Margarete (Grete) Gerok Leiterin der Bräuteschule

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Helge
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Margarete (Grete) Gerok Leiterin der Bräuteschule

#1

Post by Helge » 30 Aug 2022, 11:15

Margarete (Grete) Gerok - Leiterin der Bräuteschule (Director of the School of Brides)
Birthday Unterboihingen 06/07/1898 - Death Wasserburg 06.01.1979

Margarete Gerok has not been discussed in any context in the relevant literature. Her name was only rarely mentioned in the frequent reports in the Tübingen chronicle between 1938 and 1944 about the bridal school on the Österberg. However, a convinced, fanatical National Socialist is expected from the director of an SS Reich Bridal School. In addition to the question of whether she was actually that, the social position of middle-class, conservative women at the time , the educational opportunities for girls as well as the historical development of women's professions 3 and working women to note. At that time, women often created their own jobs, driven by idealism for the cause as well as high professional ethics and a willingness to do unpaid work. An example of this is the kindergarten teacher and youth leader Margarete Gerok from Ludwigsburg.

When Hitler came to power in 1933, many professionals were forced to decide for or against the Nazi ideology. Since women were confronted with guidelines from the Nazi state, their actions are often described as secondary. However, each individual woman could decide for herself what she accepted and how she would implement it. Committed actors served the NS cause and thus stabilized the NS regime. Furthermore, the quality of the self-integration, the "self-mobilization or self-empowerment" of these women must also be taken into account.

Information about the private person Grete Gerok and motives for her professional career to the well-endowed bride school director remain sparse. In the files that have survived, there is nothing to suggest that the head of the SS Reich Bridal School, Grete Gerok, as she has been calling herself since then, became an active or even a fanatical party member.

Margarete "Grete" Gerok was born on June 7, 1898 in Unterboihingen near Nürtingen in a family that was very wealthy on her mother's side and very educated on her father's side. The father, Paul Martin Gerok, came from the Protestant educated class, the Gerok theologian dynasty, well-known in Württemberg. He studied medicine. The ailing father shaped his daughter's social and sensitive behavior from an early age. The mother came from the textile manufacturer family Otto from Unterboihingen, the largest employer in the region. In 1904 a manorial villa was built at Schlosspark in Ludwigsburg and an ophthalmologist's practice was set up in it.

Margarete Gerok attended the secondary school for girls in Ludwigsburg until 1915. She then worked in the household of her previous headmaster, Seeger, but continued to live with her parents as the daughter of the house. From around 1920, she had been striving for qualified vocational training as the basis for self-sufficiency befitting her status. Until 1922 she settled at the elite Pestalozzi-Fröbel-Haus train as a kindergarten teacher in Berlin. In 1924 she passed the youth leader examination in Frankfurt. Employed by the city of Ludwigsburg, she headed the Fröbel Kindergarten at Wilhelmstrasse 34 from 1925 to 1936. This first Fröbel Kindergarten in Ludwigsburg was intended to "stimulate, employ and educate children of all classes who are not yet of school age [...] according to Fröbelian principles. He but should also [...] serve as a training ground for the women's school class of the girls' secondary school [...], which was established at the same time, where the women's students [...] should become familiar with Fröbel's educational principles." In 1927, for example, the rector of studies Seeger advertised the "Froebel kindergarten run by the youth leader Miss Margarete Gerok". A one-year training as a home economics teacher led her to Göttingen in 1930 under the spell of the teacher Prof. Dr. Herman Nohl As a kindergarten teacher and youth leader, Grete Gerok independently developed mothers' evenings in close cooperation with Luise Lampert 15 from the mid-1920s as part of her kindergarten work. The city of Ludwigsburg rewarded her with a "gross annual salary of around 800 RM".

The seizure of power by the National Socialists in 1933 immediately affected her professional life. Despite her willingness to become a member of NS organizations – she joined the NS-Frauenschaft (NSF) in 1934 – the Fröbel Kindergarten, which she had set up herself, was taken from her hands by the NS-Volkswohlfahrt (NSV) in 1936. In 1935 she became a member of the NS-Lehrerbund (NSLB) and in 1937 of the NSV. In 1938 she joined the NSDAP in Ludwigsburg. She did not take on any party offices or honorary tasks.

After attending the training courses for teachers at the German Mothers' Service eV, she headed the NS mothers' school in Ludwigsburg on Abelstrasse full-time from 1936 to 1938 with an "annual gross salary of approx 1944 increased "to 3000 RM".That was quite a sum for a woman. Looking back in 1949, Grete Gerok herself justified the change of job: "My work in the mothers' service in the Deutsches Frauenwerk e Mothers' training was only possible through the mothers' service in the Deutsches Frauenwerk ."

In the newspaper report on the opening ceremony of the bridal school in Tübingen on May 30, 1938, in addition to the large number of party celebrities, it was written quite casually about "the teachers Miss Hauff and Miss Gerok" . Only through a letter from Mayor Adolf Scheef is Grete Gerok's management position revealed: "Miss Gerok, head of the bridal school." On the letters of invitation to the graduation ceremonies of the much sought-after bridal courses, she wrote "G. Gerok" and put the stamp of the "NS Frauenschaft - Deutsches Frauenwerk, Gaustelle Württemberg und Hohenzollern, Bräuteschule Tübingen".

