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German Schoolteachers, National Socialism, and the Politics of Culture at the End of the Weimar Republic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2008

Marjorie Lamberti
Marjorie Lamberti
Affiliation:
Middlebury College
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Extract

In the Third Reich a high percentage of the civil servants in the cadres of functionaries of the National Socialist Party on the local and district levels were teachers. It is thus not surprising that some historians who studied the elementary school teaching profession in the Weimar Republic began their research with assumptions about the “ideological affinities” of teachers to fascism and discussed “the specific predispositions that made it easy for them to identify with National Socialism.” The German Teachers' Association, one scholar wrote, “proved to be more a precursor than an opponent of fascism.” At its national congress in May 1932, another historian related, the representatives of the chapters voted for a policy which, in effect, abandoned the democratic republic and “indirectly helped those political forces that would create a dictatorship in Germany within a year.” In 1932 and 1933, on the other hand, recruiters for the National Socialist Teachers’ League often complained about “hard and difficult soil” and “unpenetrable” regions.

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Articles
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Central European History , Volume 34 , Issue 1 , March 2001 , pp. 53 - 82
Copyright
Copyright © Conference Group for Central European History of the American Historical Association 2001

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References

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21. Schlesische Schulzeitung, 7 January 1932, pp. 4–6; ibid., 4 February 1932, p. 89.

22. Jahrbuch des deutschen Lehrervereins 1931 (Berlin, 1931), 102–5; ibid., 1933 (Berlin, 1933), 98–101. The smaller Catholic Teachers’ Association tied to the cohesive Catholic subculture also reported a loss of members. Pädagogische Post: Katholische Zeitschrift für Erziehung und Bildung, 11 February 1932, pp. 80–81; ibid., 13 October 1932, p. 515; Katholische Schulzeitung für Norddeut-schland: Organ der Zweigvereine des katholischen Lehrerverbandes Schlesien, Brandenburg-Pommern, 26 October 1932, pp. 708–09.

23. The central leadership of the German Teachers’ Association in Berlin criticized the referendum campaign as an attack on the democratic state. The proposed Freedom Law in the referendum threatened cabinet ministers who were responsible for the ratification and implementation of the Young Plan with imprisonment for high treason. Allgemeine deutsche Lehrerzeitung, 31 October 1929, pp. 892–95; ibid., 14 November 1929, pp. 939–40.

24. Chaim, Seeligmann, “Vorläufer des nationalsozialistischen Lehrerbundes,” Der Lehrer und seine Organisation, ed. Heinemann, , 305–14Google Scholar; Johannes, Erger, “Lehrer und Nationalsozialismus: Von den traditionellen Lehrerverbänden zum nationalsozialistischen Lehrerbund,” in Erziehung und Schulung im Dritten Reich, ed. Manfred, Heinemann (Stuttgart, 1980), Part II, 213ffGoogle Scholar. Despite the leadership of such activists as Julius Streicher in Nuremberg, the membership of the Bund völkischer Lehrer Deutschlands grew slowly, from around 450 in 1924 to 900 in 1927.

25. Erger, , “Lehrer und Nationalsozialismus,” 223.Google Scholar

26. In the sample of Nazi Old Fighters in the teaching profession in Jarausch’s statistical study, 31.6 percent of the teachers who joined the Nazi Party before 1933 also belonged to the German Teachers’ Association; the corresponding figure for the National Socialist Teachers’ League was 26.3 percent. See table A.17 in Jarausch, , The Unfree Professions, 255.Google Scholar

27. Sächsische Schulzeitung, 18 November 1931, p. 792; ibid., 6 April 1932, pp. 257–58. Georg Wawrzik, another Nazi agitator, contested his removal from the membership rolls of the Leipzig teachers’ association in February 1931 without success. See ibid., 16 May 1932, p. 228.

28. Nationalsozialistische Lehrerzeitung 5, November 1930, p. 3.

29. Willi, Feiten, Der nationalsozialistische Lehrerbund. Entwicklung und Organisation: Ein Beitrag zum Aufbau und zur Organisationsstruktur des nationalsozialistischen Herrschaftssystems (Weinheim, 1981), 40ff.Google Scholar

30. On Raatz’s life, see Ostpreussische Erzieher: Mitteilungsblatt für die Gaufachschaften im nationalsozialistischen Lehrerbunde Ostpreussens, 1 October 1933, 416.

