Nikolaus Lenau High School (german: Nikolaus-Lenau-Lyzeum; ro, Liceul Teoretic „Nikolaus Lenau”) is a
German-language
German ( ) is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Italian province of South Tyrol. It is also a c ...
high school
A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
in
Timișoara
), City of Roses ( ro, Orașul florilor), City of Parks ( ro, Orașul parcurilor)
, image_map = Timisoara jud Timis.svg
, map_caption = Location in Timiș County
, pushpin_map = Romania#Europe
, pushpin_ ...
. The school was founded in 1870 and is named after the 19th century romantic poet
Nikolaus Lenau
Nikolaus Lenau was the pen name of Nikolaus Franz Niembsch Edler von Strehlenau (13 August 1802 – 22 August 1850), a German-language Austrian poet.
Biography
He was born at Csatád (Schadat), Kingdom of Hungary, now Lenauheim, Banat, then p ...
who was born in the nearby village of
Lenauheim
Lenauheim (until 1926 Cetad; german: Lenauheim, formerly ''Tschatad''; hu, Csatád) is a communes of Romania, commune in Timiș County, Romania. It is composed of three villages: Bulgăruș (formerly Bogaroș; german: Bogarosch; hu, Bogáros), Gr ...
. Besides high school education (''Lyzealklassen''), the school additionally offers
primary education
Primary education or elementary education is typically the first stage of formal education, coming after preschool/kindergarten and before secondary school. Primary education takes place in ''primary schools'', ''elementary schools'', or first ...
(''Grundschulklassen'') and
intermediate education
A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
(''Gymnasialklassen'') using German as the language of instruction for the most part. The Nikolaus Lenau High School is currently considered the most important German-language high school in
Banat
Banat (, ; hu, Bánság; sr, Банат, Banat) is a geographical and historical region that straddles Central and Eastern Europe and which is currently divided among three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania (the counties of T ...
.
Novelist
Herta Müller
Herta Müller (; born 17 August 1953) is a Romanian-born German novelist, poet, essayist and recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Nițchidorf (german: Nitzkydorf, link=no), Timiș County in Romania, her native language is G ...
, laureate of the
Nobel Prize in Literature
)
, image = Nobel Prize.png
, caption =
, awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature
, presenter = Swedish Academy
, holder = Annie Ernaux (2022)
, location = Stockholm, Sweden
, year = 1901
, ...
, graduated from the school. Physicist
Stefan Hell
Stefan Walter Hell HonFRMS (: born 23 December 1962) is a Romanian-German physicist and one of the directors of the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, Germany. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2014 "for the d ...
, who shared the 2014
Nobel Prize in Chemistry
)
, image = Nobel Prize.png
, alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then "M ...
, attended ninth grade there before emigrating to
West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
. In 1962, guitarist
Béla Kamocsa, who was a student at Lenau and a drummer for the local orchestra, met fellow musician
Nicu Covaci
Nicolae (Nicu) Covaci (born 19 April 1947 in Timișoara, Romania) is a Romanian guitarist, painter, and music composer. He is best known as the leader and founding member of Romanian
Romanian may refer to:
*anything of, from, or related to th ...
, who had been hired by one of the band leaders to produce and perform a school concert, founding
Transsylvania Phoenix
Transsylvania Phoenix (also known as Phoenix in Romania) is a Romanian rock band formed in 1962 in Timișoara by guitarists Nicu Covaci and Kamocsa Béla. Guitarist Claudiu Rotaru, vocalist Florin "Moni" Bordeianu and drummer Ioan "Pilu" Șt ...
during the production process. Another graduate of the school is mathematician
Adrian Constantin
Adrian Constantin (born 22 April 1970) is a Romanian-Austrian mathematician who does research in the field of nonlinear partial differential equations.Wittgenstein Preis 2020 to Adrian Constantin' Universität Wien: Fakultät für Mathematik, 17 ...
, recipient of the 2020
Wittgenstein Award
The Wittgenstein Award (german: Wittgenstein-Preis) is an Austrian science award supporting the notion that "scientists should be guaranteed the greatest possible freedom and flexibility in the performance of their research." The prize money of up ...
, the most prestigious scientific award in
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
.
History
![Sept-2010-Temeswar 264](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Sept-2010-Temeswar_264.JPG)
In 1761, the two-storey
neoclassical building designed by the architect and built by the civil engineer Johann Reiber
was initially the Serbian (Rascian) Town Hall, then a forerunner of the
German State Theater in Timișoara with German classics on the repertoire.
The "
waltz
The waltz ( ), meaning "to roll or revolve") is a ballroom and folk dance, normally in triple ( time), performed primarily in closed position.
