Pasing Campus – Walls steeped in history

Pasing had long been striving for this, and in 1905 the moment finally arrived – Pasing was officially granted town status:

“On behalf of His Majesty the King, His Royal Highness Prince Luitpolt, Regent of the Kingdom, by Royal Decree No. 24558 of 8 November this year, has been pleased to grant, in response to the most humble petition of the rural municipality of Pasing, in the Royal District of Munich, to graciously grant permission for it to be classified, with effect from 1 January 1905, in the category of secondary towns with a municipal constitution.”

Even before Pasing was officially granted town status, the large influx of new residents and the construction of prestigious villa estates had significantly altered the social structure of Pasing. In line with these new needs, the Pasing local authority was keen to ensure that the young town was equipped with the best possible high-quality educational facilities for all age groups.

In addition to an exemplary primary school system, particular emphasis was placed on expanding secondary education provision: a grammar school with a humanities focus, a secondary modern school, the Institute of the English Ladies (which had been in existence since 1862) and a private girls’ lyceum founded in 1907 (later known as the Grotschule) meant that the range of educational provision – relative to the population – surpassed that of all other towns in Bavaria.

One interesting fact is the high number of Spanish pupils who were trained at the teacher-training college during the First World War. This was the result of an initiative by Princess Maria de la Paz, Infanta of Spain, who had been married to Prince Ludwig Ferdinand since 1883. As the son of Adalbert of Bavaria and Amalia de Borbón, he too had Spanish ancestry. In 1913, Maria de la Paz founded the Pedagogium Español e.V. as an educational and friendship project between Spain and Bavaria. The aim of the association was to support gifted but financially disadvantaged children. They were to attend primary school in Munich and the Pasing Teacher Training College, before returning to Spain as qualified teachers to act as ambassadors of German culture there. The boys were housed in the Seifert Villa in Sendling. Although the Wittelsbach family’s educational initiative survived the First World War, it received very bad press – mainly due to the scandalous lifestyle of the home’s director. This led to his dismissal, and in the spring of 1918, Max Junkert from the Teacher Training College took over the home, though only for a short time: the abolition of the monarchy in November 1918 also marked the end of the Spanish-German educational exchange.

In 1933, all discussions on education policy during the Weimar Republic came to an abrupt end with the Nazis’ seizure of power. Among the laws enacted in haste was the ‘Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service’, which came into force as early as 7 April of that year. Jews and political opponents were excluded from the civil service, a measure which also hit parts of the teaching staff at the teacher training college with full force. Adolf Lichtinger, a secondary school teacher and SPD city councillor, was dismissed from the civil service in 1933. Josef Vogtmann, also a staunch Social Democrat, was removed from office in 1934. The admission criteria for teacher training now, too, served primarily to further racial ideology and the standardisation of thought:

“When considering applications, priority shall be given to candidates who are members of the National Socialist movement. The next generation of German teachers should be drawn primarily from students who have already proved themselves in the Hitler Youth whilst at school. Applications must be accompanied by:

• an official document certifying German Reich citizenship
• Details of Aryan ancestry (to be substantiated by one’s own birth certificate and the parents’ marriage certificate)
• proof of completion of the compulsory labour service or the student compensation service
• ‘where applicable, evidence of service and good conduct within the various branches of the party.’

As the 1933 annual report for the 1932/33 academic year, written by Dr Georg Rummel, shows, the staff at the teacher training college – or at least the majority of them – were quite taken with the new balance of power:

“The patriotic school ceremony ordered by the Acting Minister of State for Education and Culture to mark the opening of the new Reichstag on 21 March 1933 was inspected at 8.30 am that morning. The school building, the assembly hall and the lectern were decorated with the black, white and red colours, the swastika flag and white and blue. Green foliage enlivened the assembly hall. All the teachers and pupils of the school took part in the ceremony. The ceremonial hymn ‘Flamme empor’ by R. Trunk, sung by the pupils’ choir under the direction of the Head of Studies, Mr Angerer, set a stirring tone to the ceremony, after which the pupils’ orchestra, conducted by Professor Merkl, gave an impressive performance of the first movement of Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony. This was followed by the ceremonial address by the head of the institution, who, after a brief historical overview of past circumstances, paid tribute to the significance of the day and called for active cooperation in the reconstruction of the Reich under the new national government. The collective singing of the ‘Deutschlandlied’ visibly expressed the sentiment of all those present. Following a spontaneous toast to the Reich Chancellor, Adolf Hitler, proposed by one of the institution’s teachers, the ‘Horst Wessel Song’ was sung, whereupon the atmospheric ceremony concluded with an enthusiastic cheer for the Reich President, von Hindenburg.

"On the evening of the same day, the whole school took part in the torchlight procession organised by the town of Pasing, during which the Hitler Youth group that had been formed at the school made its first public appearance."

In view of the growing number of students, work soon began on expanding the university by adding a new wing, which was officially opened at the end of 1936. The *Würmtalbote* reported in detail on the advantages of the new premises:

“The large lecture theatre, housed in the new building, has 371 seats and is primarily intended for lectures to the entire student body, for rallies and similar events. In keeping with its purpose, it has been fitted with a blackout system so that slide and film presentations can be held. The lecture theatre on the ground floor, originally intended as a demonstration theatre, has 271 seats; as it has been made available for science teaching, it has been equipped with all the technical aids necessary to ensure lively and varied teaching methods. The Deputy Director, Prof. Dr. Holoubeck, has rendered outstanding service in equipping the lecture theatre and the other rooms intended for science teaching. The laboratories for chemistry and physics are excellently equipped and offer every student the greatest possible opportunity to supplement and expand their science education through experiments.[…]

"The lecture theatres and lecturers’ offices housed in the old building were also subjected to general improvements and adapted to university life as part of the extensive work carried out during the extension."

However, not all of the ambitious plans were realised, as Richard Suchenwirth writes in his review of his six years as director of the Hans Schemm University:

“For a long time afterwards, we could still see the bricklayers at work on the building, and in fact the construction was never actually completed; for, although it had already been approved, the outbreak of war meant that a functional sports hall with a banquet hall above it was never built. The university thus remained an architectural shell. We never had a gymnasium that was even remotely adequate, nor did we ever have the much-desired opportunity to bring all the university’s students together in a fitting venue for festivities and celebrations, or for university-wide events.”

On 8 March 1936, Reich Minister of Education Rust issued ‘Guidelines for Teaching and Studies at the HfL’, which were intended to establish a uniform basis for education under National Socialism by aligning and regulating teacher training accordingly. The academic and practical teacher training now included educational science, character studies and youth studies, genetics and racial theory, folklore, as well as general and specific pedagogy. Particular emphasis was placed on so-called ‘German studies’, a reform movement originally championed by the German Association of Germanists, which was partly absorbed into the National Socialist system. During the holidays, students were required to undertake placements in rural schools and factories.

The students regularly took part in flag-raising ceremonies, social evenings, physical training exercises and commemorative ceremonies. Many were members of the National Socialist youth organisations: the 1936 school report of the Hans-Schemm College lists 222 boys in the Hitler Youth and 185 girls in the BDM. Furthermore, the college had its own student structures in the form of groups belonging to the National Socialist German Students’ League (NSDStB). Student leader Gotthard Teutsch described their formation and activities as follows in his 1942 retrospective:

“Free and bound organically only by the German spirit, with their hearts forever devoted to the cause of the fatherland, a generation has come of age here that strove to fulfil the lofty ideals of student life. […]

The beginnings were arduous and difficult. Everything had to be built up from scratch before the seven comrades’ associations of the NSDStB could be established in 1937 under the leadership of Sepp Miller. The nameplates of the individual comrades’ associations now stood out in a broad array on the large noticeboard: ‘Hans Schemm’, ‘Ritter von Steiner’, ‘Innerhofer’, ‘Mauth’, ‘Franz Holzweber’, ‘Martin Faust’ and the ‘Pohl’ group. – A passionate and sincere zeal inspired the comrades, who, open to all that was good, beautiful and noble, set to work with hearts ablaze.”

