Luisenschule (initially in , later in ) was a female school, open in Posen in the years of 1830–1919. Until 1873 it was operated as a private establishment, managed by the Luisenstiftung foundation; afterwards it was incorporated into the official Prussian education system. Its prestigious character attracted girls from high- and mid-range bourgeoisie; the school was particularly recognized for teaching music and arts in general. Since 1841 Luisenschule operated jointly with Lehrerinnen-Seminar, female teachers' seminar. The school was designed as a German-Polish institution, though since the mid-19th century the Polish ingredient went into decline; by the end of the century Luisenschule pursued a militantly patriotic Prussian education model. Periodically Jews formed a significant fraction of the girls. Luisenschule students who became public figures in the realm of German politics, science and arts were Auguste Schmidt, Ida Barber, Elise Ekke, and Hedwig Landsberg. The best known Polish graduate was , later wife of Hipolit Cegielski.
Beginnings
There were a few private schooling establishments for girls, operational in Posen in the early 19th century; some offered advanced curriculum but proved short-lived,in 1810-1828 such a school was managed by Etienne Trimail, and in 1813-1815 by Johan Samuel Kaulfuss, Wisława Knapowska, Dzieje Fundacji kp. Ludwiki Radziwiłłowej, [in:] Kronika Miasta Poznania 7/4 (1929), pp. 257-258 while the others did not meet expectations of the local landed gentry and the growing urban bourgeoisie.such as schools of Tekla Herwig, David Reid and Zuzanna Warnik, Zdzisława Smuszkiewicz, Z dawnych dziejów poznańskiej Dąbrówki (1830-1939), [in:] Kronika Miasta Poznania 69/4 (2001), p. 115, Knapowska 1929, pp. 7-8 In the late 1820s some of the Posen wealthymost of the names seem German, though Poles signing the document might bear German-sounding names as well, Knapowska 1929, p. 258 approached local administration about setting up a well-grounded, high-level female school. The idea was picked up by princess Louise of Prussia, wife to prince Antoni Radziwiłł, the Polish duke-governor of the Duchy of Posen. Princess Louise from her youth demonstrated sympathy for the PolesLudwika z Hohenzollernów Radziwiłłowa entry, [in:] Wielkopolski Słownik Pisarek online, Knapowska 1929, pp. 264-277 and interest in education alike; she agreed to head the project. It took shape of a private foundation, Luisenstiftung. Her contribution proved to be the financial basis of the enterprise, though other members contributed as well.initial fund was 500 thaler, Smuszkiewicz 2001, pp. 115-116, Knapowska 1929, p. 263 In 1830 the foundation opened a school for girls, initially named Louisenschule.Smuszkiewicz 2001, p. 115, Knapowska 1929, p. 259
The establishment was intended for girls of both German and Polish cultural background; some key documents, e.g. the rulebooks, were bilingual, though general instruction was in German.Katarzyna Męczyńska, "Warnkówny – zakład główny". Wyższa szkoła żeńska Anastazji Warnka 1871-1912, [in:] Kronika Miasta Poznania 69/4 (2001), p. 81 The schooling was divided into four stages, each lasting two years. Lowest admission age was 7; when completing education, the girls used to be 15–17. The curriculum was designed very broadly, with four hours of Polish language weekly; evaluation was based on a five-scale mark.Smuszkiewicz 2001, pp. 116-118 Initially Luisenschule admitted 100-150 girls.Knapowska 1929, p. 277 Quality of education was so high that provincial authorities considered it too resemblant of that offered to males, and demanded it gets lowered.Smuszkiewicz 2001, p. 117 Theoretically the school was opened only to Christians and offered both Protestant and Catholic religious instruction;Edward David Luft, The Jews of Posen Province in the Nineteenth Century, Washington 2015, p. 405 the headmaster was a Lutheran minister, Johan Gottlob Friedrich.Knapowska 1929, pp. 279-280 Official supervision was provided by Provinzialschulkollegium, a provincial schooling board.Knapowska 1929, p. 283 At the very beginning Luisenschule was hosted in a building owned by a local court official Brückner and located at Breslauerstrasse.Knapowska 1929, p. 259 As it soon proved insufficient, in late 1830 the school moved to a rented building at the intersection of Breitestrasse and Judenstrasse, at a corner of the Market Square.Smuszkiewicz 2001, p. 119
