MEGAPHONE BERNFELD

YOUTH IS AVANT-GARDE

 

Tilo Steireif / SESSION 4 / MASTERTRANS / draft to follow presentation / 24 mai 2022

 

"The man who does what he likes best in his work is what we should call a cultured man”[1]. 

 

The aim will be to understand how Siegfried Bernfeld's pedagogical vision can inspire us today and to propose a device for freeing the thinking of youth in today's educational environment.

 

In the current context of a youth revolting against the political bankruptcy of environmental management and its democratic weakness, Bernfeld offers in my opinion a source of inspiration. His work is situated in the youth movements of the beginning of the 20th century in Austria and Germany and the development of working methods to sharpen an activism "for oneself" with the adolescents and young adults of his time.

Bernfeld was a young Jewish intellectual who became an important thinker in early 20th century youth culture. He produced a reflection on youth and its quest for autonomy. Youth culture is closely linked to the idea of school reform in Germany and Austria. It is thus from a criticism of the society and its system of education that his project is born, but also from an ideal of cultural revolution by the youth.

 

In order to understand his position, it is important to go back to his theses, his ideas and his youthful productions. But before that, it is useful to take note of his trajectory of life from schoolboy to researcher. Bernfeld was an Austrian psychoanalyst born in 1892, a disciple of Freud with whom he collaborated from 1923. He was a disciple of Freud, with whom he collaborated from 1923 onwards. He was exiled from Germany in 1933 to settle permanently in the United States in San Francisco.

He began to write about pedagogy at the age of 18 when he was still a high school student and active in youth movements. He participated in the Wandervögel (migratory birds) movement, based on the experience of life among peers and the need to get out of the industrial cities to get in touch with nature. The movement will have 25'000 members in 1914, with a multitude of political branches from the extreme left to the extreme right, including religious movements.

 

At the age of 29, he founded the Kinderheim Baumgarten near Vienna (1919-20), a school that welcomed 240 Jewish orphans aged 3 to 17 fleeing the pogroms in Russia. During this experience, he put into practice his theses on self-education and coeducation. He collected this experience under the regime of European anti-Semitism in "Das jüdische Volk und seine Jugend" (The Jewish people and their youth ,1919)[2] and in "Kinderheim Baumgarten. Bericht von einem ernsthaften Versuch mit Neuer Erziehung" (Baumgarten Children's Home. Report of a serious experiment with New Education, 1921). He writes about the role of the educator as it was during this period: (he) "does" much less, much later, much more discreetly than the other" (freely translated from "Kinderheim Baumgarten. Bericht von einem ernsthaften Versuch mit Neuer Erziehung" (Baumgarten Children's Home. Report of a serious experiment with New Education,1921, p. 34). In his book he says that the task of the "new" educator is to do nothing, to observe and to live with...

Peter Dudek, historian of education and Bernfeld[3] specialist, believes that if a book of the 20th century on pedagogy were to be chosen for the German Society of Educational Sciences (DGFE), it would unanimously be Siegfried Bernfeld's book "Sisyphus or the Limits of Education". If for the students of the post-sixties this book represents a classic, it will be taxed as too "psy" for the pedagogues or too "pedago" for the psychoanalysts. His status only re-emerges at the end of the 2000s, since even in Böhm's "Geschichte der Pedagogik" of 2004, Bernfeld does not appear. However, he was part of the controversy between Marxism and the Freudian left, whose most famous representatives are : Erich Fromm (1900-1989), Otto Fenichel (1897-1946) and Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957)[4].

 

In the summary published in paperback in French translation in 1975, we read: "in this text with a pamphleteering look (...) to the question: education for what, and for whom? The limits of education, he does not see them so much in the education of the child or in the person of the educator, but in its function within the capitalist society: education in its social function always has a conservative aspect and it undergoes the influences of the group of educators".

