Martin Luserke

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Martin Luserke
University of Kiel
(1960)
SpouseMarie Anna "Annemarie" Elisabeth Gerwien (1878–1926)
Children4 (one daughter, three sons)
RelativesCarl Fridrich Wilhelm Luserke (1851–1931) and Amalie Elisabeth Luserke (1855–1942), nee Lindhorst

Martin Luserke singing out a seamanlike "rise, rise…" to wake his pupils of Schule am Meer (= School by the Sea), 1931

Martin Luserke (3 May 1880 in Schöneberg near Berlin, Prussia, German Reich – 1 June 1968 in Meldorf, Holstein, Germany) was a progressive pedagogue, a bard, writer and theatre maker.[1][2][3] He was one of the leading figures of German progressive education and a precursor of outdoor education.[4] As his distinguished achievement counts the integration of community theatre into school and youth work.[5] It was also integrated in German Youth Movement.[6][7]

Family and Youth

He was one of three sons of the construction expert Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Luserke (1851–1931) and his wife Amalie Elisabeth Luserke (1855–1942), née Lindhorst. She originated from

Breslau, Silesia.[8] Both were Pietists. His siblings were his older brother, Johannes Fridrich Wilhelm (* 6. April 1877 in Berlin; † 4. April 1949 in Dresden), and his younger brother, Otto Karl Gottfried Luserke (* 19. November 1887 in Berlin). From his father's side the men had been carpenters for generations.[9] His father worked his way up from a builder to a construction supervisor and became an architect who worked as an examination administrator at public works service of Berlin.[10]

During his childhood, Martin Luserke got the chance to become acquainted with the port of Hamburg, the river Elbe and the German coast along the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. Via sailboat and steamboat he got to know the East Frisian island Spiekeroog and Heligoland in the German Bight. According to his mother's memoirs he very early felt attracted to the Sea.[11] His parents refused to let him go to the Sea.[12]

Starting at the age of ten, he read works by

Schauspielhaus Berlin where he watched the drama William Tell by Schiller. The play fell short of his high expectations so he was badly disappointed.[15]
Later this experience might have been an influence on his own conceptions of theatre works.

In the age of fifteen, he broke with his family. The catalyst was a moment when his mother burnt his Shakespeare books which he had read secretly.[16]

In 1908, he married Marie Anna "Annemarie" Elisabeth Gerwien (1878–1926). He met her through his work for Wickersdorf Free School Community, where she worked as a matron. She was the daughter of Prussian Oberstleutnant (= Lieutenant Colonel) Paul Vincenz Gerwien (* 7 December 1843 in Neisse; † 12 September 1923 in Dresden). The couple got four children, one girl and three boys: Ursula (* 20 January 1910 in Wickersdorf; † 1987), Klaus (* 6 October 1912 in Wickersdorf), Heiner (* 4 August 1914 in Wickersdorf) und Dieter (* 15 September 1918; † 17. February 2005).[17] Between 1938 and 1968 Auguste Schwarting became Luserke's housekeeper.[18]

Education

He became a pupil of the Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine in Berlin. When he was fifteen, his parents sent him to Herrnhuter Lehrerseminar in Niesky, Lusatia, to become a teacher.[19] Between 1900 and 1904 he worked as an elementary teacher at Pädagogium Niesky. There he got estranged from Pietism which he found cold-hearted. He moved to Thuringia and studied Mathematics and Philosophy at Friedrich Schiller University Jena.

In 1905 he made a field excursion to

myths, sagas and legends for his own work. He also travelled to Italy and Egypt.[21]

He got influenced by his academic teachers, the Nobel Prize winner Rudolf Christoph Eucken, Ernst Haeckel, Wilhelm Rein and later by Hermann Lietz. Luserke's ideas about an idealized lifelike education to develop an attitude can be traced back to them.[22] Disappointed from academic teaching programme and classical pedagogy he dropped out of university in 1906.

