The Höhere Töchterschule (Girls' Grammar School) was opened by Dr. Moritz Katzenstein and
his wife Fanny at No. 36 Großneumarkt in October 1863. In 1881 the school moved to
Nos. 3, 4 and 5 erste Fehlandstraße, where it remained until 1899. Dr. Jakob Loewenberg took
over the school on 1.04.1892. Prior to this, from 1886, Dr. Loewenberg had been at the
Realschule der evangelisch-reformierten Gemeinde (Secondary Modern School of the Reformed Protestant
Community). Later this school became the Realschule in the district of St. Pauli.
Dr. Loewenberg introduced various changes to his new school which from this time on was called
Höhere Mädchenschule. A new curriculum was established. The weekly reports and corresponding
transfers, the high number of grades, the commendation cards, the official examinations and
positions in class were abolished. He sought above all to maintain the positive spirit of the school,
i.e. the pleasure of learning.
The new school prospect stated:
The goal of a girls' secondary school can be none other than the goal of a secondary school in
general:
An all-round development and an education combining the physical and mental abilities of its pupils
in the culivation of the humane. The school should inspire its pupils to an open mindedness that
prevents all prejudices in life. The girls were educated for a life in the household. However, should
they choose another destiny then they were to be sufficiently equipped with "moral courage and
spiritual energy" to fend for themselves in life's struggle. Education in the school was to be
conducted with fairness and steadfastness and not relentless stringency. This fairness was to be
combined with leniency and cheerfulness.
In October 1899 the school moved to No. 11 Heimhuderstraße. (The building exists today).
The rooms were larger and brighter.
In August 1907 the school moved to No. 33 Johnsallee following alterations made to the building. This building was evidently better suited to the running of a school, or could be so converted. Before the transfer took place all rooms were installed with central heating and electric light. The Swedish wall-bars were the first to be installed in a school gymnasium in any school in Hamburg. There were also a spacious gardens at the front and rear of the building. The number of pupils increased rapidly in the new building. There were 138 pupils in 1892 when Dr. Loewenberg took over the school which had increased to 290 in 1913. At Easter 1910 the school was reorganized into a school having ten years. In 1912 the school became a Lyzeum, i.e. a girls' secondary school, and was named "Anerkannte Höhere Mädchenschule Lyzeum von Dr. J. Loewenberg". The curriculum of the Hamburg state lyzeums was operative in the school. Special emphasis was given to the teaching of German. Religious Education was taught separately according to belief. The favourable location of the school enabled frequent visits to the Botanical Gardens, the Kunsthalle (Art Gallery), where the director Alfred Lichtwark gave tours, the Natural History Museum and the Ethnology Museum.
In 1913 the school grandly celebrated its 50th anniversary in Curio-Haus, at No. 11-15 Rothenbaumchaussee, where usually in following years the school leaving ceremony was held.
The transfer of the school to No. 33 Johnsallee followed an inspection by the city medical officer
and school inspector. In a school inspectors report dated 29.01.1909, Dr. Loewenberg was praised as
having tastefully decorated and suitably equipped the classrooms for learning. The overall impression
was "more favourable", and special mention was made of Dr. Loewenberg's expenditure on furnishing the
school in the interest of the health and aesthetic sense of the girl pupils.
Nevertheless, in 1915, a father drew the attention of the school authority to a deficiency
in the school. In a letter dated 5.07.1915 he criticised, among other things, the cloakrooms, the
toilets, and the classrooms as being too small for the classes of 30 to 40 girls.
The length of lessons differed from the the other girls' secondary schools in Hamburg in that the Jewish pupils exclusively had two hours of religious education. Formerly, Religious Education for the Jewish pupils took place on Sundays and for the other pupils on Saturdays. In 1908 of the 241 pupils 31 were Protestant. On 22.04.1926 all the former Lyzeums in Hamburg were retitled "Mädchen-Realschule". Henceforth, the school was called "Dr. J. Loewenberg, Realschule für Mädchen" and "Realschule für Mädchen von Dr. J. Loewenberg.
