Minna Specht
Encyclopedia
Minna Specht was a German educator, socialist and member of the German Resistance
. She was one of the founders of the Internationaler Sozialistischer Kampfbund
.
, which they acquired in 1874 and turned into a hotel. The approximately 70-room castle was only open in summer, during which the children lived with a nanny
and a governess
in one of two small houses next door. In 1882, following an accident, her father died, leaving the family in financial difficulties.
Specht's first schooling was in a small private school at the castle from 1884 to 1894 and at a girls' school in Bergedorf
. She then attended a monastic school
in Hamburg
from 1896 to 1899, where she was trained as a teacher, the only career available to impoverished upper class families. Her education was such, that Specht first applied for work as a governess. In 1902, she was invited to teach in a new girls' school in Hamburg, founded by a teacher from the monastic school she had attended. In this new job, she was given the freedom to decide her own curriculum
and she discovered her love of teaching. She remained there until she went to university in 1906 in order to increase her qualifications and become an Oberlehrerin. For three years, she studied geography, history, geology and philosophy at the University of Göttingen and one or two semesters at the University of Munich. In 1909, she returned to teach at the girls' school where she'd previously worked, staying until 1914.
, an acquaintance that changed her way of thinking and developed into a close working and personal relationship. Together, they founded the Internationaler Jugendbund, along with Max Hodann and his wife, Mary.
Specht worked for a short while with Hermann Lietz
at Haubinda, Germany's first progressive boarding school
. In 1922, she went to Walkemühle, a progressive boarding school in Melsungen
near Kassel
, founded by Nelson. She then ran the school until 1931, when she went to Berlin to work as the editor of the ISK's newspaper, Der Funke. After Nelson's death in 1927, she ran the Internationaler Sozialistischer Kampfbund
(ISK) with Willi Eichler
. In 1932, she was one of the 33 signatories of the ISK's Dringender Appell, which called for a united front
of communists and socialists in the fight against National Socialism. Well-known artists, scientists and politicians who signed the appeal included Käthe Kollwitz
, Albert Einstein
, Erich Kästner
and Erich Zeigner
. Specht returned to Walkemühle in March 1933, as it was occupied by the SA
. The school was confiscated in May 1933.
, where she established a school for the children of German émigrés
. In November 1938, she emigrated to Wales
and was interned as an enemy alien
on the Isle of Man
from 1940 to 1941, a practice common at the time. Her public opposition to the Nazis provided evidence that led to her release after one year. After her release, she worked in London
on political re-education for a Nazi-free Germany, developing a concept based on the needs of youth who had been raised with Nazism and shattered by war. In fall 1945, she was the only German invited to an international conference in Zurich
on children shattered by war. There, she met the founders of the Odenwaldschule
, Edith and Paul Geheeb, who decided to ask her to head up the school, which they had had to abandon in 1934.
Specht returned to Germany and ran the Odenwaldschule, from 1946 through 1951. Specht was a member of the German Commission for UNESCO
. In 1952, she began working with Professor Dr. Walther Merck at the UNESCO
-Instituts für Pädagogik in Hamburg. She was also an inspector of boarding schools. In 1955, she was awarded the Goethe Plaque for Training and Education for her service in educational science theory and practice.
Specht died in Bremen
in 1961.
in Bonn, in the Archive of Social Democracy. The collection contains extensive correspondence, files, records on the history of Walkemühle, the schools in Denmark and England
, manuscripts and Specht's published writings on education
and politics. There are also photo albums.
There is a school in Frankfurt am Main named for Minna Specht.
German Resistance
The German resistance was the opposition by individuals and groups in Germany to Adolf Hitler or the National Socialist regime between 1933 and 1945. Some of these engaged in active plans to remove Adolf Hitler from power and overthrow his regime...
. She was one of the founders of the Internationaler Sozialistischer Kampfbund
Internationaler Sozialistischer Kampfbund
The Internationaler Sozialistischer Kampfbund was a socialist split-off from the SPD during the Weimar Republic and was active in the German Resistance against Nazism.- History :...
.
Early years
Minna Specht was born the seventh child of Mathilde and Wilhelm Specht (d. 1882). The family lived in Reinbek castle, originally the hunting lodge in FriedrichsruhFriedrichsruh
Friedrichsruh is a district in the municipality of Aumühle, Herzogtum Lauenburg district, Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany.- History :After the victory over France and the establishment, in 1871, of the German Empire, Otto von Bismarck received the Sachsenwald as a present from Emperor William I...
