Christine Mayer

Lessons from the history of education for a “century of the child at risk”

This introductory article provides the conceptual framework to integrate the following international contributions and their various historical, regional, institutional and cultural contexts. It does so by focusing mainly on three aspects: (1) Childhood and youth as social constructs, the varying classifications of these life phases, their concomitant ambivalences, tensions and social expectations, and the potential for conflict and risk these create. (2) The history and usage of the term, ‘at risk’ – a designation currently in widespread use despite (or because of) its excessively broad and fuzzy connotations. (3) The reconfiguration of childhood triggered by the normative construction of bourgeois childhood development, especially with a view to the procedures of normalisation and conceptions of normality that emerged in Western thought on this field.

Poverty, education and gender: pedagogic transformations in the schools for the poor (Armenschulwesen) in Hamburg, 1788–1871

In the second half of the eighteenth century, an enlightened reformist spirit spread among Hamburgs bourgeois upper classes. This was exemplified by the activities of the Gesellschaft zur Beförderung der Künste und nützlichen Gewerbe (‘Society for the Promotion of the Arts and Useful Trades’) founded in 1765 as well as by a poor law policy guided by Enlightenment ideas. One cornerstone of the citys reform of its pauperism policy was the foundation of an Industrieschule (industrial school). Better educational opportunities – aiming, according to the beliefs of the time, to instil the virtue of industry (industriousness or diligence) – were intended to change traditional mentalities and ultimately to improve the attitude and work ethic of large parts of the population. Beginning with this first stage of the Hamburg charity school system (from 1788 to 1811), this study looks at how its aims and structures changed over the course of its reorganisations. The key factors driving these transformations were a changing concept of pauperism, a shift in pedagogic thought and, in connection with this, an increased importance of gender differences. In the second stage of reform up to the final third of the nineteenth century (from 1815 to 1871), the schools of the Allgemeine Armenanstalt (‘General Poor Relief Agency’) developed into a substitute for as yet non‐existent public elementary schools (Volksschule) in Hamburg and ultimately came to form the basis on which a comprehensive compulsory public school system was built.

Educating the Citizen: Two Case Studies on Inclusion and Exclusion in Prussia in the Early Nineteenth Century.

During the decades following the year 1800, a number of complex transitions were set into motion in Prussia. This industrially and politically backward country governed by a late absolutist regime was transformed into a modern bourgeois society. The Stein and Hardenberg reforms of the years 1807–1815 aimed at fundamental changes in the state administration, the military, the church, the schools and other segments of society. As part of these reforms new juridical definitions of the ‘public’ and the ‘private’, of property, liberty and personal rights, and, last though not least, the concept of ‘citizenship’ emerged and gained momentum. The historical introduction of the concept of citizenship in particular, initiated by the French revolution, was a milestone for the nation‐building process in Prussia as well as in other European countries. But it also becomes apparent that the understanding of citizenship depended in high degree on the specific cultural context and sociopolitical conditions of a country. How, then, did citizenship take shape in Prussia? In spite of its universal claims, the concept was never designed to regard a population as some homogeneous mass, void of internal differentiation. Instead, the concept of citizenship was tied to new boundaries, patterns of inclusion and exclusion, conceived mainly along the categories of gender and religion. In this context the authors are interested in the effects of educational and school policy measures on the internal differentiation of a seemingly universal concept. They explore these measures and their effects by means of two case studies, one addressing the role of women, the other the role of the Jewish community in Prussia.

Female education and the cultural transfer of pedagogical knowledge in the eighteenth century

In the eighteenth century, the German pedagogical discourse took place within the broader framework of an international circulation of pedagogical concepts and ideas. The trans-cultural nature of these intellectual exchanges is particularly evident in the thoughts and writings on female education. Translations of books and essays played a significant role in this transfer of pedagogical knowledge. The article focuses on the manner in which educational thought circulated across borders by studying one case in detail. The examination of John Burton’s Lectures on Female Education and Manners (1793), which was published in German in several editions, will place particular emphasis on the manner in which educational ideas emerging from a specific cultural context are adopted into a different discursive system. The research methodology is based on the concept of “cultural transfer”, an approach that has proven fruitful in transfer and comparative studies in recent years. It refers to key aspects of transfer theory, especially the consideration that ideas do not spread autonomously, but must be carried by intermediaries. Thus, the mechanisms of importing foreign cultural assets and the context of its reception will be at the core of this work.

Schule und Bildung in Frauenhand. Anna Vorwerk und ihre Vorläuferinnen

„Schule und Bildung in Frauenhand: Anna Vorwerk und ihre Vorläuferinnen“ war das Thema des Arbeitsgesprächs, das anlässlich der Wiedereröffnung des Anna-VorwerkHauses, dem ehemaligen Wohnhaus der Reformpädagogin, vom 23. bis zum 25. Oktober 2013 an der Herzog August Bibliothek stattfand. Die neben Vorwerk bekannteste Wolfenbütteler Schulgründerin im 19. Jahrhundert war zweifellos Henriette Schrader-Breymann (1827–1899). BRIGITTE AUGUSTIN (Delmenhorst) zeichnete nach, wie die von Vormärz und der Revolution von 1848 geprägte junge Frau ein Pensionat gründete, das sich seit 1865 in Wolfenbüttel befand. Breymann beteiligte sich in der kleinen Residenzstadt maßgeblich an der Gründung eines Vereins für Erziehung, der im Schloss einen Kindergarten und Elementarklassen für Mädchen in Anlehnung an die Ideen Friedrich Fröbels ins Leben rief. Ein Konflikt um die Ausrichtung dieser Erziehungsanstalten wurde gegen Breymann und zugunsten Anna Vorwerks Idee einer allgemeinbildenden höheren Mädchenschule entschieden. Breymann verfolgte daraufhin ihr Konzept einer spezifisch weiblichen Bildung und Ausbildung mit großem Erfolg im von ihr gegründeten Pestalozzi-Fröbel-Haus in Berlin. CORNELIA NIEKUS MOORE (Fairfax) zeigte auf, dass Magdalena Heymair (ca. 1535 – nach 1586), eine „teutsche Schulhalterin“ aus dem 16. Jahrhundert, als private Hauslehrerin, städtische Schulmeisterin und fürstliche Schullehrerin alle Möglichkeiten ausschöpfte, in diesem von konfessioneller Konkurrenz geprägten Jahrhundert als protestantische Frau zu unterrichten. Mit ihren biblischen Nacherzählungen in Liedform hinterließ Heymair ein bleibendes literarisch-didaktisches Erbe. Nach der Reformation bildeten die Nonnen der im 16. und frühen 17. Jahrhundert gegründeten katholischen Lehrorden die größte Gruppe weiblicher Lehrer. Von den weltlichen Schulmeisterinnen grenzten sich die geistlichen Lehrerinnen, die zumeist aus den städtischen Oberschichten stammten, deutlich ab. Am Beispiel der Ursulinen und ihrer Entwicklung diskutierte ANNE CONRAD (Saarbrücken) die Frage „Lehrerinnen oder Nonnen?“ und zeigte den Wandel des Selbstverständnisses von der Katechetin zur Elementarlehrerin auf. Die Schulorden trugen in den konfessionellen Auseinandersetzungen im 17. Jahrhundert maßgeblich zur Durchsetzung und Befestigung des Katholizismus bei. Mit Gräfin Anna Sophia von SchwarzburgRudolstadt, geb. Anhalt (1584–1652) stellte GABRIELE BALL (Leipzig / Wolfenbüttel) eine adelige gelehrte Dame und Leiterin der „Tugendlichen Gesellschaft“ vor, die mit einer Schulgründung an ihrem Witwensitz Kranichfeld mitten im Dreißigjährigen Krieg in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Pädagogen Wolfgang Ratke innovative Bildungsziele verfolgte. Erstmals wurde belegt, dass ihr Neffe, der anerkannte Schulreformer Ernst der Fromme, Anna Sophia in bildungspolitischer Hinsicht beerbte. Ganz andere Ziele verfolgte Herzogin Anna Sophia von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel (1598–1659) als Schulgründerin, die ebenfalls Mitglied der oben genannten größten Frauensozietät des 17. Jahrhunderts war. SIEGRID WESTPHAL (Osnabrück) zeigte, wie die Brandenburgerin in ihrem Witwensitz Schöningen das von ihr gestiftete Gymnasium dazu nutzte, sich gegenüber dem in schulpolitischen Fragen engagierten Herzog August dem Jüngeren von BraunschweigWolfenbüttel bei Stellenbesetzungen und Stipendienvergaben durchzusetzen. Motive und Ziele, die am Übergang zum 18. Jahrhundert zur Gründung der Maison Royale de Saint Louis in Saint Cyr (1684) führten, unterschieden sich, so JULIANE JACOBI (Potsdam), von denen der bisherigen geistlichen und fürstlichen Schulgründerinnen. Die zweite (morganatische) Ehefrau Ludwigs XIV., Françoise d’Aubignan Madame de