Although the Tübingen bridal school was advertised in the official party women's magazine NS-Frauen-Warte in the fall of 1944, Anny Haindl, head of the Württemberg-Hohenzollern Gau women's union, closed the school. In the summer of 1944 she had decided that women should "learn to shoot" instead of "housewifery work" . The Norman house was passed on to the Tübingen military hospital. Grete Gerok left Tübingen in the summer of 1944 and temporarily took over the management of the mothers' school in Saulgau on February, 1945. This was followed by a leave of absence to look after the father and a retreat to the maternal property in Wasserburg/Bavaria, where the parents had already moved to in 1938.

Grete Gerok's high professional quality and many years of practice as a qualified kindergarten teacher and youth leader may have been the decisive factor in her being considered as the director of the Tübingen Reich Bridal School. As was expected from her participation, the number of registrations increased under her direction and admission to attend the bridal school was also highly sought after in the region. A contemporary witness still remembers the "beautiful hikes in the Black Forest" and the "lived camaraderie". She and other contemporary witnesses express that for them or their relatives attending the bridal school meant an upgrade as a woman.

But even Grete Gerok could not ignore the objectives set by the Reich Mother Service. The first course participants, "29 brides of the SS, the SA., of aviators, members of the Wehrmacht and labor service, of HJ. and young people leaders, plus two young women [...] from the whole Greater German Reich", are as in the Bund German Girls (BDM) and Reich Labor Service for Female Youth (RADwJ) expected a watertight National Socialist daily program. She also designed the numerous festivals of the movement with typical Nazi accents. She also had to introduce the rituals of a naming celebration instead of baptism and Yule instead of Christmas.

It is true that Grete Gerok was relieved of important ideological decisions and tasks, because the Gauleitung in Stuttgart was responsible for the selection of the participants. There she could also request speakers on political topics such as racial hygiene and heredity. In the assessments of the women, she made no reference to religion or party affiliation 33 and wrote them only at the request of the Gau leadership.

Hildegard Schymroch wrote about the beginnings of the NS mother schools: "On the one hand, despite the partial rejection of the new political direction, almost all leaders remain in office in order not to endanger the existence of the mother schools and to reduce politicization; on the other hand, politically unpopular or neutral leaders cannot be dismissed at short notice by the 'Reichsmutterdienst', since there are no qualified successors available. Furthermore, it must be seen that the content of the program from the mothers' school was taken over, albeit with new objectives." However, after so many years, the practiced teaching material of the school of brides can no longer be verified in detail.

As a person in a leading position in the NS maternity service, Grete Gerok was banned from working after the end of the war and had no income for a few years. An internment under her name is not proven. Denazification dragged on. As early as autumn 1945 she asked friends and acquaintances for written statements exonerating her behavior during the Nazi period. On January 31, 1949, she returned the "Questionnaire of the Gouvernement Militaire Allemagne". She had to be asked separately to "chronologically list all the main jobs" since 1931. Her statements led to investigations in 1949 with the result that Miss Gerok had not exercised any political activity in the sense of National Socialism: "Therefore, nothing disadvantageous is known about her from a political point of view either."36 Her wish to be able to work with adults again was fulfilled. She took over the management of a convalescent home for mothers of the Bavarian Red Cross, which said goodbye to its "long-time employee" in an obituary notice, "who will be remembered as a lovely and good person". 37 Margarete Gerok died on January 6, 1982 in Wasserburg near Lindau.

The prize with which Grete Gerok was rewarded - for the good financial security as well as the high social recognition and the joy of being able to work in the profession she had trained for - was the financial and political dependence on the Nazi state as well as the cooperation and participation in one criminal system. Because of her highly qualified work alone, she made convincing propaganda for the goals of the Nazi state. Because this was perceived identically with the institution of the bride school and its excellent director and was also internalized by the participants. In this way, Grete Gerok made a significant contribution to the psychological safeguarding of the political system. Because every course participant who looked after her personally and took her individual problems seriously in detailed consultations, In this way, the Nazi state gave her a higher status as a woman in her role as a housewife and mother. By passing on the "supposed" care of the state "in real terms" to the brides as head of the bridal school, she underpinned the "feigned honesty" of the NS state's women's propaganda. Because a state that takes on the problems of women in a way that has never happened before in history seemed to be a good state in the eyes of women. The qualified work in the schools of the maternity service was intended to increase the confidence of the female population in the honesty of this state. She helped pretend that the real reduction in women's education would be compensated for with something of a higher quality.

Ultimately, Grete Gerok was a supporter of the Nazi state thanks to her qualified training and commitment, and a stabilizer thanks to her successful work.

Source: ns-akteure-in-tuebingen
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Re: Margarete (Grete) Gerok Leiterin der Bräuteschule

#2

Post by Hans1906 » 30 Aug 2022, 13:59

Moin Helge,

interesting topic, the former "Reichsbräuteschule Husbäke" was only a few kilometers away from my hometown on the "Küstenkanal" in the small village Husbäke, the buildings still exist today.

It's a perennial theme in the Edewecht community there, as far as I know, all the buildings are now privately owned.

When we were kids, it housed migrant workers for a local meat factory (Meica), if I remember correctly, mostly Italians, Spaniards, and Portuguese.

Bräuteschule https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bräuteschule (See "Husbäke"...)

Video 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNyVx8VhXNc
Video 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX-di4QI2ro

There are dozens of photos of the school from that time online, as well as old newspaper articles, but as always, you have to search a little for the material...

For us curious children on our bikes it was a "taboo place" at the time, we were forbidden to ride around there...


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Re: Margarete (Grete) Gerok Leiterin der Bräuteschule

#3

Post by Annelie » 30 Aug 2022, 16:01

Thank you Helge, most interesting and in depth article.

Learned something new!

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