He evokes the relationship of education to society through the school in an eloquent way: "the social function of education consists in the biophysical and socio-economic structure of society as well as the cultural and intellectual achievements ... in this case, education is more than the preservation or reproduction of what has been achieved, it becomes a conservation with the aim of preventing any novelty (Bernfeld, 1973, p. 82 )[5]. His analysis is based henceforth on well established knowledge in psychoanalysis (but which will remain very controversial scientifically). One feels indeed a very personal essay with a Marxist and at the same time psychoanalytical vision.

 

THE YOUNG ACTIVIST AND SEARCHER

We will therefore be interested in the writings of a pupil and then a young student. In 1910 in Vienna, he founded his first review: "Das Classenbuch (1910)" (the class book). He recalls Goethe, who at the age of 60 felt that he had accomplished and learned more at the age of 24 than at a more mature age. The young Bernfeld continues: "If we take to heart what Goethe tells us, then we have an appreciation of all the ages of life and what these ages can bring forth”[6]. Later he will say that each age of existence in a given context and from certain points of view is superior to another age class. He is certainly under the influence of the pedagogue Gustav Wyneken[7] who is the founder of the idea of an independent youth culture and Bernfeld as well as Benjamin will serve as channels to spread these ideas to which they both adhered. Gustav Wyneken saw adolescents as an ideal age that should allow the "spirit of youth" to unfold in society and create its own art, its own philosophy, its own politics. There is no place for educators; it is a question of creating spaces for self-education[8].

 

It will be thereafter very controversial and Benjamin more than Bernfeld will break any link following the position of Wyneken in front of the entry in war of Germany in 1914. But without Wyneken the journal "Der Anfang"[9], which was intended to put into circulation a critique of pedagogy by the students themselves, would not have existed, nor would a radical posture that distanced itself completely from the conservative student movements attached to the aristocracy and Wilhelmian power.

He believes that the prevailing authoritarian system in education and in the family produces an impossibility to change society, because both institutions only reproduce the same system of hierarchy and submission. In this context, youth is not heard or even recognized. It cannot therefore produce new visions, a new ethic, or its own aesthetic. He tries to show that the youth is entitled to demand its own culture and in this sense, it needs a place of meeting and production. He also believes that society can be changed by youth.

In a pragmatic way, he thinks that it is through an intense critical work and artistic activity within the school system that young people can transform society. The idea of culture is part of a socialist and Marxist dialectic: the approach is opposed to the existing, to the culture inculcated in the students.  On the other hand, he believes in a renewal, an ethical evolution of society that could be brought about by an enlightened mind of the youth. His ideas are borrowed from various thinkers, including Gustav Wyneken and the followers of the Lebensreform.

The organization of youth is presented in his articles. He created structures such as the ACS "Das akademische Comité für Schulreform"[10], a committee that advocated the promotion of youth culture.

Youth culture must be developed and can only be developed through a strong self-help in the educational and cultural environment. When he founded the ACS in 1913, its function was to show the adult world that youth culture had a right to its own place and existence. This body was somewhat tactical, as Bernfeld imitated the academic institutes in a way, while he was still alone at the helm. In the same year, he wrote a text (1913) Ein Sprechsaal für Mittelschüler (a place for secondary school students to speak). He proposed that this place of discussion (which he would set up in Vienna) should take place outside the school and be inscribed between the family and the school as an independent territory.

Here is the content freely translated:

On behalf of the A.C.S., a Viennese member of the committee created the "Sprechsaal Wiener Mittelschüler", whose guiding principle is as follows:

The "Sprechsaal Wiener Mittelschüler"[11] is conceived as a center of free intellectual activity for Viennese secondary school students.

It allows everyone to talk about everything beyond the narrow circle of their acquaintances and classmates with their peers and peers of the same age. It allows everyone to give and receive new intellectual stimulation by communicating freely with younger and older colleagues and with each other.

This personal and intellectual interaction is regulated in the Vienna High School Conversation Room in such a way that at the meetings (currently weekly, on Saturdays from 6 to 8 p.m.), a high school student first gives a free lecture on a topic of general interest followed by a discussion; finally, questions concerning the administration of the conversation room (Sprechsaal) are answered - as necessary or suggested.