31. On Knoop’s life, see Westfälische Schulzeitung, 10 June 1933, p. 339. On the effects of the government’s stabilization policy and downsizing of the civil service on the young generation of teachers in 1923–1924, see Allgemeine deutsche Lehrerzeitung, 25 July 1924, pp. 4493–98. See also Andreas, Kunz, Civil Servants and the Politics of Inflation in Germany, 1914–1924 (Berlin 1986), 370ff.Google Scholar

32. Allgemeine Deutsche Lehrerzeitung, 15 January 1931, p. 47; ibid., 12 February 1931, p. 124; ibid., 17 December 1931, p. 957; Sächsiche Schulzeitung, 21 January 1931, p. 41; Pädagogische Post, 4 December 1930, Beilage, p. 193; ibid., 12 February 1931, p. 111.

33. Pädagogische Post, 12 November 1931, pp. 745–46; see also ibid., 5 March 1931, p. 158; ibid., 30 April 1931, pp. 292–94. Johannes Brockmann, the chairman of the Westphalian provincial branch of the Catholic Teachers’ Association of Germany and a Center Party deputy in the Prussian Landtag, stated in early 1931 that it was “urgently necessary that a clear and unambiguous statement on the National Socialists’ position in cultural and school politics be expressed by the church leadership.” In the spring of 1931, another Catholic educator, Joseph Güsgens urged the Catholic School Organization, a mass parents’ movement closely tied to the Center Party, to state publicly its opposition to National Socialism’s views on education and the schools. He aired his own opposition to National Socialism’s political authoritarianism and racism. This evidence was overlooked when Heinrich Küppers wrote that Catholic teachers misread National Socialism and that the Catholic Teachers’ Association was unwilling to take a decisive stand against it until the second half of 1932. More convincing is Klaus Scholder’s contention that “the impression of a solid front and an implacable antagonism between Catholicism and National Socialism was quite general and dominant” by the spring of 1931. Heinrich, Küppers, Der Katholische Lehrerverband in der Übergangszeit von der Weimarer Republik zur Hitler-Diktatur (Mainz, 1975), 93–102Google Scholar; Klaus, Scholder, The Churches and the Third Reich, trans. John, Bowden (Philadelphia, 1988), 50:132ff.Google Scholar

34. In comparison, the Deutsche Lehrerinnenzeitung followed more strictly the policy of political neutrality adopted by the German Women Teachers’ Association. The occasional articles on National Socialism in the newspaper were confined to a mild defense of the women’s movement in response to the polemics in the Nazi Party’s press. See, for example, Deutsche Lehrerinnenzeitung, 10 May 1932, pp. 155–57. On the German Women Teachers’ Association in the Weimar years, see Doris, Kampmann, “‘Zolibat — ohne uns!’ — die soziale Situation und politische Einstellung der Lehrerinnen in der Weimarer Republik,” in Frauengruppe Faschismusforschung, Mutterkreuz und Arbeitsbuch: Zur Geschichte der Frauen in der Weimarer Republik und im Nationalsozialismus (Frankfurt, 1981), 79–104Google Scholar; Elizabeth, Harvey, “The Failure of Feminism? Young Women and the Bourgeois Feminist Movement in Weimar Germany 1918–1933,” Central European History 28 (1995): 1–28.Google Scholar

35. Allgemeine Deutsche Lehrerzeitung, 13 August 1931, p. 648; ibid., 2 October 1931, p. 818; ibid., 30 July 1932, pp. 561–63. See also ibid., 9 January 1930, pp. 37–38; ibid., 13 March 1930, pp. 202–03.

