First Luisenschule rulebook

Luisenschule (initially in Polish: Szkoła Luizy, later in Polish: Szkoła Ludwiki) was a female school, open in Posen in the years of 1830–1919. Until 1873 it was operated as a private establishment, managed by the Luisenstiftung foundation; afterwards it was incorporated into the official Prussian education system. Its prestigious character attracted girls from high- and mid-range bourgeoisie; the school was particularly recognized for teaching music and arts in general. Since 1841 Luisenschule operated jointly with Lehrerinnen-Seminar, teachers’ training courses. The school was designed as a German-Polish institution, though since the mid-19th century the Polish ingredient went into decline; by the end of the century Luisenschule pursued a militantly patriotic Prussian education model. Periodically the Jews formed a significant fraction of the girls. Luisenschule students who became public figures in the realm of German politics, science and arts were Auguste Schmidt, Ida Barber, Elise Ekke, Margarete Gerhardt und Hedwig Landsberg. The best known Polish graduate was Walentyna Motty, later wife of Hipolit Cegielski.

Beginnings

There were a few private schooling establishments for girls, operational in Posen in the early 19th century; some offered advanced curriculum but proved short-lived,[1] while the others did not meet expectations of the local landed gentry and the growing urban bourgeoisie.[2] In the late 1820s some of the Posen wealthy[3] approached local administration about setting up a well-grounded, high-level female school. The idea was picked up by princess Louise of Prussia, wife to prince Antoni Radziwiłł, the Polish duke-governor of the Duchy of Posen. Princess Louise from her youth demonstrated sympathy for the Poles[4] and interest in education alike; she agreed to head the project. It took shape of a private foundation, Luisenstiftung. Her contribution proved to be the financial basis of the enterprise, though other members contributed as well.[5] In 1830 the foundation opened a school for girls, initially named Louisenschule.[6]

The establishment was intended for girls of both German and Polish cultural background; some key documents, e.g. the rulebooks, were bilingual, though general instruction was in German.[7] The schooling was divided into 4 stages, each lasting 2 years. Lowest admission age was 7; when completing education, the girls used to be 15–17. The curriculum was designed very broadly, with 4 hours of Polish language weekly; evaluation was based on a 5-scale mark.[8] Initially Luisenschule admitted 100-150 girls.[9] Quality of education was so high that provincial authorities considered it too resemblant of that offered to males, and demanded it gets lowered.[10] Theoretically the school was opened only to Christians and offered both Protestant and Catholic religious instruction;[11] the headmaster was a Lutheran minister, Johan Gottlob Friedrich.[12] Official supervision was provided by Provinzialschulkollegium, a provincial schooling board.[13] At the very beginning Luisenschule was hosted in a building owned by a local court official Brückner and located at Breslauerstrasse.[14] As it soon proved insufficient, in late 1830 the school moved to a rented building at the intersection of Breitestrasse and Judenstrasse, at a corner of the Market Square.[15]

Posen, 1830s

Once Luisenstiftung found itself in financial dire straits in the mid-1830s it was rescued by a thousand-thaler donation of princess Louise.[16] It was again the princess who approached the new duke-governor, Eduard von Flotwell, and made sure that premises taken over from the freshly secularized Benedictine order were granted to the foundation;[17] in 1836 Luisenschule moved into the Gorka-Palace at Wasserstrasse, at that time at another corner of the Market Square. The foundation board carried out major refurbishment works, currently criticized by historians; of little value in terms of adopting the building for educational purposes, the works did away with historical architectural legacy and produced heavy financial burden for the Luisenstiftung balance sheet.[18] However, the Radziwiłł family kept supporting the foundation until the couple left Posen in 1836.[19]

Private school: prosperity

Luisenschule (right), 1840s

Once the Radziwiłł couple left the Duchy of Posen the new school headmaster, Karl Wilhelm Barth, arranged that the Luisenstiftung statute gets modified; he was greatly assisted by the schooling board of Regierungsbezirk, the provincial government.[20] In 1837 the school was renamed to Königliche Luisenschule, while the province gained crucial role in appointing members of the foundation's board. Though technically the school remained private, the change effectively turned it into a joint, private-public establishment;[21] from this moment onwards the decision-making process was taking place in-between Barth, the foundation[22] and the provincial authorities.[23] The hybrid nature was somewhat reinforced when in 1841 Luisenschule opened training courses for future teachers, heavily subsidized by the province[24] and later to be named Lehrerinnen-Seminar.[25] One more module, operational in the 1840s only and formatted along the same pattern, was Übungsschule, a small school serving as a practice ground for the seminarians.[26] Luisenschule-educated governesses were very sought-after.[27]