So far the following lectures have been given: youth culture, energy and ethics, modern poetry, the Esperanto movement, reproduction in art, the Wandervogel (I add, from the name of the group that participates: see first paragraph), a youth movement. Each of these was followed by a lively discussion, which provided material for discussion and exchange of opinions beyond the time available.

 

In 1911, he founded the magazine "Der Anfang", which was aimed at young people in the broadest sense of the word, since the magazine was distributed in Germany and Austria and had a strong echo even among teachers. It is critical texts addressed to the school by its users and also a sharing of real concerns of contemporary youth: desires, writings on art, artistic productions. It is also a place where young people can address directly the teachers, the school, the parents to share their concerns, to share their interest which is not heard. In this respect, it is important to say that the magazine was published in Berlin with Georges Barbizon as co-editor, and the editing was done at the home of the famous artist Käthe Kollwitz. The magazine had a great echo, because it was published in the same place as "Die Aktion"[12], the leading magazine of the artistic avant-garde at the time. Finally, in a third text written in 1914, Bernfeld refers to the "Jugendgemeinde" (1914), a youth community. A structure which allows to share interests, questions, criticisms, common themes. It is one of the sides with the "Freie Schulgemeinde", both being indispensable and complementary. On the one hand, there is the Reformed School with an interesting program that is in the interests of the learners. On the other hand, there is the Jugendgemeinde[13], a meeting place where the most burning issues of the day for young people are discussed. In the two-page text "Jugendbewegung", Bernfeld outlines his ideal program (for a youth movement): "Childhood and adolescence are not unnecessary stages of passage to adulthood, but necessary and independent stages of development.

 

In the spirit of Bernfeld, youth must not only free themselves from the problems and reflections of adults in order to bring their own, but also learn to listen to themselves, to produce for themselves a view of the world. Today, on rereading it, his program looks like a manifesto. Among its demands is the Sprechsaal, a place for young people who want to define themselves socially, politically and educationally. A place for young people to speak out, where they are neither disturbed nor instrumentalized. Another important figure shares his ideal of an emancipated youth in search of its own questions about society. It was Walter Benjamin who also established a Sprechsaal in Berlin.

 

The war was to break this momentum. The German and Austrian youth movements were erased from our memory, crushed by the only known ones in a uniform history of society based on the events of the armed conflicts (history of the victors and the defeated). From then on, we think of the extreme right-wing youths, subjected to a fascist and authoritarian ideal. As Benjamin evokes in "Experience and Poverty", the war (World War I) would have erased all capacities to recount experience and to think. The events so historically important today, did not allow those who were forced to return with an experience to share. This is why Benjamin speaks of the fall of the value of experience with the war.

 

If we re-read Bernfeld today then we can think of similar structures, and encourage them. Through Bernfeld's Sprechsaal, we can project ourselves into a critique of the school starting from its users, but also live a thought, a utopia or point out political and human urgencies. His program can inspire us to modify the adult-child relationship by means of varied spaces of emancipation within the school system, with this double articulation between the Schulgemeinde with autonomous artistic activities and the Jugendgemeinde where the unexpected can blossom.

Bernfeld writes not without a part of dazzlement in 1914 in the text (Jugendgemeinde) defending the free school community which by analogy to a community of artists will try to represent its culture. This work of representation or cultural and artistic expression gives him the idea that the school can be transformed into a work of art: "The vision of the school as a work of art is of such beauty compared to the general vision of the utilitarian school, that no one would want to think of this school in general terms (...) Thus, the problem of the free school community as a generalized educational institution seems to arise. With this question: are we faced with the danger of copying the single work of art? We are confronted with the possibility that the call "youth culture" is understood as "more youth culture". And the answer (...) will be to ignore the many, and to justify it (...): metaphysically, aesthetically, sentimentally or otherwise. (p. 91- 92)

 

Finally, his text of 1913 also, "Archiv für Jugendkultur". There also pioneer in his field, he realizes the importance of the writings and productions of the teenagers for historical, scientific and cultural purposes. He proposes four types of archives: 1). Descriptions and critiques of school life and its infrastructure. 2). Personal writings, visual productions, prints, flyers and protest documents. 3). Documents on the social and family, state and environmental context. 4). Memoirs, diaries, letters and correspondence, laws and traces of community life, minutes.

