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Kurt Hahn
Kurt Matthias Robert Martin Hahn (5 June 1886 – 14 December 1974) was a German educator. He was decisive in founding Stiftung Louisenlund, Schule Schloss Salem, Gordonstoun, Outward Bound, the Duke of Edinburgh's Award, and the first of the United World Colleges, Atlantic College.
Kurt Matthias Robert Martin Hahn was born on 5 June 1886 in Berlin to Jewish parents. He attended school in the city, then universities at Oxford, Heidelberg, Freiburg and Göttingen.
During World War I, Hahn worked in the German Department for Foreign Affairs, analyzing British newspapers and advising the German Foreign Office. He had been private secretary to Prince Max von Baden, the last Imperial Chancellor of Germany, and in 1919 was part of the German delegation to the Paris Peace Conference, where, as secretary and speechwriter for the German minister of Foreign Affairs, Graf Brockdorff-Rantzau, he witnessed the creation of the Treaty of Versailles.
In 1920 Hahn and Prince Max founded Schule Schloss Salem, a private boarding school in Baden-Württemberg in south-western Germany, where Hahn served as headmaster until 1933 and Adolf Hitler's rise to power. Hahn was raised Jewish, and began his fierce criticism of the Nazi regime after the Potempa murder of 1932, when Stormtroopers attacked and killed a young communist in the presence of his mother. The Stormtroopers were originally sentenced to death, but when they were given amnesty and celebrated by the Nazis, Hahn spoke out against Hitler publicly. He asked the students, faculty, and alumni of the Salem school to "choose between Salem and Hitler". As a result, he was imprisoned for five days, from 11 to 16 March 1933.
After an appeal by the British Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald, Hahn was released and in July 1933 he was forced to leave Germany and moved to the United Kingdom.
Hahn settled in Scotland, where he founded Gordonstoun on similar principles to the school in Salem. Later Hahn converted to Christianity, became a communicant member of the Church of England in 1945, and preached in the Church of Scotland.
Hahn was also involved in the foundation of the Outward Bound Organisation with Lawrence Holt, Atlantic College in Wales and the wider United World College movement, and the Duke of Edinburgh's Award. An international organisation of schools aligned with Hahn's educational philosophy was initially to be called The Hahn Schools but is today known as Round Square.
After World War II, Hahn divided his time between Britain and Germany. He founded or inspired the founding of several new boarding schools based on the principles of Salem and Gordonstoun: Anavryta, Greece (1949); Louisenlund, Germany (1949); Battisborough, England (1955); Rannoch School, Scotland (1959); Box Hill School, England (1959); International School Ibadan, Nigeria (1963); and The Athenian School, USA (1965).
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Kurt Hahn
Kurt Matthias Robert Martin Hahn (5 June 1886 – 14 December 1974) was a German educator. He was decisive in founding Stiftung Louisenlund, Schule Schloss Salem, Gordonstoun, Outward Bound, the Duke of Edinburgh's Award, and the first of the United World Colleges, Atlantic College.
Kurt Matthias Robert Martin Hahn was born on 5 June 1886 in Berlin to Jewish parents. He attended school in the city, then universities at Oxford, Heidelberg, Freiburg and Göttingen.
During World War I, Hahn worked in the German Department for Foreign Affairs, analyzing British newspapers and advising the German Foreign Office. He had been private secretary to Prince Max von Baden, the last Imperial Chancellor of Germany, and in 1919 was part of the German delegation to the Paris Peace Conference, where, as secretary and speechwriter for the German minister of Foreign Affairs, Graf Brockdorff-Rantzau, he witnessed the creation of the Treaty of Versailles.
In 1920 Hahn and Prince Max founded Schule Schloss Salem, a private boarding school in Baden-Württemberg in south-western Germany, where Hahn served as headmaster until 1933 and Adolf Hitler's rise to power. Hahn was raised Jewish, and began his fierce criticism of the Nazi regime after the Potempa murder of 1932, when Stormtroopers attacked and killed a young communist in the presence of his mother. The Stormtroopers were originally sentenced to death, but when they were given amnesty and celebrated by the Nazis, Hahn spoke out against Hitler publicly. He asked the students, faculty, and alumni of the Salem school to "choose between Salem and Hitler". As a result, he was imprisoned for five days, from 11 to 16 March 1933.
After an appeal by the British Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald, Hahn was released and in July 1933 he was forced to leave Germany and moved to the United Kingdom.
Hahn settled in Scotland, where he founded Gordonstoun on similar principles to the school in Salem. Later Hahn converted to Christianity, became a communicant member of the Church of England in 1945, and preached in the Church of Scotland.
Hahn was also involved in the foundation of the Outward Bound Organisation with Lawrence Holt, Atlantic College in Wales and the wider United World College movement, and the Duke of Edinburgh's Award. An international organisation of schools aligned with Hahn's educational philosophy was initially to be called The Hahn Schools but is today known as Round Square.
After World War II, Hahn divided his time between Britain and Germany. He founded or inspired the founding of several new boarding schools based on the principles of Salem and Gordonstoun: Anavryta, Greece (1949); Louisenlund, Germany (1949); Battisborough, England (1955); Rannoch School, Scotland (1959); Box Hill School, England (1959); International School Ibadan, Nigeria (1963); and The Athenian School, USA (1965).