In 1931 Luserke completed a mate's certificate in Leer, East Frisia.[23]

Career

1906: D.L.E.H. Haubinda

At Easter 1906 he joined Hermann Lietz and started to work as a teacher at Deutsches

Landerziehungsheim (D.L.E.H.) in Haubinda, Thuringia. Three years before there had been a controversy about the admittance of Jewish pupils.[24][25][26] According to Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) only Luserke and Gustav Wyneken (1875–1964) formed an opposition against the daily military drill at this school.[27]
Its resulting conflict with the administration ended with a secession of both teachers.

1906–1925: Freie Schulgemeinde Wickersdorf

Martin Luserke on excursion in the Fichtel Mountains, 1910
Gustav Wyneken (sitting on the left) and principal Martin Luserke (on the right), both with full beards, during a lunch break while accompanying their students of Freie Schulgemeinde from Wickersdorf to a youth meeting atop Hoher Meißner in October 1913
Main article: Wickersdorf Free School Community

Together with so-called pedagogic rebels like Gustav Wyneken,

didactics which offered immediate hands-on-experience influenced several other pedagogues like Hans Alfken (1899–1994).[31][32] In Wickersdorf Luserke worked with Hans-Windekilde Jannasch (1883–1981), Peter Suhrkamp (1891–1959) and Bernhard Uffrecht (1885–1959). Right from the school's foundation he started to perform community theatre. His stage work was based on William Shakespeare. His first play Blut und Liebe (= Blood and Love) which is performed in many schools until today, is a Grotesque based on Hamlet.[33]

Between 1910 and 1914 and again between 1922 and 1925, he served as the school's principal. From 1914 to 1918 he served as a soldier in

German Revolution of 1918–19 he was one of the authors (along with George Bernard Shaw) of a book series by Marxist Karl Korsch (1886–1961). In his book Luserke opted for a socialist ethics of work which should follow common interests.[36]

In school pedagogical conflicts with Gustav Wyneken were persistent. Wyneken was part of several paedophile scandals and later got sentenced. Some other teachers also were paedophiles. Luserke, Rudolf Aeschlimann (1884–1961) and Dr. Paul Reiner (1886–1932) first formed a so-called triumvirate in opposition to Wyneken and his followers. It resulted not only in a polarization but in a development of factions which divided teachers, employees and pupils. Luserke decided to found a new school "at the border of the habitable world".[37] Aeschlimann, Fritz Hafner (1877–1964), Luserke and Reiner together with their families including eleven children plus employees and sixteen of their pupils moved to the North Sea and settled on Juist Island in East Frisia.[38]

1925–1934: Schule am Meer

Theatre of Schule am Meer on Juist Island, built by Bruno Ahrends in 1930/31

On 1 May 1925, Luserke founded

sandbank and developed eleven vegetable gardens for self-supply. In the school's workshops detailed ship models were built as well as seakeeping sailboats (dinghy cruisers) but also parts to build up wooden shacks. Its sports programme included gymnastics and cold baths in the sea, athletics, boxing, fistball, association football, handball, field hockey, ice skate, prisonball and sailing. When Luserke's renowned school was closed in spring 1934 due to Nazi Gleichschaltung (= Nazification) and Antisemitism
he decided to work as a free writer.

Krake ZK 14

Dieter and Martin Luserke aboard Krake

In the Netherlands he bought the old Dutch fishery vessel ZK 14, which he named

Hasko which was published in German, Dutch and French.[53]
He also wrote his most favourite book Obadjah und die ZK 14 and a Viking trilogy.

Meldorf, Holstein

At the end of 1938, he went off board to settle in Meldorf, Holstein.[54] There he continued his work as a free writer. His most successful books were published during the 1930s and 1940s. Several of his books were also printed for army postal service of German Wehrmacht (army and navy) during World War II.