36. On Wilhelm Frick in Thuringia, for example, see Allgemeine Deutsche Lehrerzeitung, 15 May 1930, p. 384; ibid., 29 May 1930, p. 426; ibid., 19 June 1930, p. 495; ibid., 10 July 1930, pp. 545–46; ibid., 17 July 1930, pp. 565–66. See also Marie-Luise, Worster-Rossbach and Monika, Gühre, “Grundzüge der nationalsozialistischen Schulpolitik in Thüringen von 1930 bis 1933,” in Lehrerschaft, Republik und Faschismus, ed. Krause-Vilmar, , 222ffGoogle Scholar; Günther, Neliba, “Wilhelm Frick und Thüringen als Experimentierfeld für die nationalsozialistische Machtergreifung,” in Nationalsozialismus in Thüringen, ed. Detlev, Heiden and Günther, Mai (Weimar, 1995), 75–96.Google Scholar

37. Allgemeine Deutsche Lehrerzeitung, 23 July 1932, pp. 549–50.

38. Schlesische Schulzeitung, 8 April 1920, p. 157; ibid., 5 May 1920, p. 189; Lehrerzeitung för Ost-und Westpreussen, 2 April 1921, p. 181. On the exodus of Germans from the territories ceded to Poland, see Richard, Blanke, Orphans of Versailles: The Germans in Western Poland 1918–1939 (Lexington, KY, 1993), 32ff.Google Scholar

39. On the experiences of young teachers, see Lehrerzeitung für Ost- und Westpreussen, 12 November 1921, pp. 635–36; Schulblatt der Provinz Sachsen, 23 June 1927, pp. 201–2; Schlesische Schulzeitung, 24 December 1931, pp. 1001–2. In 1928, 14,653 candidates for teaching appointments (Schulamtsbewerber) were still unemployed. After years of waiting for school positions, many of these teachers had lost hope and had become so estranged from their profession that by November 1930, 2, 500 of the jobless teachers withdrew from the list of applicants. In 1928,8,827 young teachers were employed auftragsweise and vertretungsweise, holding untenured offices at the bottom of the salary scale, and another 3,000 earned a meager pay as assistant teachers. Statistical information on the number of unemployed candidates for school offices as of 15 November 1928 and 15 November 1930, respectively, prepared by the Ministry of Education for the Prussian Landtag in Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, Rep. 77, Tit. 1124, no. 28, Beiheft 4, Bl. 80 and Bl. 95.

40. Arthur, Hennig, “Der Junglehrer als Typus,” in Von den Enterbten der Schule: Ein Junglehrerbrevier, ed. Bannert, Willy Hans (Berlin, 1927), 16, 23–24Google Scholar; Max, Simoneit, “Das seelische Schicksal der schulfremden Junglehrer,”Google Scholar in ibid., 25–38; Der Junge Lehrer: Werkblatt des katholischen Junglehrerbundes des Deutschen Reichs: Beilage zur Pädagogischen Post, 12 May 1927, p. 66; ibid., 12 May 1927, pp. 69–70; ibid., 26 May 1928, pp. 73–74.

41. Der Junge Lehrer, 12 January 1927, pp. 2–4.

42. Paul, Kluke, “Abseits! Zum Problem der staatsbürgerlichen Geisteshaltung des schulfremden Junglehrers,” in Von den Enterbten der Schule, ed. Bannert, , 78–91Google Scholar. This view is confirmed by J. E. Pülke, a teacher in Westphalia, who observed in 1927 that Catholic young teachers were divided into two camps in their opinions on the democratic state. Concerns about the “resentment and hostility toward the state stirring in the embittered hearts” of young teachers were expressed by Bernhard Bergmann of Düsseldorf, when he gave the main address at the convention of the Catholic Young Teachers’ League on 4 August 1927. He appealed to young teachers not to succumb to morose resignation and negativism and to stay loyal to the republic. Der Junge Lehrer, 28 July 1927, p. 99; ibid., 28 September 1927, pp. 121–23.

43. Allgemeine Deutsche Lehrerzeitung, 2 July 1931, pp. 544–45; Pädagogische Post, 29 October 1931, pp. 701–02.

44. In the elections for the student union (Allgemeiner Studentenausschuss) at the Pädagogisches Institut in Leipzig, the Nazi slate won 39.4 percent of the votes cast in 1931. In 1932, the votes for the Nazi slate increased slightly in absolute numbers, and, with a lower turnout, the number of students voting for the other partisan lists of candidates dropped steeply. Neue sächsische Schulzeitung, 9 March 1932, p. 75. On the attraction of students in the Pädagogische Akademien to National Socialism, see Breyvogel, , Die soziale Lage, 196.Google Scholar

45. Nationalsozialistische Lehrerzeitung 5 November 1930, p. 2; ibid., 10 November/December 1931, pp. 2–5, 11; ibid., 1 January 1932, p. 6; ibid., 7 July 1932, pp. 6–7.