In the mid-1840s the Poles-dominated Provinzialstände, local self-government bodies, asked that a Catholic school for girls be set up in Posen;[28] the petition is currently seen as intended to emulate an apparently successful formula of Luisenschule, though also indicative of some anxiety about its increasingly Protestant and German nature.[29] Despite an initially warm reception by the king, joint efforts of Barth and the schooling board led to the ultimate failure of the project. Instead, Luisenschule opened a few sections with instruction in Polish.[30] During the revolutionary period of 1847-1848 few girls involved in Polish nationalist activities were expelled from school.[31] Most of the Poles left shortly afterwards anyway;[32] also some teachers, sympathetic towards the Polish national movement, moved out.[33] Barth and some of the staff remained heavily engaged in counter-revolutionary politics, which prompted admonition on part of the schooling board chairman, Wendt. Once the latter left his post Barth emerged triumphant;[34] the Polish classes disappeared in 1851.[35]

Personal ingenuity of Barth and opening of the teachers’ seminar produced growth and expansion of Luisenschule;[36] the number of girls grew from 200 in the early 1840s to 300 in the early 1850s;[37] some of them, like Auguste Schmidt, later grew to public figures.[38] Though initially the number of German students was only slightly higher than that of the Polish ones,[39] the latter was in steady decline. More and more Jewish girls were enrolling;[40] initially Barth tried to prevent the phenomenon,[41] but once the Poles started leaving this policy was no longer tenable. Luisenschule dropped its numerus clausus rules, resulting in the Jews approaching 50% of all students;[42] one of them was Ida Barber,[43] later to be known as a novelist. The anxious Luisenstiftung board unsuccessfully tried to regain control,[44] until in 1851 and in agreement with Regierungsbezirk[45] the 15% limit for the Jews was brought back into force.[46]

Private school: crisis

Gorka-Palace at present

Renewed numerus clausus for Jews and Polish discomfort with the school's profile reduced the number of students; in the mid-1850s hovering around 200, by the end of the decade it went even below 100.[47] The staff experienced generational turnaround; teachers adhering to the early Luisian foundation traditions were replaced by newcomers.[48] The factor which contributed decisively to the Luisenschule crisis was opening of two new schools for girls, set up by the Sacred Heart and Ursuline orders in the late 1850s.[49] The conventional schools proved tough competitors, as they offered a new, modern curriculum; e.g. it included English, the subject which Barth unsuccessfully tried to introduce later on.[50] Moreover, the schools were Catholic and the language of instruction was Polish, which lured most girls of the Polish background.[51] Furthermore, Luisenschule lost its monopoly on training teachers, as the Ursulines launched their own seminary course in 1859.[52]

Decreasing number of Luisenschule students produced financial problems. They were aggravated by social and economic change; the urban centre of gravity moved away from the old town and renting premises at the Gorka-Palace, the source of not marginal income for the Luisenstiftung, was no longer lucrative.[53] In the 1860s Barth tried to address the issue by seeking further official engagement in the establishment. He requested that apart from already stable flow of subventions for Lehrerinnen-Seminar, Regierungsbezirk at least partially takes its staff on the payroll; besides, he suggested admin measures which would set the school in privileged position, in particular versus the Sacred Heart and Ursuline schools. Last but not least, Barth waged a guerilla war against the foundation board, working to transfer most of the decision making process to the headmaster's office.[54] The campaign proved largely successful, especially that most of the original members of the board passed away and provincial authorities did not appoint the new ones.[55]

Posen, 1860s

Initially the Ministry of Education in Berlin and the Regierungsbezirk in Posen did not seem interested in Barth's advances; both suggested that the Posen municipal authorities get engaged instead. Negotiations about some sort of joint management formula took place between Luisenstiftung and the town hall in 1870-1871 until the city eventually stepped back.[56] At this point the Regierungsbezirk stepped in, suggesting official takeover of the school. This is not what Barth was aiming for; his objective was obtaining official financial backing with the school governance system possibly unchanged, the latter ensuring his personal rule in Luisenschule. In 1871-1873 the headmaster did his best to block official Prussian designs quoting all sorts of cases, including the juridical and political ones.[57] Talks between the ministry and the foundation turned into a legal war; eventually the government resolved to a number of irregularities until in 1873 the Luisenstiftung foundation was dissolved and the school was taken over by state.[58]

Public school: first decades

Kulturkampf in cartoon

Official takeover initially did not work to Luisenschule's advantage and its prestige declined; the seminar was reduced to a standard Volksschulseminar and the school turned into its Übungsschule.[59] Though there were attempts to cultivate some features of the old Luisian tradition, especially focus on arts in general and on music in particular, the quality of teaching decreased. Luisenschule seemed left far behind the conventional schools, especially behind the Ursuline one; the latter boasted of larger and better qualified staff, including a number of native French and English teachers, and attracted far more students.[60] As a measure to address the problem and to raise recruitment Luisenschule once again and this time ultimately abandoned numerus clausus;[61] starting the mid-1870s the number of Jewish girls again started to rise significantly. As to Barth himself, he was dismissed and passed away soon afterwards.[62]

