A German child´s school timetable c.1938

 

A browse through an auction catalogue of postcards led me to something unusual: a German schoolchild's timetable, dating to the period just before the Second World War. Many companies produce printed timetables for young children to fill in their school lessons. Such examples are usually distributed as advertising and can be found today from firms that supply school books as well as stationers and even insurance companies. The example I saw and eventually purchased in the postcard auction was used to advertise a book printer: Qualitksdruckfarben liefert Buchdruckerei F W Cordier Heiligenstadt (Eichsfeld) ("Quality printing supplied by the Book Printers F W Cordier of Heiligenstadt-Eichsfeld"). The advertising agency noted on the outside was the Zehbe company of Berlin-Schoneberg, and the printer was the firm of Franz Lindner of Ratibor.

Fig. 1. Blank timetable for Christina Rennmann of class 4c (reverse)

The reverse of the planner has spaces for the name and class of the pupil as well as a timetable grid separated into the days of the week (Monday to Saturday) and split between six lesson blocks in the morning and three lesson blocks in the afternoon. "Nachmittag" (afternoon) separates the two blocks of time, although officially there was no such break. Until fairly recently German children still had lessons on Saturday mornings (my daughter went to school every second Saturday until about 1991).

Though the classes have not been entered on this particular example, the timetable does bear the name "Christina Rennmann" and the class designation "4c." Both are written in the typical Sutterlin script of the time. Christina would have been in the final year of primary school, i.e. ten or eleven years old when she was given the planner. On the bottom is a ruler fourteen centimeters in length. The timetable itself is framed in black, white, and red, representing both the pre—World War I Reichsflag and Hitler's swastika.

The interesting side for map enthusiasts is the front of the timetable, which features a map of Germany with the surrounding countries from Romania to England and Italy to Denmark. A number of the countries are highlighted: England, France, Austria, Belgium, Italy, Czechoslovakia, and Poland.

The only flags shown are those of the National Socialists, with the swastika on a red ground, and the black, white and, red stripes of the German Reichsflag.

Fig. 2 Map of Europe showing figures of light artillery

The top edge of the card is rounded and is molded to protect a wheel. Inside each of the highlighted countries as well as Germany is a small circular hole in the card, and turning the wheel reveals a set of figures in the opening. Although the first two sets of figures represent the population and the size of each country, most of the numbers refer to military armaments. A cutaway slit at the top of the card explains the meaning of the figures.

As illustrated here the card shows the population of each country. Turning the wheel, however, reveals the stark contrast between Germany's military resources and those of her neighbors. Under the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was limited to 100,000 men. According to the card, England's troops numbered 276,000 and Poland had an army of some 887,000 men. Only Belgium (96,000) and Austria (88,000) had fewer troops than Germany.

Comparisons in some of the other categories are even more dramatic. For example, England had 2,450 planes at her disposal, France had 4,500, and Belgium had 400. Neither Germany nor Austria claimed a single warplane or tank. Germany had roughly one-fifth the number of light guns possessed by Poland and no heavy guns at all. Although Germany had a small fleet of ships, which included five cruisers and twenty-two destroyers, she had no aircraft carriers (England had six) and no submarines (France had more than a hundred). Germany, according to the card, was almost completely defenseless.

Fig. 3 Detail of Europe showing figures of warplanes 

The timetable obviously conveyed a propaganda message, but it is not clear if this message was designed to influence young people or was simply a company's response to the nationalist (as opposed to the National Socialist) sentiment of the time. Clearly, the card played on dissatisfaction with the treaty restrictions at a time when Germany's neighbors were free to build up their military forces at will.

More explicit propaganda was certainly behind a number of other postcards produced around the same time. "Die Lutftbedrohung Deutschlands" (The Air Threat to Germany) not only shows the strength of the air forces in the countries surrounding Germany, but also graphically shows the path of invading planes and their possible targets.

Fig. 4. Die Luftbedrohung Deutschlands – The Threat to Germany from the Air 

Another example, a German Picture Service series titled "Who Needs Security in...," also played on the German population's fear of invasion. "Who Needs Security in the West?" shows the western region of Germany sparsely dotted with symbols for troop and artillery bases. Between Germany and France and Belgium is the thin demilitarized corridor established in Germany territory under the Versailles treaty, but just to the west France and Belgium bulge with symbols depicting troop placements of every kind. Careful coloring reinforces the idea of a threatened Germany. Again German troops are shown in blue, the French and Belgian troops are in bright red, and even the demilitarized zone is red, creating the subtle impression that the territory in the zone belongs more to the neighboring countries than to Germany.

Fig. 5. Set of three postcards: Wer braucht sicherheit im Westen / Südosten / Osten?

 Who requires protection in the west / the southeast / the east? 

In a card portraying armament and disarmament the colours are reversed with graphic effect. While Germany is presented centrally in bright red, its neighbours´ forces are shown in blue. Showing Deutschlands Abrüstung und die Rüstung seiner Nachbarn, Germany´s military disarmament is shown by two solitary soldiers positioned in the middle of the country while the massed weaponry of its opponents threatens it from the borders.

Fig. 6. Deutschlands Abrüstung und die Rüstung seiner Nachbarn

Or The disarmament of Germany and the armament of its neighbours

 

The message conveyed by this schoolchild's timetable is less direct. The map itself, in which Germany's border is highlighted by a thick black line, suggests no imminent danger of attack or Germany's vulnerable military position. Left unspoken is why a German schoolchild would need to know the number and disposition of light guns, heavy guns, warplanes, tanks, aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers, and submarines in her homeland and its neighbors.

The original version of this article appeared in Mercator´s World; Vol. 6 No. 5: 2001: pp. 44-47.