Teutsch also has words of praise for the equivalent organisation for female students, the Working Group of National Socialist Female Students (ANSt):

“The women comrades from the ANSt. were not to be outdone in the work of building up the organisation. Community life within the groups there developed more and more harmoniously, as they each served the same ideals in their own way.”

In the beginning, the teacher training college was reserved exclusively for men, but this changed over the years until the gender balance was reversed:

“In the years leading up to the winter semester of 1936/37, the university’s studies for the primary school teacher programme were attended exclusively by male students. One semester later, the first female students appeared. Subsequently, the proportion of female students among the total number of enrolled students increased steadily, until – naturally – they came to far outnumber their male counterparts with the outbreak of the war.”

Various documents suggest that the organisation went to great lengths to support female students at the College of Teacher Training. In 1940, there were no fewer than 41 ANSt groups in the Munich-Upper Bavaria Gau. According to a report from May 1940 by the Department for Women’s and Girls’ Work of the Office for Racial Policy at the Munich-Upper Bavaria Gau leadership, an agreement was reached with the ANSt regarding compulsory racial policy training for students in their first few semesters of study. These training sessions also took place at the Hans Schemm College and involved all 400 female students.

Furthermore, the Association of National Socialist Female Students succeeded in securing its own premises thanks to the personal efforts of the Gau representative in her dealings with the director, Dr Suchenwirth. He granted permission, until further notice, to use a vacant flat on the third floor, which was made more homely with a grant of 1,000 marks from the Gau leadership of the NSDAP, used to pay for painting, curtains and tablecloths. Tables and chairs for the meetings were provided by the Studentenwerk.

Even before it was converted into a teacher-training college, the National Socialists had regarded the customary religious affiliation of teacher-training institutions as a thorn in their side. Despite all efforts to put a stop to this, the Catholic Church still wielded considerable influence at the teacher-training college. Among others, the Association of National Socialist Female Students (ANSt) attempted to curb this influence. The ANSt’s Gau representative, Ruth Bergholtz, lamented:

“Actia Catholica, in particular, has a fruitful sphere of activity here. For instance, in Pasing, a large proportion of the young women live at the Institute of the English Sisters (Catholic), not least because there is a severe shortage of accommodation in Pasing and the female students can live much more cheaply in the Catholic hall of residence. Thus, the first prerequisite for National Socialist educational work in Pasing would be the establishment of a National Socialist hall of residence for female students.”

Alois Kober, a teacher of religious education, appears to have distinguished himself particularly in this regard; a letter from the Bavarian State Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs dated 1 December 1949 states the following about him:

“The former lecturer Alois Kober, against whom a retrial is currently pending at the Court of Cassation, was arguably the most despicable figure to have operated under Dr. Suchenwirth’s protectorate. In numerous inflammatory lectures to students, he took particular delight in railing against the Papacy, with the aim of undermining the Christian upbringing of young teachers at the very root of their faith. The fact that Kober was engaged in teaching at a teacher-training college had been skilfully orchestrated by the Nazi regime, as the influence of his heretical doctrines was bound to spread far and wide once the indoctrinated young teachers were assigned to school posts.”

On the other hand, Director Suchenwirth, a National Socialist who was otherwise indisputably loyal to the party line, apparently refused to comply with this part of the agenda on a personal level. The Munich Denazification Chamber’s judgment of 14 September 1954, which was required to rule on his original classification as a ‘Level II’ suspect under the Act on the Conclusion of Political Denazification in Bavaria, concluded – partly on the basis of the following mitigating circumstance – that he should correctly be assigned to Group III of those with minor involvement:

“It was also established that the individual in question had refused to resign from the church, as he had been asked to do; in view of his position within the party and in the education sector, this must be recognised as a gesture that is likely to have made a considerable impression on those around him.”