In the early 1870s the Prussian authorities commenced campaign against the Sacred Heart and Ursuline schools; it is not clear whether it was a concerted but local attempt related to taking over of Luisenschule or rather it was part of the just commencing nationwide Kulturkampf, Bismarck's campaign against the Church. The campaign amounted to a number of administrative restrictions, fiscal and legal measures and new teaching requirements.[63] The initiative proved fully successful: the Sacred Heart school closed in 1873 and the Ursuline school closed in 1875.[64] The Ursuline order moved away to Galicia; their real estate was purchased by the provincial authorities and marked for Luisenschule. Soon afterwards a new building was constructed on the post-Ursuline plot.[65] In 1880 Luisenschule left the Gorka-Palace, occupied for 46 years, and moved into the new premises at Mühlenstrasse.[66] The 50th anniversary of the school was celebrated already in the new home; it was presided by a new headmaster, Eduard Baldamus.[67]

Luisenschule, early 20th c.[68]

The 1880s produced final Luisenschule's integration into the public schooling system, though its dualistic structure was maintained; seminar courses for future teachers were retained and the establishment operated as "Luisenschule und das Lehrerinnen-Seminar".[69] Culturally it was already entirely German, though ethnically apart from a fraction of Poles a much larger share of students was made up of girls from mostly assimilated Jewish families. Remnants of the Luisian multi-cultural tradition were ultimately dropped in 1888, the last year when Polish was taught;[70] Luisenschule was supposed to educate patriotic Prussian and German women. The recruitment crisis was overcome and in the late 1880s the number of students started to rise again.[71]

Public school: last decades

Posen, 1890s

There were 209 college-type schools for girls in Prussia of the 1890s; of these, only 4 were claiming royal status in their name. Apart from the Posen Luisenschule, the ones entitled to use the "Königliche" title were Elisabethschule in Berlin, Augustaschule in Berlin and Mädchenschule in Trier, a privilege which provided minor admin advantages but ensured also prestige and elitist status.[72] Luisenschule at least partially re-gained its previous stature. Moreover, present-day historians note that at the turn of the centuries it remained somewhat unorthodox compared to standard Prussian female schools, acknowledged in particular for high level of teaching music, arts and physical exercises. Some refer to it as progressive.[73] Indeed, the school ambience seems to have contributed to formation of the later painter Margarete Gerhardt,[74] the liberal-democratic Deutsche Demokratische Partei politician, Elise Ekke,[75] and the physician Hedwig Landsberg,[76] all frequenting the school at the time. The number of students kept growing and in the early 20th century it reached 300 again.[77]

The teachers’ courses remained among key magnets of the school, attracting in particular the girls of the Jewish background. The seminar gained recognition beyond the province, e.g. luring students from Thorn in the neighboring West Prussia.[78] In terms of social composition Luisenschule remained an institution of "höhere Töchter", girls mostly from higher and mid-range bourgeoisie; they were daughters of officials, merchants, etc.[79] The fraction of Poles kept dropping and did not exceed 5%;[80] Polish girls preferred rather smaller private Posen schools. Their position changed in 1908, the last year of Baldamus’ tenure as headmaster;[81] a new law on female education entered into force. The category "Höhere Mädchenschule" was reserved for schools meeting fairly high criteria related to staff and curriculum; Luisenschule was one of the few in the city which met them.[82] Polish private establishments, some of them with long tradition, e.g. those ran by the Danysz sisters, Antonina Estkowska and Anastazja Warnka, were categorized in the lower rank of "Gehobene Mädchenschule".[83]

During the first decades of the 20th century Luisenschule was culturally entirely German; it formed part of the Prussian education system and worked to meet its political objectives.[84] In the 1910s the Poles considered it "gniazdo hakatyzmu", "the HaKaTa liar".[85] The staff were depicted as struggling to eradicate any cultural let alone political Polish preferences of students;[86] even private conversations held in Polish were subject to penalty measures. Few Polish girls still attending Luisenschule recollected later that in the "nienawistna uczelnia" they felt harassed and persecuted. Unable to speak Polish but unwilling to speak German, in private they spoke French;[87] over time also conversations held in French became subject to penalties.[88] During the Great War period the lessons were commenced not with the customary greetings, but with "Gott strafe England".[89]

End of Luisenschule

Last German troops in Posen, December 1918

In December 1918 the Prussian administrative structures in Posen collapsed and political power was claimed by the freshly emergent local Polish body, Naczelna Rada Ludowa. The well-organized NRL immediately dispatched to Luisenschule its representative, Maria Swinarska, a former Ursuline graduate. Technically she assumed the post of a beirat, an adviser to the headmaster Joachim Güldner,[90] and was entrusted merely with introducing the instruction in Polish. In fact she became the grey eminence of the place, at the turn of 1918/1919 supervising cultural and political Polonisation of the establishment. It seems that at this stage the Poles did not have a specific plan for the school; for the time being their intention was to ensure continuity of teaching and to remove the German political flavor. Shortly after her arrival the German Luisenschule staff presented Swinarska with a number of conditions, amounting to splitting the school into a German and a Polish section; German teachers were to teach the German girls and the Polish teachers were to teach the Polish ones. Once Swinarska rejected the ultimatum they ceased to show up; in response and following consultations with NRL, Swinarska expelled all German students.[91]