On 30.11.1926 the school authority granted Dr. Loewenberg the right to add to school leaving
certificates the observation that pupils were able to continue on to the Obersekunda (seventh
year of a German secondary school = lower sixth form) of a girls' Oberrealschule (non-classical
secondary school). So at the age of seventy Dr. Loewenberg had achieved a further success for his
school.
On 16.03.1926, his seventy-first birthday, the Hamburg Senat paid tribute to him. They commended him,
as teacher and educator, for the contribution he had made to the Hamburg education system. He had
always been an enthusiastic advancer and supporter of progressive educational ideas and had involved
his colleagues through his personal conviction and liberal-mindedness. He was a teacher of
outstanding talent. He was additionally one of the most convicted and energetic initiators and
promoters of adult education for the Literarischen Gesellschaft (Literary Society) and had
rendered it great personal service. However, it was his poetry, that found resonance throughout
Germany, that encapsulated his total personality.
Aus der Schule.
Mein Kind kam heute von der Schule her,
Den Kopf gesenkt, das Auge tränenschwer,
"Was ist dir, Junge? Dich drückt eine Last,
Sag frei heraus, was du verbrochen hast."
Da schmiegt er sich in meinen Arm hinein:
"Ist's denn si schlimm, o Vater, Jude sein?"
"Ein Schicksal ist's und eine schwere Pflicht,
Mein Kind, was Buben sprechen, acht es nicht."
"Der Lehrer selber hat es vorgebracht,
Die ganze Klasse hat darob gelacht."
So war's bisher noch immer nicht genug,
Was grimmer Haß an giftigen früchten trug?
Fällt auch die Kindesseele, rein und klar,
Ein Opfer auf des Molochs. Blutaltar?
Mann gegen Mann! ist auch der Kampf nicht gleich;
Mann gegen Kind - das ist ein schlechter Streich!
Das ist Verrat am kindlichen Vertraum,
Ist Schändung, Mord, - mich packt ein wildes Graun.
Ihr habt verhöhnt mich, habt mich angespien,
Bedauert hab ich euch und euch verziehn,
Ich war zu stolz, wes ihr euch auch erfrecht, -
Um meines Kindes Tränen heisch ich Kecht!
A poem by Dr. Jakob Loewenberg relating to an event in his son Ernst's life.
Dr. Loewenberg died on 7.02.1929. He had remained director of his school to the very end. At his
funeral the rabbi of the Israelitische Tempelverband (Israelite Temple Association), Dr. Brunno
Italiener stated:
He had regarded each child as sacrosanct, his educational approach being one of love and kindness,
and the complete belief in the goodness of mankind. Dr. Italiener stressed the "proud love" for
which Dr. Loewenberg had dedicated himself to Judaism.
On 1.04.1926, Dr. Jakob Loewenberg's son Dr. Ernst Loewenberg took over the school. He was qualified to teach German, French and Spanish. On 1.11.1930 the school had 189 pupils. On 1.12. 1930, Dr. Ernst Loewenberg, the new school director, was compelled to inform the parents in a letter that the school was forced to dissolve at Easter 1931. He explained that the continuous fall in the number of pupils, as shown by the small number of children wishing to enrol at Easter 1931, was evidence that the school, "made famous" by Dr. Jakob Loewenberg, had fulfilled its purpose within the Hamburg education system. He cited the "evolution of education policy" over the past decades, and the current economic depression as the deciding factors. The school had negotiated with the Mädchenschule der Deutsch-Israelitische Gemeinde (Volks- und Realschule) (Elementary and Secondary Girls' School of the German Israelite Community) so as to enable the majority of girls to remain in their old school classes. The community school had decided to accommodate part of their classes in the school building at No. 33 Johnsallee so that the majority of girls that had moved to the community school would be able to remain in the old school building. The children in the primary school classes were exempted from paying school fees. The same concern had been taken for the non-Jewish pupils who were to move school.