Luserke cannot be described as toeing the Nazi party line.[55] Instead, his ideal and book topics were in some extent similar to Völkisch movement.[56] His literary work was mostly fiction with a revival of Norse mythology, Breton legends and Continental Germanic mythology so it contains no Nazi propaganda.[57] Nevertheless, it matched some popular Völkisch and Nazi topics which was convenient during dictatorship to get accepted as a professional writer.

Between 1947 and 1952, he got a teaching assignment at Meldorfer Gelehrtenschule (founded in 1540) where he introduced his community theatre again.[58] There he named his fully developed play as Meldorfer Spielweise which he characterized as a special style of community theatre. From the start all participants are involved in the play's development. Actors, musicians, handcrafter and technicians are part of a team which composes, writes poetry and thinks about elements like dance, singing, period costumes, signs and symbolism, technical effects.[59] Along the way Luserke's most appreciated activities helped to save the school's survival which was endangered after WWII.[60]

Luserke also held advanced training courses for youth group leaders at Jugendgruppenleiterschule in Bad Harzburg-Bündheim.[61] In 1955 he completed his late work about his Shakespeare studies Pan-Apollon-Prospero which got published in 1957.[62][63] He died in the age of 88 and got buried in Hage, East Frisia, next to his wife Annemarie.

In 2018 his descendants abandoned his grave. However, his gravestone was brought to the East Frisian island of Juist in the North Sea and placed there in the cemetery on the island in 2019.

Awards and distinctions

Commemorative plaque next to Luserke's former home in Meldorf, Holstein
  • 1935 – 1st Prize of Literaturpreis der Reichshauptstadt Berlin (= Literature Award of Reich capital Berlin) for the novel
    Hasko (published in German, Dutch and French)[64]
  • 1950 – Honorary Member of Schleswig-Holstein writer's assembly
  • 1954 – Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for his community theatre work[65]
  • 1958 – Friedrich Hebbel Award
  • 1960 – Golden Medal awarded by
    University of Kiel
  • 1986 – As a permanent loan the state library of Kiel gave Luserke's furnishings to Heimatverein Juist. Since then it is exhibited in Sibje House on Juist Island.[66]
  • 1987 – On 4 May a commemorative plaque was attached to his home at 37, Jungfernstieg in Meldorf[67]
  • 2010 – Next to his home at 37, Jungfernstieg in Meldorf a new commemorative plaque was installed[68]

Literature

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Martin Luserke.