As there were almost no Polish staff in school the instruction would have been largely fictitious, yet in the early 1919 the Germans started to resume teaching; also the German girls were re-admitted.[92] Relations remained very tense, e.g. Poles and Germans did not shake hands. Indeed, in some age groups separate national sections were formed. Due to German numerical domination among the staff, the school kept conducting its business in German, including issuing of German-language documents.[93] However, in the spring of 1919 Prowincjonalne Kolegium Szkolne, a newly formed provincial Polish schooling board, decided to break with the perceived Prussian and anti-Polish Luisian tradition and to find a new name for the school. Particular care was taken to emphasize Polish patriotic threads, links with the local Wielkopolska region and resistance to German pressure; eventually the school was named after a medieval princess Dąbrówka. The decision was formally adopted in May 1919.[94]

During the summer holidays most German teachers and an unspecified number of students left.[95] Gaps were partially filled with Poles, and in September the school commenced the 1919/1920 school year as Państwowa Uczelnia Żeńska Dąbrówki with Maria Swinarska as its headmaster.[96] Instruction was in Polish only; German textbooks were gradually being replaced with the Polish ones. Ethnic composition of students remains unclear; some sources claim that German girls kept prevailing, others maintain that they were in minority. None of the sources consulted provides any information on the number of Jews.[97]

Legacy

Former Mühlenstrasse; school premises used to stand back-right

The Prussian authorities tried to maintain the Posen Luisenschule tradition. When a private female Königsberg establishment was turned into a public Hufen Oberlyzeum in 1921, it laid claim to Luisian heritage of the Posen school;[98] some sources refer plainly to Luisenschule having been relocated from Posen to Königsberg.[99] Apart from taking over some of the staff,[100] the Königsberg lyzeum backed its claim by high level of teaching music and stress on musical education in general.[101] The Hufen Oberlyzeum operated until January 1945, when it ceased to exist.[102] Since then none of the schools active in Germany referred to the Posen Luisenschule pedigree. The Berlin-based Königin-Luise-Stiftung and numerous Bundesrepublik schools bearing the name of Luise refer to another tradition, namely this of the Prussian queen Louise.

The Polish Dąbrówka School intentionally broke with the Luisian tradition, deemed representative of Prussian, vehemently anti-Polish policy.[103] However, there were some threads of continuity. Apart from the building,[104] both establishments shared the female profile, teachers’ training courses and some students, who commenced education in Luisenschule but completed it in Uczelnia Dąbrówki.[105] Only 11 years later the Polish school started to pose as some sort of continuity of the Luisenschule. Exact motives are not clear; it seems that managing board of the young establishment intended to bask in prestige of a hundred-year-old institution, as in 1930 it celebrated the centenary of birth.[106] Some observers noted that in fact the feast commemorated neither 11th year of Dąbrówka nor 100th year of Luisenschule, but simply a hundred years since the foundation had been set up; its renewal was vaguely suggested.[107]

Unlike some other Poznań colleges, also hosted in premises inherited from Prussian schools,[108] after World War II the reborn Liceum Dąbrówki keeps claiming Luisian heritage and poses as an establishment set up in 1830; this is the reading advanced on its official web page[109] and in numerous commemorative publications.[110] None of them specifies what the alleged continuity consists of. The seminarian teachers’ courses, continued by Uczelnia Dąbrówki after the closure of Luisenschule, were shut down in 1930.[111] Uczelnia Dąbrówki operated in the post-Luisenschule premises until the German takeover of Poznań in 1939.[112] As after 1945 they were marked for judicial authorities, Dąbrówka was first hosted in few temporary locations until it settled at Plac Bernardyński, in the premises taken over from Liceum św. Marii Magdaleny, another Poznań college; considered hotbed of reactionary education, as means of repression it was shut down by the communist authorities. In 1967 another thread was discontinued when Liceum Dąbrówki was turned from a girls-only into a mixed-sex school. Last but not least, Dąbrówka no longer boasts of a prestigious status; among some 30 Poznań colleges, the school stands around number 10.[113]

Gorka Palace, which for 43 years (1836-1880) served as Luisenschule premises, was damaged during the battle of Poznań but brought back to former shape; currently it accommodates the Archeological Museum. Three buildings at Muhlenstrasse, which hosted Luisenschule for 39 years (1880-1919), were mostly destroyed by artillery fire, also in 1945. The only one still standing was repaired and turned into a dormitory for non-resident students of Poznań colleges, recently operational as Bursa Szkolna nr 6.[114] Remaining documents, produced by Luisenschule, are held partially in state archives in Poznań and partially in the Dąbrówka Liceum.

