80 years of academic teacher training // University of Oldenburg

The old teacher training college - photographed in the 1950s - was the first building in which prospective teachers studied at the Pädagogische Akademie (later: Pädagogische Hochschule) Oldenburg. Oldenburg City Museum
Ralph Bruder emphasised the tradition of the university, which goes back to a period long before its own foundation. University of Oldenburg / Daniel Schmidt
Vice President Andrea Strübind hosted the festive event, which combined reviews and outlooks on the topic of teacher training. University of Oldenburg / Daniel Schmidt
Where the students of the Pedagogical Academy once sat, interested parties now listened to a review of the beginning of academic teacher training in Oldenburg. University of Oldenburg / Daniel Schmidt
Dietmar von Reeken gave an overview of the development of the Pädagogische Akademie Oldenburg from 1 October 1945. University of Oldenburg / Daniel Schmidt
The ceremony took place where it all began on 1 October 1945: The Old Teachers' Seminary on Peterstraße. University of Oldenburg / Daniel Schmidt
Moderated by Julia Michaelis (right), Dietmar von Reeken, Hilbert Meyer, Ira Diethelm, Till-Sebastian Idel and Julia Gillen discussed current and future requirements for teacher training. University of Oldenburg / Daniel Schmidt

In October 1945, students began their first academic primary school teacher training programme in Oldenburg. A ceremony shed light on this prehistory of the university and gave an outlook on the teacher training of tomorrow.

80 years of academic teacher training in Oldenburg - a ceremony in the Old Teachers' Seminary shed light on the university's history and gave an outlook on the teacher training of tomorrow.

Just over 50 years old - and yet "as the University of Oldenburg, we also have a tradition and stand on the shoulders of giants," said University President Prof. Dr Ralph Bruder at a ceremony focusing on the university's prehistory. An important milestone was the founding of the Pedagogical Academy, which was renamed the College of Education a short time later and became part of the newly founded university in 1973. At its location, the old teachers' seminar at Peterstr. 42, interested parties, including numerous companions, looked back on the "nucleus of the university".

"This ambience immediately evokes the feeling of times gone by, of past orientations and perspectives of teacher training. The catheder, the rows of benches, the organ. Everything stands for a mission statement of academic education as it once was," said Prof Dr Andrea Strübind, Vice President for Studies and Teaching at the University of Oldenburg, referring to the venue.

Even then, 1 October 1945 was a special day: with the establishment of the Pedagogical Academy, Oldenburg was the first location in Germany to resume the training of primary school teachers after the end of the war. Today, 80 years later, this date has a further significance: it marks a rethink towards academicised training for teachers who taught at primary schools. Previously, they had learnt the skills for the so-called "lower school service" at teacher training seminars, while their colleagues from grammar schools had long since enjoyed a university education.

History didactics expert Prof Dr Dietmar von Reeken explained why the launch of the academy is so important for the University of Oldenburg under the title "Primary school teacher training as the 'nucleus' of the university?", adopting a formulation by former Oldenburg history didactics expert Prof Dr Hilke Günther-Arndt.

With the new Pedagogical Academy, the British military government and the Oldenburg State Ministry had decided in favour of a middle course in primary school teacher training between teacher training college and university. There were probably also pragmatic reasons for this: After the war, there was a shortage of teachers who now needed to be trained well but quickly.

Constant further development

Even though the new academy was initially still a long way from the academic operation of a university, despite its high standards of education, it continued to develop steadily. Three years after its foundation, it was renamed the "College of Education". The training was intensified. The prospective primary school teachers also began to specialise more and more in individual subjects, just like their colleagues at the grammar school. There were also changes to the premises: In 1956, the PH moved into its first building on Ammerländer Heerstraße, where the university is located today.

The 1960s saw the first generational change in university lecturers - the state increasingly appointed academics with strong research skills. It became increasingly clear that the focus was no longer exclusively on education and knowledge transfer, but also on researching new requirements for education, schools and teaching and adapting teacher training to changing requirements.

It was also at the instigation of Oldenburg university lecturers that Lower Saxony merged its eight teacher training colleges into one institution in 1969. The new PH Niedersachsen was officially an academic university, but its supporters in Oldenburg wanted it to be only a temporary solution on the way to a university in Oldenburg.

Just one year later, the state government decided to establish a university and set up a founding committee. 5 December 1973 marked the founding date of the University of Oldenburg and the College of Education became part of the new institution. In April 1974, the university began offering eight degree programmes and twice as many teaching degree programmes.