History
There are many references to a sliding or gliding dance that would evolve into the wa ...
king"
Johann Strauss II
Johann Baptist Strauss II (25 October 1825 – 3 June 1899), also known as Johann Strauss Jr., the Younger or the Son (german: links=no, Sohn), was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed ov ...
often made guest appearances here,
and in 1796 the first performance of
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...
's ''
The Magic Flute
''The Magic Flute'' (German: , ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a ''Singspiel'', a popular form during the time it was written that inclu ...
'' took place there.
In a climate of self-confident bourgeoisie, the call for a fully developed higher education institution was loud. On 23 April 1870, it was decided, based on a contract concluded between the Ministry of Cults and Public Instruction in
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
and the Timișoara City Hall, to establish the ''Staatsoberrealschule'' ("Real State High School").
The organization of the school was the responsibility of the state, the Hungarian Ministry of Cults and Public Instruction was to appoint the principal and teachers, the mayor's office having only a limited right to appoint the faculty. After seven years of remodeling the building, the ''Oberrealschule'' moved in in 1879, which was housed in the building of the municipal public hospital from 1870 to 1878. With the completion of the festive hall in 1882, the construction work at the school was completed.
In the ''Oberrealschule'', special emphasis was placed on
analytical geometry
In classical mathematics, analytic geometry, also known as coordinate geometry or Cartesian geometry, is the study of geometry using a coordinate system. This contrasts with synthetic geometry.
Analytic geometry is used in physics and engineerin ...
,
physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...
,
chemistry
Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...
,
natural sciences
Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...
and
drawing
Drawing is a form of visual art in which an artist uses instruments to mark paper or other two-dimensional surface. Drawing instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, various kinds of paints, inked brushes, colored pencils, crayons, ...
. Initially, the language of instruction was German, later Hungarian with explanations in German, as most students were not fluent in Hungarian.
After the
Banat
Banat (, ; hu, Bánság; sr, Банат, Banat) is a geographical and historical region that straddles Central and Eastern Europe and which is currently divided among three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania (the counties of T ...
was divided into three in 1919 and the ''Oberrealschule'' was renamed the ''Deutsches Staatsgymnasium'' ("German State High School"), German was introduced as the language of instruction, with a Hungarian section until 1927. From 1941 to 1944, the German girls' high school operated in the high school building, and in 1942 the school was named "Nikolaus Lenau", after the Banat-born Austrian poet.
For a brief period, starting with 1952, it has been called the Boys' High School no. 2. Between 1952 and 1955, the Faculty of Labor functioned in the high school building.
German education was initially discontinued under communist rule. Between 1944 and 1948 the confessional schools continued to operate until their
nationalization
Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...
in 1948. The same happened with the two German-language teacher training colleges in Banat. In 1959 the independence of numerous German schools was abolished; they only continued to exist as sections of Romanian schools, with the exception of three secondary schools, including the Nikolaus Lenau High School. After World War II, the German High School was housed first in the building of the
Constantin Diaconovici Loga High School and from 1955 again in the old building at 2 Gheorghe Lazăr Street. On 26 May 1957, the school was renamed the Nikolaus Lenau High School, which was confirmed by decree in 1970 to mark the centenary of the school.
In the autumn of 1968, the then principal of the Nikolaus Lenau High School, , founded the German adult education center in Timișoara. As the founder, he was also the head and main lecturer of this adult education institution. The lectures took place monthly in the beginning, then bimonthly and later weekly in the festive hall of the high school. The Nikolaus Lenau High School and the adult education center were important meeting places for the German population in and around Timișoara. It was a perpetually open school for all generations.
Organization and material base
![Temišvar, Rumunija 45](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/Temi%C5%A1var%2C_Rumunija_45.jpg)
As of 2016/2017, the Nikolaus Lenau High School has 24
primary school
A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...
classes (616 students), 18
secondary school
A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...
classes (441 students) and 12
high school
A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
classes (331 students).
With the exception of three primary school classes, all classes are taught in German.
The school is a recognized
ICDL examination center and has 68 classrooms, 10 laboratories, a sports hall and a 24,000-volume library.
There is also a canteen, a boarding school with 100 places and a youth hostel with 51 places. Primary school courses (1st–4th grades) have been held since 1960 in the former inn and café ''La cei Șapte Principi Electori'' in
Union Square
Union commonly refers to:
* Trade union, an organization of workers
* Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets
Union may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Music
* Union (band), an American rock group
** ''Un ...
, often called "Little Lenau" ( ro, Lenau Mic) today. 5th–12th grades of the high school are located in the immediate vicinity, on Gheorghe Lazăr Street. A new campus with four buildings in the Popa Șapcă-Oituz area is scheduled to be completed in 2022. The new campus has been designed with 48 classrooms, physics, biology, chemistry and computer science laboratories, a sports hall, a German-language library and a digital library, as well as a medical office and many other administrative facilities.
