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* [[Stuttgart]]
* [[Stuttgart]]
* [[Wuppertal]]
* [[Wuppertal]]
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==Teachers and lecturers at MASCH==
Lecturers and teachers were, in addition to the employees and functionaries of the KPD, committed politicians, artists and scientists who were open to the labour movement. These includes:

{{hst|reason=Listing of people of involved with the MASCH}}
* [[Eduard Ludwig Alexander]]
* [[Hilde Benjamin]]
* [[Julian Borchardt]] Lecturer at the school.<ref name="Olbrich2001">{{cite book|author=Josef Olbrich|title=Geschichte der Erwachsenenbildung in Deutschland|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TzYFpOFkbOIC&pg=PA427|accessdate=5 June 2020|date=31 January 2001|publisher=Springer-Verlag|language=German|isbn=978-3-8100-3349-9|page=427}}</ref>
* [[Franz Dahlem]]
* [[Philipp Dengel]][7]
* [[Hermann Duncker]]
* [[Albert Einstein]]
* [[Hanns Eisler]]
* [[Karl Ferlemann]]
* [[Walter Gropius]]
* [[Kurt Hager]]
* [[Felix Halle]]
* [[Linus Hamann]]
* [[John Heartfield]]
* [[Fritz Heckert]]
* [[Otto Heller]]
[[Georg Henke]]
[[Edwin Hoernle]]
[[Lothar Hofmann]]
[[Bernhard Karlsberg]]
[[Max Keilson]]
[[Egon Erwin Kisch]]
[[Hermann Werner Kubsch]]
[[Jürgen Kuczynski]]
[[Alfred Kurella]]
[[Barbara Lantos]]
[[Georg Lukács]]
[[Kurt Massloff]]
[[Willi Münzenberg]]
[[Alexander Neroslow]]
[[Theodor Neubauer]]
[[Fritz Perls]]
[[Erwin Piscator]]
[[Anni Reich]]
[[Wilhelm Reich]]
[[Ludwig Renn]]
[[Albert Rosenfelder]]
[[Ernest J. Salter]]
[[Diethelm Scheer]]
[[Otto Josef Schlein]]
[[Johann Lorenz Schmidt]]
[[Ernst Schneller]]
[[Max Scholz]]
[[Fritz Schulze]]
[[Anna Seghers]]
[[Manès Sperber]]
[[Bruno Taut]]
[[Helene Weigel]]
[[Erich Weinert]]
[[Karl August Wittfogel]]
[[Friedrich Wolf]]
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Revision as of 07:31, 5 June 2020

Marxist Workers' School (German:Marxistische Arbeiterschule) (MASCH) was an educational institute founded in the winter of 1925 in Berlin, by the Berlin city office of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD).[1] Its function was to enable workers to learn the basics of proletarian life and struggle, to teach the basic tenets of Marxism.[1][2] It was co-founded by Hermann Duncker, Johann Lorenz Schmidt, Eduard Alexander. The school became very successful and by 1930, it has 4000 students in 200 courses, which prompted KPD officials to build 30 other schools in German cities e.g. Dresden and Chemnitz.[1] After the seizure of power by the Nazis in the spring of 1933, the schools were closed.

History

The school was created in the tradition of the workers cultural movement with its commercial and Workers' Education Associations ("Arbeiterbildungsverein"). Following the reprisals of the Anti-Socialist Laws, social democratic and worker's associations were newly founded as training associations. Proletarian associations opened workers' libraries, e.g. in 1861 in Leipzig, where August Bebel was chairman of the library commission of the local workers' association. He formulated the goal of taking knowledge, art and culture away from bourgeoisie guardianship and "extracting from existing knowledge what benefited the working-class revolutionary struggle for emancipation."[3]

After the separation of the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany from the Social Democratic Party of Germany in 1914 and founding of the KPD on 30 December 1918, communists in Germany pursued the goal of a socialist revolution similar to the October Revolution in Russia in 1917. The educational work of the KPD was haphazard in the early years, following its formation.[1] In the party congress of October 1919, leading members of the KPD including Duncker, Clara Zetkin and Edwin Hoernle pointed out the need to train party members.[1] Social Democrat hiking courses, a traditional way to teach while walking, were established, but it was only with the 3rd World Congress of the Comintern and an orientation towards Soviet politics, that worker education really began.[1] From the point of view of the KPD, its supporters had to be politically and intellectually trained, aligned and steeled beyond the previous social-democratic and trade union educational and social goals.

As early as 1932, the MASCH had become increasingly targetted, as state repression by the Nazis was started in earnest.[1] On 25 November 1932, the central building was occupied by Schutzpolizei and several people were arrested and the register of teachers confiscated. House searches of lecturers subsequently followed. On 29 March 1933, the central school room in Berlin was closed by the police.[1] Following this, many teachers from the school emigrated, but many teachers and student stayed to fight the Nazisin Germany.[1]

Goals

  • The MASCH saw its tasks in spreading communist ideas. The theoretical foundations of Marxism and emerging Leninism were taught. In other words, the aim was to "create a generally accessible school in which the working population of Berlin should be given the opportunity to learn the basic teachings of unadulterated Marxism and its application to all areas of proletarian life and struggle".[4]
  • It was also about disseminating tools for communist agitation and propaganda in the domains of word and art. Interested laypeople were trained in the design and creation of propaganda material by artists from the Association of Revolutionary Visual Artists.[5]
  • In addition to the historical or current affairs and politics, discussions were held on medical topics, progress in technology and natural sciences and, of course, community affairs.[6] The school held courses in stenography, typing, Russian and English, social and local politics, law. Lectures were also held on culture, arts, literature, film, radio, photography, theatre, music, natural sciences, medicine, sports, sexuality, children, education, the Soviet Union, foreign languages (including Chinese, Japanese and Esperanto), psychoanalysis and individual psychology, rhetoric, library studies, orthography and grammar, arithmetic and problems of women and young people. Fascism in its Italian and German forms was also analysed time and time again.
  • In individual cases, the MASCH supported foreign visits, such as the 1932 trip to China by the communist sociologist and sinologist Karl August Wittfogel.[7]
  • Participants in the MASCH in many cases became members of the KPD, under the impression of training and propaganda.
  • The MASCH should reach the widest possible mass throughout Germany. In 1932, there were MASCH offshoots in 36 major German cities, as well as numerous branches in small towns. These included:

Not an appropriate template for mainspace, see MOS:COLLAPSE.

Teachers and lecturers at MASCH

Lecturers and teachers were, in addition to the employees and functionaries of the KPD, committed politicians, artists and scientists who were open to the labour movement. These includes:

Not an appropriate template for mainspace, see MOS:COLLAPSE. 

   Georg Henke
   Edwin Hoernle
   Lothar Hofmann
   Bernhard Karlsberg
   Max Keilson
   Egon Erwin Kisch
   Hermann Werner Kubsch
   Jürgen Kuczynski
   Alfred Kurella
   Barbara Lantos
   Georg Lukács
   Kurt Massloff
   Willi Münzenberg
   Alexander Neroslow
   Theodor Neubauer
   Fritz Perls
   Erwin Piscator
   Anni Reich
   Wilhelm Reich
   Ludwig Renn
   Albert Rosenfelder
   Ernest J. Salter
   Diethelm Scheer
   Otto Josef Schlein
   Johann Lorenz Schmidt
   Ernst Schneller
   Max Scholz
   Fritz Schulze
   Anna Seghers
   Manès Sperber
   Bruno Taut
   Helene Weigel
   Erich Weinert
   Karl August Wittfogel
   Friedrich Wolf

Literature

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Olbrich, Josef (9 March 2013). Geschichte der Erwachsenenbildung in Deutschland (in German). Springer-Verlag. p. 197. ISBN 978-3-322-95032-1. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  2. ^ Krinn, Carsten; Adolph, Wolfram. "MASCH (Marxistische Arbeiterschule)". Berliner Institut für kritische Theorie e.V (in German). Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  3. ^ Helmut Schulze; Bibliotheksverband der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik. Bezirksgruppe (1989). Leihbibliotheken, Arbeiterbibliotheken, Bücherhallen : bibliothekarische Bemühungen um die Volksbildung vom Anfang des 19. Jahrhunderts bis 1933 : herausgegeben anlässlich des Jubiläums 75 Jahre städtisches Bibliothekswesen in Leipzig [Lending libraries, workers' libraries, book halls: Library efforts to educate the people from the beginning of the 19th century to 1933: Published on the occasion of the jubilee of 75 years of urban library management in Leipzig] (in German). Leipzig: Bibliotheksverb. der DDR. ISBN 3-86061-001-5.
  4. ^ Schmidt, Johann. "Fünf Jahre Marxistische Arbeiterschule". Trend Online Newspaper (in German). Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  5. ^ Grimkowski, Rüdiger (14 September 2014). "Assoziation Revolutionärer Bildender Künstler Deutschlands". Lemo (in German). Berlin: Deutsches Historisches Museum. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  6. ^ Herrmann, Ursula (2011). Aus dem Alltag eines Arbeitervereins 1891 bis 1901 der sozialdemokratische Arbeiterverein von Lichtenberg-Friedrichsberg in Protokollen und Berichten [From the everyday life of a workers' association from 1891 to 1901 the Social Democratic Workers' Association of Lichtenberg-Friedrichsberg in minutes and reports] (in German). Berlin: Fides. ISBN 978-3-931363-17-8. OCLC 725250178.
  7. ^ Shen, Qinna; Rosenstock, Martin (1 July 2014). Beyond Alterity: German Encounters with Modern East Asia. Berghahn Books. pp. 82–83. ISBN 978-1-78238-361-1. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  8. ^ Josef Olbrich (31 January 2001). Geschichte der Erwachsenenbildung in Deutschland (in German). Springer-Verlag. p. 427. ISBN 978-3-8100-3349-9. Retrieved 5 June 2020.

External links

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