46. Johannes, Stark, Nationale Erziehung (Munich, 1932), 41–49.Google Scholar

47. Bölling, , Volksschullehrer und Politik, 53.Google Scholar

48. Mitteilungen des Sächsischen Erzieherbundes, 2 February 1921, p. 9; see also other attacks on the Saxon Teachers’ Association for aligning with the Social Democrats in ibid., 2, November 1920, 3–5; Der Schulwart, 10, October 1921, pp. 146ff; Neue sächsische Schulzeitung: Organ des Neuen sächsischen Lehrervereins, 22 October 1924, pp. 1–2.

49. Leipziger Lehrerzeitung: Organ des leipziger Lehrervereins 2 July 1924, p. 403; ibid., 9 July 1924, pp. 424–25; ibid., 3 September 1924, p. 476; Jahrbuch des deutschen Lehrervereins 1925 (Berlin, 1925), 76–77; ibid., 1930 (Berlin, 1930), 98–99.

50. A more extensive discussion of the conflicts over school reforms is given in my forthcoming book entitled “Schoolteachers, Educational Reform, and the Politics of Culture in Weimar Germany.” See also Wolfgang, Wittwer, Die sozialdemokratische Schulpolitik in der Weimarer Republik (Berlin, 1980)Google Scholar; Günther, Grünthal, Reichsschulgesetz und Zentrumspartei in der Weimarer Republik (D¨sseldorf, 1968)Google Scholar; Ludwig, Richter, Kirche und Schule in den Beratungen der Weimarer National-versammlung (Düsseldorf, 1996)Google Scholar; Detlef, Lehnert and Klaus, Megerle, “Problems of Identity and Consensus in a Fragmented Society: The Weimar Republic,” in Political Culture in Germany, ed. Dirk, Berg-Schlosser and Ralf, Rythlewski (New York, 1993), 43–59.Google Scholar

51. Bezirksverband der christlichen Elternvereine, Zehn Jahre christliche Elternbewegung in Leipzig (Leipzig, 1930). On the parents’ movement organized in Prussia, Evangelischer Pressverband für Deutschland, Elternbünde: Werden und Wachsen. Aufgaben und Einrichtung (Berlin, n.d.). See also Luise, Wagner-Winterhager, Schule und Eltern in der Weimarer Republik: Untersuchungen zur Wirksamkeit der Elternbeiräte in Preussen und der Eltenräte in Hamburg 1918–1922 (Weinheim, 1979).Google Scholar

52. Neue Sächsische Schulzeitung, 25 November 1931, pp. 314–15.

53. Nationalsozialistische Lehrerzeitung, 8 June 1931, pp. 6–7; ibid., 6 June 1933, p. 10.

54. Ernst, Krieck, Nationalpolitische Erziehung (Leipzig, 1932), 13–34, 106–7Google Scholar. Krieck’s hostility to the Weimar Republic and sympathy for movements of the radical Right appeared in an earlier work, Grundlegende Erziehung (Erfurt, 1930), 42–45. On Krieck, see also Bernd, Weber, Pädagogik und Politik vom Kaiserreich zum Faschismus: Zur Analyse politischer Optionen von Pädagogikhochschul-lehrern von 1914–1933 (Königstein, 1979), 258ff.Google Scholar

55. Evangelische Schulzeitung, 25 November 1932, pp. 353–55. See the articles by other members of the Protestant teachers’ associations who were attracted to National Socialism in Deutsche Lehrer-Zeitung: Hauptorgan des Verbandes deutscher evangelischer Lehrer- und Lehrerinnen-Vereine, 8 July 1932, pp. 299–301; ibid., 9 September 1932, pp. 367–68; ibid., 18 November 1932, pp. 474–76. In the early 1930s Die Tat published several articles assailing the school reform movement. See Horst, Grueneberg’s “Schulreform mit falschem Ziel,” Die Tat 23 (04 1931): 1–17Google Scholar, and “Was wird aus der Schule?” Die Tat 23 (September 1931): 460–79. On the neoconservatives in the Tat Circle, see Kurt, Sontheimer, “Der Tatkreis,” in Von Weimar zu Hitler 1930–1933, ed. Gotthard, Jasper (Cologne, 1968), 197–228Google Scholar; Klemens von, Klemperer, Germany’s New Conservatism: Its History and Dilemma in the Twentieth Century (Princeton, 1957).Google Scholar

56. Neue sächsische Schulzeitung, 25 May 1932, p. 159; ibid., 6 July 1932, p. 207; ibid., 21 September 1932, 254; Schulpflege: Zeitschrift des preussischen Rektoren-Vereins, 24 September 1932, p. 437; ibid., 17 December 1932, p. 587.

57. See Jane Caplan’s nuanced assessment of sympathy for the Nazi Party within the civil service in Government Without Administration: State and Civil Service in Weimar and Nazi Germany (Oxford, 1988), 114–16, 121–23.

58. Neue sächsische Schulzeitung, 11 May 1932, p. 141.

59. Neue sächsische Schulzeitung, 26 March 1932, p. 91.

60. Evangelische Schulzeitung, 6 May 1932, p. 145; ibid., 27 May 1932, p. 170; ibid., 24 June 1932, pp. 201–02.

61. Deutsche Lehrerzeitung, 28 October 1932, pp. 443–44, 448; ibid., 9 September 1932, pp. 367–68; Schulpflege, 30 July 1932, pp. 338–46.

62. Neue sächsische Schulzeitung, 4 March 1931, p. 41; ibid., 9 March 1932, pp. 75–76; ibid., 24 August 1932, p. 214. On the high intensity of the Nazi agitation in Saxony, see Benjamin, Lapp, Revolution from the Right: Politics, Class, and the Rise of Nazism in Saxony, 1919–1933 (Boston, 1997), 188ffGoogle Scholar; Claus-Christian, Szejnmann, Nazism in Central Germany: The Brownshirts in “Red” Saxony (New York, 1999), 55, 75–76.Google Scholar

63. Deutsche Lehrerzeitung, 24 June 1932, p. 282; ibid., 28 October 1932, p. 448.

64. Lehrerzeitung für Ost- und Westpreussen, 21 October 1932, 429–31.

65. Neue sächsische Schulzeitung, 25 November 1931, pp. 314–15.

66. Westfälische Schulzeitung, 23 July 1932, pp. 401–7, 409.

67. See, for example, Bölling, , Volksschullehrer und Politik, 209–16Google Scholar. Bölling’s reconstruction of the German Teachers’ Association’s response to the challenge of National Socialism in 1932 is based too heavily on the views of Georg Wolff, the chairman of the executive board. The strategy of neutrality and “dialogue” recommended by Wolff “was contested and not adopted at the national congress in 1932. The German Teachers’ Association during these fateful years has a more complex history than the story of its last chairman’s political myopia and opportunism. This difference in interpretation in no way diminishes the value of Bölling’s careful research on this professional organization during the Weimar Republic.

68. On Wolff’s thinking during these months, Allgemeine deutsche Lehrerzeitung, 27 November 1930, p. 926; ibid., 11 December 1930, pp. 961–62; ibid., 22 January 1931, pp. 59–62; Lehrerzeitung für Ost- und Westpreussen, 13 February 1931, pp. 65–66.

69. Allgemeine deutsche Lehrerzeitung, 2 January 1932, pp. 1–3.

70. Preussische Lehrerzeitung: Hauptorgan des preussischen Lehrervereins, 27 February 1932, pp. 3–4; ibid., 26 March 1932, pp. 3–4; ibid., 21 April 1932, pp. 1–2.

