There are class photos of me in Elementary School, after the first four grades we moved on to the Lyzeum (High School for girls) – remember all schools were separate for boys and girls, but there were always “parallel” schools(the boys went to the Gymnasium, nothing to do with gym), so that children of both sexes from the same family had roughly the same way to school. No school busses in those days! We all walked to school. In the early days Lila would take me and pick me up gain. I don’t remember how long she did that, but as I remember it longer than I liked to be accompanied!
When we were promoted to High School there was quite a ceremony in school; HS meant new teachers (in Elementary school your first grade teacher would stay with the class for the four years, in HS we had different teachers for the different subjects and often had to change class rooms. Our homeroom teacher was basically a figure head, I can’t remember her function besides usually teaching one subject and doing the roll call.
In the first year of High School we started our first foreign language, in my case it was Latin. Latin is a dead language, reading Caesar probably does not add much to one’s education, but it gives a fabulous background to grammar and promotes understanding of foreign languages. Also in our time you could not be admitted to Medical School without Latin! (Dad took Latin AND Greek [See Notes]). French was added in what would be eighth grade and English in tenth We had a total of 13 years of school, some schools (like Dad’s) had only three years of elementary school for a total of 12. So you normally were 18 or 19 years old before you went to College
In the first year of High School you also got separated from many of your former classmates, as the classes got scrambled. As I remember it you could name two friends you wanted to stay together with, but unless you had a complicated system, too sophisticated for our age, a lot of circles of friends got broken up. Anyway, this is why I met my later best friend, Eva David (who used to be in a parallel class), – a friendship that lasted a lifetime- only in fifth grade. Her brother Theo became my first boy friend. Strangely enough my father had known them by sight for a long time from our Sunday walks (“Spaziergang”): I remember that he was impressed by the “knickerbockers” ( pump (?) trousers that went below the knee ) Mr. David wore, and the uniformed nurse maid that took Eva to school. The father was a banker, and they lived in a semi-detached Villa with a garden and had a car and a chauffeur, hence were much better off than we were
All the schools were unisex, as mentioned above, with the exception of Religious School. Religion was a mandatory subject, but the different denominations had their own instructors. Only the Lutherans were being taught at our school, while the Catholics and Jews were farmed out. Here we encountered boys for the first time, because they combined the Jewish children from the parallel schools, and all I remember from those classes is bedlam. Was it because of the excitement of the encounter with the opposite sex, was it because the Jewish teachers were not the disciplinarians the Germans were, any way it was a zoo, and from what I heard it was not much different in other schools whenever they tried to combine the genders. Later on Jewish religion was taught as an extracurricular subject, after regular school hours; for Bar Mitzvah instruction (Bat Mitzvah didn’t really exist yet) the children went to the temple and were instructed by the rabbi (I am not quite sure about that since it did not participate).. I do remember the Rabbi though, his daughter was in my class. He always insisted to be known by his full name, Emil Bernhard Cohn, double first names were not so common (usually only the middle initial was used). My family only went to services on the High Holidays although my father came from an observant family (whereas my mother did not). In Germany you were taxed for belonging to a congregation (“Gemeinde steuer”) and I think my father did not want to pay that (or could not afford it?)
The Lyzeum also had a different version: although my school was the Bismarck Lyzeum, the children who started with Latin were really in the “Real Gymnasium”; if you took Greek in fifth grade you were in a “Gymnasium”. A little confusing, since a High School for boys always was Gymnasium, I think because at one time they could not opt out of Greek.
The classes were designated with Latin names, hence I started in the Sexta. (from there it went: Quinta, Quarta, Unter Tertia, Ober Tertia, Untersekunda, Obersekunda, Unter prima and Ober prima). Obligatory schooling was eight years, which the Elementary schools offered; so the kids who did not go for higher education stayed in the elementary or “Volks schule” to eighth grade.
