Finissage of the cabinet exhibition "School clubs in the Francke Foundations"

The history of the student associations in the Francke Foundations is fascinating, not least because the associations had to navigate and orientate themselves in three different political systems - the German Empire, the Weimar Republic and the Nazi dictatorship. Were they merely a disciplinary control instrument of the schools or did they offer the pupils spaces for real self-responsibility and free development?

The lecture by Dr Daniel Watermann (Halle Saale) will discuss the relevance of student associations at secondary schools in the area of social self-organisation of young people around 1900 and the extent to which they differed from or were similar to the well-researched youth movement with its organisational forms. The long history of the pupils' associations at the Francke Foundations will be analysed in depth using selected examples.

The cabinet exhibition "Student Clubs at the Francke Foundations. Cohesion - Competition - Competition" is open until 7 April.