During the 1930-40s - World War 2 - were children taught English in Nazi Germany?
score:9
As a couple of comments have already indicated, English was taught at school in Germany while the Nazis were in power. English replaced French as the main foreign language taught:
a hierarchy of European foreign languages was set up in which preference was given to Germanic over Romanic and Slavic languages. This meant that French lost its status as a second language in Germany which, traditionally, had been very high. English became by far the most prominent foreign language in Germany because Nazi ideology saw the English and their language as akin to the "Aryan race"
Source: Jan Hollm, Foreign Language Teaching under National Socialism (2004)
This change did not happen immediately though as the Nazis had no clear plan for education before they came to power. There were some differences between what boys and girls were offered, and differences also existed between different kinds of schools.
In secondary schools English became the regular first foreign language at school. For boys Latin became the second foreign language. In schools that concentrated on the instruction of modern foreign languages rather than on sciences French, Italian or Spanish were offered as a voluntary third foreign language. Girls could choose between French or Latin as a second foreign language. If a sufficient number of secondary schools existed, some traditional grammar schools were kept where pupils started with Latin as a first foreign language, followed by classical Greek and English. So-called middle schools that did not prepare pupils for higher education but for learning a trade also offered English as the first and usually only foreign language. Through these changes French became marginalized and English became the most important foreign language in German schools.
Source: Hollm
The reasons for the marginalization of French were
of a racist nature. According to Nazi ideology the French derived from the Germanic tribe of the Frankonians, but they had supposedly lost most of their Aryan blood due to intermarriage with people of other races. Furthermore, a severe loss of “Frankonian blood” had taken place in history because in wars the fearless, heroic Frankonian warriors had had to pay the highest toll in blood whereas the other ethnic groups, being cowardly, had tried to evade participating in fights.
Source: Hollm
There was even a handbook issued listing the reasons for "the racial decline of French". The relative importance given to Latin, on the other hand, stemmed from a
reverence for the Roman Empire as a demonstration of a Nietzschean "will to power" and the appreciation of the Romans as an Aryan people
Source: Hollm
This BBC page A Child's Memory of WW2 in Germany mentions an English teacher the author had:
My English teacher had taught German in a Stoke on Trent school and returned with addresses of the girls in England and suddenly I had a pen friend.
Upvote:0
Of course, they did. See http://www.rsoelde.de/ARCHIV/05-1004.htm on the bottom of the linked page you can see a certificate which has "Englisch".
More post
- 📝 Why did Robert E. Lee say that George McClellan was the best general he ever faced?
- 📝 How do I learn more about untitled artworks on the internet? (like this specific Basquiat painting)
- 📝 What's the story behind this photo of hikers who brought white plague cure to President Wilson?
- 📝 Is it appropriate to call 1941 American items "prewar"?
- 📝 Did any nation have a demonstrable qualitative advantage in their soldiers of the 18th century, and how did they achieve this?
- 📝 What did US Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart study as an undergraduate?
- 📝 When did GB acknowledge the USA as sovereign state?
- 📝 What were the racial views of the Nazis towards the Greeks?
- 📝 Canadian inter-tribal wars
- 📝 Were there any successful attempts by the Allies to "turn" groups of Axis soldiers?
- 📝 What factors led to the 30% devaluation of pound sterling in 1949?
- 📝 Why was Prince Philip given these specific titles before marrying Princess Elizabeth?
- 📝 How were the Burmese able to sack Ayutthaya when it was one of the wealthiest and most powerful cities in Asia at the time?
- 📝 What were the 52 kinds of victims persecuted by the Nazis?
- 📝 How did people distinguish slaves from free people in Ancient Rome?
- 📝 Did people in China resort to cannibalism during the reign of Mao?
- 📝 What proportion of women died in childbirth before modern times?
- 📝 Is this costume plate from Theatrum Orbis Terrarum correctly colored?
- 📝 Was Fascism capitalist or communist or as many say, was it a "third type" of ideology?
- 📝 What documented criteria (if any) did the CIA use to determine targets for political assassination during the Cold War?
- 📝 How is the year "753 BC" given in ancient legends about the founding of Rome?
- 📝 How was Israel able to build a powerful military within days of the formation of the state?
- 📝 Was the Battle of Trafalgar strategically pointless?
- 📝 Where would the first nuke have been dropped in Germany?
- 📝 Is there a primary source for Black Monday, April 13, 1360?
- 📝 How did pumps work during the Age of Sail?
- 📝 Who was the last European king to actively engage in combat?
- 📝 What percent of the population could vote in Venice between 900 and 1200 AD?
- 📝 Why did Xerxes need a canal across Mount Athos peninsula?
- 📝 Did Germany have enforced conscription in 1944?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 During the 1930-40s - World War 2 - were children taught English in Nazi Germany?
- 📝 How were the Bulgarians regarded by the Nazis during World War II?
- 📝 During World War I, why were church bells stopped until the war was over?
- 📝 What were the individual soldiers motivated by during World War 1?
- 📝 Were the heavy war reparations on Germany after World War I the main cause of its hyperinflation in 1923?
- 📝 What were factors that led to a decline in bond yields during World War II given that the opposite should have happened?
- 📝 During World War II, in the U.S., were diapers available?
- 📝 Were there restrictions on German refugees entering the US during World War II?
- 📝 During World War II, were there any parts of the Japanese overseas empire that was capable of local re-supply?
- 📝 Has the United States paid US dollars as reparations to children other than a "child" of Japanese American internees during World War II?
- 📝 Why didn't Imperial Japan attack the Soviet Union during World War 2?
- 📝 Why didn’t Japan attack the West Coast of the United States during World War II?
- 📝 Did the Soviets excel in one area of weaponry during World War II?
- 📝 How did the Nazis plan to defeat America during World War II?
- 📝 What did Germany do in World War II about the different rail gauge in the Soviet Union?
- 📝 How beneficial were war bonds to the US during WWII
- 📝 What were the post World War 2 effects on Germany?
- 📝 During World War 1, were any policies in place to handle large scale troop mutiny?
- 📝 What goods did Germany trade during World War II, and with whom?
- 📝 How did the Allies communicate during World War II?
- 📝 Did the Axis try to "bribe" Turkey into joining them during World War II?
- 📝 Did Emanuel Lasker write a book declaring that Germany had to win World War I if civilization were to be saved?
- 📝 Why were schoolchildren in the USA taught virtually nothing about the Holocaust during the fifties and sixties?
- 📝 Why did Germany decide not to restore the Hohenzollern dynasty to the throne of a German Empire after the defeat of Hitler in World War Two?
- 📝 How were the Venera Probe missions received/presented in the Western world during the space race?
- 📝 How many pens were used by MacArthur to end the final chapter of World War II and where are they now?
- 📝 Were any works completely lost during the Nazi book burnings?
- 📝 What weapons were manufactured in India by the British forces which were used during world wars?
- 📝 Why did World War I victors let Germany pay reparations in German Marks and gave it the option to default via inflation?
- 📝 Millions of pictures and countless hours of video were taken during World War II. Why is it so hard to find archives online?