See also

Footnotes

  1. in 1810-1828 such a school was managed by Etienne Trimail, and in 1813-1815 by Johan Samuel Kaulfuss, Wisława Knapowska, Dzieje Fundacji kp. Ludwiki Radziwiłłowej, [in:] Kronika Miasta Poznania 7/4 (1929), pp. 257-258
  2. such as schools of Tekla Herwig, David Reid and Zuzanna Warnik, Zdzisława Smuszkiewicz, Z dawnych dziejów poznańskiej Dąbrówki (1830-1939), [in:] Kronika Miasta Poznania 69/4 (2001), p. 115, Knapowska 1929, pp. 7-8
  3. most of the names seem German, though Poles signing the document might bear German-sounding names as well, Knapowska 1929, p. 258
  4. Ludwika z Hohenzollernów Radziwiłłowa entry, [in:] Wielkopolski Słownik Pisarek online, Knapowska 1929, pp. 264-277
  5. initial fund was 500 thaler, Smuszkiewicz 2001, pp. 115-116, Knapowska 1929, p. 263
  6. Smuszkiewicz 2001, p. 115, Knapowska 1929, p. 259
  7. Katarzyna Męczyńska, "Warnkówny – zakład główny". Wyższa szkoła żeńska Anastazji Warnka 1871-1912, [in:] Kronika Miasta Poznania 69/4 (2001), p. 81
  8. Smuszkiewicz 2001, pp. 116-118
  9. Knapowska 1929, p. 277
  10. Smuszkiewicz 2001, p. 117
  11. Edward David Luft, The Jews of Posen Province in the Nineteenth Century, Washington 2015, p. 405
  12. Knapowska 1929, pp. 279-280
  13. Knapowska 1929, p. 283
  14. Knapowska 1929, p. 259
  15. Smuszkiewicz 2001, p. 119
  16. Smuszkiewicz 2001, p. 120
  17. Knapowska 1929, pp. 289-290
  18. Smuszkiewicz 2001, p. 121
  19. Smuszkiewicz 2001, p. 116
  20. key role was played by head of the schooling board, counsellor Jacob, working hand in hand with Barth
  21. Wisława Knapowska, Dzieje Fundacji kp. Ludwiki Radziwiłłowej, [in:] Kronika Miasta Poznania 8/2 (1930), pp. 113-116. When discussing the matter with fiscal authorities the provincial schooling board used to claim that the school was in fact public, seeking tax reliefs. The matter ended up in court, which declared that the name of "Königliche" is not sufficient to sustain such a claim, and demanded that all taxes and duties and paid to the full, Knapowska 1930, pp. 119-120
  22. Knapowska 1930, pp. 117-120, 145
  23. Jacob, who was already known for his tough stand versus the Poles, used to sit in the foundation board as delegate of the provincial authorities, Knapowska 1929, p. 284
  24. from 200 thaler in the early 1840s to 1,300 thaler in the late 1860s, James C. Albisetti, Schooling German Girls and Women, Princeton 2014, ISBN 9781400859795, p. 63
  25. exact formal link between the seminar and Luisenschule was somewhat vague, which suited Barth very much
  26. Knapowska 1930, pp. 128-132. Übungsschule was closed in 1848. It appears that its students were mostly Jewish children. They took advantage of specific status of the school, which was not covered by the usual numerus clausus. Once the limits on Jewish students were lifted by the general Prussian law of 1848, recruitment to Übungsschule collapsed, Knapowska 1930, p. 131
  27. Johanna Ilmakunnas, Marjatta Rahikainen, Kirsi Vainio-Korhonen, Early Professional Women in Northern Europe, c. 1650-1850, London 2017, ISBN 9781317146742, p. 258
  28. Knapowska 1930, p. 151. According to another scholar, "because of its Protestant and German character, [Luisenschule] was not much trusted by the Polish families", Borkowska 2011, p. 75
  29. Knapowska 1930, p. 150
  30. Knapowska 1930, p. 153
  31. Knapowska 1930, p. 155
  32. Knapowska 1930, p. 157
  33. the case of Antoni Fromholz, a Catholic priest of German origin. In 1848 he was even the member of the Posen National Committee, Michał Pawełczyk, Nekielscy księża drugiej połowy XIX w.: Antoni Fromholz i Marcin Manicki, [in:] Parafia Nekla service, available here
  34. Knapowska 1930, p. 159
  35. Wisława Knapowska, Dzieje Fundacji kp. Ludwiki Radziwiłłowej w Poznaniu, [in:] Kronika Miasta Poznania 8/3 (1930) [furtherly referred as Knapowska 1930b], p. 217, Męczyńska 2001, p. 81
  36. Knapowska 1930b, p. 217, Męczyńska 2001, p. 81
  37. Knapowska 1930, p. 147
  38. Albisetti 2014, p. 63