Once Luisenstiftung found itself in financial dire straits in the mid-1830s it was rescued by a thousand-thaler donation of princess Louise.Smuszkiewicz 2001, p. 120 It was again the princess who approached the new duke-governor, Eduard von Flotwell, and made sure that premises taken over from the freshly secularized Benedictine order were granted to the foundation;Knapowska 1929, pp. 289-290 in 1836 Luisenschule moved into the Gorka-Palace at Wasserstrasse, at that time at another corner of the Market Square. The foundation board carried out major refurbishment works, currently criticized by historians; of little value in terms of adopting the building for educational purposes, the works did away with historical architectural legacy and produced heavy financial burden for the Luisenstiftung balance sheet.Smuszkiewicz 2001, p. 121 However, the Radziwiłł family kept supporting the foundation until the couple left Posen in 1836.Smuszkiewicz 2001, p. 116
Private school: prosperity
Once the Radziwiłł couple left the Duchy of Posen the new school headmaster, Karl Wilhelm Barth, arranged that the Luisenstiftung statute gets modified; he was greatly assisted by the schooling board of Regierungsbezirk, the provincial government.key role was played by head of the schooling board, counsellor Jacob, working hand in hand with Barth In 1837 the school was renamed to Königliche Luisenschule, while the province gained crucial role in appointing members of the foundation's board. Though technically the school remained private, the change effectively turned it into a joint, private-public establishment;Wisława Knapowska, Dzieje Fundacji kp. Ludwiki Radziwiłłowej, [in:] Kronika Miasta Poznania 8/2 (1930), pp. 113-116. When discussing the matter with fiscal authorities the provincial schooling board used to claim that the school was in fact public, seeking tax reliefs. The matter ended up in court, which declared that the name of "Königliche" is not sufficient to sustain such a claim, and demanded that all taxes and duties and paid to the full, Knapowska 1930, pp. 119-120 from this moment onwards the decision-making process was taking place in-between Barth, the foundationKnapowska 1930, pp. 117-120, 145 and the provincial authorities.Jacob, who was already known for his tough stand versus the Poles, used to sit in the foundation board as delegate of the provincial authorities, Knapowska 1929, p. 284 The hybrid nature was somewhat reinforced when in 1841 Luisenschule opened training courses for future teachers, heavily subsidized by the provincefrom 200 thaler in the early 1840s to 1,300 thaler in the late 1860s, James C. Albisetti, Schooling German Girls and Women, Princeton 2014, , p. 63 and later to be named Lehrerinnen-Seminar.exact formal link between the seminar and Luisenschule was somewhat vague, which suited Barth very much One more module, operational in the 1840s only and formatted along the same pattern, was Übungsschule, a small school serving as a practice ground for the seminarians.Knapowska 1930, pp. 128-132. Übungsschule was closed in 1848. It appears that its students were mostly Jewish children. They took advantage of specific status of the school, which was not covered by the usual numerus clausus. Once the limits on Jewish students were lifted by the general Prussian law of 1848, recruitment to Übungsschule collapsed, Knapowska 1930, p. 131 Luisenschule-educated governesses were very sought after.Johanna Ilmakunnas, Marjatta Rahikainen, Kirsi Vainio-Korhonen, Early Professional Women in Northern Europe, c. 1650-1850, London 2017, , p. 258
