German Elementary Education from 1890 to 1945: Lessons about Religion, Home, and Fatherland

Analyzing the correlation between the educational system and ideas about religion, community, and nationhood, German Elementary Education from 1890 to 1945 highlights how an investment in children’s moral and national education united the Wilhelmine, Weimar, and Nazi eras, providing a vital lens for charting the continuities and changes within German society.

Katharine Kennedy is the Charles A. Dana Professor Emerita of History at Agnes Scott College in Atlanta, Georgia. A specialist on the history of German education, her publications encompass the Imperial, Weimar, and Nazi periods and address themes such as religion, colonialism, regionalism, and music. Her recent publications include the article ＂Singing about Soldiers in German Schools, from 1890 to 1945＂ (Paedagogica Historica 2016) and the chapter, ＂’German Youth, Your Leader!’ How National Socialism Entered Elementary Schools in 1933＂, in From Weimar to Hitler: Studies in the Dissolution of the Weimar Republic and the Establishment of the Third Reich, 1932-1934 (Berghahn Books 2019).