  39. in 1830 among 91 students there were 15 Poles, it is slightly above 16%; in 1843 among 211 students there were 76 Poles (36%), 106 Germans (50%) and 29 Jews (14%). In 1848 there were 114 Poles (39%), 133 Germans 133 (46%), and 41 Jews 41 (15%), Smuszkiewicz 2001, p. 119, Knapowska 1929, pp. 277-278
  40. the number of Jewish students started to raise rapidly after 1848, Marion A. Kaplan, Jewish Daily Life in Germany, Oxford 2005, ISBN 9780195346794, p. 126, Marion Kaplan, C. H. Beck, Das Jüdischen Alltags in Deutschland vom 17. Jahrhundert bis 1945, München 2003, ISBN 9783406502057, p. 164
  41. Knapowska 1930, p. 148. It is not clear how come that a technically Christian school was admitting girls from Jewish families, and in particular whether the girls were converted Christians or whether the rules were not rigorously enforced
  42. Kaplan 2005, p. 126, Kaplan, Beck 2003, p. 164, Knapowska 1930b, p. 209
  43. maiden name Ida Punitzer, Marianne Baumgartner, Der Verein der Schriftstellerinnen und Künstlerinnen in Wien (1885-1938), Wien 2015, ISBN 9783205797029, p. 217
  44. Knapowska 1930b, pp. 211-213
  45. Knapowska 1930b, p. 215
  46. according to some sources in 1852, Kaplan 2005, p. 126, Kaplan, Beck 2003, p. 164
  47. Knapowska 1930b, p. 217
  48. Knapowska 1930b, pp. 215-216
  49. the Ursulines built a large and very modern building; completed in the late 1850s, it made the Luisenschule Gorka-Palace look obsolete and small, Knapowska 1930b, p. 228
  50. in the 1850s and 1860s Barth ran adverts across major European papers, seeking native French and English teachers. He managed to contract few Frenchwomen and Englishwomen, but in all these case co-operation proved short-lived, Knapowska 1930b, p. 226
  51. the number of Ursuline students was soon double the number of Luisenschule students, Knapowska 1930b, p. 223
  52. Męczyńska 2001, p. 81
  53. Knapowska 1930b, p. 230
  54. Knapowska 1930b, pp. 235-238
  55. according to the original statute the Regierungsbezirk merely confirmed the board members elected; aftarwards it was actually appointing the members. In line with its policy of undermining the foundation, as members of the board were passing away the provincial authorities did not appoint new ones
  56. Knapowska 1930b, pp. 232-234
  57. e.g. Barth claimed that as a mixed German-Polish school, Luisenschule is luring the Polish girls away from "fanatically Polish" Sacred Heart and Ursuline schools, Knapowska 1930b, p. 240
  58. Knapowska 1930b, pp. 230-249
  59. Knapowska 1930b, p. 250
  60. the Ursuline staff amounted to staggering 30 teachers, including native French and English women, Beatrix Banaś, Urszulanki polskie w dobie “kulturkampfu” (1871-1877), [in:] Nasza Przeszłość 7 (1958), p. 190
  61. Kaplan 2005, p. 126, Kaplan,Beck 2003, p. 164
  62. Knapowska 1930b, p. 260
  63. nail in the coffin of the Ursuline school was the requirement that all of the teaching staff are Prussian citizens; very few of them were, Borkowska 2011, p. 40
  64. Banaś 1958, pp. 203-204, zob. też Borkowska 2011
  65. Smuszkiewicz 2001, p. 121. No girl from the closed Ursuline school joined Luisenschule; they opted for various private schools or went abroad, some as far as to Cracow, at that time in Austria, Knapowska 1930b, p. 255
  66. Smuszkiewicz 2001, p. 121
  67. former headmaster of the female school in Kolberg (now Kołobrzeg), Knapowska 1930b, p. 259
  68. out of 3 buildings pictured the only one still standing is the partially visible one in the back; the other ones were heavily damaged during the fightings in February 1945 and eventually demolished afterwards
  69. A. Weinder, Vereinsbuch des Posener Lehrervereins für die Jahre 1908/1909, Lissa 1908, p. 71
  70. Smuszkiewicz 2001, p. 121
  71. Smuszkiewicz 2001, pp. 122, 124
  72. Helene Lange, Entwicklung und Stand des höheren Mädchenschulwesens in Deutschland, Bremen 2003, ISBN 9783955079758, p. 35
  73. Gerhard Gallagher, Margarite and Gerhard. A Biographical Note, [in:] Gerhardt Gallagher, Gisela Holfter, Mícheál Ó hAodha(eds.), Connections - Verbindungen: Irish German Perspectives through Etching, Newcastle 2011, ISBN 9781443826365, p. 12