, which they acquired in 1874 and turned into a hotel. The approximately 70-room castle was only open in summer, during which the children lived with a nanny
Nanny
A nanny, childminder or child care provider, is an individual who provides care for one or more children in a family as a service...
and a governess
Governess
A governess is a girl or woman employed to teach and train children in a private household. In contrast to a nanny or a babysitter, she concentrates on teaching children, not on meeting their physical needs...
in one of two small houses next door. In 1882, following an accident, her father died, leaving the family in financial difficulties.
Specht's first schooling was in a small private school at the castle from 1884 to 1894 and at a girls' school in Bergedorf
Bergedorf
Bergedorf is the largest of the seven boroughs of Hamburg, Germany and a quarter within this borough. In 2006 the population of the borough was 118,942.-History:...
. She then attended a monastic school
Monastic school
Monastic schools were, along with cathedral schools, the most important institutions of higher learning in the Latin West from the early Middle Ages until the 12th century. Since Cassiodorus's educational program, the standard curriculum incorporated religious studies, the Trivium, and the...
in Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
from 1896 to 1899, where she was trained as a teacher, the only career available to impoverished upper class families. Her education was such, that Specht first applied for work as a governess. In 1902, she was invited to teach in a new girls' school in Hamburg, founded by a teacher from the monastic school she had attended. In this new job, she was given the freedom to decide her own curriculum
Curriculum
See also Syllabus.In formal education, a curriculum is the set of courses, and their content, offered at a school or university. As an idea, curriculum stems from the Latin word for race course, referring to the course of deeds and experiences through which children grow to become mature adults...
and she discovered her love of teaching. She remained there until she went to university in 1906 in order to increase her qualifications and become an Oberlehrerin. For three years, she studied geography, history, geology and philosophy at the University of Göttingen and one or two semesters at the University of Munich. In 1909, she returned to teach at the girls' school where she'd previously worked, staying until 1914.
Returns to university
In 1914, at the age of 35, Specht returned to the University of Göttingen to study mathematics, finishing as an Oberlehrerin, certified to teach the higher grades. The following year, she met the philosopher Leonard NelsonLeonard Nelson
Leonard Nelson was a German mathematician and philosopher. He was part of the Neo-Friesian School and a friend of the mathematician David Hilbert, and devised the Grelling–Nelson paradox with Kurt Grelling...
, an acquaintance that changed her way of thinking and developed into a close working and personal relationship. Together, they founded the Internationaler Jugendbund, along with Max Hodann and his wife, Mary.
Specht worked for a short while with Hermann Lietz
Hermann Lietz
Hermann Lietz was a German educational progressive and theologian who founded the German Landerziehungsheime für Jungen. Basing his schools on the model of the English Abbotsholme School, he emphasized sports and crafts along with modern languages and science while deemphasizing rote learning and...
at Haubinda, Germany's first progressive boarding school
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
. In 1922, she went to Walkemühle, a progressive boarding school in Melsungen
Melsungen
Melsungen is a small climatic spa in the Schwalm-Eder district in northern Hesse, Germany.-Geography:Melsungen lies on the river Fulda in the North Hesse Highland. The brooks Pfieffe and Kehrenbach flow into the Fulda here...
near Kassel
Kassel
Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...
, founded by Nelson. She then ran the school until 1931, when she went to Berlin to work as the editor of the ISK's newspaper, Der Funke. After Nelson's death in 1927, she ran the Internationaler Sozialistischer Kampfbund
Internationaler Sozialistischer Kampfbund
The Internationaler Sozialistischer Kampfbund was a socialist split-off from the SPD during the Weimar Republic and was active in the German Resistance against Nazism.- History :...
(ISK) with Willi Eichler
Willi Eichler
Willi Eichler was a German journalist and politician with the Social Democratic Party of Germany .-Before 1945:Eichler was born in Berlin, the son of a postal worker. He attended Volksschule and then became a clerk...
. In 1932, she was one of the 33 signatories of the ISK's Dringender Appell, which called for a united front
United front
The united front is a form of struggle that may be pursued by revolutionaries. The basic theory of the united front tactic was first developed by the Comintern, an international communist organisation created by revolutionaries in the wake of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.According to the theses of...
of communists and socialists in the fight against National Socialism. Well-known artists, scientists and politicians who signed the appeal included Käthe Kollwitz
Käthe Kollwitz
Käthe Kollwitz was a German painter, printmaker, and sculptor whose work offered an eloquent and often searing account of the human condition in the first half of the 20th century...
, Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
, Erich Kästner
Erich Kästner
Emil Erich Kästner was a German author, poet, screenwriter and satirist, known for his humorous, socially astute poetry and children's literature.-Dresden 1899–1919:...
and Erich Zeigner
Erich Zeigner
Erich Zeigner was Prime Minister of the German state of Saxony during the attempted communist uprising of 1923...
