A new book shows that the elite schools of Nazi Germany were established to train future leaders of the Third Reich. They are modeled after British private schools such as Eton and Harrow.
The historian Helen Roche wrote the first comprehensive history of the Nazi elite school, known as Napolas. Through research conducted in 80 archives in six countries and the testimony of more than 100 former students, Roche discovered how enthusiastic the Nazis were to learn from the “character shaping” examples of the British system.
Between 1934 and 1939, there was a lot of reciprocal exchanges between British and German schools. Boys from the most prestigious private schools in the UK spent a long time in Napolas.
Roche Associate Professor of Durham UniversitySaid that the Napoleonic authorities wanted to learn from the British system, and ultimately hoped to create a superior model for their school.
Although British private schools have been educating “the ruler of the British Empire for a hundred years,” Roach said, “Napollo should cultivate the ruler of the “Millennium Empire”.”
The first three Napoleons were made by the then Prussian Minister of Culture Bernhard Rust (Bernhard Rust) in 1933 as Hitler’s birthday gifts. By the end of the war, there were 40 Napolas, 4 of whom were girls.
Roche’s research found that Napoleon was more effective than Hitler Youth League in instilling political ideas into students. That’s because the children go to school since they were young and are highly segregated.
They are difficult places. A witness from Roche described the regime of Napola Rügen in Putbus. Witnesses said that a common test during the entrance exam is to have a 10-year-old who can’t swim walk 80 meters along the pier and then jump into the Baltic Sea from a 3-meter diving board.
“Our older people brought them out again. No one should hesitate! The swimmer had to jump into the blanket from the third-floor window. Anyone who hesitated can go home again.”
The number of school exchanges is eye-opening. For example, between 1935 and 1938, Oranienstein Napola participated in exchanges with Westminster, St. Paul, Tonbridge, Dunsea and Bentley schools in Yorkshire. It hosted principals and exchange teachers from Shrewsbury, Dantesea and Bolton. There are also sports games at Eton College, Harrow College, Westminster, Winchester, Shrewsbury, Bradfield and Bryanston.
“The ideal result of the program is to let Napola students and faculty members understand the practice in England, and then use this knowledge to improve their own educational technology,” said Roche, who has studied Napola for more than a decade.
The inspector of the Naples authorities, August Heissmeyer, often praised the British private school system as an excellent example of “character shaping” education, which is the highest goal of Naples.
Heismeier believes, “After such a trip, young people will see Germany in a new light; he will return to a wealth of experience; his vision will be broadened… He will discover the weaknesses in his family, and he must help to make up for these weaknesses. He will learn to love his motherland more deeply.”
Roche said that he also believes that the independent role of private school principals is a manifestation of the “head of state principle.”
The Napoleon boys who participated in the exchange were regarded as the “cultural ambassadors” of the “New Germany”.
Roach said that many British boys and masters were impressed by what they saw in Germany, although their attitudes have changed as the relationship deteriorated.
“We can view this exchange plan as a microcosm of the more general attitudes of the middle and upper classes of the British public towards the National Socialist regime,” she said. “I don’t fully believe in the goals and ideals of the Third Reich, but they are still prepared to free their German counterparts from suspicion until the Nazi warfare reaches a deadly climax.”