References

  1. ^ Luserke, Martin. Deutsche Biografie (in German)
  2. ^ Martin Luserke, in: Munzinger Archive (in German)
  3. ISBN 978-1400860371
    , pp. 126–127 (citation: It seemed essential to remind people, that the post-revolutionary society must also meet the needs of the nation's intellectuals. This is what Martin Luserke, a popular novelist and educator, tried to do in an essay on work motivation published in 1919 as part of a series Praktischer Sozialismus („Practical Socialism“) edited by the philosopher Karl Korsch. Like Ruckhaber, Luserke thought it wrong to make a distinction between mental and physical labour. This led him to call for a „socialist“ ethic of work to replace the bourgeois-idealist one based on this distinction, which only helped to perpetuate the hierarchy of classes. Under socialism people of all walks of life would be taught to work for one another and to accept discipline in order to achieve common goals. Where Luserke chiefly differed from Ruckhaber is in his belief that intellectual work is hardly „work“ at all, but rather intrinsically pleasurable activity and therefore in some sense its own reward. As a result, he was not particularly concerned with improving the remuneration of intellectuals or cutting back on their hours of work. But he did think that workers of the mind needed special conditions if they were to serve society effectively. To make their different treatment acceptable to the majority of workers whose days were spent in hard, routine, labour, it was necessary to adopt the principle of meritocracy: in Luserke's utopia, examinations would be used to select the few needed for intellectual tasks, and these individuals would then be given non-monetary privileges and rewards, including the opportunity to experience joy in work.)
  4. ^ Herbert Giffei: Martin Luserke – Ein Wegbereiter der modernen Erlebnispädagogik, in: Wegbereiter der modernen Erlebnispädagogik, Vol. 6, Klaus Neubauer Verlag, Lüneburg 1987.
  5. ^ Mirona Stanescu: Vom Laientheater zur Theaterpädagogik. Ein historischer Werdegang der Theaterpädagogik in Deutschland. In: Neue Didaktik (2011) 1, pp. 11–29.
  6. ISBN 978-3-428-00196-5
    , p. 533.
  7. ISBN 3-631-46119-4
    , pp. 209–210, 232–233.
  8. ^ Luserke, Carl Friedrich Wilhelm, Deutsche Biografie.
  9. ^ Karl Körner: Martin Luserke. In: Meldorfer Hausfreund – Amtliche Zeitung für die Bekanntmachungen der Behörden der Stadt Meldorf und des Meldorfer Wirtschaftsraumes. Vol. 7, No. 35, 3. Mai 1955, p. 1.
  10. ISBN 978-3-7431-1659-7
    , p. 65–88.
  11. ^ Die Lebensfahrt des Martin Luserke, lecture by Prof. Kurt Sydow on the occasion of Martin Luserke's 100st birthday, 3 May 1980 (in German).
  12. ^ Karsten Kröger: Der Beitrag Martin Luserkes zur reformpädagogischen Bewegung. Erziehungswissenschaftliche Hausarbeit im Rahmen der Lehramtsstaatsprüfung. University of Hamburg, 1984, p. 8.
  13. ^ D. H. Schortinghuis: Begegnung mit Martin Luserke, Ostfriesland Magazin, Vol. 9 (1993).
  14. ^ Karsten Kröger: Der Beitrag Martin Luserkes zur reformpädagogischen Bewegung. Erziehungswissenschaftliche Hausarbeit im Rahmen der Lehramtsstaatsprüfung. University of Hamburg, 1984, p. 11.
  15. ^ Martin Kiessig: Martin Luserke. Gestalt und Werk. Versuch einer Wesensdeutung. Philosophical Dissertation (doctor's thesis), University of Leipzig, J. Särchen Verlag, Berlin 1936, p. 13.
  16. ^ Prof. Dr. Dr. Jörg W. Ziegenspeck: Martin Luserke – Reformpädagoge – Schriftsteller auf dem Meer und an den Meeresküsten, lecture on the occasion of an Exhibition Launch at Morgenstern-Museum, Bremerhaven, 9 October 1988.
