22nd April 1938
Schools in Hanover

See 31.12.1939 - 30/20 (late use of postcard BV2156)

Schools in Hanover

'Raise the flag!'. At the school flag ceremony, boys and girls had to stand at attention with their teachers in the schoolyard and salute the swastika flag with 'Heil Hitler.' The flag song was sung (refrain):

'Our flag flutters before us. Our flag is the new age. And the flag leads us into eternity! Yes, the flag is more than death.'

The 10 to 18-year-olds didn't consider how seriously the last line was meant. In another song adopted from the SA, it said: '...when Jewish blood spurts from the knife, then that's doubly good.'

From 1936/37 onward, the Nazis increasingly restructured school curricula. Hitler photos in the classroom and swastika flags in and around the school became commonplace. In the 'ideologically formative' subject of German, spelling, grammar, and literature were relegated to the background. Instead, the German fatherland and the heroes of German history were emphasized. History lessons were restricted—instead of world history, only German history was taught, with a focus on the 'superiority of the Nordic race.' New to the National Socialist biology curriculum were  'heredity' and 'racial studies' —a subject in which pseudoscientific claims were disseminated that were and are rejected by reputable science. Instead of acquiring knowledge, 'physical fitness' was promoted as the National Socialist ideal—the number of physical education hours increased from two to four to six hours per week. Classical humanistic education was rejected as 'un-German.'

According to Reich Youth Leader von Schirach, 'a teacher was inherently no more suitable as a leader of youth than any other member of the German people'. Although teachers were clearly not highly regarded, 97% of all schoolteachers joined the National Socialist Teachers' League. A third of all teachers were party members. School teachers and university professors deemed unsympathetic to the Nazi regime and Jewish teachers were dismissed from their teaching positions by order of Bernhard Rust, the Prussian Minister of Culture, who hailed from Hanover. From 1936 onward, the Herschel School and the Humboldt School offered an advisory center for 'aviation health' within the city's schools. 1939: The  Bismarck School was converted into a military hospital.

The Leibniz School showed particular devotion to the new regime: The school's director, Fritz Heiligenstaedt, reported the 'purging' of the school library and handed over masses of liberal literature for book burning at the Bismarck Tower.

The Catholic Bonifatius School got a new headmaster on 17th October 1933: Schneemann was an enthusiastic National Socialist and frequently appeared at school in SA uniform. He forced the students to join the Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls (BDM) en masse. Hitler Youth service was scheduled to coincide with Sunday morning church services.

The Free Waldorf School was downgraded to an experimental school and closed in April 1939. Students at the  Ratsgymnasium (a type of secondary school) defied their National Socialist history teacher, who was subsequently dismissed. In 1937, the last Jewish student (Israel Schul) passed his Abitur (university entrance exam). At the Kaiser Wilhelm Gymnasium, the headmaster, Hoesch, was almost dismissed because a student wrote an essay on freedom of the press. 

After the Nazis seized power, new school subjects were introduced: 'German Prehistory,' 'Heredity,' and 'Racial Studies.' In everyday school life, Jewish classmates were humiliated in front of the class. On the blackboard, written in German cursive script, are the words: 'The Jew is our greatest enemy. Beware of the Jews.' On the right, with bowed heads, are Jewish classmates.

From 19th September 1935, Jewish pupils were no longer allowed to attend public schools. From May 1935, there was a Jewish elementary school run by the Jewish community of Hanover on Lützowstraße (from the book: History of the City of Hanover) . From June 1942, all schools for Jewish children and young people were closed.

Source: https://www.ns-zeit-hannover.de/

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