Anna Essinger (15 September 1879 – 30 May 1960) was a German Jewish educator. At the age of 20, she went to finish her education in the United States, where she encountered

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

s and was greatly influenced by their attitudes, adopting them for her own. In 1919, she returned to Germany on a Quaker war relief mission and was asked by her sister, who had founded a children's home, to help establish a school with it. She and her family founded a boarding school, the Landschulheim Herrlingen in 1926, with Anna Essinger as

headmistress A headmaster/headmistress, head teacher, head, school administrator, principal or school director (sometimes another title is used) is the staff member of a school with the greatest responsibility for the management of the school. Role While s ...

. In 1933, with the Nazi threat looming and the permission of all the parents, she moved the school and its 66 children, mostly Jewish, to safety in England, re-establishing it as the

Bunce Court School The Bunce Court School was an independent, private school, private boarding school in the village of Otterden, in County of Kent, Kent, England. It was founded in 1933 by Anna Essinger, who had previously founded a boarding school, Landschulheim ...

. During the war, Essinger established a reception camp for 10,000 German children sent to England on the

Kindertransport The ''Kindertransport'' (German for "children's transport") was an organised rescue effort of children from Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, total ...

s, taking some of them into the school. After the war, her school took many child survivors of

Nazi concentration camp From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps (), including subcamp (SS), subcamps on its own territory and in parts of German-occupied Europe. The first camps were established in March 1933 immediately af ...

s. By the time Essinger closed Bunce Court in 1948, she had taught and cared for over 900 children, most of whom called her ''Tante'' ("Aunt") Anna, or TA, for short. She remained in close contact with her former pupils for the rest of her life.

Early years

Essinger was born on ''Hafengasse'' ("Harbor Lane") in

Ulm Ulm () is the sixth-largest city of the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with around 129,000 inhabitants, it is Germany's 60th-largest city. Ulm is located on the eastern edges of the Swabian Jura mountain range, on the up ...

,Leslie Baruch Brent
"A remarkable tribute: Ulm celebrates Anna Essinger's 125th anniversary"
(PDF) ''

AJR is an American pop band founded by brothers Met (), collectively a trio of vocalists, , and songwriters. The brothers grew up in New York City, primarily focused on busking, singing covers and street tap dancing until shifting to songwriting ...

Journal'' (November 2004), p. 16. Retrieved October 4, 2011 the oldest of six girls and three boys,Anna Essinger biography
Anna Essinger Gymnasium. Retrieved September 28, 2011 to a non-observant Jewish couple, Fanny (''née'' Oppenheimer) and Leopold Essinger. Her grandfather was David Essinger (1817–1899), a doctor.Leslie Baruch Brent
Book review: "Unusual record of an unusual family"
(PDF) ''

Journal'' (February 2010), p. 10. Retrieved October 4, 2011 Leopold Essinger had an insurance business and served in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

Verdun Verdun ( , ; ; ; official name before 1970: Verdun-sur-Meuse) is a city in the Meuse (department), Meuse departments of France, department in Grand Est, northeastern France. It is an arrondissement of the department. In 843, the Treaty of V ...

, France. While in the

imperial German army The Imperial German Army (1871–1919), officially referred to as the German Army (), was the unified ground and air force of the German Empire. It was established in 1871 with the political unification of Germany under the leadership of Kingdom o ...

, he became convinced that there was widespread

antisemitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

among the officers. In 1899, at the age of 20, Essinger went to the United States to live with her aunt in

Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

, Tennessee.Anna Essinger biography
Frauen verändern die Gesellschaft, a project of the Zentrum für Allgemeine Wissenschaftliche Weiterbildung at the

University of Ulm Ulm University () is a public university in Ulm, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The University was founded in 1967 and focuses on natural sciences, medicine, engineering sciences, mathematics, economics and computer science. With 9,891 studen ...

. Retrieved September 28, 2011 While in Tennessee, she became acquainted with

s, becoming deeply impressed and beginning a lifelong association with them. She graduated from college with a degree in

German studies German studies is an academic field that researches, documents and disseminates German language, literature, and culture in its historic and present forms. Academic departments of German studies therefore often focus on German culture, German h ...

, financing her education by teaching German and by running a private students' hostel, which she founded. She later received an M.A. in education at the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

, became a teacher and lectured at the university in

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It is the List of municipalities in Wisconsin by population, second-most populous city in the state, with a population of 269,840 at the 2020 Uni ...