  17. ^ Prof. Kurt Sydow: Die Lebensfahrt des Martin Luserke, lecture on the occasion of Martin Luserke's 100st birthday, 3 May 1980.
  18. ^ Jan Herchenröder: Der Geschichtenerzähler von Meldorf – Ein Besuch beim alten Luserke. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Nr. 1 (1962), 2. Januar 1962.
  19. ^ Martin Luserke, Munzinger Archive.
  20. ^ Prof. Dr. Dr. Jörg W. Ziegenspeck: Martin Luserke – Reformpädagoge – Schriftsteller auf dem Meer und an den Meeresküsten, lecture on the occasion of an Exhibition Launch at Morgenstern-Museum, Bremerhaven, 9 October 1988, University of Marburg.
  21. ^ Dieter Luserke: Mit meinem Vater Martin Luserke an Bord des guten Schiffes KRAKE-ZK 14, 1988.
  22. ISBN 978-3-428-00196-5
    , p. 533.
  23. ^ D. H. Schortinghuis: Begegnung mit Martin Luserke, Ostfriesland Magazin, Vol. 9 (1993).
  24. ^ Hermann Lietz: Vom Leben und Arbeit eines deutschen Erziehers. Veckenstedt am Harz, 1920, p. 187.
  25. ^ Erich Meisner: Asketische Erziehung. Hermann Lietz und seine Pädagogik. Beltz, Weinheim 1965, p. 66.
  26. ^ Elisabeth Kutzer: Lietz und die Jungen. In: Leben und Arbeit, April 1968, pp. 7–28.
  27. ISSN 2196-6249
    .
  28. ^ Ralf Koerrenz: Hermann Lietz. Grenzgänger zwischen Theologie und Pädagogik. Peter Lang Verlag der Wissenschaften. Frankfurt am Main 1989. p. 72.
  29. ^ Matthias Fechner: Es handelt sich darum, das Gute überall zu finden. Eine Studie zur Genese der Waldorfpädagogik Archived 17 March 2017 at the Wayback Machine, info3-magazin.de.
  30. ^ Ulrich Herrmann: „Obwohl seine Rolle als pädagogischer Erneuerer in engem Zusammenhang mit lebensreformerischen Ansätzen der Jahre 1880 bis 1930 und nicht zuletzt mit der Jugendbewegung zu sehen ist, sind Etikettierungen Wynekens als Erzieher und Lehrer beispielsweise kaum zutreffend“. In: „Zurück zur Natur“ und „Vorwärts zum Geist“. 100 Jahre Wickersdorf. Eine kritische Vergegenwärtigung von Werk und Wirkung Gustav Wynekens (2006), hsozkult.de.
  31. ISBN 978-3-322-97283-5
    , p. 176.
  32. ISBN 978-3781516830
    , p. 66.
  33. ^ Martin Luserke: Blut und Liebe, Deutscher Theaterverlag.
  34. ^ Martin Luserke. Munzinger Archiv.
  35. ^ Karl Körner: Martin Luserke. In: Meldorfer Hausfreund – Amtliche Zeitung für die Bekanntmachungen der Behörden der Stadt Meldorf und des Meldorfer Wirtschaftsraumes. Vol. 7, No. 35, 3 Mai 1955, p. 1.
  36. ISBN 978-1400860371
    , pp. 126–127. (Citation: "It seemed essential to remind people, that the post-revolutionary society must also meet the needs of the nation's intellectuals. This is what Martin Luserke, a popular novelist and educator, tried to do in an essay on work motivation published in 1919 as part of a series Praktischer Sozialismus („Practical Socialism“) edited by the philosopher Karl Korsch. Like Ruckhaber, Luserke thought it wrong to make a distinction between mental and physical labour. This led him to call for a „socialist“ ethic of work to replace the bourgeois-idealist one based on this distinction, which only helped to perpetuate the hierarchy of classes. Under socialism people of all walks of life would be taught to work for one another and to accept discipline in order to achieve common goals. Where Luserke chiefly differed from Ruckhaber is in his belief that intellectual work is hardly „work“ at all, but rather intrinsically pleasurable activity and therefore in some sense its own reward. As a result, he was not particularly concerned with improving the remuneration of intellectuals or cutting back on their hours of work. But he did think that workers of the mind needed special conditions if they were to serve society effectively. To make their different treatment acceptable to the majority of workers whose days were spent in hard, routine, labour, it was necessary to adopt the principle of meritocracy: in Luserke's utopia, examinations would be used to select the few needed for intellectual tasks, and these individuals would then be given non-monetary privileges and rewards, including the opportunity to experience joy in work.")
