Adolf Reichwein (3 October 1898 – 20 October 1944) was a German
educator
A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching.
''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...
,
economist
An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics.
The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...
, and cultural policymaker for the
SPD
The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany.
Saskia Esken has been the ...
, who
resisted the policies of
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
.
Biography
Reichwein was born in
Bad Ems
Bad Ems () is a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Rhein-Lahn rural district and is well known as a spa on the river Lahn. Bad Ems is the seat of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' (administrative community) Bad E ...
. He took part in the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, in which he was seriously wounded in the
lung
The lungs are the primary organs of the respiratory system in humans and most other animals, including some snails and a small number of fish. In mammals and most other vertebrates, two lungs are located near the backbone on either side of t ...
. Reichwein studied at the universities of
Frankfurt am Main
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
und
Marburg
Marburg ( or ) is a university town in the German federal state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district (''Landkreis''). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has a population of approximate ...
, under
Hugo Sinzheimer
Hugo Sinzheimer (12 April 1875 – 16 September 1945) was a German legal scholar, and author of the Weimar Constitution. He was a leading proponent of the concept of social law.
Biography
Sinzheimer was one of the first academics specialisin ...
and
Franz Oppenheimer, among others. In the 1920s, he was active in education policy and adult education in Berlin and Thuringia. It was he who founded the ''Volkshochschule'' ("People's High School" - e.g., Community College) and the ''Arbeiterbildungsheim'' ("Workers' Training Home") in
Jena
Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a popu ...
and ran them until 1929. In his ''Hungermarsch nach
Lappland'' ("Hunger March to Lappland") he described in diary form a punishing hike with some young jobless people in the far north. In 1929–1930, he worked as an adviser to the Prussian Culture Minister
Carl Heinrich Becker
Carl Heinrich Becker (12 April 1876 – 10 February 1933) was a German orientalist and politician in Prussia. In 1921 and 1925–1930 he served as Minister for Culture in Prussia (independent). He was one of the founders of the study of t ...
.
From 1930 until 1933, he was a professor at the newly founded Pedagogical Academy in
Halle Halle may refer to:
Places Germany
* Halle (Saale), also called Halle an der Saale, a city in Saxony-Anhalt
** Halle (region), a former administrative region in Saxony-Anhalt
** Bezirk Halle, a former administrative division of East Germany
** Hall ...
. After the Nazis seized power, he was let go for political reasons and sent off to
Tiefensee in
Brandenburg
Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a states of Germany, state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an ar ...
to become an elementary schoolteacher. There, until 1939, he conducted many instructional experiments, which received a lot of attention, with
educational progressivism
Progressive education, or protractivism, is a pedagogical movement that began in the late 19th century and has persisted in various forms to the present. In Europe, progressive education took the form of the New Education Movement. The term ''pro ...
and especially vocational education in mind. Reichwein described in his work ''Schaffendes Schulvolk'' ("Productive School People") his instructional concept, inspired by the
Wandervogel movement and labour-school pedagogy, whose main focus was on trips, activity-oriented instruction with school gardens, and projects spanning age groups. For ''Sachunterricht'' (~field education, or practical learning) and its history, he included important historical documents. Reichwein split the instructional content into a summer cycle (natural sciences and social studies) and a winter cycle ("Man as former"/"in his territory"). From 1939, Reichwein was working at the Folklore Museum in Berlin as a museum educator.
As a member of the
Kreisau Circle, Reichwein belonged to the resistance movement against
Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...
. In early July 1944, Reichwein was arrested by the
Gestapo
The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...
, and, in a trial against
Julius Leber
Julius Leber (16 November 1891 – 5 January 1945) was a German politician of the SPD and a member of the German resistance against the Nazi régime.
Early life
Leber was born in Biesheim, Alsace, out of wedlock, to Katharina Schubetzer and lat ...
,
Hermann Maaß and
Gustav Dahrendorf
Gustav Dietrich Dahrendorf (8 January 1901, Hamburg – 30 October 1954) was a German SPD politician.
Biography
Dahrendorf was born in Hamburg, he served as member of the German Parliament from November 1932 to 22 June 1933. He was also several ...
, sentenced to death by
Roland Freisler's ''
Volksgerichtshof''. He was killed next to Maaß at
Plötzensee Prison
Plötzensee Prison (german: Justizvollzugsanstalt Plötzensee, JVA Plötzensee) is a juvenile prison in the Charlottenburg-Nord locality of Berlin with a capacity for 577 prisoners, operated by the State of Berlin judicial administration. The d ...
in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
on 20 October 1944.
Selected works
* ''Schaffendes Schulvolk''.
Kohlhammer Verlag, Stuttgart/Berlin 1937.
* ''Film in der Landschule''. Kohlhammer Verlag, Stuttgart/Berlin 1938.
* (New annotated edition of both works:) ''Schaffendes Schulvolk – Film in der Schule. Die Tiefenseer Schulschriften''. pub. by.
Wolfgang Klafki ''et al.''. Beltz, Weinheim/Basel 1993.
Literature
* Ullrich Amlung:
**''"... in der Entscheidung gibt es keine Umwege": Adolf Reichwein 1898 - 1944. Reformpädagoge, Sozialist, Widerstandskämpfer''. 3. Auflage Schüren, Marburg 2003
**''Adolf Reichwein: 1898–1944. Ein Lebensbild des Reformpädagogen, Volkskundlers und Widerstandskämpfers''. 2. Auflage dipa, Frankfurt am Main, 1999
**''Adolf Reichwein 1898 - 1944. Eine Personalbibliographie''. Universität Marburg 1991 (Schriften der Universitätsbibliothek Marburg, 54)
* Hartmut Mitzlaff: ''Adolf Reichweins (1898–1944) heimliche Reformpraxis in Tiefensee 1933-1939''. In: Astrid Kaiser, Detlef Pech (Hrsg.): ''Geschichte und historische Konzeptionen des Sachunterrichts''. Schneider-Verlag Hohengehren, Baltmannsweiler 2004, S. 143–150.
External links
*
Adolf-Reichwein-Verein(New Webpage: reichwein-forum)
in the
Bibliothek für Bildungsgeschichtliche Forschung
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reichwein, Adolf
1898 births
1944 deaths
People from Rhein-Lahn-Kreis
Heads of schools in Germany
German economists
German military personnel of World War I
German resistance members
People condemned by Nazi courts
People from Rhineland-Palatinate executed at Plötzensee Prison
People from Hesse-Nassau
University of Marburg alumni
Members of the Kreisau Circle
Executed members of the 20 July plot
Museum educators