As early as 1939, there was a U-turn in teacher training. Instead of the Abitur, a four-year supplementary course now enabled ‘primary school leavers’ to enter teacher training colleges. In 1940, the duration of study was reduced from four to three semesters, and in 1941 virtually the entire reform of teacher training was reversed. The teacher-training colleges were merged with the advanced training courses to form five-year teacher-training institutions, meaning that teacher training had, in effect, returned to the level it had been at in 1912.

The war took its toll in other ways too. As early as 1942, following an air raid, homeless people were accommodated at the Pasing Teacher Training College. Later, the building served as a makeshift hospital, and from January 1943, rooms were transferred to the Air Defence Command for use as an air-raid warning post. Kurt Singer (1885–2009), a respected German educator who also taught at the Pasing College of Education, recalls the final phase of his student days in 1944–45 as follows:

“Things were pretty turbulent back then. There were lots of air raids, and we had to spend more time, as they put it, on duty than we could spend studying. To make matters worse, we were also made to undergo pre-military training during that period. […] For example, we had to go to the shooting range regularly to learn how to shoot.”

Nevertheless, teaching continued for the nearly 600 students right up until the very end:

“Our lessons actually carried on surprisingly unaffected, just as if nothing had happened. […] The teachers became increasingly silent, although some still believed in the Führer and thought there was still a ‘wonder weapon’ out there somewhere. We had no support from the form tutors and teachers; instead, the former simply took the risk of running away and were suddenly gone.”

This steadfast adherence to National Socialist ideology, despite the situation being de facto hopeless, is documented in a newsletter to former members dated June 1944:

“So much for our comrades. Now I’d like to tell you about last week’s terrorist attacks – four in total – on our beloved Munich: this atrocity eclipsed everything that had gone before. I witnessed it first-hand. My parents were hit hard. Our old LBA is still standing. Our classroom on Frühlingsstraße is a write-off. And if you’re looking for any familiar houses or buildings, they’re a thing of the past, as they say, just like in a fairy tale. In recent weeks, the city has become a battleground of the gravest kind. We back home are convinced that you’ll make those gangsters pay dearly wherever you find them.”

After the war, the undamaged building of the teacher training college was requisitioned by the United Nations. The UN had taken over an aid organisation for displaced persons that had been founded as early as 1943 by 44 nations on the initiative of the USA, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and China.

The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) was responsible for providing for and systematically repatriating displaced persons. In the territory of what would later become the three western occupation zones alone, there were approximately 6.5 to 7 million displaced people, who originated from UN member states. These were primarily former concentration camp prisoners and forced labourers, but also included people who had left their homeland ‘voluntarily’ alongside the retreating German Wehrmacht because they faced severe punishment or acts of revenge in their own country for having collaborated. UNRRA registered and cared for these stranded people in camps and endeavoured, wherever possible, to facilitate their repatriation.

The first UNRRA team arrived in Munich in July 1945. From November onwards, the buildings of the former teacher-training college (now the Karlsgymnasium) and the teacher-training institute in Pasing served as UNRRA headquarters for the American occupation zone. Specifically, UNRRA supported the military administration by managing the displaced persons’ (DP) camps. This involved supplying food, clothing, fuel and medicines from the occupying authorities’ stocks, as well as statistical recording, disease prevention and health programmes. Each camp was managed by a UNRRA team reporting to the local military command; in Munich alone, there were three camp sites. The headquarters in Pasing was headed by John H. Whiting, who had previously served as a Red Cross official for four years.

The fact that both buildings were in use posed major challenges for Pasing in terms of keeping the school running. A memo to the Municipal Senior School Inspector, Dr. Mahir, dated 5 May 1948, vividly describes the difficult situation:

“School crisis: The chaotic state of schools in Pasing places a unique and multifaceted burden on the city, which is responsible for meeting the city’s educational needs:

1. The occupying forces have requisitioned the two school buildings on Bismarckstrasse with the largest capacity. The teacher training college and the primary school are now without premises. The primary school building had 20 classrooms occupied by primary school classes.