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However the German school system became very iffy; our school had a lot of Jewish students, but more and more of them emigrated; As I mentioned before, this was a very affluent neighborhood, bankers and businessmen (also academics) and most of them had foreign connections, which enabled them to resettle.
Notes:
My memory is that Dad only took Latin, much to his father's chagrin, who had taken both Latin and Greek.
Mom did a search for her classmates in 1993, and received a lot of responses.
In my own searching for Bismarcklyzeum, I found a book about Jewish resistance to the Germans in Berlin with a few pages about schools, and this school in particular. From a series--"Widerstand 1933-1945"--this book is Wilmersdorf : Berlin by Felicitas Bothe-von Richthofen (1993, Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand). I found a PDF which has a automatic translation, as follows (I haven't looked back at the German to clean up some clearly bad areas!) from pages 32-38:
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Wilmersdorf schools between adaptation and refusal
Since 30% of high school students in Wilmersdorf were of Jewish descent, the Nazi racial policy here particularly showed its consequences. In September 1935, Reich Minister Rust ordered surveys on the racial affiliation of the students.
At the Grunewald Gymnasium (Walther-Rathenau-Oberschule) the school administration had a list of the "non-Aryans" drawn up in June 1933. Of the 656 students, 419 were “Aryans” and 237 “Non-Aryans”, who in turn were divided into “Children of Frontline Fighters” (119), “Jewish Foreigners” (19), “Non-Aryan stateless persons” (3) and “Half-Jews” (96) . There were also “other foreigners” (16). Due to the "Law against the Overcrowding of German Schools and Universities" of April 25, 1933 and the increasingly noticeable anti-Semitism, many parents felt compelled to to go abroad with their children or at least to re-register them to a Jewish school. There were five Jewish private schools in the district, of which the Goldschmidt School (p. 43f.) Stood out, as it prepared for continued education in exile and the elimination of the language barrier, for example through English teachers with qualifications valid in England.
In 1934 there were no longer 49 at the Grunewald Gymnasium, but only 28 graduates. It received the "100% Aryan School" badge. At the Heinrich-von-Kleist-Realgymnasium (merged with the Grunewald-Gymnasium in 1945) only three of a total of 510 students were of Jewish origin in 1936/37.
The contents of the lessons were increasingly shaped by National Socialist ideas, especially visible in essay and Abitur topics. Physical education became important and for the boys was a kind of "paramilitary training", while for girls with a well-trained body it was assumed that they were generally more resilient and, according to the propaganda, could "give" many children to the "Führer". But Nazi ideology and anti-Semitism also found their way into music lessons. In an essay on the private Goldschmidt School (1984), Peter Prager, who attended the Grunewald High School until 1936, recalls a music teacher at the Grunewald High School who taught the students Nazi songs. One had the refrain "If Jewish blood splatters off the knife, then it'll be as good again". Fortunately, almost all of the Wilmersdorf schools mentioned here had predominantly politically moderate teachers and only in exceptional cases fanatically convinced Nazis, mostly recognizable by the so-called "Bonbon" (Nazi party badge) or the brown uniform. The pupils noticed from certain behaviors whether their teachers were among those who tried to cope with everyday school life without political influence, for example when the teacher only briefly and insignificantly raised his right arm to greet the class with Hitler. In January 1934, the "Deutsche Gruss" was given by school rules instead of the daily "Guten Morgen!" has been introduced in schools.