In the mid-1840s the Poles-dominated Provinzialstände, local self-government bodies, asked that a Catholic school for girls be set up in Posen;Knapowska 1930, p. 151. According to another scholar, "because of its Protestant and German character, [Luisenschule] was not much trusted by the Polish families", Borkowska 2011, p. 75 the petition is currently seen as intended to emulate an apparently successful formula of Luisenschule, though also indicative of some anxiety about its increasingly Protestant and German nature.Knapowska 1930, p. 150 Despite an initially warm reception by the king, joint efforts of Barth and the schooling board led to the ultimate failure of the project. Instead, Luisenschule opened a few sections with instruction in Polish.Knapowska 1930, p. 153 During the revolutionary period of 1847-1848 few girls involved in Polish nationalist activities were expelled from school.Knapowska 1930, p. 155 Most of the Poles left shortly afterwards anyway;Knapowska 1930, p. 157 also some teachers, sympathetic towards the Polish national movement, moved out.the case of Antoni Fromholz, a Catholic priest of German origin. In 1848 he was even the member of the Posen National Committee, Michał Pawełczyk, Nekielscy księża drugiej połowy XIX w.: Antoni Fromholz i Marcin Manicki, [in:] Parafia Nekla service, available here Barth and some of the staff remained heavily engaged in counter-revolutionary politics, which prompted admonition on part of the schooling board chairman, Wendt. Once the latter left his post Barth emerged triumphant;Knapowska 1930, p. 159 the Polish classes disappeared in 1851.Wisława Knapowska, Dzieje Fundacji kp. Ludwiki Radziwiłłowej w Poznaniu, [in:] Kronika Miasta Poznania 8/3 (1930) [furtherly referred as Knapowska 1930b], p. 217, Męczyńska 2001, p. 81
Personal ingenuity of Barth and opening of the teachers' seminar produced growth and expansion of Luisenschule;Knapowska 1930b, p. 217, Męczyńska 2001, p. 81 the number of girls grew from 200 in the early 1840s to 300 in the early 1850s;Knapowska 1930, p. 147 some of them, like Auguste Schmidt, later grew to public figures.Albisetti 2014, p. 63 Though initially the number of German students was only slightly higher than that of the Polish ones,in 1830 among 91 students there were 15 Poles, it is slightly above 16%; in 1843 among 211 students there were 76 Poles (36%), 106 Germans (50%) and 29 Jews (14%). In 1848 there were 114 Poles (39%), 133 Germans 133 (46%), and 41 Jews 41 (15%), Smuszkiewicz 2001, p. 119, Knapowska 1929, pp. 277-278 the latter was in steady decline. More and more Jewish girls were enrolling;the number of Jewish students started to raise rapidly after 1848, Marion A. Kaplan, Jewish Daily Life in Germany, Oxford 2005, , p. 126, Marion Kaplan, C. H. Beck, Das Jüdischen Alltags in Deutschland vom 17. Jahrhundert bis 1945, München 2003, , p. 164 initially Barth tried to prevent the phenomenon,Knapowska 1930, p. 148. It is not clear how come that a technically Christian school was admitting girls from Jewish families, and in particular whether the girls were converted Christians or whether the rules were not rigorously enforced but once the Poles started leaving this policy was no longer tenable. Luisenschule dropped its numerus clausus rules, resulting in the Jews approaching 50% of all students;Kaplan 2005, p. 126, Kaplan, Beck 2003, p. 164, Knapowska 1930b, p. 209 one of them was Ida Barber,maiden name Ida Punitzer, Marianne Baumgartner, Der Verein der Schriftstellerinnen und Künstlerinnen in Wien (1885-1938), Wien 2015, , p. 217 later to be known as a novelist. The anxious Luisenstiftung board unsuccessfully tried to regain control,Knapowska 1930b, pp. 211-213 until in 1851 and in agreement with RegierungsbezirkKnapowska 1930b, p. 215 the 15% limit for the Jews was brought back into force.according to some sources in 1852, Kaplan 2005, p. 126, Kaplan, Beck 2003, p. 164