On the same day Dr. Ernst Loewenberg wrote to the Senator responsible for education that he knew
that the educational ethos that his father had sought to instil had found its place and was effective
in the current education system. His father's educational ideas would live on after the school he
created no longer existed. Shortly before the school was dissolved the Senator acknowledged
Dr. Jakob Loewenberg's contribution to education in Hamburg. He described how Dr. Loewenberg had
known how to enable pupils in his charge to become adults that were fully equipped to meet the
demands of life. He had attracted men of outstanding quality such as Otto Ernst, (1862-1926),
teacher and writer of plays, narratives and novels, Heinrich Scharrelmann, (1871-1940), school
and educational reformer, Alfred Lichtwark, (1852-1914), art teacher and director of the
Hamburg Kunsthalle (Art Gallery) from 1886, and others to teach and contribute to extra-curricular
activities, and who had helped to make the school essential to the education system in Hamburg.
In a letter dated 19.03.1931 the Education Authority acknowledging Dr. Jakob Loewenberg for his life's
work in education in Hamburg stated that his memory would live on for what he and his school had meant
for "girl's education".
At Easter 1931 the girls transferred to six other schools in Hamburg, the majority moving to the Ria Wirth, private Realschule at No. 90 Mittelweg.
What follows is an account given on 17.02.1986 by a former pupil of the school, Frau H. A. in Tel Aviv.
She attended Dr. Jakob Loewenberg's school between 1921 and 1931:
"The school had an excellent reputation; the daughters of the Japanese consul and vice consul were
in my class (...). Lessons also took place on Saturdays. However, the lessons on Saturdays did not
require anything written as writing on Saturday (Sabbath) is prohibited. We only had three hours of
lessons on this day. An hour was devoted to the study of the poems of Dr. Jakob Loewenberg and other
poets. The other two hours were given to religious education. In the first hour we learnt Hebrew, at
that time the old Hebrew used in the synagogue (...). The second hour was devoted to the Bible. We
studied a children's edition of the Bible.
We all revered Dr. Loewenberg whom we loved and respected. Following the school break, which we
spent in the schoolyard with its tall linden trees, we had to return to the classroom in a
disciplined manner. A pupil from the top forms stood on each of the half landings as supervisor.
Sometimes Dr. Loewenberg came out of his room; occasionally he stopped a pupil, stoked the hair away
from her brow and mumbled something like the brow should be free of hair, totally free.
In 1929 and 1930 we went on wonderful school holidays. In 1929 we travelled to Münster, Paderborn,
Soest and Hameln. Principally, we visited the cathedral and churches, to learn the different
architectural styles, such as gothic, baroque, etc. In 1930 we journeyed through the Harz Mountains.
I will always remember the sunrise over Mount Brocken. We visited a synagogue in Halberstadt. I still
have the exercise book in which I recorded this journey (...).
The annual leaving ceremony for the Untersekunda (sixth year of the former secondary school) was
also renown. It was held in Curiohaus (No. 11-15 Rothenbaumchaussee) to which not only
relatives of pupils but also the general public came. In retrospect, I wish to say that the education
we received sixty years ago was just as modern an education as my grandchildren receive today.
Die Schullinde.
Im engen Schulhof steht ein Lindenbaum,
Schmalästig, hoch, die Sonne sieht ihn kaum,
Und sacht nur streifen ihn des Windes Shwingen.
Um seine Blüten seine Biene schwirrt,
Nur selten kommt ein Fogel hergeirrt,
Von Wald und Garten einen Gruß zu bringen.
Doch mancher Arm um seinen Stamm sich legt,
In mancher Brust sich Frühlingsahnung regt,
Wenn schüchtern seine ersten Knospen kommen.
Und frohe Auglein schau zu ihm empor,
An seinem Fuße spielt's im wilden Chor,
Und Kinderlachen hat er oft vernommen.
Am Fenster steh ich sinnend oft, gebückt,
Die heiße Stirne an das Glas gedrückt,
Und blick zum Baume hin mit stillen Warten.
Und mich ergreift ein heißer Sehnsuchsdrang.
Hinaus! hinaus! - horch, Kinderstimmen Hang. -
Und leise mahnt's: Hier ist dein Wald, dein Garten.
A poem by Dr. Jakob Loewenberg.
Dr. E. Loewenberg is registered as joint owner of the house at No. 33 Johnsallee until 1938.
Up until this date the tenant was the Mädchenschule der Deutsch-Israelitischen Gemeinde
(Volks- und Realschule) (classes I - V) (Elementary and Secondary Girls' School of the German
Israelite Community).