In addition to discrimination against “non-Aryan” or politically opposed pupils, teachers of Jewish became teachers after the decree of April 9, 1933 at the latest mostly recognizable from the outside by the so-called "Bonbon" (Nazi party badge) or the brown uniform. The pupils noticed from certain behaviors whether their teachers were among those who tried to cope with everyday school life without political influence, for example when the teacher only briefly and insignificantly raised his right arm to greet the class with Hitler. In January 1934, the "Deutsche Gruss" was given by school rules instead of the daily "Guten Morgen!" has been introduced in schools. In addition to discrimination against “non-Aryan” or politically opposed pupils, teachers of Jewish 32 became teachers after the decree of April 9, 1933 at the latest mostly recognizable from the outside by the so-called "Bonbon" (Nazi party badge) or the brown uniform. The pupils noticed from certain behaviors whether their teachers were among those who tried to cope with everyday school life without political influence, for example when the teacher only briefly and insignificantly raised his right arm to greet the class with Hitler. In January 1934, the "Deutsche Gruss" was given by school rules instead of the daily "Guten Morgen!" has been introduced in schools. In addition to discrimination against “non-Aryan” or politically opposed pupils, teachers of Jewish 32 became teachers after the decree of April 9, 1933 at the latest who tried to cope with everyday school life without political influence, for example when the teacher only briefly and insignificantly raised his right arm to greet the class in a Hitler salute. In January 1934, the "Deutsche Gruss" was a school regulation instead of the daily "Guten Morgen!" has been introduced in schools. In addition to discrimination against “non-Aryan” or politically opposed pupils, teachers of Jewish 32 became teachers after the decree of April 9, 1933 at the latest who tried to cope with everyday school life without political influence, for example when the teacher only briefly and insignificantly raised his right arm to greet the class in a Hitler salute. In January 1934, the "Deutsche Gruss" was given by school rules instead of the daily "Guten Morgen!" has been introduced in schools. In addition to discrimination against “non-Aryan” or politically opposed pupils, teachers of Jewish 32 became teachers after the decree of April 9, 1933 at the latest
Origin and politically dissenters removed or degraded from school service, for example Dr. It was a shame, who was probably relieved of his headmaster function due to his SPD membership and was transferred to the Bismarck Lyceum (Hildegard Wegscheider Oberschule) as a simple teacher. The persecution of the opposition went through all levels. Nor did she stop at Albert Witte, a former member of the Reich Banner. He was school caretaker at the Goethe-Gymnasium (Paul-Eipper-Grundschule) in Eisenzahnstrasse and was dismissed immediately in 1933. On January 23, 1935, he was beaten up by Gestapo officials, arrested and taken to Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse, but released after a brief detention. Although the school is to be seen as a mirror of social conditions, pupils often felt who were not directly affected by Nazi discrimination measures, everyday school life in the Hitler era was often banal. In this regard, the writer Horst Krüger even speaks of the "banality of evil" in his memories of his school days at the Grunewald High School. It should be noted that the former reform efforts of the Weimar period were nipped in the bud by the Nazis and the “Führer principle” was imposed in the school. The teaching staff at Wilmersdorfer Gymnasien apparently remained essentially constant, however, and it is conceivable that teachers tried to express their basic humanitarian attitude through a "normal" and uniform everyday school life, often based on a German-national attitude, through too strong Nazi-political Rescuing influence. The fear for one's own teaching position certainly played a major role here.