Principals
Notable students and teachers
File:Gheorghe Ciuhandu.jpg, Gheorghe Ciuhandu
Gheorghe Coriolan Ciuhandu (; born 15 June 1947) is a Romanian politician.
A building engineer by profession, he graduated from the Traian Vuia Polytechnic Institute in 1970, earning a doctorate in 1986 and joining the faculty in 1993. He was ...
File:Nicu Covaci.jpg, Nicu Covaci
Nicolae (Nicu) Covaci (born 19 April 1947 in Timișoara, Romania) is a Romanian guitarist, painter, and music composer. He is best known as the leader and founding member of Romanian
Romanian may refer to:
*anything of, from, or related to th ...
File:Stefan W Hell.jpg, Stefan Hell
Stefan Walter Hell HonFRMS (: born 23 December 1962) is a Romanian-German physicist and one of the directors of the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, Germany. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2014 "for the d ...
File:Herta Müller 1.jpg, Herta Müller
Herta Müller (; born 17 August 1953) is a Romanian-born German novelist, poet, essayist and recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Nițchidorf (german: Nitzkydorf, link=no), Timiș County in Romania, her native language is G ...
File:Ernest Wichner 2015.jpg, Ernest Wichner
Ernest Wichner (born in Zăbrani, 17 April 1952) is a German writer, editor, and literary translator of Banat Swabians, Banat Swabian origin.
Translations
* Norman Manea: ''Der Trenchcoat.'' Erzählung. Steidl Verlag, Göttingen 1990
* Max Bleche ...
* (b. 1946), actor, stuntman and choreographer
*
Gheorghe Ciuhandu
Gheorghe Coriolan Ciuhandu (; born 15 June 1947) is a Romanian politician.
A building engineer by profession, he graduated from the Traian Vuia Polytechnic Institute in 1970, earning a doctorate in 1986 and joining the faculty in 1993. He was ...
(b. 1947), mayor of Timișoara (1996–2012)
*
Adrian Constantin
Adrian Constantin (born 22 April 1970) is a Romanian-Austrian mathematician who does research in the field of nonlinear partial differential equations.Wittgenstein Preis 2020 to Adrian Constantin' Universität Wien: Fakultät für Mathematik, 17 ...
(b. 1970), mathematician
*
Nicu Covaci
Nicolae (Nicu) Covaci (born 19 April 1947 in Timișoara, Romania) is a Romanian guitarist, painter, and music composer. He is best known as the leader and founding member of Romanian
Romanian may refer to:
*anything of, from, or related to th ...
(b. 1947), frontman and guitarist of
Transsylvania Phoenix
Transsylvania Phoenix (also known as Phoenix in Romania) is a Romanian rock band formed in 1962 in Timișoara by guitarists Nicu Covaci and Kamocsa Béla. Guitarist Claudiu Rotaru, vocalist Florin "Moni" Bordeianu and drummer Ioan "Pilu" Șt ...
* (1909–1990), poet, writer and folklorist
* (b. 1942), journalist and publicist
* (b. 1959), writer and journalist
* (1913–1989), Roman Catholic cleric
*
Stefan Hell
Stefan Walter Hell HonFRMS (: born 23 December 1962) is a Romanian-German physicist and one of the directors of the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, Germany. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2014 "for the d ...
(b. 1962), physicist and
Nobel laureate in chemistry
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry ( sv, Nobelpriset i kemi) is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of chemistry. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the 1895 will and testament ...
(2014)
* (1912–1998), writer
* (1910–1997), professor, poet and playwright
* (1913–2009), actor, poet and playwright
* (1913–1981), Roman Catholic cleric
* (1899–1989), poet and playwright
*
Herta Müller
Herta Müller (; born 17 August 1953) is a Romanian-born German novelist, poet, essayist and recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Nițchidorf (german: Nitzkydorf, link=no), Timiș County in Romania, her native language is G ...
(b. 1953), novelist, poet, essayist and
Nobel laureate in literature
)
, image = Nobel Prize.png
, caption =
, awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature
, presenter = Swedish Academy
, holder = Annie Ernaux (2022)
, location = Stockholm, Sweden
, year = 1901
, ...
(2009)
* (b. 1948), architect
* (1939–1979), composer, arranger, pianist and conductor
* (b. 1944), poet, writer and editor
*
Ernest Wichner
Ernest Wichner (born in Zăbrani, 17 April 1952) is a German writer, editor, and literary translator of Banat Swabians, Banat Swabian origin.
Translations
* Norman Manea: ''Der Trenchcoat.'' Erzählung. Steidl Verlag, Göttingen 1990
* Max Bleche ...
(b. 1952), writer and translator
References
{{Authority control
Educational institutions established in 1870
German-language schools
High schools in Romania
Schools in Timișoara
1870 establishments in Austria-Hungary