71. Ibid., 11 February 1932, pp. 1–2; ibid., 21 April 1932, pp. 2–3.

72. Ibid., 26 March 1932, Beilage, pp. 2–4.

73. Allgemeine deutsche Lehrerzeitung, 30 April 1932, p. 331. See also the article written by Ernst, Müller of Dortmund in Preussische Lehrerzeitung, 26 03 1932, pp. 1–3Google Scholar. For the objections to Wolff’s strategy voiced by Karl Trinks and other members of the Saxon Teachers’ Association, Sächsische Schulzeitung, 3 February 1932, pp. 77–82; ibid., 9 March 1932, pp. 194–96; Vertreterversammlung des sächsischen Lehrervereins vom 21. bis 23. März 1932 in Zwickau, 62–63.

74. Schlesische Schulzeitung, 28 April 1932, p. 329.

75. Schulblatt der Provinz Sachsen, 11 February 1932, p. 56.

76. Preussische Lehrerzeitung, 27 February 1932, pp. 1–2; ibid., 21 April 1932, pp. 3–4. At the congress of the German Teachers’ Association in May 1932, Pretzel contended that it was “not the most essential task of the leadership at this time to protect the Constitution” but to ensure the unity of the association. Although he admired the democratic state ideal, he confessed openly that he did not consider the “existing form of the republic” to be the best state. Deutscher Lehrerverein, Verhandlungen der 40. Vertreterversammlung am 17. und 18. Mai 1932 in Rostock, (Berlin, 1932), 91ffGoogle Scholar. On the failure of the German State Party to revitalize the liberal movement and the pessimism and resignation of liberal Democrats in these years, see Jones, , German Liberalism and the Dissolution of the Weimar Party System, 378ff.Google Scholar

77. Brandenburgische Schulzeitung: Eigentum des Lehrer-Verbandes der Provinz Brandenburg, 12 February 1931, pp. 64–66. See also the same argument made by H. Knösel, a teacher in a country school, evidently from his own experience as a supporter of the German Democratic Party in Preussische Lehrerzeitung, 26 March 1932, Beilage, pp. 1–2; ibid., 7 July 1932, pp. 1–2.

78. The Schulwissenschaftlicher Bildungsverein in Hamburg had a membership of 416. After the congress this organization broke its loose ties to the German Teachers’ Association. Günther’s Nazi sympathies were revealed when he joined the Kampfbund für deutscher Kultur in Hamburg.

79. Verhandlungen der 40. Vertreterversammlung, 91ff, 118–19, 122.

80. See the report of the congress in Westfälische Schulzeitung, 28 May 1932, pp. 277–82.

81. Verhandlungen der 40. Vertreterversammlung, 200.

82. Ibid., 173ff.

83. Sächsische Schulzeitung, 25 May 1932, p. 385. Wolff was sharply criticized in the report published in the Hamburger Lehrerzeitung, reprinted in Schlesische Schulzeitung, 11 August 1932, p. 607.

84. Schlesische Schulzeitung, 21 July 1932, pp. 552–54; ibid., 18 August 1932, p. 631.

85. Reports published in the Schulblatt für Braunschweig und Anhalt, Hessische Schulzeitung, and Badische Schulzeitung, reprinted in Schlesische Schulzeitung, 11 August 1932, pp. 606–8.

86. See Traugott, Kapuste’s article in Schlesische Schulzeitung, 2 06 1932, pp. 409–10Google Scholar; Albrecht, Brinckmann’s article in Westfälische Schulzeitung, 28 05 1932, pp. 277–81Google Scholar. See also the report in the Schleswig-Holsteinische Schulzeitung, reprinted in Schlesische Schulzeitung, 11 August 1932, p. 606.

87. See Max, Karstedt’s discussion of the meaning of parteipolitische Neutralität in Brandenburgische Schulzeitung, 25 02 1933, pp. 80–81.Google Scholar

88. Jahrbuch des deutschen Lehrervereins 1932 (Berlin, 1932), pp. 126–27.

89. Brandenburgische Schulzeitung, 15 January 1931, p. 20; ibid., 23 April 1931, pp. 185–86.

90. Nationalozialistische Erziehung, 10 August 1932, pp. 29–30; ibid., 25 August 1932, pp. 47–48.

91. On the expansion of the league in the province of Brandenburg, , Nationalsozialistische Erziehung, 10 08 1932, pp. 31–32Google Scholar; ibid., 25 August 1932, p. 54; ibid., 10 February 1933, p. 43.