The Bismarck Lyceum, Siemensstrasse 18-20 (Hildegard Wegscheider Oberschule, Lassenstrasse 16-20)
Dr. Friedrich Abée was the headmaster of the Bismarck Lyceum, which was expanded in 1921 to a college (Realgymnasium) there was the first Abitur for girls in Grünewald. From the school was called "Johanna-von-Puttkamer-Schule" (after Otto von Bismarck's wife), since the National Socialists 'decree from 1939 meant that all girls' schools were to have women's names. The Goethe-Lyzeum in Schmargendorf was also included in «Frau- Aja-Schule ”(“ Frau Aja ”was the joke name of Goethe's mother) and the Hohenzollern Lyceum in Halensee was renamed“ Queen Mathilde School ”. Dr. Abée remembered his time as headmaster at the Bismarck-Lyceum () after World War II and wrote, among other things, that during the Nazi era the school maintained the “spirit of independence and tolerance”. It was often perceived as a “peaceful oasis in Berlin school life”. “Despite all hostility and denunciations, it was able to prevent the worst effects until it collapsed”. A high school graduate in 1933, Leonore Brunner, remembers that of the 23 test candidates only seven were so-called "Aryan women". The still incumbent Berlin high school administrator, Dr. Hildegard Wegscheider, (for political reasons the active social democrat was appointed to the 1st Relieved of all her offices on April 1, 1933) was the examination chairwoman. Ms. Brunner called the basic tendency of the school at that time German national, but not National Socialist. About the Jewish women who were heavily supported by their parents, she reports that they were “more mature” and “more articulate”. On the other hand, she found the "Aryan women" to be "more naive." Another former student, Sibylle May, emphasizes in her memory of the school years at the Bismarck Lyceum that Dr. Abée was an “insider tip” for parents who wanted to spare their child an emphatically National Socialist upbringing. Ms. May was one of the many “half and quarter Jewish” students whom Dr. Abée survived until the school closed in 1943 and until the Abitur. Mrs. Ilse Kalden, who passed her Abitur at the Bismarck Lyceum in 1943, says that she would have got to know humanity through the example of teaching rights. Abée's commitment to the schoolgirls, who were increasingly harassed under the increasing pressure of the “Third Reich”, is unforgettable. She remembers that every school year new girls came to her class, from other parts of Berlin, even from other central German cities: “At first they seemed shy and waited until they gained confidence. Little by little we learned that almost without exception they had got into trouble for reasons of faith, that they were expelled from other schools because there was a Jewish ancestor somewhere in their family tree. " Dr. Abée accepted these students without reservation, and some of them found refuge in his house. The headmaster was aware that he was taking a considerable risk for himself and his family. The older students, slowly realizing what was happening around them, grew suspicious. They suspected every stranger they met at school of being an informant. The Christian and political attitude of Dr. Abées was certainly also expressed in the fact that at school celebrations, as was customary before 1933, first the “Our Father” was prayed, then the “Deutschlandlied” and only last the “Horst Wessel Lied”. The headmaster knew of the danger surrounding him, but he still led a large number of endangered Jewish women to graduate school. With personal courage he disregarded all ministerial orders, e.g. to run a «100% Aryan school», so that the Jewish women affected, like the “purely Aryan” schoolgirls, had the same career opportunities after 1945 through their Abitur. It must be assumed, however, that for most of the Jewish women, going into exile was the only salvation. Another former student, Ika Klar, who also passed her Abitur at the Bismarck Lyceum in 1943, remembers: “It was a very humane and very liberal, intellectually open-minded college that looked after us young girls School time always felt quite comfortable. We had a class friendship with the Jewish women without any problems, there was no racial segregation ... We celebrated class parties and went on trips together. Then it slowly happened that the Jewish schoolgirls disappeared from our class. It was said that the parents are going on a trip and they are getting a special vacation ... Neither the teachers, who certainly knew everything, nor the Direx have announced anything. I think that even the daughters did not know that their parents emigrated so as not to endanger the entire family. " While the unsuspecting “Aryan” girls envied their Jewish classmates for their “journey”, for them it was a decision to say goodbye to a society that until then had meant home and security for them and to which they felt they belonged. The college and the parents tried, politically speaking, to "keep their daughters from everything". However, this did not always work. Ms. May remembers that in the summer of 1943 eleven schoolgirls from her class were taken to “Gotenhafen”, today Gdynia near Danzig, with the “Kinderlandverschickung”. None of the other classmates ever heard from these students again. Of the seven Jewish women who attended a class with Ms. Klar, she only met two again after 1945. One of them, Lieselotte Jakoby, lived with her brother as a “submarine”, that is, as Jews in hiding, during the Hitler era in Berlin. Her brother was finally "shot while trying to escape". All of the rest of the family perished in extermination camps. Ms. Klar never heard from the other Jewish women again.
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