Fridolin Moritz Max Friedmann (June 2, 1897 – October 15, 1976) was a progressive German-Jewish educator. He taught at the
Odenwald School and was later headmaster at the Landschulheim Caputh, both in Germany. He accompanied several
Kindertransport
The ''Kindertransport'' (German for "children's transport") was an organised rescue effort of children (but not their parents) from Nazi-controlled territory that took place during the nine months prior to the outbreak of the Second World ...
s to England, remaining there himself in 1939. He began teaching at
Bunce Court School
The Bunce Court School was an independent, private boarding school in the village of Otterden, in Kent, England. It was founded in 1933 by Anna Essinger, who had previously founded a boarding school, Landschulheim Herrlingen in the south of Germa ...
in 1946, hired by
Anna Essinger
Anna Essinger (15 September 1879 – 30 May 1960) was a German Jewish educator. At the age of 20, she went to finish her education in the United States, where she encountered Quakers and was greatly influenced by their attitudes, adopting them fo ...
to replace her, but she decided to close the school in 1948. He then taught at several other places before retiring. In retirement, he gave lectures about Jewish history.
Biographical details
Friedmann was born in
Burgkunstadt
Burgkunstadt is a town in the district of Lichtenfels, in northern Bavaria, Germany. It is situated on the right bank of the Main, 15 km west of Kulmbach, and 24 km southeast of Coburg.
History
The earliest archeological evidence of set ...
,
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
. He attended the universities of
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
,
Heidelberg
Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...
,
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...
and
Erlangen
Erlangen (; East Franconian German, East Franconian: ''Erlang'', Bavarian language, Bavarian: ''Erlanga'') is a Middle Franconian city in Bavaria, Germany. It is the seat of the administrative district Erlangen-Höchstadt (former administrative d ...
, receiving his
doctorate
A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...
in philosophy in 1925 with a
dissertation on
Moses Mendelssohn
Moses Mendelssohn (6 September 1729 – 4 January 1786) was a German-Jewish philosopher and theologian. His writings and ideas on Jews and the Jewish religion and identity were a central element in the development of the ''Haskalah'', or 'Je ...
.
[ Hildegard Feidel-Mertz, Andreas Paetz]
''Das Jüdische Kinder- und Landschulheim Caputh (1931-1938): ein verlorenes Paradies''
Klinkhardt (2008), p. 351. Retrieved October 30, 2011 He was a strong believer in the importance of the arts, particularly music, in the education of children.
[Eric Bourne]
Letters to the editor: A Lost Generation
(PDF) ''AJR Journal'' (June 2011), p. 6. Retrieved October 4, 2011
In 1925, Friedmann began teaching at the Odenwald School, a
private
Private or privates may refer to:
Music
* " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation''
* Private (band), a Denmark-based band
* "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...
boarding school
A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...
in
Heppenheim
Heppenheim (Bergstraße) is the seat of Bergstraße district in Hesse, Germany, lying on the Bergstraße on the edge of the Odenwald. It is best known for being the birthplace of 4-time Formula One World Champion Sebastian Vettel.
Geography ...
, Germany. In 1926, he began teaching at Samson School, a Jewish school in
Wolfenbüttel
Wolfenbüttel (; nds, Wulfenbüddel) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, the administrative capital of Wolfenbüttel District. It is best known as the location of the internationally renowned Herzog August Library and for having the largest c ...
. In July 1928, he passed his science exam in
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...
and in October 1929, he passed his teaching exam in Berlin. For a time, he conducted scholarly research in
Königs Wusterhausen
Königs Wusterhausen () is a town in the Dahme-Spreewald district of the state of Brandenburg in Germany a few kilometers outside Berlin.
Geography
Geographical location
Königs Wusterhausen – or "KW" () as it is often called locally – lie ...
and in 1932, he was hired to be the director of
Landschulheim Caputh.
He was granted his teaching certificate from the Potsdam school administration on May 2, 1932, less than a year before the Nazi Party
seized power and shortly thereafter, began to prohibit Jewish educators from teaching at "German" schools, requiring that they work at strictly Jewish schools. In 1937, while continuing to teach in
Caputh on the weekend, Friedmann began working at a private secondary school (''realgymnasium'') in Berlin which had been set up by the Berlin Jewish community. Following
Kristallnacht
() or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (german: Novemberpogrome, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) paramilitary and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation from ...
, in November 1938, England agreed to accept 10,000 refugee children and a series of
Kindertransport
The ''Kindertransport'' (German for "children's transport") was an organised rescue effort of children (but not their parents) from Nazi-controlled territory that took place during the nine months prior to the outbreak of the Second World ...
s were set up. Friedmann accompanied several of them, remaining himself in 1939.
After the war, Friedman was in charge of reception centers for children survivors of the
Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
.
"Fridolin Friedmann Remembered"
(PDF) ''AJR Information'' (September 1979), p. 12. Retrieved October 30, 2011 In 1946, he was hired by Anna Essinger to teach and become the new headmaster at Bunce Court School, a German-Jewish school that had been a community of refugee children and adults during the Nazi era and World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. After the war, it took in a number of children survivors of Nazi concentration camp
From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps, (officially) or (more commonly). The Nazi concentration camps are distinguished from other types of Nazi camps such as forced-labor camps, as well as concen ...
s. The relationship with Essinger, who had been the sole headmistress of the school since its inception in Germany in 1926, was difficult and Friedmann left. Bunce Court School closed in 1948.
Friedmann taught at Carmel College, both at its first location in Greenham, then in Wallingford. He retired in 1961. He continued to lecture on Jewish history, speaking at Leo Baeck College
Leo Baeck College is a privately funded rabbinical seminary and centre for the training of teachers in Jewish education. Based now at the Sternberg Centre, East End Road, Finchley, in the London Borough of Barnet, it was founded by Werner van ...
and City Lit
City Lit is an adult education college in Holborn, central London, founded by the London County Council in 1919, which has charitable status. It offers part-time courses across four schools and five "centres of expertise", covering humanities an ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Friedmann, Fridolin
Heads of schools in Germany
Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United Kingdom
Staff of Bunce Court School
1897 births
1976 deaths
People associated with Leo Baeck College
People from Lichtenfels (district)