In the aftermath of the First World War, and despite the failure of the
Spartacist revolution of 1919, the first years of the Weimar Republic saw thebirth of numerous emancipatory social experiments. This was particularly the casewith the libertarian school communities of Hamburg, Gemeinschaftsschulen, and inparticular the Wendeschule, which went the furthest in applying libertarianprinciples both in terms of teaching practices and the organization of schoollife. The rise of National Socialism definitively sealed the fate of the lastcommunity schools. ---- The history of Hamburg's school communities(Gemeinschaftsschulen), which will see the birth of some of the most daringemancipatory school experiments, is part of a broader movement, the New School,but is not limited to it. not. The particular context of the city of Hamburg, afree city until 1871, with a strong tradition of political autonomy, is aparticularly favorable breeding ground for emancipatory practices. And it is inthis city that we will find the schools applying the first and most strongly thelibertarian principles within public establishments[1]. This autonomous traditionis transformed into strong resistance to the centralist policy of the SecondReich and will see the struggles of the nascent proletariat and the demands ofthe teachers of the communal (public schools) join together. Pedagogical debatesare then intense and the teachers, who fall under the banner of the New School,equip themselves with structures to carry these debates: professionalorganizations and an important press. They demand to be associated with thereforms, which the school authorities are putting in place, claiming the autonomyof the establishments and a pedagogy that starts from the children, the mostpoliticized fringe of them even campaigning for the single school. These debatesare not confined to the teaching community. By getting closer to theparent-teacher associations that were founded at that time, the themes of the NewSchool spread to a large audience within the city.Just like Freinet (above) at the same time, the master-comrades sought to renewthe school institution. They will implement the principles of libertarianeducation: no more school maps, no more official instructions, the programs, ifthey exist, are set internally in an entirely autonomous way and without controlor scrutiny from the authorities.Pedagogical issues but also those of class and student management, the problemsand the solutions provided, are discussed publicly. Thus, after the First WorldWar, in the revolutionary context experienced by defeated Germany, the teachersof the city of Hamburg organized themselves into committees and proposededucational arrangements to the authorities of the city, directly influencedpre-war experiences and debate.Teachers, children, parents, all involvedIn this context, four experimental public schools were created, the Wendeschule(the one that carried out the most radical experiments), the Schule Berlinertor,the Schule am Tieloh and the Schule Telemannstrasse (the most moderate of thefour). Parents and children being fully involved in school life, it is in thesefour school communities that the educational practice of the "teacher-comrade"will be implemented. These schools are freed from all the usual constraints: nomore school maps, no more official instructions, the programs, if they exist, areset internally in an entirely autonomous way and without control or scrutiny fromthe authorities, the recruitment of teachers finally is based on their adherenceto the project of each school community. In a context of strong rejection of themilitarist model, they will be the scene of radical experiments in terms ofpedagogy, which will then be put into practice elsewhere and in particular inBerlin under the influence of the pedagogue Wilhelm Paulsen.The Tieloh school, in the former so-called red working-class district of Barmbek.If the experience of these autonomous school communities remains limited in time(about ten years at most), and seems to sign in the eyes of their opponents thefailure of these pedagogical and organizational experiments, two innovationsdeserve to be underlined and discussed as being strongly in line with thelibertarian tradition: the "teacher-comrade"[2]and community self-management ofschool life.Abolish all prescriptionsThe most striking point experienced by the free school communities of Hamburg isthat of the revolution operated at the level of the relationship between theeducator and the child. The hierarchy and vertical authority, marks of thetraditional school, are abolished, in favor of a spirit of "comradeship" whichnow prevails. The students choose their own activities, the intervention of the"teacher-comrade" generally called by his first name then consists inaccompanying, helping and advising the students in their learning process.Thus in the school community of the Berlinertor all prescriptions are abolished(as well as compositions or school report cards); the traditional class bringingtogether pupils of the same age is often replaced by informal groups of children,built by affinity or by attraction for the proposals of a teacher. Diversity issometimes appropriate. The most radical point, however, lies in the pure andsimple abolition of any educational program or objective that should be achievedat the end of primary schooling (which will make people say, including someparents initially involved in the experiment, that you learn nothing in