.Michael Luick-Thrams
"Part I: Persecution, Flight and Reception of WWII-era Refugees" See: Bunce Court
Humboldt University, Berlin. Dissertation: ''Creating 'New Americans': WWII-Era European Refugees' Formation of American Identities'' (1997). Retrieved September 29, 2011 Working with Quaker-sponsored humanitarian aid, she returned to GermanyMichael Luick-Thrams

Parish of Otterden website. Dissertation excerpt, ''Creating 'New Americans': WWII-era European Refugees': Formation of American Identities''. Retrieved September 28, 2011 in 1919. Her task was to convince mayors, teachers and school rectors to set up kitchens so that children could have a hot meal once a day. She also collected food and clothing. In 1912, using her

dowry A dowry is a payment such as land, property, money, livestock, or a commercial asset that is paid by the bride's (woman's) family to the groom (man) or his family at the time of marriage. Dowry contrasts with the related concepts of bride price ...

, her sister, Klara Weimersheimer, founded an orphanage in

Herrlingen Blaustein () is a town in the district of Alb-Donau Baden-Württemberg in Germany. It is situated on the Blau River, 6 km west of Ulm and has about 15,000 inhabitants. Before 1968, Blaustein was known as Herrlingen. It was created in 196 ...

, where she cared for problem children, as well as those mentally unstable and

disabled Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society. Disabilities may be cognitive, developmental, intellectual, mental, physica ...

. In 1925, as her own children and many of the children in care came of school age, she got the idea to turn the orphanage into a ''Landschulheim'' (boarding school). Several members of the Essinger family became involved, paving the way for it to open a year later. The ''Landschulheim Herrlingen'' opened on 1 May 1926 as a

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. They have existed for many centuries, and now extend acr ...

with 18 children ranging in age from 6 to 12. Anna Essinger became headmistress and her sister Paula (1892–1975), a trained nurse, became the school nurse and its housekeeper.

Educational reform

While in the United States, Essinger learned about and became influenced by

progressive education Progressive education, or educational progressivism, is a pedagogical movement that began in the late 19th century and has persisted in various forms to the present. In Europe, progressive education took the form of the New Education Movement. T ...

, then a new

pedagogy Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political, and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken ...

. Peter Morley
"Peter Morley - A Life Rewound" Part 1
(PDF) British Academy of Film and Television Arts (2006), pp. 5-6. Retrieved September 29, 2011 She ran Landschulheim Herrlingen like a

Montessori The Montessori method of education is a type of educational method that involves children's natural interests and activities rather than formal teaching methods. A Montessori classroom places an emphasis on hands-on learning and developing ...

program, placing high value on communal living, mutual respect and a shared sense of responsibility for the school. Each and every one, whether teacher or pupil, was to feel responsible to the community. The school was non-denominational, accepting children from all religions,

coeducational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...

and the pupils were on a first name basis with the teachers, who also lived at the school. Essinger was described as a "formidable figure",Harold Jackson
"Anna's children"
''The Guardian'' (18 July 2003). Retrieved 29 September 2011 "stout and stern" and as having the children's welfare at heart.Anthea Gerrie
"Revealed: the wartime school that saved lives"
''

The Jewish Chronicle ''The Jewish Chronicle'' (''The JC'') is a London-based Jewish weekly newspaper. Founded in 1841, it is the oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper in the world. Its editor () is Daniel Schwammenthal. The newspaper is published every Fri ...

'' (11 August 2011). Retrieved September 29, 2011 She was a strict disciplinarian with both staff and pupils, but provided a loving, family environment. Most staff and pupils called her "Tante Anna" (Aunt Anna) or just TA, for short. The children learned two languages from the first day of school on, with emphasis on the spoken, rather than the written word. Essinger believed that children should have physical exercise before breakfast. and great emphasis was placed on physical exercise. Learning was accomplished through living, whether from daily walks in the woods, from the tasks required of the children in and around the building, or at meal time, where there were "English" and "French" tables and those sitting at them would speak in those languages during the meal. The arts were also offered. In addition to painting, drawing, singing and drama,Walter Block reminscense
Quakers in Britain. Retrieved September 28, 2011 the children learned to play music. In the evening, Anna Essinger read a story and then gave each child a "good night kiss" before sending them off to bed. A 1927 report by the Ministry of Science, Art and Education (''Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Kunst und Volksbildung'') described Essinger as "extremely competent" and her teaching as "skillful, fresh and stimulating".

Nazi era

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

's rise to power and the growing Nazi threat were viewed ominously by Essinger, who immediately went about quietly boycotting the

Third Reich Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

. All public buildings were ordered to fly the Nazi flag with its swastika on Hitler's birthday in 1933, so Essinger planned a day of hiking for the pupils, leaving the flag to fly over an empty building. Essinger said, "Atop an empty building, the flag can neither convey nor harm as much."Biography of Anna Essinger
Anna Essinger Realschule Ulm. Retrieved September 29, 2011 She was denounced within the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

and the Nazi authorities' attitude toward the school became increasingly negative. It was recommended that an inspector be installed at the school. Essinger, realizing that her school had no future in Germany, and encouraged by her father to leave the country, began to look abroad for a new home for the school. After looking in Switzerland and the Netherlands, she found a property in southern England. The children's parents were informed and gave their approval for Essinger and her teachers to take 66 children out of Germany. Essinger arranged a well-disguised trip for the group and on September 5, 1933, they arrived in southern England. Astutely, Essinger did not formally close the school, but turned it over to Hugo Rosenthal. It became a home for Jewish children and a center for Jewish life in southern Germany, with an enrollment of more than 100 children. An old

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were usually held the lord's manorial courts, communal mea ...

dating from the time of

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his Wives of Henry VIII, six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. ...

was found in the village of

Otterden Otterden is a civil parish and village on the Kent Downs in the borough of Maidstone in Kent, England. History Otterden is mentioned in the Domesday Book under Kent in the lands belonging to Adam FitzHubert. The book which was written in 1086 sa ...

near

Faversham Faversham () is a market town in Kent, England, from Sittingbourne, from London and from Canterbury, next to the Swale, a strip of sea separating mainland Kent from the Isle of Sheppey in the Thames Estuary. It is close to the A2 road (Great ...

, in the

County of Kent Kent is a ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Greater London to the north-west. ...

. The house was large, with extensive grounds, making it ideal for a boarding school. Funds were meager, so work on the property was done by the staff and pupils, causing British education inspectors to view the new school unfavorably at the outset.Photos and short history of Bunce Court
Town of Faversham website. "Bunce Court, Otterden" Retrieved September 28, 2011 In 1933, England was still secure and war had not yet broken out and people were not aware of what was going on in Germany and why Essinger and the school had left. Within a year or two, however, enough improvements had been made that local officials realized the school was quite special; Essinger won the respect of the local authorities and had advocates from all areas of public life. She sought English host families for children to visit on weekends; and at the school, held concerts, theatrical programs, sports contests and an annual "Open Day", involving the children in English life and the community with the school. After

Kristallnacht ( ) or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation from the Hitler Youth and German civilia ...

, on 9–10 November 1938, Essinger was asked to set up a reception camp in

Dovercourt Dovercourt is a seaside town and former civil parish, now in the parish of Harwich, in the Tendring district, in the county of Essex, England. It is older than its smaller but better-known neighbour, the port of Harwich. The name is common B ...

for 10,000 German children who would be arriving on the

s. Essinger, then nearly 60 years old, worked with three teachers, her cook and six of the older pupils to establish the camp, taking some of them into her school. With this, she also sought out families and homes to care for refugee children. Local British committees sought out placements for the children and tried to match children with families where they would fit in. However, the manner in which it was done appalled Essinger, who likened it to a "cattle market", where attractive children were chosen, but less attractive ones were not, lowering morale. The experience of running the reception camp and placing the children was so difficult, that afterward, Essinger refused to talk about it.L. Schachne
"Anna Essinger 80"
''AJR Information'' (September 1959), p. 7. Retrieved October 9, 2011 In 1940, the school again had to evacuate when southern England became a defence area. Essinger and about 100 children and teachers relocated the school to "Trench Hall" in

Shropshire Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...

. They were not able to return to Bunce Court until 1946. Having finished her life's work, Essinger closed the school in 1948 and retired.

Later years

Over the course of 22 years, Essinger cared for and taught over 900 children. As the Nazis extended their reach, the children came first from Germany, then Austria, Poland, Czechoslovakia and England. The last years were particularly difficult. Her eyesight was failing, but more significantly, the last children to arrive at her school were Nazi concentration camp survivors who no longer knew what normal life was like, and sometimes found it very difficult to adjust to. After she closed her school, Essinger spent her remaining years living at Bunce Court, and maintained correspondence with her former pupils. She helped both children and adults in distress with her motto, "Give children a hand, give them a chance".

Legacy and honours

Many of Essinger's pupils went on to distinguished careers, including

Frank Auerbach Frank Helmut Auerbach (29 April 1931 – 11 November 2024) was a German-born British painter. Born in Germany to Jewish parents, he became a naturalised British subject in 1947. He is considered one of the leading names in the School of Lo ...

, Leslie Brent,

Gerard Hoffnung Gerard Hoffnung (22 March 192528 September 1959) was an artist and musician, best known for his humorous works. Raised in Germany, Hoffnung was brought to London as a boy to escape the Nazis. Over the next two decades in England, he became know ...

Frank Marcus Frank Ulrich Marcus (30 June 1928 – 5 August 1996) was a British playwright, best known for ''The Killing of Sister George''. Life and career Marcus was born 30 June 1928 into a Jewish family in Breslau (then in Germany). They came to En ...