From 1940 onward the registered tenants were the Dammtor local branch of the NSDAP (Nazi Party),
together with another tenant.
Today No. 33 Johnsallee is privately owned.
The meeting between Dr. Ernst Loewenberg and the Deutsch-Jüdische Gemeinde Hamburg (Hamburg German
Jewish Community) in Hamburg in August 1986 occasioned the community to create a commemorative
plaque. The plaque was erected in 1987 with the friendly support of the house owner. Dr. Ernst
Loewenberg was unable to attend the presentation of the plaque on 29.03.1987 having died shortly
prior to this on 26.01.1987 in the USA. It reads:
HIER - IN DER JOHNSALLEE 33 - WIRKTE AB 1907
DR. JAKOB LOEWENBERG (1856 - 1929) ZULETZT ALS
LEITER EINER PRIVATEN REALSCHULE FÜR MÄDCHEN.
MIT SEINEM KOLLEGIUM ARBEITETE ER REFORMPÄDAGOGISCH.
ZUDEM TAT ER SICH IN DER ERWACHSENENBILDUNG HERVOR.
SCHLIESSLICH WURDE ER ALS DICHTER WEITHIN GESCHÄTZT.
SEINE LEISTUNGEN WURDEN AUCH VOM STAAT ANERKANNT.
There is a Loewenbergstraße in the district of Iserbrook, a long way from Dr. Loewenberg's school and work.
Before its dissolution the former Realschule für Mädchen von Dr. Loewenberg had, in addition to Dr.
Ernst Loewenberg as head teacher, nine full-time and ten part-time teachers, one of whom was Pastor A.
Bernitt who had been there from 1891.
In order of the date of their employment the full-time teachers were:
Else Platz, Lore Schmidt, Elisabeth Kassel, Henriette Tockel, Hilda Bredemeyer, Dr. Emil
Goldschmidt, Agnes Stümpfel, I. Deutschlandi and Dr. Käte Hey.
Two were deported:
| Name | Date of Birth | Place of Birth | Occupation | Address |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Platz, Else | 17.03.1884 | Dortmund | Teacher | Böttgerstraße 8 |
| Name | Date of Birth | Place of Birth | Occupation | Address |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kassel, Elisabeth Dorothea | 28.09.1891 | Hamburg | Teacher | Grindelallee 21 |
Of the last children of the former Realschule für Mädchen von Dr. J. Loewenberg (23.03.1931)
the following were deported:
| Name | Date of Birth | Place of Birth | Occupation | Address |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Friedländer, Brigitte | 30.04.1922 | Hamburg | Homeworker | Zesenstraße 9 |
| Katz, Hildegard | 26.07.1917 | Hamburg | Loogestieg 3 |
| Name | Date of Birth | Place of Birth | Occupation | Address |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baer, Ingrid | 23.05.1922 | Hamburg | Children's Nurse | Haynstraße 7, I |
| Baruch, E. Marion | 18.03.1919 | Hamburg | Artist | Heinrich-Barth-Straße 8 |
We conclude with information regarding Dr. Jakob Loewenberg's son Dr. Ernst Loewenberg:
In 1930 he was voted member of the council of representatives of the Deutsch-Israelitische Gemeinde.
Here he was the chairman of the liberal group and later chairman of the council. Finally, he was
unanimously voted member of the board; there was "none better". He was additionally actively involved
with the youth welfare department and education committee of the Deutsch-Israelitische Gemeinde
until he emigrated at the end of 1938. Dr. Jakob Loewenberg was a teacher at the Lichtwarkschule
from the early 1920s until he was "retired" in 1934, at the age of 37, because he was a Jew.
During the two years that he directed the Loewenbergschule, after his father's death, he was on
leave of absence. From 1934 until his emigration in 1938 he taught at the Talmud Tora Oberrealschule.
In the USA he was a teacher at the prestigious Groton School in Groton, Massachusetts from 1941
until his retirement in 1961.
Literature:
Ernst Loewenberg, Aus der Arbeit der Hamburger Jüdischen Gemeinde nach 1933, in: Fremd in der
eigenen Stadt. Erinnerungen jüdischer Emigranten aus Hamburg. Hrs. Charlotte Ueckert-Hilbert,
Junius, Hamburg, 1989.