Lehrerbildungsanstalt Mehlsack- Staatlicher Aufbaulehrgang Ermland

Garry

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I haven't bought anything for a while but I got a tip that this booklet was on Ebay for 10 Euros so I snapped it up. It came with three letters and is from the 'Staatlicher Aufbaulehrgang Ermland' boarding school in Mehlsack (now Pieniezno in Poland). Very interesting book containing details on training, personnel and life at the school in general.

The Staatlicher Aufbaulehrgang was a programme designed to prepare suitable candidates for teacher-training at higher training colleges (Hochschulen der Lehrerbildung) and the pupils spent 4 years at the school with the aim of achieving the 'Abitur' (educational standard which was a prerequisite for university attendance). The school in Mehlsack was originally designated as 'Staatlicher Aufbaulehrgang Ermland' and was housed in a part of the monastery in Mehlsack from 1.4.1938.

In 1940 (effective in 1941) Hitler ordered the creation of the Lehrerbildungsanstalten and the school was redesignated as LBA Mehlsack (it is shown in the lists here as school number 35). The purpose of these new schools was to consolidate teacher-training and there were sometimes difficulties with the provision of sufficient accommodation. This situation is described in one of the letters which came with the book and the writer, Abteilungsführer Märker, describes how the monks were all arrested and expelled from the monastery in April 1941. It seems fairly clear that the monks were simply in the way and that the Gestapo had to find a way of getting rid of them so that the Lehrerbildungsanstalt could have access to the parts of the monastery previously used by the monks.

In picture 1 you can see a 1938 photograph of students marching past the main entrance. Above the windows of the second floor you can see the original monastery motto 'Gehet hin in alle Welt' which is a shortened version of Matthew 28:19 'Gehet hin in alle Welt und lehret alle Völker und taufet sie im Namen des Vaters und des Sohnes und des heiligen Geistes' (..go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit).

This was removed and replaced with 'Staatl. Aufbaulehrgang Ermland' as you can see in the second picture which shows the complete school on parade.

The school appears to have remained active until 1944/45.

The remaining photos show the building as it looks today. It is now known as 'Muzeum Misyjno-Etnograficznego seminarium Ksiezy Werbistów' (The Museum of Ethnology and Mission of the major seminary in Pieniezno).

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Cheers Nick. The book paints a great picture of how these schools were organised, personnel etc so very useful from that standpoint but some of the articles penned by the pupils are also very interesting - one in particular due to the subject matter: 'We visit a sanitorium'. It describes the visit of Zug I/3 to the sanitorium in Allenstedt and how they saw lots of different mental illnesses. The author describes how they witnessed an epileptic attack during the visit and his closing comment was that it was now clear to all why the law permitting the sterilisation of the mentally ill was necessary..... Noone can blame them (these boys) of course because that's what they were fed but pretty shocking stuff to read now.
 
Hi Gary , a u alive ? :) I come from Pieniężno and found this info- about the school -quite interesting. Would u be that kind and give me more details about the school in Mehlsack, especially before it was transformed into LBA- u know :teachers, subjects, etc. I'd like to write a short note about your findings for my facebook fanpage Pieniezno. I've seen before most of the images of the school u've posted , but have no knowledge about the past of the school so far. Looking forward to hearing from u thanks :)
 
Hi Kamila and welcome to the forum.

The first head (Schulführer) of 'Staatlicher Aufbaulehrgang Ermland' was Hans Behrens who left to take up an appointment at the Reichserziehungsministerium in, I think, 1940. A letter sent out by the school shows that it had been redesignated as "Lehrerbildungsanstalt Mehlsack" in April 1941.

In the pamphlet I mentioned in post 1, the leadership is listed as follows (reflecting the situation in April 1941):

Jungmannführer:
Heinrich Wischnat

Jungmann-Abteilungsführer:
I: Heinz Hotze
I/1: Not listed
I/2: Fritz Sommer
I/3: Heinz Lotze
I/4: Hans Prill

II: Gerhard Klimatschewski
II/1: Gotthold Spieß
II/2: Georg Kowalkowski
II/3: Gerhard Klimaschewski
II/4: Fritz Joppien

III: Horst Kloye
III/1: Horst Kloye
III/2: Helmut Sokoll
III/3: Hans Howe
III/4: Herbert Sandow

