Former Jewish Children's and Country School Home

The country school home of Gertrud Feiertag consisted of six houses. At times, the summer house of Albert Einstein also belonged to them. In the main house were the classrooms, dining hall, dormitories, kitchen and office. The teachers lived in the former coach house.

The Jewish children's and country school home, which Gertrud Feiertag founded, is comparable to a modern boarding school, but she used different methods in education: It is important that the teachers had no real power over the students. There was neither a fixed timetable nor did the teachers alone determine what was taught. The children in the home had a lot of say in the decision-making, project ideas were implemented by students and presented to visitors at the open house.

Due to the persecution of the National Socialists, the teachers were aware that the time in which they could teach was limited. They placed great emphasis on lessons that were essential for survival. They introduced the students to Jewish culture, taught them Hebrew and English, trained them in gardening, agriculture, home economics, and handicraft skills to prepare them for a new life, for example in Palestine. One former student said of her time in the home, "If you're going to be marginalized, you should know where you belong."

The teachers* created a little paradise for the children. All the emergency evacuation plans that were practiced were sold to the kids as a field trip. The children had no idea what was happening in the world outside. The schoolgirl Hanni Strauß, however, fought in the underground against the Nazis. On the run she was caught in Stettin - still on the railroad track she was shot.

In the GDR, the former country school home was used as the Anne Frank Heim and renamed the Gertrud Feiertag Jugendhilfezentrum in 2008. In 1997, the Jewish Claims Conference agreed to the use of the home by a non-profit association