The Effects of Denazification on Education in West Germany
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Murray State University Honors College HONORS THESIS Certificate of Approval The Effects of Denazification on Education in West Germany Helen Beckert December 2016 Approved to fulfill the ____________________________________ requirements of HON 437 Dr. David Pizzo, Associate Professor History Approved to fulfill the ____________________________________ Honors Thesis requirement Dr. Warren Edminster, Director of the Murray State Honors Honors College Diploma Examination Approval Page Author: Helen Beckert Project Title: The Effects of Denazification on Education in West Germany Department: History Date of Defense: March 8, 2016 Approval by Examining Committee: ___________________________________ ____________ Dr. David Pizzo, Advisor Date ___________________________________ ____________ Dr. Kathy Callahan, Committee Member Date ___________________________________ ____________ Dr. James Humphreys, Committee Member Date The Effects of Denazification on West German Education Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Murray State University Honors Diploma Helen Beckert March 2016 Beckert 5 Table of Contents List of Figures …………………………………………………………………………………….ii Abstract …………………………………………………………………………………………..iii Introduction …………………………………………………………………………………....….1 Literature and Sources…………………………………………………………………………….3 Postwar School Conditions……………………………………………………………………....10 Processes and Procedures of Denazification………………………………………………….….17 American and British Views of Denazification………………………………………………….25 Educational Reforms during and after Denazification…………………………………………...27 Teacher Training Reforms……………………………………………………………………….29 Changes in Teaching Methods…………………………………………………………………...32 New Curriculum………………………………………………………………………………….36 Extracurricular Programs and Youth Culture……………………………………………………43 Successes of Denazification……………………………………………………………………...46 Failures of Denazification………………………………………………………………………..47 Implications for Germany’s Future………………………………………………………………49 Conclusions……………………………………………………………………………………....50 Beckert 6 List of Figures Figure 1…………………………………………………………………………………………..16 Figure 2…………………………………………………………………………………………..32 Beckert 7 Abstract Beckert 8 During the rebuilding of West Germany after World War II, the education system experienced rapid changes due to denazification. Under Allied occupation, Nazi influence in every aspect of society was to be eliminated. The initial phases of denazification took place in a setting of mass chaos; many German schools had been destroyed during the war, textbooks approved by Nazis were completely unacceptable for use in the postwar era, and teachers who had not belonged to the Nazi Party were few and far between. Despite this myriad of challenges, the schools of West Germany rebounded and began to thrive in the decades after World War II. Teacher training improved, and many new forms of curriculum were introduced to improve the education of German students. Though the Allies saw denazification as a failure in the immediate postwar era, denazification experienced a success story as West Germany continued to develop into a major power in Europe.Introduction Even before the surrender of their home country, the children of Germany faced a multitude of problems. Children who had grown up and come of age during the Third Reich experienced a rigidly structured society that focused on nationalist and militaristic goals above all else. Their families could be torn apart by deportations or differing loyalties. In school, their educations demanded unwavering loyalty to the state and the Führer and required each student to develop their minds and bodies to serve this state. Math, reading, and other traditional subjects were pushed aside in favor of physical education to prepare young people to serve their country. As the war began, their fathers and brothers left to serve in the military. Many of these men never came home. The war dragged on, and their mothers and sisters went to work in factories, leaving the youngest children to fend for themselves during the day. Then the war drew closer to their homes, and their hometowns burned under bombs dropped by the United States or fell under ruthless siege from Soviet armies. School, if it had even continued to this point, stopped for most Beckert 9 German children, and some of these children never survived the bombing campaigns that forced their country – the state that they had been raised to serve – to surrender. After the capitulation of the Axis Powers and the end of World War II, Europe had been reduced to ruins in many places. Germany, the birthplace of the Nazi Party, experienced devastating bombings by Allied forces throughout 1944 and 1945 that caused extensive physical damage and loss of life throughout the country. The physical damage reflected the devastating effects that the war also had on German society, especially children and the family. The school system was scattered and ineffective under Allied attacks, and reforms introduced under Adolf Hitler set German students far behind their counterparts across Europe. Under Allied occupation, the German school system was included in the program of denazification and democratization. Occupation and foreign influence aimed to completely overhaul the German school system, but these well-meaning attempts were foiled by a severe shortage of resources and funding. The Allied occupiers also sought to purge Nazi influence from German schools as part of denazification efforts, a project in which the British and Americans, more so than the Soviets and the French, took a special interest. This research focuses on the American and British zones, later combined during occupation as the Bizone, and how these areas were affected by denazification processes. Denazification had important implications for the future of German schools, though its initial effectiveness was questionable. The attempts to overhaul the German educational system under denazification, especially in the American occupation zone, radically changed the future of education in West Germany. Though denazification would be seen as more failure than success in the short term, denazification positively changed German education, as well as society at large, in the long run. Beckert 10 Beckert 11 Literature and Sources The vast majority of popular history tends to focus on the battles and horrors of World War II rather than the immediate aftermath and consequences. The rebuilding of Europe may be a less dramatic topic to examine, though the study of this time period is key to an understanding of the modern states of Europe. As early as the summer of 1945, just a few weeks or months after V-E Day, research and writing on the process of denazification began to appear. As denazification intensified and continued into the 1940s, scholars of history and political science began to gather more research and information to more accurately analyze how denazification worked and whether or not it could be considered “successful.” Educators and school administrators also joined the fray, recording their own experiences or contributing to scholarly articles. Research on denazification in the German school system gradually increased in volume as the years went on, often being woven in with more general research about denazification as a whole. The first pieces of writing about denazification to appear contain mainly speculations about the future of denazification or detailed analyses of the processes surrounding denazification. Elmer Plischke’s article “Denazification Law and Procedure,” published in 1947, perfectly exemplifies this type of research. The author outlines in great detail the complicated laws and policies of denazification. Plischke released this article just as denazification was hitting its peak number of arrests and trials.1 Many authors had negative views on the progress of denazification, such as John H. Herz and William E. Griffith. The title of Herz’s article, “The Fiasco of Denazification in Germany,” immediately gives away his thesis: that denazification in 1 Elmer Plischke, “Denazification Law and Procedure,” The American Journal of International Law 41 (1947): 807- 827, accessed September 2015, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2193091. Beckert 12 West Germany had failed almost as soon as it had begun. He harangues leaders of the denazification processes for going too far in some cases and not going far enough in others. To Herz, writing in 1948, denazification only provided a temporary solution rather than long-term changes.2 Griffith, who published his research just over a year after Herz’s article went to the press, came to similar conclusions. The first parts of his article “Denazification in the U.S. Zone of Germany” take a mostly neutral stance on the progress of denazification, but the last sections decry it as a failure due to both external and internal factors.3 Many primary documents from the same time period take a variety of stances on the Allied occupation of Germany and the denazification process. For this project, a significant number of American government documents were used. Of these documents, most were published by a branch of the Office of Military Government, United States (OMGUS), typically the Education and Cultural Relations Division. OMGUS frequently published materials that were available to its staff, the military, and the general American public for consumption. Most of the materials published by OMGUS take a more positive view of denazification and the progress made in the West German