  37. ^ Prof. Dr. Dr. Jörg W. Ziegenspeck: Martin Luserke – Reformpädagoge – Schriftsteller auf dem Meer und an den Meeresküsten, lecture on the occasion of an Exhibition Launch at Morgenstern-Museum, Bremerhaven, 9 October 1988.
  38. ^ Martin Luserke: Logbook of Schule am Meer. Vol. 1, logfile entry of 28 April 1925.
  39. ^ Staatskommissar für die Regelung der Wohlfahrtspflege in Preußen: Schule am Meer, Juist – Antrag zur Sammlung von Geldspenden zugunsten eines Hallenbaus zur Verbesserung der kulturellen und sportlichen Ausbildungsmöglichkeiten (in German)
  40. ^ Martin Luserke: Logbuch der Schule am Meer. Vol. 1, note from 28 April 1925.
  41. ^ Dieter Luserke: Laudatio zum 25. Todestag von Martin Luserke, 2 October 1993, Ditmarsia of Meldorf, Holstein.
  42. ISBN 3-598-23290-X
    , p. 731.
  43. ^ Eduard Zuckmayer / Martin Luserke: Herbst-Kantate, swissbib.ch.
  44. ISBN 3-598-11586-5
    , p. 963.
  45. ^ Eduard Zuckmayer, University of Hamburg.
  46. ISBN 3-631-46119-4
    .
  47. ISBN 3-925267-38-7
    .
  48. ^ Iris Hellmich: Auf den Spuren des Schriftstellers Martin Luserke, Emder Zeitung, weekly magazine, series: Emder erzählen (Vol. 127), 5 July 1997 (in German)
  49. ^ D. H. Schortinghuis: Begegnung mit Martin Luserke, Ostfriesland Magazin, Vol. 9 (1993).
  50. ^ Martin Kiessig: Die alte ZK 14. Zu Besuch auf einer schwimmenden Dichterwerkstatt. In: Martin Luserke. Gestalt und Werk. Versuch einer Wesensdeutung. Philosophische Dissertation (= doctor's thesis), University of Leipzig, J. Särchen Verlag, Berlin 1936 (in German)
  51. ^ Picture: Martin Luserke, Beate Köstlin (later married as Beate Uhse) and teacher Erne Wehnert aboard Krake
  52. ISBN 3-550-06429-2
    , pp. 53–55.
  53. ISBN 978-3205982043
    , p. 87.
  54. ^ Dieter Luserke: Mit meinem Vater Martin Luserke an Bord des guten Schiffes KRAKE-ZK 14 (1988) (in German)
  55. ISBN 978-3-1109-3775-6
    , p. 27.
  56. ISBN 978-3-11-022049-0
    , p. 575.
  57. ISBN 978-3-596-17153-8
    , p. 346.
  58. ^ Die Meldorfer Gelehrtenschule nach 1945 (in German)
  59. ^ Interview with Martin Luserke, Dr. Reiche, Prof. Otto Haase and Dr. Herbert Giffei about Meldorfer Spielweise, serial radio program Von Binnenland und Waterkant, Norddeutscher Rundfunk 1952, 9:53 mins.
  60. ISBN 3-8042-0500-3
    , pp. 289–295.
  61. ^ Dr. Karl Körner: Martin Luserke, Würdigung zum 80. Geburtstag, in: Mitteilungsheft der Vereinigung ehemaliger Schüler und der Lehrer der Meldorfer Gelehrtenschule, Doppelheft 19/20 (December 1960), pp. 5–7.
  62. ^ Interview with Martin Luserke about his Shakespeare work Pan-Apollon-Prospero, Norddeutscher Rundfunk 1955, 5:45 mins.
  63. ^ Martin Luserke: Pan-Apollon-Prospero. Zur Dramaturgie von Shakespeare-Spielen. Hans Christians Verlag, Hamburg 1957.
  64. ISBN 978-3110220490
    , pp. 575–576.
  65. ISBN 978-3830914167
    , p. 58.
  66. ^ Luserke, Martin – Mobiliar (in German)
  67. ^ Die Meldorfer Gelehrtenschule nach 1945 (in German)
  68. ^ Anneliese Peters: Histourschild – Martin Luserke, in: Mitteilungen, 116 (2010), Vereinigung ehemaliger Schüler und der Lehrer der Meldorfer Gelehrtenschule e. V. (Ed.), Meldorf 2010, pp. 5–6.
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