2. By the state, which, on the basis of the 1909 Organisation Ordinance and the 1936 agreement, leaves the municipal authority to bear the entire burden of the shortage of school premises alone. It is not a sign of radicalism or a lack of pedagogical understanding to ask why the teacher training college, which has no school building in Pasing, has to be located in Pasing. It ekes out an existence there under the most undignified conditions and takes up much-needed classroom space at the Engelbertstrasse school, space that is essential for the local schools.”

Meanwhile, people were waiting impatiently to be able to resume teaching at the former teacher training college. However, in 1951, the former training school was first cleared and returned to the city. Before it was taken over by UNRRA, it had been occupied by Polish soldiers from May to November. An eyewitness reports significant damage to the building and its contents, which had already occurred during this early phase:

“Shortly after the school building was occupied, and in my presence, some of the equipment (forms, tables and teaching aids) was thrown out of the windows on the various floors and used as firewood, whilst some of it (e.g. teaching aids) was burnt in the school playground. When the headmaster asked the occupiers to at least save files and other documentary evidence, the leader of the occupying unit told him that ‘in Poland the Germans had acted in the same way’.”

Even during the UNRRA period, the building continued to be stripped of its contents, as another witness from the neighbourhood reports:

“It also came to my attention that the panes had been removed from the double-glazed windows so that they could be used in the building opposite, at 20 Am Stadtpark.”

According to the annual reports by Dr Barbara Brückner, who, after the war, served as headmistress of the ‘Teacher Training College and Secondary School (abbreviated)’, the building at Am Stadtpark 20 remained in use until the 1951/1952 academic year. Work continued in various temporary premises, one of which was in the Deutsches Museum, with staff working in two shifts to ensure that teacher training could continue. On 1 October 1952, the staff moved back into the former teacher training college. There, too, the years of occupation had left clear traces. Here is an extract from Dr Brückner’s vivid description of the conditions:

“As regards the previous shortage of space, this is no longer an issue for the teacher-training courses; on 1 October 1952, they were able to leave their temporary accommodation at the Deutsches Museum and move into the Teacher Training College building in Pasing, Stadtpark 20. The building, which had been occupied by Allied forces and displaced persons for seven years, was badly damaged; however, thanks to the efforts of the State Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs and the teaching staff, suitable premises were soon made available in sufficient numbers. However, the shortage of space at the secondary school, which still lacked its own school building, remained a cause for concern. The need to share all musical instruments and sewing machines led to the relocation of the secondary school’s music and needlework lessons to the building at Am Stadtpark 20. Later, a few other lessons were also moved there.”

Despite all the adversities, the number of graduates is impressive: in 1956, the last graduating year before the teacher-training institutes regained their independence, 145 students qualified as primary school teachers, 168 as specialists in handicrafts and home economics, and 118 as teachers for three-form secondary schools.

To better understand the situation, one must look at how schools and teacher training were organised at the time. There was a strict division between the ‘Volksschule’, which was attended by the vast majority of the population, and the ‘Gymnasium’, which was reserved for a small elite. This division was reflected in teacher training: whilst trainee primary school teachers simply undertook further secondary-level training after completing their primary school qualifications, future grammar school teachers were trained at universities.

This division of the school and teacher training system was regarded by the American occupying forces as profoundly undemocratic, as it did not provide equal educational opportunities for all. Furthermore, the highly authoritarian structures were seen as one of the root causes of the German people’s susceptibility to dictatorship. For this reason, the Americans pressed the Bavarian State Government very strongly for a fundamental reform of the entire system: ‘Teacher training should take place at a level above that of higher education institutions, and it should fall within the remit of the departments of education’ (10 January 1947).

When this demand met with sustained passive resistance from the state government, which insisted that primary school teachers be trained ‘in specialised educational institutions’, the military government issued a decree on 10 June 1947 prescribing universal teacher training: ‘All teacher training shall take place at university level.’ When this decree, too, was met with delaying tactics, the military government finally responded with Directive No. 54, which summarily banned the existing teacher-training colleges for the training of teachers for state primary schools that were accessible without the Abitur. The state government was required to submit concrete plans for their closure within 30 days.