Jungmann-Gruppenführer:
I/1: Jürgen Raddatz
I/2: Herbert Krüger, Heinz Stolp, Ernst Doege
I/3: Hans Jürgen Lächelt, Kurt Schohknecht, August Wilhelm Täschner, Willi Riechert (Spielmannszug)
I/4: Horst Quade, Herbert Sehnke, Karl-Heinz Steinhilb, Günther Bosecker (Fanfarenzug)

II/1: Gerhard Marbach, Franz Pinkowski, Max Salamon
II/2: Walter Breuksch, Willy Korinth, Bruno Schedalke
II/3: Walter Mohldehnke, Bernhard Kubatski, Kurt Becker
II/4: Heinrich Jortzick, Bruno Gaebler, Klemens Stankewitz

III/1: Harry Danlowski, Walter Schmidt, Gerhard Gajewski
III/2: Helmut Wolter, Horst Pawlowski, Max Neumann
III/3: Gerhard Rohloff, Norbert Guttmann, Herbert Maier
III/4: Kurt Pieper, Eckard Czirr, Gerhard Hauschulz

276 pupils are named after this and there is also a list of the 19 "Butenkameraden" (boys who had recently graduated).

Subjects taught were in line with the standard teacher (Volkschullehrer) training syllabus: History, geography, biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, English and German.

The pamphlet I have contains quite a few photos of the school and the staff/pupils engaged in various activities but the quality isn't that great. I'll see if I can find some that are worth posting.

Is there anything specific that you'd like to know? More than happy to add more info if I have it.
 
Hi Garry. Thanks for your help :001_smile: I've just realized that I've got a part of this book somewhere in my documents :) but I don't speak German, so without your help it would be useless anyway . thnx again
 
No problem kamila. As I say, more than happy to provide further info from the pamphlet if it is of any use. There are 63 pages covering the following:

Page 1: title page with photo of Jungmannführer Heinrich Wischnat
Pages 2 and 3: extract from the school chronicle covering the period 7th of Jan to 18th of April 1941
Pages 5 and 6: letters from four of the teachers currently serving in the armed forces
Page 7: list of teachers
Page 8: dedication to the recent graduates
Pages 9 to 12: letters from 11 graduates reporting on what they are currently doing (RAD, army etc)
Pages 12 to 17: letters to the school (Großadmiral Raeder, Gauleiter Wächtler, Gauleiter Henlein, Von Schirach and others)
Pages 17 to 24: full list of teachers, students and recent graduates
Page 24: discussion of relationship between the school and the local HJ units.
Pages 24 and 25: discussion about comradeship
Pages 27 and 28: discussion of the school's "Julfeier"
Pages 28 to 37: various articles written by pupils and teachers covering aspects of life at the school (sport, school routine, cleanliness, duties, guard duty, spare time etc)
Pages 37 to 42: description of the school musical units (Spielmannszug and Fanfarenzug) and of the school orchestra. Also included is the programme for and description of a concert held on 25.1.1941. It is reported on p41/2 that almost all boys at the school could play an instrument and an article by a violin player on page 41 describes his lessons.
Pages 43 to 53: description of how the school supported various NSDAP events including local meetings, commemorations of important dates in the political calendar (9th of November, 30th of January), propaganda marches, support of local NSDAP marches and meetings etc
Pages 53 and 54: description of a visit to a sanitorium. Description of two internal school events
Pages 55 to 58: description of events designed to establish closer links between the school and the local BdM units.
Pages 58 to 63: story by boys in dorm "Dietrich Eckart" about how one of them came to be at the school.
 
thanks again Garry. Does the booklet also contain any descriptions of the town Mehlsack? Or maybe the Walschtal park was mentioned in it or the area surrounding the school was described, if u don't mind me asking :)
 
I'll have a look Kamila. I'll also scan the photos today and will upload them.
 
Okay, here goes. There are quite a few shots of the area immediately around the school plus a couple taken in Mehlsack and others showing Walchtal. As far as the content of the pamphlet is concerned there are many mentions of the town of Mehlsack, Hiplers Gasthof the market place etc. Here's a brief rundown:

Walschtal was used by the school for exercises and sport.
The Kurhaus, Hiplers Gasthof and Gasthof Kohlhaas in Mehlsack are mentioned
Lichtwalde, Woynitt, Efeuschlucht, Heistern, Sugnienen, Basien and other places are mentioned in regard to meetings/events held there
One of the photos shows school members clearing snow from the Mehlsack-Wormditt road

Hope some of this is of use and that there are some photos that are of assistance

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Hi Garry, thank you very much for all the info and photos, so kind of you:good: all the best :)
 
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