.
81. Verhandlungen der 40. Vertreterversammlung, 200.
82. Ibid., 173ff.
83. Sächsische Schulzeitung, 25 May 1932, p. 385. Wolff was sharply criticized in the report published in the Hamburger Lehrerzeitung, reprinted in Schlesische Schulzeitung, 11 August 1932, p. 607.
84. Schlesische Schulzeitung, 21 July 1932, pp. 552–54; ibid., 18 August 1932, p. 631.
85. Reports published in the Schulblatt für Braunschweig und Anhalt, Hessische Schulzeitung, and Badische Schulzeitung, reprinted in Schlesische Schulzeitung, 11 August 1932, pp. 606–8.
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87. See Max, Karstedt’s discussion of the meaning of parteipolitische Neutralität in Brandenburgische Schulzeitung, 25 02 1933, pp. 80–81.Google Scholar
88. Jahrbuch des deutschen Lehrervereins 1932 (Berlin, 1932), pp. 126–27.
89. Brandenburgische Schulzeitung, 15 January 1931, p. 20; ibid., 23 April 1931, pp. 185–86.
90. Nationalozialistische Erziehung, 10 August 1932, pp. 29–30; ibid., 25 August 1932, pp. 47–48.
91. On the expansion of the league in the province of Brandenburg, , Nationalsozialistische Erziehung, 10 08 1932, pp. 31–32Google Scholar; ibid., 25 August 1932, p. 54; ibid., 10 February 1933, p. 43.
92. Nationalsozialistische Erziehung, 25 August 1932, p. 46; ibid., 10 October 1932, pp. 1045; ibid., 29 October 1932, pp. 114–15. Polemical speeches against the educational reforms were also delivered by Hans Schemm and Heinrich Scharrelmann, a disgruntled left-wing reformer in Bremen who converted to National Socialism in the early 1930s, at the rallies organized by the National Socialist Teachers’ League in Berlin. See Nationalsozialistische Lehrerzeitung 2, February 1932, p. 9; ibid., 5, May 1932, pp. 1–14; ibid., 9, September 1932, pp. 5–8
93. This attitude toward big-city teachers can be seen in an article by Ernst Rudolf, a rural teacher who became a National Socialist, in Allgemeine deutsche Lehrerzeitung, 6 May 1933, pp. 318–20. On the unhappiness of rural schoolteachers in their situation of social and cultural isolation, see Paul, Bode, “Grenzen und Aufgaben moderner Landschularbeit,” in Stimmen zur Landschulreform, ed. Franz, Kade (Frankfurt am Main, 1932), 1–3Google Scholar; Max Wolf, “Zur Landschulre-form,” in ibid., 124–29; Hugo, Hennig, Die einklassige Schule: Eine statistische Erhebung aus dem Regierungsbezirk GumbinnenGoogle Scholar, published by the East Prussian Provincial Teachers’ Association and based on a study conducted in 1927 of more than 500 teachers.
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99. See the report of the speech delivered in Potsdam by Blum, R., a teacher who was born in the Ostmark, in Brandenburgische Schulzeitung, 8 April 1933, p. 154Google Scholar. See also ibid., 11 March 1933, p. 109; Nationalsozialistische Erziehung, 25 February 1933, p. 60.
100. Nationalsozialistische Erziehung, 10 August 1932, p. 35; ibid., 25 August 1932, p. 45.
101. Brandenburgische Schulzeitung, 27 August 1932, p. 356.
103. Ibid., 5 November 1932, pp. 450–51, 456.
104. Ibid., 11 February 1933, pp. 60–61; ibid., 25 February 1933, pp. 80–83. For their criticism of the National Socialists in government offices and Nazi political terrorism in the election campaign, see also Allgemeine deutsche Lehrerzeitung, 11 February 1933, p. 108; ibid., 18 February 1933, pp. 132–33; ibid., 25 February 1933, pp. 153–54; Sächsische Schulzeitung, 8 February 1933, p. 117; ibid., 22 February 1933, pp. 169–74; ibid., 1 March 1933, pp. 201–6.
106. Ibid., 11 March 1933, p. 110.
107. See Table A.17 in Jarausch, , The Unfree Professions, 255.Google Scholar
108. See Breyvogel’s study of the league’s membership in the province of Hesse-Nassau and the state of Hesse in Die soziale Lage, 201.
109. Kater, , The Nazi Party, 69Google Scholar; Breyvogel, , Die soziale Lage, 199–201Google Scholar; Jarausch, , The Free Professions, 102–3, 109Google Scholar. Jarausch offers a comparison based on the subdistrict Lower Silesia. Recruiters for the National Socialist Teachers’ League there were particularly active in the villages and small towns in the Riesengebirge region. Georg, Lilienthal, “Der nationalsozialistische deutsche Ärztebund (1929–1943/1945): Wege zur Gleichschaltung und Führung der deutschen Ärzteschaft,” in Ärzte im Nationalsozialismus, ed. Fridolf, Kudlien (Cologne, 1985), 109Google Scholar; Michael, Kater, “The Nazi Physicians’ League of 1929: Causes and Consequences,” in The Formation of the Nazi Constituency, ed. Childers, 160.Google Scholar
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