  74. Gallagher 2011, p. 12
  75. see Ekke Elise entry, [in:] Verhandlungen des Deutschen Reichstags service, available here
  76. born Hedwig Hamburger, during the Nazi period on exile in Britain and America, Hedwig Landsberg, geb. Hamburger entry, [in:] Ärztinnen im Kaiserreich service, available here
  77. Smuszkiewicz 2001, pp. 122, 124
  78. compare e.g. the list of Jewish graduates from the 1910s, Luft 2015, p. 220
  79. Luft 2015, p. 220
  80. Smuszkiewicz 2001, p. 119
  81. terms of the last Luisenschule headmasters, Doblin (1908-1911), Gall (1911-1914) and Güldner (1914-1919), did not stand comparison to long tenures of Barth (1834-1875) and Baldamus (1875-1908), Smuszkiewicz 2001, p. 116
  82. other Posen female schools which met the criteria were Below-Knothe Höhere Mädchenschule, Katholische Höhere Mädchenschule and Wegenersche Höhere Mädchenschule, Weinder 1908
  83. Lech Słowiński, Z dziejów walki o tożsamość narodową pod pruskim zaborem. Działalność oświatowa i społeczne Heleny Rzepeckiej (1863-1916), [in:] Kronika Miasta Poznania 62 3/4 (1994), p. 438
  84. Słowiński 1994, pp. 438-40
  85. Marja Swinarska, Powstanie Uczelni Dąbrówki, [in:] Z życia uczelni im. Dąbrówki w Poznaniu. Jedniodniówka wydana w stuletnią rocznicę założenia szkoły, Poznań 1930, p. 16
  86. among teachers committed to the Prussian patriotic education model there were some exceptions. Recollections of the Polish students feature specifically the personality of Fräulein Nixdorf, a teacher of German, who reportedly did not enforce the official outlook but still managed to attract the girls to the beauty of German literature, Luisenschule 1912-1918, [in:] Z życia uczelni im. Dąbrówki w Poznaniu. Jedniodniówka wydana w stuletnią rocznicę założenia szkoły, Poznań 1930, p. 12
  87. "I am running through yellowed pages of my schooltime memoir. I wish I could find something sunny and bright. Alas! There is only sadness, perhaps desperation. This is what I find written in 1912: "Back to school. End of liberty. One has to work again. One has to bend before the heavy weight of German culture, accept the odious scholarly realm", Luisenschule 1912-1918, [in:] Z życia uczelni im. Dąbrówki w Poznaniu
  88. Zofia Modlibowska, Wspomnienia z lat szkolnych pod zaborem pruskim [in:] Z życia uczelni im. Dąbrówki w Poznaniu. Jedniodniówka wydana w stuletnią rocznicę założenia szkoły, Poznań 1930, p. 13
  89. Modlibowska 1930, p. 13
  90. Johannes Güldner (ca. 1872-1962), born in Haan, educated in a Düsseldorf Lyzeum, graduate of philology in Berlin and theology in Koblenz. He started teaching in 1894, assuming the chair of French and Latin in the female school in Münster, then teaching in various schools in Hanover. Since 1903 served as headmaster in Neumünster and Magdeburg. After leaving Posen he briefly taught in Berlin and Hanover, in the 1920s served as headmasted in Landsberg (now Gorzów Wielkopolski) and in the 1930s in Münster; Marc Zirlewagen, Biographisches Lexikon der Vereine Deutscher Studenten, vol. I, Nordestedt 2014, ISBN 9783735722881, p. 280. The work quoted states his birth year as 1890, which appears to be a typo. As the same source claims he obtained Abitur in 1890, he was probably born in the early 1870s
  91. Marja Swinarska, Powstanie Uczelni Dąbrówki, [in:] Z życia uczelni im. Dąbrówki w Poznaniu. Jedniodniówka wydana w stuletnią rocznicę założenia szkoły, Poznań 1930, p. 17, Joanna Stroińska, 1919, [in:] Z życia uczelni im. Dąbrówki w Poznaniu. Jedniodniówka wydana w stuletnią rocznicę założenia szkoły, Poznań 1930, p. 18
  92. "at the turn of the decades" the staff was composed of 24 Poles and 11 Germans; exact year these figures refer to is unclear, see Helena Dolata, Maria Dolata, Wacława Małecka (eds.), Zjazd Dąbrówczański, Poznań 2005, p. 24
  93. Stroińska 1930, p. 18
  94. details of the process discussed in Magdalena Witasik, Dlaczego Dąbrówka? W kwestii wyboru patronki szkoły, [in:] Helena Dolata, Maria Dolata, Wacława Małecka (eds.), Zjazd Dąbrówczański, Poznań 2005, pp. 15-16