92. Nationalsozialistische Erziehung, 25 August 1932, p. 46; ibid., 10 October 1932, pp. 1045; ibid., 29 October 1932, pp. 114–15. Polemical speeches against the educational reforms were also delivered by Hans Schemm and Heinrich Scharrelmann, a disgruntled left-wing reformer in Bremen who converted to National Socialism in the early 1930s, at the rallies organized by the National Socialist Teachers’ League in Berlin. See Nationalsozialistische Lehrerzeitung 2, February 1932, p. 9; ibid., 5, May 1932, pp. 1–14; ibid., 9, September 1932, pp. 5–8

93. This attitude toward big-city teachers can be seen in an article by Ernst Rudolf, a rural teacher who became a National Socialist, in Allgemeine deutsche Lehrerzeitung, 6 May 1933, pp. 318–20. On the unhappiness of rural schoolteachers in their situation of social and cultural isolation, see Paul, Bode, “Grenzen und Aufgaben moderner Landschularbeit,” in Stimmen zur Landschulreform, ed. Franz, Kade (Frankfurt am Main, 1932), 1–3Google Scholar; Max Wolf, “Zur Landschulre-form,” in ibid., 124–29; Hugo, Hennig, Die einklassige Schule: Eine statistische Erhebung aus dem Regierungsbezirk GumbinnenGoogle Scholar, published by the East Prussian Provincial Teachers’ Association and based on a study conducted in 1927 of more than 500 teachers.

94. Georg, Arndt, Die organisch-vereinigten Kirchen- und Schulämter in Preussen: Ihre Trennung und Vermögensauseinandersetzung (2nd ed., Gütersloh, 1926), 22ffGoogle Scholar. Before 1914, there were more than 14,100 organically connected church and school offices in the eastern provinces of Prussia. Around 10,000 of these offices remained after the loss of Poznan and West Prussia to Poland in 1919. By January 1932,8,193 teaching position still remained tied to church obligations. Jahrbuch des deutschen Lehrervereins 1933 (Berlin, 1933), 49.

95. Hans, Schlemmer, Die Schulpolitik der evangelischen Kirche Preussens (Görlitz, 1928), 9–12Google Scholar. On the Protestant clergy’s perceptions of the Weimar Republic and fears of the threats to the Christian religion and church posed by the Social Democratic Party and other left-wing groups, see Daniel, Borg, The Old Prussian Church and the Weimar Republic: A Study in Political Adjustment, 1917–1927 (Hanover, 1984)Google Scholar; Kurt, Nowak, Evangelische Kirche und Weimarer Republik: Zum politischen Weg des deutschen Protestantismus zwischen 1918 und 1932 (Göttingen, 1981).Google Scholar

96. Nationalsozialistische Erziehung, 25 September 1932, pp. 85–86; ibid., 10 October 1932, pp. 104–07; ibid., 11 December 1932, pp. 167–68.

97. See Rudolf, Korth, Die preussische Schulpolitik und die polnischen Schulstreiks: Ein Beitrag zur preussichen Polenpolitik der Ära Bülow (W¨rzburg, 1963)Google Scholar; Marjorie, Lamberti, State, Society, and the Elementary School in Imperial Germany (New York, 1989), 109–53.Google Scholar

