Education Cultural developments Why controversial?
Weimar Education was a significant political issue most Intellectual, experimental, vibrant, decadent Education system was very socially
Germans felt strongly about it – some wanted culture. and economically divided. 1928
religion taught some did not. - Bauhaus architecture - name spread as survey of fathers of university
- Education Articles meant there was a a way of thinking and designing students found that 45% were civil
compulsory Grundschule for all - Neue Sachlichkeit movement – reality servants and only 2.3% were
children aged 6-10, run by Lander but representation, poverty in art, books, or working class. There was not equal
meeting needs of parents locally. film. opportunities for every social class,
- 1927 new bill proposed that These movements existed side by side, influencing the children born into families who
confessional, common and secular art, music, literature, opera. Valued by highly had more money were able to afford
schools be set up on equal footing as wealthy people who subsidised artists. education and continue the legacy
long as requested by parents of at creating a wider economic and social
least 40 children. - Ufa – government-organised divide within Germany.
- Reich Parent’s league supported bill; association, made most German films 1928, 56% of students were
Volkskirche Association for e.g., 1927 Metropolis. (First full-length members of a corporation, some of
Evangelical Freedom vigorously film to have a science fiction subject) which excluded people by race or
opposed. bill sent back to be social-class e.g., German – Aryan
revised but could not agree and never Chambers. Membership was
came back to Reichstag Cinema took off in Weimar – commonly dark. E.g., important because support from
- Education system stayed diverse: Nosferatu, first vampire movie made in Germany other in that corporation, or lack of it,
1931, 29,020 Protestant schools, 15,256 1922. massively affected a person’s career.
Catholic schools, 97 Jewish schools, 8,921
common schools. Although ‘free speech’, The criminal
Education beyond 10 had to be paid for code had Paragraph 184, allowing
1) Hauptschule (led to the banning of obscene films and
apprenticeships/trade) publications.
2) Realschule (led to business/technical Many right-wing people were worried
training) about the decadence, increasing
3) Gymnasium (led to university) number of influential Jewish writers
All students who wanted to go to uni had to pass and increasing Americanisation of the
the Abitur exam. culture.
state school structure remained but private Policy of Gleichschaltung – tight control over Underlying all changes was the
Nazi primary schools abolished. – emphasised culture and education. emphasis on race and anti-semetism.
physical fitness. CHANGE IN CURRICULUM NOT 1933 May – 35 cities, mass burning of 25,000
STRUCTURE. books that were unsound, famous foreign authors April 1933, Nazis opened 3 Napolas,
e.g., Ernest Hemingway anything that was free boarding school to train an elite
Corporations became Nazi Comradeship Houses Jewish, socialist, encouraged individualism or group of boys as government
+ students had to join Nazi student union. discouraged conformity. administrators.
By 1937, impossible for teachers to get a job if
not in the NSLB (national socialist teachers September 1933, Goebbels set up Conventional subjects were geared at
union) – ran courses teachers had to attend to Reichskulturkammer (RKK) to control all creative every opportunity to enhance Nazism,
absorb the ideas they were meant to teach. arts. maths e.g., how much money could
be saved for marriage loans if the
Most important role of schools was to teach Strength through Joy trips to the theatre – money for keeping the mentally ill in
loyalty to Hitler, physical fitness, and racial educated people on the art they should also care was ‘saved’.
purity. – from 1935 a stream of central directives despise. 1937 ‘degenerate’ art expedition in
covered all years in education and all subjects. Munich, information on why the display was Immoral books included Erich Maria
worthless and corrupt. Remarque’s all quiet on the western
Sport increased to 15% of curriculum. front (realistic portrayal of horrors in
History focused on creating Volksgemeinschaft. 1936 Olympics, Germany won 89 medals, 33 gold WW1)
– encouraged sport. Strong healthy Aryans in
Creation of Hitler youth, boys 14 years. sculptors.
Bund Deutsches Madel (BDM), girls 14 years.
Hammered home messages being taught at Festivals and holidays arranged around dates in
schools. Nazi history – Mother’s day was on Hitler’s
mothers birthday.
Huge building projects in the cities, Nazi Party
Rally Grounds in Nuremberg, held yearly rallies
lasted a week 1933-38 impression of the third
Reich being powerful and established.
School restructuring did not happen. People found it easier to adopt American and Completely remove Nazi influence yet
FRG All through 1960s and 1970s, meetings at federal British cultural offerings, e.g., Hollywood movies even socialist claimed education was
and lander level discussed need to made and Shakespeare. the one area of German culture in
education available to all on a fairer basis but Social movements – anti-nuclear movement, which they were proud. Were
failed to agree on any policies. ecological and alternate lifestyle. Shared a uninterested with major reform.
1971 Brandt gov tried to introduce a federal rejection of consumerism.
framework for restructuring schools that lander
would have to adopt, included a reform of the Generational tensions, older generations wanting
university structure but did not get the majority to see 1945 as year zero.
to become law. Older wanted a traditional German culture +
The state provided free education up to the end comfortable consumerist lifestyle
of secondary school, number of children in Younger wanted a culture that faced both the
Gymnasium rose from 853,000 1960 to 2 mill present and the immediate past
1980. More students went to uni and the 1971 Influential book – ‘The inability to mourn’ by
federal education promotion act provided a