theseschools). Teaching is done only from the concerns of the students. The influenceof the teacher-comrades on the conduct and actions of the pupils passes mainlythrough advice and criticism, encouragement and solicitation, but above allthrough the example knowingly given: "example is the indispensable condition ofall sincere educational effort"[3].School without a goal, experimentation without a planFar from the clichés about the laissez-faire of a libertarian pedagogy puttingfreedom at the heart of concerns, interviews conducted by Klaus Rödler withformer students of the Schule Berlinertor teach us more about these pedagogicalpractices and the diversity of educational proposals. "One of the mastersattaches great importance to the natural sciences and the arts in the work hedoes with his class, and stages an impressive number of theatrical plays from theclassical European repertoire, another develops free work more.»[4].It is against this image of the barracks school of the beginning of the 20thcentury that the pedagogical renovators of a heterogeneous movement, which willbe called the New School, will fight. The Hamburg experience will undoubtedly bethe most radical of all.While pedagogical innovation is immediately visible and perceptible, Rödler'swork, particularly regarding the Schule Berlinertor, shows that innovation isalso required at the organizational level, especially in the early years. Theseschool communities represent a real alternative to a bureaucratic school: "theteachers there turn their back on the concerns of the active school, which isvery oriented towards methodology, and develop a conception of the schoolunderstood as a community of life between teachers and parents , like an organismthat has no other end than itself". Here we have an essential theme, common toall the experimental schools in Hamburg: the implementation of a global projectintegrating teachers, parents and (it seems to a lesser extent concerning theadministrative organization) the pupils. . An example of self-management at thelevel of a school community which may appear to be important: the SchuleBerlinertor will have up to 650 students and above all more than a hundredparents involved in the various commissions. "In this 'school without a goal,[inthis]experimentation without a plan' (p. 186), parents play an essential role.Together with the teachers, they form various commissions which take charge ofthe part that is not specifically teaching, debate educational questions, seekmeans of financing that the city is not able to provide, and influence the veryorientation of the establishment.»[5].Detail of a statue from the am Tieloh school.AjepbahThe four Gemeinschaftsschulen of Hamburg will gradually move away from thepedagogical and organizational projects of the beginnings, renouncing theirexperimental status. If this signals a failure of these revolutionary educationalinitiatives, it should however be put into perspective. In the context of WeimarGermany - economic, political and social crisis - and on the eve of the seizureof power by the National Socialists, the implementation of innovative pedagogicaland organizational practices is already in itself a success. Moreover, the end ofthese experiments could not cancel the exceptional contributions of these schoolcommunities where the teacher-comrades were able to "achieve a truly neweducational experience, by radically transforming the attitude of the educatortowards the child, in a a sincere, authentic and reciprocal relationship of'fellowship', within a joyful educational community"[6].David (UCL Chambery)To validate[1]In this, these schools are strongly distinguished from the famous Englishschool of Summerhill (1921-1973), directed by A.S. Neill, whose birth iscontemporary with the school communities of Hamburg, and which is part of thissame great movement. of the New School but which is for its part a private school.[2]It was the Swiss pedagogue Jakob Robert Schmid who thus named the teachers ofthese school communities in what remains the best-documented work in French onthese libertarian experiments. Close to Freinet he makes a meticulous andprecious description of these schools. According to him, they represent "the mostadvanced form[of]anti-authoritarian and 'fraternizing' tendencies of the modernmovement in pedagogy", it is within these schools that one can grasp, "with thegreatest clarity the theoretical foundations of libertarian pedagogy. Theconclusion of his book is however rather negative, pointing out the limits, inparticular concerning the notion of freedom: "Absolute freedom is a goal towardswhich education tends, but which is outside its reach". Jakob Robert Schmid(1936), The master comrade and libertarian pedagogy, François Maspero, Paris, 1971.[3]Schmid, Jacob Robert, op. cit., p. 44.[4]Klaus Rödler, Vergessene Alternativschulen: Geschichte und Praxis derHamburger Gemeinschafts-schulen 1919-1933, Jusenta Verlag, Weinhein/Mùnchen,1987. Quoted by Claude Mouchet, "Klaus Rödler, Vergessene Alternativschulen:Geschichte und Praxis der Hamburger Gemeinschafts-schulen 1919-1933" (Forgottenalternative schools: history and practices of school communities in Hamburg,1919-1933), Revue française de pédagogie, vol. 103, 1993, p. 132-137.https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?1919-Revolution-pedagogique-et-libertaire-dans-l-Allemagne-de-Weimar_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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