98. On the involvement of German elementary schoolteachers in the political struggle in Upper Silesia in 1920–1921, see Katholische Schulzeitung für Norddeutschland, 17 June 1920, p. 289; ibid., 5 August 1920, pp. 375–76; ibid., 17 March 1921, pp. 145–47; ibid., 31 March 1921, p. 185; ibid., 5 May 1921, pp. 258–59; ibid., 21 July 1921, pp. 407, 414; Schlesische Schulzeitung, 23 June 1920, p. 258; ibid., 14 July 1920, pp. 283–84; ibid., 15 September 1920, pp. 339–40; ibid., 22 September 1920, pp. 349–50; ibid., 13 April 1921, p. 156; ibid., 8 June 1921, pp. 244–45. From 1930 on, some refugee teachers and other educators intensified their propaganda activity on behalf of the grievances of the German minority in Poland related to provisions for German minority schools (Minderheitsschulen). See Schlesische Schulzeitung, 18 February 1931, pp. 139–41; ibid., 9 July 1931, pp. 524–25; ibid., 23 June 1932, pp. 475–76; Preussische Lehrerzeitung, 4 August 1932, pp. 2–4; ibid., 6 August 1932, pp. 2–3. The League of Refugee Teachers from Upper Silesia (Verband oberschlesischer Flüchtlingslehrer und -innen) had a membership of 1, 600 in September 1921. Katholische Schulzeitung für Norddeutschland, 15 September 1921, p. 525. Richard Blanke states (Orphans of Versailles, 35) that 8,000 teachers were in the exodus of Germans from the areas of Poznan and West Prussia annexed by Poland.

99. See the report of the speech delivered in Potsdam by Blum, R., a teacher who was born in the Ostmark, in Brandenburgische Schulzeitung, 8 April 1933, p. 154Google Scholar. See also ibid., 11 March 1933, p. 109; Nationalsozialistische Erziehung, 25 February 1933, p. 60.

100. Nationalsozialistische Erziehung, 10 August 1932, p. 35; ibid., 25 August 1932, p. 45.

101. Brandenburgische Schulzeitung, 27 August 1932, p. 356.

102. Ibid., 8 October 1932, pp. 413–14; ibid., 12 November 1932, pp. 463–65.

103. Ibid., 5 November 1932, pp. 450–51, 456.

104. Ibid., 11 February 1933, pp. 60–61; ibid., 25 February 1933, pp. 80–83. For their criticism of the National Socialists in government offices and Nazi political terrorism in the election campaign, see also Allgemeine deutsche Lehrerzeitung, 11 February 1933, p. 108; ibid., 18 February 1933, pp. 132–33; ibid., 25 February 1933, pp. 153–54; Sächsische Schulzeitung, 8 February 1933, p. 117; ibid., 22 February 1933, pp. 169–74; ibid., 1 March 1933, pp. 201–6.

105. Brandenburgische Schulzeitung, 1 January 1933, p. 6; ibid., 21 January 1933, pp. 29–31; ibid., 4 February 1933, pp. 52–53.

106. Ibid., 11 March 1933, p. 110.

107. See Table A.17 in Jarausch, , The Unfree Professions, 255.Google Scholar

108. See Breyvogel’s study of the league’s membership in the province of Hesse-Nassau and the state of Hesse in Die soziale Lage, 201.

109. Kater, , The Nazi Party, 69Google Scholar; Breyvogel, , Die soziale Lage, 199–201Google Scholar; Jarausch, , The Free Professions, 102–3, 109Google Scholar. Jarausch offers a comparison based on the subdistrict Lower Silesia. Recruiters for the National Socialist Teachers’ League there were particularly active in the villages and small towns in the Riesengebirge region. Georg, Lilienthal, “Der nationalsozialistische deutsche Ärztebund (1929–1943/1945): Wege zur Gleichschaltung und Führung der deutschen Ärzteschaft,” in Ärzte im Nationalsozialismus, ed. Fridolf, Kudlien (Cologne, 1985), 109Google Scholar; Michael, Kater, “The Nazi Physicians’ League of 1929: Causes and Consequences,” in The Formation of the Nazi Constituency, ed. Childers, 160.Google Scholar

110. See the reports of the chapter meetings in Brandenburgische Schulzeitung, 8 April 1933, p. 154; Lehrerzeitung für Ost- und Westpreussen, 26 May 1933, p. 221. On these “1933 opportunists,” see also Jarausch, and Arminger, , “The German Teaching Profession and Nazi Party Membership,” 202.Google Scholar

111. On the Philologenverband in 1932, see Jarausch, , The Unfree Professions, 108–9Google Scholar; Franz, Hamburger, “Lehrer zwischen Kaiser und Führer: Der deutsche Philologenverband in der Weimarer Republik” (Ph.D. diss., University of Heidelberg, 1974), 268–71.Google Scholar