Abstract

The systematic denazification of the education system in the Soviet occupation zone led to an acute shortage of teachers. Of the approximately 39,350 teachers working in the Soviet zone, around 28,180 – or nearly 72 percent – had been members of the NSDAP and were initially banned from teaching. Emergency measures were necessary to keep the schools running: for the 1945/46 school year, authorities hired 16,000 new teachers without education degrees and gave them rudimentary teacher training in crash courses. The 25,000 additional teachers who were hired for the 1946/47 year were at least required to complete a training program that was several months long. This teacher recruitment poster advises applicants for the position of "new teacher" to send application materials, along with a full resume, to the Pedagogical Institute in Leipzig.

“New Teachers for the New Schools” (1945)

  • SMB Kunstbibliothek

Source

Source: “New teachers for the new school” – poster (1945) by Heinz Völkel.
bpk-Bildagentur, image number 00015558. For rights inquiries, please contact Art Resource at requests@artres.com (North America) or bpk-Bildagentur at kontakt@bpk-bildagentur.de (for all other countries). / Kunstbibliothek, SMB Original: Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

© bpk / Kunstbibliothek, SMB