Significance for the present

To this day, the university is strongly characterised by pedagogy and teacher training. Around 40 per cent of students are prospective teachers. They study at a university that is firmly anchored in the region and has an international and interdisciplinary orientation. The University of Oldenburg is the only university in Lower Saxony to offer teaching degree programmes for all types of schools - in 28 subjects.

The subsequent panel discussion, in which education experts spoke about their visions for the future, showed that teacher training is still constantly evolving. Moderated by Dr Julia Michaelis, Managing Director of the Centre for Teacher Education - Didactic Centre, the panel discussion featured Prof. Dr Ira Diethelm, Professor of Didactics in Computing Science at the University of Oldenburg, Prof. Dr Till-Sebastian Idel, Professor of Educational Science, and Prof. Dr Dietmar von Reeken, Professor of History Didactics, together with Prof. Dr Julia Gillen, Vice President for Education at the University of Hanover and co-chair of the Lower Saxony Association for Teacher Training, and the retired Prof. Dr Hilbert Meyer, who researched and taught school education at the university until 2009.

Helmut Schirmer at the lectern in the old teachers' seminar, next to him a screen on which his lecture title and the book he wrote, "Adaptation and Self-Assertion", are displayed. — Helmut Schirmer looked back on the life of Helene Ramsauer, who was a member of the teaching staff at the Pedagogical Academy from the very beginning.

A companion from the very beginning: Oldenburg's first female professor Dr Helene Ramsauer

During the ceremony, historian Dr Helmut Schirmer, himself a graduate of the PH and the University of Oldenburg, traced the life of a woman who witnessed the entire development of the teacher training academy and university as part of the teaching staff: religious education teacher Dr Helene Ramsauer, who became one of the first female professors in the Federal Republic of Germany in the mid-1950s. This year, Schirmer published the book "Adaptation and Self-Assertion" about her life.

The historian drew particular attention to Ramsauer's activities immediately before her move to Oldenburg, about which little is known. The teacher had already joined the NSDAP in Hoya in 1935 - out of "concern about the threat of unemployment", as she herself reported looking back in 1981.

Schirmer reported that during the Second World War, Ramsauer taught as a teacher at a dissolved monastery school in Eger. Eger/Cheb is located in the west of today's Czech Republic - in an area that was awarded to the German Reich as the "Reichsgau Sudetenland" by the Munich Agreement in 1938. Apart from a few marginal notes, for example in a school magazine from the 1940s, Schirmer has found no evidence of Ramsauer's activities there during the Nazi era. In particular, Schirmer found no evidence during this time of the Christian attitude of the pastor's daughter, who was born in Rodenkirchen and later became known as a religious education teacher. There was no religion as a school subject at the National Socialist training centre and no evidence of a Bible study group or anything similar has survived. "The time in Eger therefore remains a dark chapter for me in many respects," he summarised.

After fleeing Eger at the end of the war, Helene Ramsauer reached Oldenburg - and just ten days later became part of the teaching staff at the new Pedagogical Academy, many of whose members shared her NSDAP past. Ramsauer became very popular in Oldenburg. "She stood up for the students, was alert and present and had her heart in the right place," said Schirmer, quoting Christine Reents, Ramsauer's assistant in the 1960s.

There was no sign of any ruptures in her understanding of faith during the Nazi era. Although she had a doctorate in history, she was appointed to the Chair of Protestant Theology and Religious Education in 1956. In the 1960s, her church orientation and self-confident Christian demeanour even earned her the nickname "pious Helene". She now focussed her teaching on the historical-critical analysis of biblical texts. Schirmer herself experienced her at the end of the 1960s as a humorous storyteller who loved Low German "Döntjes" and was appreciated by students for her trusting and confidential communication.

Helene Ramsauer died in Oldenburg in 2001 at the age of 95. In 2010, the tower room in St Lambert's Church was named after her.

The old teacher training college - photographed in the 1950s - was the first building in which prospective teachers studied at the Pädagogische Akademie (later: Pädagogische Hochschule) Oldenburg.

Ralph Bruder emphasised the tradition of the university, which goes back to a period long before its own foundation.

Vice President Andrea Strübind hosted the festive event, which combined reviews and outlooks on the topic of teacher training.

Where the students of the Pedagogical Academy once sat, interested parties now listened to a review of the beginning of academic teacher training in Oldenburg.

Dietmar von Reeken gave an overview of the development of the Pädagogische Akademie Oldenburg from 1 October 1945.

The ceremony took place where it all began on 1 October 1945: The Old Teachers' Seminary on Peterstraße.

Moderated by Julia Michaelis (right), Dietmar von Reeken, Hilbert Meyer, Ira Diethelm, Till-Sebastian Idel and Julia Gillen discussed current and future requirements for teacher training.