The Discourse on a 'Protestant Pedagogy (Evangelische Pädagogik). Ecclesiastical educational policy and confessional educational theory in the Weimar Republic

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Michael Wermke
• Subject Area: Protestant Theology
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 525229775

As a result of the collapse of the sovereign church regime in 1919 and in continuation of the secularisation tendencies that began in the 19th century, the social influence of the Protestant regional churches waned considerably in the 1920s. Against this background, the question of the future of the primary school system and its teacher training, which had been discussed since the beginning of the 20th century, became the focus of educational policy debates. The starting point was the so-called Weimar School Compromise in Article 146 of the Imperial Constitution, which took into account the diverging interests of both the SPD and liberal parties for a non-denominational school system (Article 146.1 of the Constitution) and the Centre Party and the churches for a denominational school system (Article 161.2 of the Constitution). This opened up a discourse on education policy that led to sharp political disputes between the various social actors (parties, churches, teachers' and parents' associations) in the so-called Weimar school struggle. While the left-wing and liberal parties as well as the associations sympathetic to them regarded the so-called unified school system ('One People - One School'; Tews, 1919) as the guarantor of a democratic structure, the churches as well as parties and associations close to the churches tried to hold on to the confessional school system with reference to the confessional character of the German people. Otto Dibelius, for example, suggested the postulate 'For the Christian School!' (Dibelius, 1918) for a 'Protestant Pedagogy', which as a general pedagogy based on the Protestant confession was to become a starting point for a confessional school system.In the relevant accounts of church history and the history of education, the efforts to establish a 'Protestant pedagogy' and, building on this, a confessional school system, are interpreted as a political instrument developed essentially by Dibelius to help establish and secure the social influence of the Protestant regional churches, especially the Protestant Church of the Old Prussian Union (APU), in the religiously and ideologically neutral state of the Weimar Republic. In the planned research project, this interpretation, which is primarily based on educational policy, is to be critically examined, taking into account the discourse on educational theory surrounding the concept of 'Protestant education', and the role of Dibelius in the network of other political actors is to be determined more precisely.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants