Rhein-Main Universitäten (RMU)

In the DFG project “Racism and Anti-Semitism in Educational Science and Pedagogy Journals 1933-1944/45: On the Construction of Enemy Stereotypes and Positive Self-Image,” the 'Forschungsstelle NS-Pädagogik', a research center for Nazi pedagogy, examined educational science journals from the Nazi era. The collection was created within this framework. The 'Forschungsstelle NS-Pädagogik' at Goethe University was founded in 2012 under the direction of Prof. Micha Brumlik and Prof. Benjamin Ortmeyer to promote the connection between research and teaching and to serve as a central collection of previous studies and materials on the topic of “Educational Science and Pedagogy in the Nazi Era.” Following the retirement of Associate Professor Benjamin Ortmeyer, Professor Wolfgang Meseth has been responsible for redesigning and continuing the collection since April 2021. The collection includes:

• Various periodicals addressed to teachers and educators: Several parallel journals originated from the Nazi Teachers' League. Not least, teachers, depending on the type of school (including “special schools” and high schools/lyceums), were indoctrinated with Nazi ideology and received instructions for their general and indoctrinating work with students.
• A magazine for young people and children: It conveyed all of the Nazi ideology's enemy stereotypes, was lavishly produced, and was widely distributed among schoolchildren by the Nazi Teachers' League.
• Academic journals: These contain educational discourse from the Nazi era, written by key figures of the time. In addition, a reference library with approximately 3,000 titles on the topics of Nazi crimes, Nazi ideology, Nazi pedagogy, and the culture of remembrance in 1945 is currently accessible in the IKB building (by prior arrangement). The collection, which was established by Benjamin Ortmeyer, is now owned by the Jewish Academy, but is currently still in the possession of the Department of Education, where it is also cared for by staff.