Tami Oelfken

Tami Oelfken (25 June 1888 – 7 April 1957) was a German teacher who became an author and controversial (especially at that time) education reformer.

The "Tami Oelfken Community School" which she set up in Berlin-Lichterfelde in 1928 was closed down by the Nazi authorities in 1934 on account of its "pacifist, communist and pro-Jewish tendencies". Attempts to re-open it in Paris and, later, to promote her education reform ideas in France and then in England came to nothing, and in 1939 she returned to Berlin where her uncompromising approach led to professional marginalisation. The focus of her activity was increasingly on her writing, though both the novels she produced for publication during the war years were banned, in one case before and in the other case shortly after publication. After 1945 there was a modest revival of interest in her work, but the ideas on education reform that she continued to promote with characteristic fixity failed to become part of the mainstream pedagogical agenda during her lifetime.

Early years and intergenerational tensions Oelfken attended the secondary all-girls' school in nearby Vegesack In 1922 she resigned from the Bremen schools service. From now on she was able to work as a teacher only in the (relatively small, and some would have said, quirky) private education sector. A school for the parents in "Seminar format" was a necessary element, integrated into the set-up. Parents were required to spend two terms during which they attended lectures concerning the school's educational objectives and community-working approach, and including study of the in-depth theoretical and practical issues and questions arising. Oelfken funded the enterprise from her own resources. Oelfken herself was served with a lifetime teaching ban.

Die Persianermütze Her second novel, Die Persianermütze (The Persian Cap) was published in 1942. The book was again semi-autobiographical, and could be seen, loosely, as a sequel to Tine, though she chose a different publisher: . At the heart of the novel was a young girl in search of the true worth of life, judged not in terms of rational utility or sporting prowess, but simply in spiritual terms. This book, again, failed to appease the authorities. Copies were confiscated within a few weeks of publication. Hühnerfeld had taken exception to her 1941 diary entries, now reprinted in "Logbook", which had been included more recently in an anthology of pacifist texts. Once more, mutterings surfaced that Oelfken was an "enemy of the state". However, there is no direct read-across to twenty-first century prices, since in 1950s Germany relatively few people could afford to buy a car. The quantum of the damages took no account of the health damage she had suffered, nor of the significant value of the property she had transferred from Berlin to Paris 1934 which she had lost when forced by changes to the currency regulations to return to Berlin in 1939.

Final years By 1952 Oelfken's public profile was greatly diminished. During her final years she nevertheless conducted various school events and presentations in and around Bremen. Under the umbrella title "The world speaks through the poet"1="Aus dem Dichter spricht die Welt"

Publications (selection)

Nickelmann erlebt Berlin, 1931 Peter kann zaubern, 1932 Tine, Kiepenheuer, Berlin 1940, banned; 1947 re-released as Maddo Clüver. Die Konturen einer Kinderlandschaft (Curt Brauns, Wedel) Die Persianermütze, 1942 (banned shortly after publication) Die Sonnenuhr, Wulff-Verlag, 1946 Fahrt durch das Chaos, 1946, Neuausgabe 2003 (Libelle Verlag) Zauber der Artemis, Alster Verlag, Wedel 1947 Maddo Clüver, Alster Verlag, Wedel 1947 Logbuch, Alster Verlag, Wedel 1948 Die Kukucksspucke, Verlag der Nation, 1954 Stine vom Löh, Novelle, Bertelsmann Verlag, Gütersloh 1953 Text in Bremen einst und jetzt. Eine Chronik, Eilers & Schünemann Verlag, 1955 Traum am Morgen, Kiepenheuer, Weimar 1955 Die Penaten, 1957