Das Lohrer Schulmuseum: Spezialmuseum und Stadtmuseum

Period

Description Destination

On June 9, 1989, the Lohr School Museum was opened with a small celebration.
The concept was to be both a school museum and a town museum, because on the one hand it was to focus on the various schools in Lohr - especially around 1900 there were more schools in Lohr a.Main than in any town in Franconia with a comparable population - and on the other hand it also included the general history of Lohr.
But it should also, and above all, present school as a reflection of the respective social order and form of government, whereby the term “school” as a place of teaching and learning was not limited to what takes place in the school building, but was expanded to include other educational institutions such as parents, church, youth organizations, etc.
This was documented primarily with a focus on the German Empire (1871 - 1918) and the Third Reich (1933 - 1945) through a corresponding arrangement of the subject areas.
When the GDR Wall fell five months later, on November 9, 1989, the opportunity arose to readjust the overall concept of the museum with the cornerstones of the “French Revolution” (“Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”) in 1789 and 1989 (collapse of the GDR). These 200 years were the period in which the influence of totalitarian movements on schools and extracurricular education could be particularly illustrated in museum terms.
This concept quickly found acceptance and recognition in the media, including in 1994 by the editorial staff of the renowned FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE SONNTAGSZEITUNG: Their employee Thomas F. Klein wrote on February 13 of that year under the headline: “School museum also shows other sides of the good old days”:
“In blissful idealisations of the ‘good old days’ in the style of ‘Feuerzangenbowle’, however, the dark sides are all too readily forgotten. One must not only recall the authoritarian teaching style, which naturally included draconian punishments.(...) School was not only a place of learning, but also of being seduced. (...) How can one clarify these connections without raising a moralising finger? Let the evidence of time speak for itself. The Lohr School Museum succeeds in showing school as a historical place of learning and at the same time as a place where one can learn something (...).”
Six years later, on January 28, 2000, Professor Emeritus Dr. After a visit to the Lohr School Museum, Max Liedtke said to the museum director: “I have been following the development of school museums around the world since the 1970s. For me there is no doubt that the school museum established by E. Stenger is one of the most attractive school museums nationally and internationally.
Professor Liedtke justified his weighty statement with, among other things, the unusual wealth of detail in the collection and the skill of a presentation that never tires, and with the appeal of the regular changing and special exhibitions, which very cleverly go beyond the scope of the permanent exhibitions and lead into ever new, old worlds of school and contemporary history. Professor Dr. Liedtke literally:
“Through the changing exhibitions, the museum is also able to address current school problems and present these problems against the background of historical contexts.”
On the occasion of the museum's 20th anniversary, the world and museum-experienced journalist, reporter and writer S. Michael Westerholz, who had visited the museum several times, wrote:
“Personally, I was absolutely infatuated with the ‘visual-sensory museum that also appeals to the emotional layers’ (Peter Genth) and gave me new and recognizable experiences with every visit. The house may look small. But the museum is huge in its holdings and very great in its significance and impact. This and the way in which it is run and kept exciting without any visual gimmicks is what makes this museum stand out from the crowd of German school museums!”
Since its inception, the museum has been a place of general Lohr history.
Many of the 95 special exhibitions to date have dealt with historical events, such as “The History of the Göpfert Family of Lohr”, “History and Fate of the Jews of Lohr”, “Lohr in the Third Reich”, “Our Hometown is on the Up – Lohr 1945 – 1962” etc.
But the history of the city and its inhabitants is also present in the permanent exhibition. “The Göpfert family 1894 – 1986”, “Memories of Dr. Josef Weis on his school days at the Lohrer Gymnasium 1922 – 1931”, “The life story of the high school daughter and later teacher Babette Vogt 1863 – 1939” are some examples.
Above all, the entrance area with its large-format photos is reminiscent not only of the Lohr schools, but also of urban life around 1900.
The Lohr School Museum was never a place of stagnation. With the acquisition of further exhibits, the rooms and showcases were expanded and statements were deepened.
A remarkable extension to the last remaining free section of the wall took place in 2018: Following the historical walk through 200 years of German history (1789 to 1989), with special attention to school development and extracurricular education, a wall display case is dedicated to the “potato”. The reason for this is that the potato has been associated with schools in many ways for centuries.
In addition, Lohr’s “most exclusive” club “SOCIETAS AD USUM POTATONIS” (Society for the Benefit of the Potato) has found its starting point and now a home in the school museum.

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phone: +49 935... show +49 9352/4960

Homepage: www.lohr.de/Sites/gensite.asp