. Specht returned to Walkemühle in March 1933, as it was occupied by the SA
Sturmabteilung
The Sturmabteilung functioned as a paramilitary organization of the National Socialist German Workers' Party . It played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s...
. The school was confiscated in May 1933.
Exile and return
In 1933, Specht fled Germany with the Walkenmühle pupils, most of whom were children of socialist or Jewish parents and went to DenmarkDenmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, where she established a school for the children of German émigrés
Emigration
Emigration is the act of leaving one's country or region to settle in another. It is the same as immigration but from the perspective of the country of origin. Human movement before the establishment of political boundaries or within one state is termed migration. There are many reasons why people...
. In November 1938, she emigrated to Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
and was interned as an enemy alien
Enemy alien
In law, an enemy alien is a citizen of a country which is in a state of conflict with the land in which he or she is located. Usually, but not always, the countries are in a state of declared war.-United Kingdom:...
on the Isle of Man
Isle of Man
The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...
from 1940 to 1941, a practice common at the time. Her public opposition to the Nazis provided evidence that led to her release after one year. After her release, she worked in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
on political re-education for a Nazi-free Germany, developing a concept based on the needs of youth who had been raised with Nazism and shattered by war. In fall 1945, she was the only German invited to an international conference in Zurich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
on children shattered by war. There, she met the founders of the Odenwaldschule
Odenwaldschule
Odenwaldschule, is a German school located in Heppenheim in the Odenwald. Founded in 1910, it is Germany's oldest landschulheim, a private boarding school located in a rural setting. Edith and Paul Geheeb established it using their concept of progressive education, which integrated the work of the...
, Edith and Paul Geheeb, who decided to ask her to head up the school, which they had had to abandon in 1934.
Specht returned to Germany and ran the Odenwaldschule, from 1946 through 1951. Specht was a member of the German Commission for UNESCO
German Commission for UNESCO
The German Commission for UNESCO is one of 195 National Commissions for UNESCO worldwide, a unique structure in the UN system, foreseen by UNESCO's constitution of 1946. The German Commission was founded on May 12, 1950, one year before West Germany was officially admitted to UNESCO...
. In 1952, she began working with Professor Dr. Walther Merck at the UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
-Instituts für Pädagogik in Hamburg. She was also an inspector of boarding schools. In 1955, she was awarded the Goethe Plaque for Training and Education for her service in educational science theory and practice.
Specht died in Bremen
Bremen
The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area . Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is...
in 1961.
Legacy
Specht's personal papers are located at the Friedrich Ebert FoundationFriedrich Ebert Foundation
The Friedrich Ebert Foundation is a German political foundation associated with the Social Democratic Party of Germany , yet independent of it...
in Bonn, in the Archive of Social Democracy. The collection contains extensive correspondence, files, records on the history of Walkemühle, the schools in Denmark and England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, manuscripts and Specht's published writings on education
Pedagogy
Pedagogy is the study of being a teacher or the process of teaching. The term generally refers to strategies of instruction, or a style of instruction....
and politics. There are also photo albums.
There is a school in Frankfurt am Main named for Minna Specht.
Selected works
- Jakob Friedrich Fries. Der Begründer unserer politischen Weltansicht, Verlag Öffentliches Leben, Stuttgart (1927)
- Vom Sinn der JugendweiheJugendweiheJugendweihe is a secular coming of age ceremony practiced by German 14 year olds. It originated among the secular societies in the 19th century as an alternative to Confirmation by the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches...
, Verlag Öffentliches Leben, Göttingen (1930) - Education in post-war Germany, International Publishing Company, London (1944)
- Re-making Germany, by Mary Saran, Willi EichlerWilli EichlerWilli Eichler was a German journalist and politician with the Social Democratic Party of Germany .-Before 1945:Eichler was born in Berlin, the son of a postal worker. He attended Volksschule and then became a clerk...
, Wilhelm Heidorn, Minna Specht. Preface by James GriffithsJim GriffithsJames "Jim" Griffiths CH , was a Welsh Labour politician, trade union leader and the first ever Secretary of State for Wales.-Background and education:...
. Published on behalf of the Socialist Vanguard Group, International Publishing Company, London (1945) - Kindernöte, edited with Martha Friedländer. Verlag Öffentliches Leben, Frankfurt am Main (1950)
- Leonard Nelson. Zum Gedächtnis, Verlag Öffentliches Leben, Frankfurt am Main (1953)
Further reading
- Inge Hansen-Schaberg, Minna Specht - Eine Sozialistin in der Landerziehungsheimbewegung (1918 bis 1951), Untersuchung zur pädagogischen Biographie einer Reformpädagogin. Studien zur Bildungsreform, 22. Frankfurt (1992)