, Peter Morley, and

Helmut Helmut is a German name. Variants include Hellmut, Helmuth, and Hellmuth. From old German, the first element deriving from either ''heil'' ("healthy") or ''hiltja'' ("battle"), and the second from ''muot'' ("spirit, mind, mood"). Helmut may refer ...

and

Richard Sonnenfeldt Richard Wolfgang Sonnenfeldt (23 July 1923 Berlin, Germany – 9 October 2009, Port Washington, New York) was a Jewish American engineer and corporate executive most notable for being the U.S. prosecution team's chief interpreter in 1945 prior to t ...

. Bunce Court alumni returned at every opportunity while the school was still in existence; after it closed, they held reunions for 55 years. In 1959, in honour of Essinger's 80th birthday, Bunce Court alumni planted a grove of trees in Israel that was named after her. In 1990, a

realschule Real school (, ) is a type of secondary school in Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It has also existed in Croatia (''realna gimnazija''), the Austrian Empire, the German Empire, Denmark and Norway (''realskole''), Sweden (''realskola''), F ...

in Ulm and a Kuhberg gymnasium (secondary school) were named for Anna Essinger. Some of her personal papers are archived at the Ida Seele Archive in

Dillingen an der Donau Dillingen an der Donau (; officially Dillingen a.d.Donau; ) is a Town#Germany, town in Swabia (Bavaria), Swabia, Bavaria, Germany. It is the administrative center of the district of Dillingen (district), Dillingen. Besides the town of Dillingen ...

. The archive is devoted to research of the history of education and social pedagogy. In July 2007, the original Bunce Court school bell was retrieved from California, where it had been saved and stored by Ernst Weinberg, a former pupil, and was reinstalled on top of the schoolhouse. A plaque honoring Essinger and the school was erected at the same time. In 2004, the ''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from History of the British Isles, British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') ...

'' added an entry for Essinger, unusual for someone who became a naturalized British citizen late in life. Leslie Baruch Brent
"A remarkable reunion"
(PDF) Association of Jewish Refugees newsletter. Retrieved October 3, 2011 Also in 2004, the city of Ulm celebrated its 1,150th anniversary and along with it, the birthdays of Anna Essinger and

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein (14 March 187918 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence f ...

, both born there. The celebration for Essinger lasted a week and was attended by family members from the United Kingdom and Israel, as well as Germany; and former students.

Manuscripts

* Anna Essinger
''Goethe and Saint-Simon''
(1917) Hathi Trust Digital Library. Original from the University of Wisconsin.

Bibliography

* Manfred Berger: ''Anna Essinger – Gründerin eines Landerziehungsheims. Eine biographisch-pädagogische Skizze.'' In: Zeitschrift für Erlebnispädagogik 17,4 (1997), pp. 47–52 * Sara Giebeler u.a.: ''Profile jüdischer Pädagoginnen und Pädagogen''. Klemm und Oelschläger, Ulm (2000) (= Edition Haus unterm Regenbogen, 3), * Lucie Schachner: ''Education towards spiritual resistance : the Jewish Landschulheim Herrlingen, 1933 to 1939''. dipa-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main (1988) Vol. 3, * Dietrich Winter: ''Herrlingen als literarischer und historischer Ort: Begegnung mit außergewöhnlichen Persönlichkeiten in Zeiten der Entscheidung. Vortrag, gehalten am 9. November 1997'' (...) ''im Rahmen des "Veranstaltungsprojekts Dichter und Richter – Deutsche Literatur in der Entscheidung. 50 Jahre Gruppe 47" von der Ulmer Volkshochschule''. Klemm und Oelschläger, Ulm (1998) (= Edition Haus unterm Regenbogen, 1), *

Hildegard Feidel-Mertz Hildegard Feidel-Mertz (born 19 May 1930 – 23 October 2013) was a German educational researcher. Life Born in Frankfurt, Mertz was born in a working class household. She studied at the Goethe University Frankfurt and was promoted her doctorat ...

, translated by Andrea Hammel, "Integration and Formation of Identity: Exile Schools in Great Britain" in: '' Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies'', University of Nebraska Press (Fall 2004). Volume 23, Number 1, pp. 71–84

Footnotes

References

External links

*
Archival materials relating to Anna Essinger

Leo Baeck Leo Baeck (; 23 May 1873 – 2 November 1956) was a 20th-century German rabbi, scholar, and theologian. He served as leader of Reform Judaism in his native country and internationally, and later represented all German Jews during the Nazi ...

Institute. "Guide to the Susan Ehrlich Losher Family Collection, 1929-2007". Retrieved October 16, 2011 {{DEFAULTSORT:Essinger, Anna 1879 births 1960 deaths University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Education alumni Heads of schools in Germany People associated with Bunce Court School Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United Kingdom People from Ulm Heads of schools in England