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Here we see a group of younger boys at the Hardenberg Gymnasium. I'm not sure where Hardenbeg is located in Germany. We know nothing about the school other than a gymnasium was an academically selective secondary school. The image is dated 1964, although we might have guessed was taken earlier. The class was all boys. We are not sure just when Germany shifted to coeducation. The boys wear casual shirts and both long and short pants. Several boys wear halter suspenders. I don't know if they are wearing lederhosen several boys wear sandals.
The academically selecive seondary schools called grammar schools in Britain were the gymnasium in Germany. Children choose at around 10 years of age whether they want to go to Gymansium that is usually 9 years and than usually to university.
We were not sure at first where the school was located in Germany. The fact that several boys wear halters like the ones worn with Lederhosen, suggests the school may be in Bavaria or elsewhere in southern Germany. We have since learned that the school was located in
the Bavarian city of Fürth which was the birthplace of Henry Kissinger. Furth was a city near Nuremberg. Fürth is famous as the location of (short) Railway built about 1850 between Nuremberg and Fürth
Coeducation started in Germany rather early for primary schools in small villages. In larger towns there were "Knabenschulen" and "Mädchenschulen", separated. The secondary schools for 9+ age, Gymasium etc, were usually separated until the late-1960s of the last century which seems to have been the case for the Hardenberg Gymnasium..
Henry Kissenger was the second son of Paula (Stern) and Louis Kissinger. His brother was Walter. We do not know if Henry Kissemger was attend the Hardenberg Oberrealschule. He was old enough to have entered the school about the time the NAZIs seized power in Germany (1933). His father was a teacher. I'm not sure where he taught. He would have lost his job soon after the NAZIs seized power. I do not have details on Kisenger's school experiences. We know about a classmate, Arnold Weiss. An article about Weiss explains, "Weiss recounts his years in an Orthodox Jewish orphanage near Nuremberg, where the Nazis first wrote their deadly race laws. A murmur of surprise rises from the younger employees when they discover that one of their board members was Weiss's classmate in Germany: Henry Kissinger. But silence descends again, as Weiss recalls running the gantlet through Hitler Youth gangs on his way to school every day, and the foot chases, the beatings in alleys and the scar he bears to this day from being strung up on a lamppost by teenage Nazi wannabes." The Kissenger family managed to reach London in 1938. Arnold Weiss escaped Germany through the Kindertrasport. His family was muredered in the Holocaust.
Many schools seem to take on the name of the town where they were located rather than being named after a person. We thought at first that the Hardenberg Gymnasium (former Oberrealschule) was named after Friedrich von Hardenberg (1772-1801), a German poet and author, who wrote books under the nom de plume of Novalis. A German reader tells us the school was named in memory of the Duke Karl August von Hardenberg, a Prime Minister of the "Markgrafschaft Ansbach" (Fürth was a member). Hardenberg promoted trade and merchandise of the City of Fürth.
Theschool was founded as the Royal Agricultural and Trade School (1833). The school began offering the Abitur which allowed university access (1920). The former "Oberrealschule" was named Hardenberg-Gymnasium (1966). Here we see a group of younger boys at the Hardenberg Gymnasium. We know nothing about the school other than a gynasium was an academically selective secondary school, but te school only became a gumnasium in 1966. The class was all boys and like other German schools shifted to coeducation in the 1960s.
The school's most famous pupils were Dr. Ludwig Erhard (founder of the German "Wirtschaftswunder" as a minister in the Adenauer cabinet and later himself for some time "Bundeskanzler" of the Federal Republic of Germany). Another important student was Dr. Gustav Schickedanz (a well known German industrial leader after World War II.
I'm not sure when the school was founded. We note some school pghotographs just after World War II so we believe the school was founded before the War. (Germany did not open many new schools during the War.) The image here is dated 1964, although we might have guessed was taken earlier. The class was all boys. We are not sure just when Germany shifted to coeducation.
I'm not sure when the school was founded. We note some school pghotographs just after World War II so we believe the school was founded before the War. (Germany did not open many new schools during the War.)
We see boys at the school during the 1940s wearing suits, more casual jackets, and sweaters. Here an important factor was the age of the boy. The boys wear short pants, knickers, and long stiockings. Many of the knickers were very long, almost to the ankle. They were mostly worn in the Winter. Even the younger bpys wear these knickers during the Winter. Short pants were more common in the warmer weather. Some of the younger boys wore long stockings with short pants, but this was mostly during the Winter.
The image here is dated 1964, although we might have guessed was taken earlier. The class was all boys. We are not sure just when Germany shifted to coeducation. The boys wear casual shirts and both long and short pants. Several boys wear halter suspenders. I don't know if they are wearing lederhosen several boys wear sandals.
The Hardenberg Gymnasium has an interesting website. Readers interested in more informtion about the school may want to visit the site.
Brzezinski, Matthew. "Giving Hitler Hell," Washington Post Magazine Sunday, July 24, 2005, p. W08.
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