  95. Swinarska 1930, p. 17, Stroińska 1930, p. 18. One of such girls was Martha Rodloff, later wife of a well-known chemist, Eugen Müller, por. Günter Häfelinger, Eugen Müller (1905–1976), [in:] European Journal of Organic Chemistry 21 (2008), p. 3731
  96. some Polish recollections suggest that German-speaking girls were very few, Wacława Małecka, Trzy pokolenia dąbrówczanek, [in:] Kronika Miasta Poznania 69/4 (2001), p. 142
  97. according to one source "at the moment of Swinarska’s takeover" there were 46 Polish students, Danuta Piotrowska-Szulczewska, Z odległych wspomnień o Marii Swinarskiej, [in:] Kronika Miasta Poznania 69/4 (2001), p. 135. According to another source, "when Dąbrówka opened" there were 1057 girls, including 353 Germans, Szmuszkiewicz 2001, p. 125
  98. Robert Albinus, Lexikon der StadtKönigsberg Pr. und Umgebung, Leer 1985, ISBN 3792103206, p. 371
  99. "am Staatlichen Hufen-oberlyzeum (dem ehemaligen Luisen-Lyzeum Posen, das nach 1918 nach Königsberg verlegt worden war)", Deutsches Geschlechterbuch (Genealogishes Handbuch Burgerlicher Familien), vol. 140: Posener Geschlechterbuch, Limburg a/Lahn1960, p. 405
  100. e.g. Renate Hildegard, Deutsches Geschlechterbuch (Genealogishes Handbuch Burgerlicher Familien), vol. 140: Posener Geschlechterbuch, Limburg a/Lahn1960, p. 405
  101. see e.g. Hans Huchzermeyer, Beiträge zu Leben und Werk des Kirchenmusikers Ernst Maschke (1867-1940) sowie zur Geschichte der Kirchenmusikinstitute in Königsberg/Preussen (1824-1945) [PhD dissertation accepted at the Padeborn University], Padeborn 2012, pp. 128, 130, Kurt Forstreuter, Fritz Gause (eds.), Altpreussische Biographie, vol. 5, Marburg 2007, p. 1811
  102. Fritz Gause, Die Geschichte der Stadt Königsberg, vol. 3: Vom Ersten Weltkrieg biz zum Untergang Königsbergs, Köln 1971, p. 327, Jahrbuch der Albertus-Universität zu Königsberg/Pr, vol. 7, Göttingen1957, p. 260
  103. Witasik 2005, pp. 15-16
  104. upon commencing the 1919/1920 schooling year the building at Młyńska was consecrated by local religious authorities. The procedure is usually employed during opening of a new church, though also when a former church had been desecrated, e.g. by vandalism or conversion to a shrine of another faith, and later re-set as a church
  105. see e.g. the case of Julianna Wilak-Niewiedział, Helena Dolata, Maria Dolata, Wacława Małecka (eds.), Zjazd Dąbrówczański, Poznań 2005, p. 45
  106. Knapowska 1929, p. 251
  107. Knapowska 1930b, p. 262
  108. e.g. VI Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Ignacego Jana Paderewskiego, hosted in the building earlier serving as home to Wegenersche Höhere Mädchenschule, dates its history back to 1921 only, see the official school website available here
  109. see the official school website, available here
  110. see e.g. Dąbrówko nasza wiecznie trwaj. Zjazd Dąbrówczański w 170. rocznicę istnienia szkoły, Poznań 2000, pp. 11-12
  111. Knapowska 1930b, p. 262
  112. none of the sources consulted refers to any attempt of re-launching the Luisenschule during the Nazi rule in Posen in 1939-1945
  113. no 9 in the 2017 Perspektywy.pl chart, see available here, no. 10 in the 2017 waszaedukacja service, available here
  114. see katalog.szkolnictwa service, available here

Further reading

  • Helena Dolata, Maria Dolata, Wacława Małecka (eds.), Zjazd Dąbrówczański, Poznań 2005
  • Wisława Knapowska, Dzieje Fundacji śp. Ludwiki Radziwiłłowej w Poznaniu, [in:] Kronika Miasta Poznania 7/4 (1929), pp. 252–290
  • Wisława Knapowska, Dzieje Fundacji sp. Ludwiki Radziwiłłowej w Poznaniu, [in:] Kronika Miasta Poznania 8/2 (1930), pp. 114–159
  • Wisława Knapowska, Dzieje Fundacji śp. Ludwiki Radziwiłłowej w Poznaniu, [in:] Kronika Miasta Poznania 8/3 (1930), pp. 209–263
  • Otto Konopka, Geschichte der Königlichen Luisenstiftung zu Posen, Posen 1910
  • Zdzisława Smuszkiewicz, Z dawnych dziejów poznańskiej Dąbrówki (1830-1939), [in:] Kronika Miasta Poznania 69/4 (2001), pp. 114–134
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