Avant-gardes and educational reforms in history: futures past revisited

Education is future-oriented because its scope relates to societal, social and individual progress and change. This orientation to the future often fosters the questioning of dominant or agreed-upon educational conventions and traditions and implies an affinity to aesthetic avant-gardes, social reform movements, intellectual networks and educational innovation. In turn, societal reform concepts and ideas of progress and renewal often embrace educational intentions to realise their visions of the future. The articles in this special section of the issue will approach educational reforms and visions of the future from the perspective of the history of education. Their different languages, conceptual specificities and implementation have sometimes taken on a hybrid character as they were integrated into existent traditions while other reforms and visions never went beyond their conceptual stage. The term ‘future pasts’ (vergangene Zukunft) was coined by Reinhart Koselleck (1979) to characterise utopian or future-oriented semantics in history.1 In contrast with this, Thomas Popkewitz looks critically from a methodological point of view at rather recent research. In his view many scholars often engage in what he perceives as a ‘history of the present’ in that past rhetoric of a better future has not only impacted on present pedagogical concepts, but also shaped the history of education as an academic field in many ways.2 Our understanding of ‘futures pasts’ refers to both: the fact that educational concepts were developed within specific historical contexts by promising a better future, and an awareness that their innovative impetus or rhetoric of the future still subtly impacts on how we look at the histories of education. The following two papers adopt both perspectives while studying different concepts of reform – modernist school architecture and the education of the body in the context of the modern dance movement – which focus on educational goals, educational practices, new anthropological concepts and social innovation. The human body, the structuring of space, concepts of childhood, the intertwinement of humans and technology, the close relationships between education, ideology and power and, finally, modern visions of the future all enter into the focus. These questions will be studied in terms of regional, national and transnational relations and interdependencies.

Education reform visions and new forms of gymnastics and dance as elements of a new body culture and ‘body education’ (1890–1930)

Abstract Late 19th-century Germany was shaped by industrialisation, technological progress, and urbanisation. Crises of modernisation resulted in a widespread criticism of civilisation that provided ground for the rise of numerous reform movements in various social contexts. They reacted to crises of their time by questioning established conventions, aiming at an overthrow of everything old in the name of the new and created enormous artistic and intellectual potential. This contribution explores the development of two avantgardist streams, the education reform movement and the gymnastics and dance movement, and points out the link that connected modern forms of body education and dance to education reform visions using Hamburg as an example. The willingness to experiment that came with Hamburg’s dedication to radical reform visions was evident not only in the public school system, but also in the emerging arts and culture scene that brought forth new forms of dance and movement.

Learning How to See and Feel: Alfred Lichtwark and His Concept of Artistic and Aesthetic Education.

Abstract Focusing on Lichtwark’s concept of museology, this article shows what role he envisaged for art in public life at a time when the rise of mass consumption and popular culture created new lifestyles. Lichtwark’s concept of artistic and aesthetic education did not only extend to museums and classrooms but also to dilettantism as a basis for educating taste and developing an appreciation of the arts that would have a positive economic impact. The article looks at the contemporary entanglements and different contexts of Lichtwark’s ideas and relates them to recent approaches to cultural learning. Generally speaking, it argues that concepts of cultural learning are a bundle of entangled threads that connect and concern not only the sphere of art but also contradictory values and norms, economic production, and the emergence of new important status groups such as consumers.

5.6 Vocational Education, Gender, and Inequality in Hamburg, Germany, 1849–1914

A study of the gendered history of vocational education is used to exemplify the role of interpretation in the research process and the interpretative contexts that archive materials in form of serial quantitative data opens up. The central questions of the study were which paths pupils – especially those from the lower classes – took after finishing school and which vocational and educational possibilities were generally open to them. These questions were studied on the basis of the vocational and educational choices of male and female school leavers from the lower school system of the city of Hamburg between 1849 and 1914. The focus lays on the analysis and interpretation of the source material and its context in order to show how references to context has entered into the interpretation and affected the perspective. Because the unit studied here is a local case study – the city of Hamburg as a specific sociographic space – it has to be asked if case studies are an appropriate approach for this kind of locally-based research.

The experimental and community schools in Hamburg (1919-1933): an introduction

The four experimental and “community” schools (Versuchsund Gemeinschaftsschulen) founded by social activist Hamburg Volksschule teachers in 1919 and 1920, still in the aftermath of the 1918/19 November revolution that had toppled the German monarchy, were the first of their kind. Then, revolutionary educational concepts were deployed in a conscious break with the socially segregated grammar schools of the Wilhelmine era to realise a form of democratic education for all children, designed in a consequent orientation to the child in the city state’s public elementary school system. As such, the Hamburg schools became models for similar efforts in urban contexts to follow, as was the case in Bremen, Berlin, Chemnitz and Magdeburg; Dresden, Jena and other cities, too, developed reform-oriented school concepts. A topographical study of experimental and reform schools in Germany in 1930 shows 99 such schools existing in cities and 62 in rural areas, alongside 21 Landerziehungsheime (reform boarding schools). The number of experimental schools in public elementary education expands by almost a further 300 if we also include regular schools that applied reform principles in their teaching. At the secondary level, the number of reform schools funded either by states or municipalities was considerably lower, though. The Lichtwarkschule in Hamburg, the Schulfarm Scharfenberg near Berlin and the Aufbauschule and later Karl-Marx-Schule in Berlin-Neukölln are examples of this type. Yet, though school reform in the Weimar era primarily saw implementation at the elementary level, it is mainly the private institutions of secondary education, the “lighthouses”, that take centre stage in the present discourse