Kindheit und Jugend in der Neuzeit, 1500-1900 (review)

This book is a collection of twenty essays centered on the theme of childhood and education in Pomerania from 1500 to 1900. It is an important compilation because it illuminates a time and place in German history that has been geographically and academically remote from mainstream literature. The project was based at Greifswald University in the present state of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania. It is a multidisciplinary effort of contributors in the fields of history, geography, literature, pedagogy, science, and others. Kindheit und Jugend can be categorized as historical Landeskunde because it is local and regional in scope. Most of the essays are set in the early modern period when Pomerania was influenced by the Reformation and the territorial expansion of Sweden and Brandenburg-Prussia. Because the theme, childhood and youth, has potential to transcend administrative boundaries, there is opportunity for comparative perspective of topics such as early childhood education, political authority and education, orphanages, religion and schools, teacher preparation, language instruction, influence of women’s associations, sports training, health and illness, art, and the professionalization of pharmacology. A sampling of essays which demonstrate the strongest connection between education, religion, and politics is presented for amplification.

Werner Buchholz, editor of the volume, offers one of the best essays in the collection. He connected the establishment of Lutheranism and the development of a bureaucracy with confessional education. Using religion as an instrument of state-building is a fascinating concept, and one which fits nicely into the tension between Catholic imperialism and aristocratic particularism in the German lands. Because communities that adopted Lutheran reform moved quickly to abolish papal authority and Catholic education, the churches in the early years of the Reformation were concerned with confessionalizing the schools. In Pomerania, the sovereign urged the founding of the Landesuniversität in Greifswald in 1539 and a Pädagogium in Stettin in 1543. The purpose of both institutions was to build an educated evangelical elite to promote uniformity throughout the duchy. The historical depth of this study enriches our understanding of a region undergoing religious transition.

Hans-Uwe Lammel and Heinz-Peter Schmiedebach focus on orphanages in Stralsund between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. From the end of the sixteenth century, ordinances required elites to provide shelter, discipline, and training for homeless children. The regulations were designed to inspire social order and Christian morality. Children were removed from the streets, taught handicrafts, and infused with the religious values of Lutheranism. Charity was consistent with other efforts to effect confessionalization of education and services. Emphasis was placed on work training and low level skills to promote industriousness and volunteers from the community modeled the hierarchical family by serving as surrogate fathers and mothers.

Wlodzimierz Stepinski discusses the process of building national identity and state loyalty during the restoration when Western Pomerania came under Prussian rule in 1815. The author argues that education was used to erode Pomeranian particularism and regionalism, to produce new candidates for the Prussian bureaucracy, and to instill religious, cultural, and linguistic uniformity in the former Swedish province. To the classic Prussian Gymnasium was assigned the task of integration by educating upwardly mobile men for leadership in the national, centralized state. Political and social integration was not left to time and chance, and Stepinski captured the dynamic of Prussia’s intentions.

In a well crafted essay, Irene Blechle discusses the intersection between politics and education at the time of Prussian annexation. The study references administrative transition, introduction of educational reform, reorganization of the school system, new methods for training teachers, and a brief, but clear description of the various kinds of schools in Greifswald. Of special interest is the author’s treatment of the Industrieschule and the Kleinkinderschule. To teach order, discipline, and crafts, work schools included useable skills and basic education. Blechle adds an important dimension to early childhood training by connecting kindergartens with the efforts of women’s groups Frauenvereine, infused with aristocratic and middle class maternalism and benevolence.

Insightfully the book identifies the close relationship between...