This archive serves as a source for publications in the magazine "Der Anfang". This explains the relevance of this journal at the time. He thinks of the archive as a heritage and specifies for whom the archive is intended to be well preserved: ACS, "Die Brücke" Internationales Institut zur Organisierung der geistigen Arbeit in München, Samelstelle für SchülerZeitung, Göttingen, to the editorial staff of the journal "Der Anfang". He also proposes a methodology in archiving inspired by Dewey, and specifies that it must be found a way of rapid dissemination in schools, through flyers, articles in school newspapers. He specifies that this archive must allow a scientific psychosocial research of the adolescence.

He will use these means of diffusion and his network to initiate his research. In 1916 his first scientific article appeared: "Über Schülervereine. Ein Beitrag zur Gruppenpsychologie und ihrer Methodik" (On school associations. A contribution to group psychology and its methodology), with 4 important questions emerging from his survey: What were your reasons for joining this association? What do you think this association has done for you? Which associations would you get involved in (also outside of school or student associations) if you were free to associate? What types of associations would you like to see if there were freedom of association?

 

One sees, therefore, in Bernfeld's trajectory, a great preoccupation to avoid the direct political question. By remaining rigorous in its pedagogical and scientific scope, it thus preserves for future generations relevant practices and reflections.

 

It is therefore the choice of a school that is not concerned with the successive inscription of generations in the economic and social sphere, but which invests it in creating visions for a radical transformation of society. Radical, in the sense that youth is conceived by Bernfeld as a silent part in society in search of a voice. It frees itself from the hegemonic world by a beneficial withdrawal, which requires space for a new critique of society, with a new approach.

It remains to make the links, between its utopia of school as a work of art that we can delegate to certain actors-actresses of the current society that they are teenagers, students or seniors.

 

Here is a first series of subjective solicitations in the form of a synthesis:

 

To set up a free school community today is to

 

1.Understanding adolescence as a unit that knows its own culture.

2.To bring out the issues without the intervention of pedagogues and teachers.

3.To question the double relationship: education/work and education/life.

4.To question democracy in the light of biopolitics.

5.To consider for a moment the school as a work of art created by them, because the culture that represents them must be represented.

6.To offer places detached from the school in the city to "deindustrialize" education.

7.To offer places in the school where people can talk.

8.To question the historical heritage of the school (anarchist thinkers).

9.Rebalance the action-repression relationship with the emerging generation (anarchist thinkers).

10.Educate those who dislike teenagers.

 

 

Bibliographic Sources:

 

Bernfeld S. writings in «Der Anfang»

Bernfeld S. (1975) .« Sisyphe ou les limites de l’éducation », Payot, Petite Bibliothèque, Paris.

Bernfeld S., (2011). «Jugendbewegung-Jugendforschung, Werke, Band 2», Psychosozial-Verlag, Giessen, p. 488.

Dudek P. (2012) « Er war halt genialer als die Anderen ». Biographische Annäherung an Siegfried Bernfeld». Psychosizial-Verlag.  

Cooramaswamy A. (1996) « La philosophie chrétienne et orientale d l’art », Ed. Pardès, p.27.

Barbizon, G. 1 (1911) . Die Aktion, n° https://archive.org/details/DieAktion01jg1911, consulté le 23 mai 2022

Der Anfang (1911-14) Archive de l’Université Goethe Frankfurt am Main.

http://sammlungen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/cm/periodical/titleinfo/2709933 

repéré le 3 mai 2020.

 

Dudek, P. (2002). « Fetisch Jugend. Walter Benjamin und Siegfried Bernfeld –Jugendprotest am Vorabend des Ersten Weltkrieges». Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt. 268 p.

Dudek, P.(2011). « Jugendbewegung – Jugendforschung. Werke, Band 2 », p.14. Psychosozial-Verlag, Giessen.

Schmid J.R., 1979, Le maître-camarade et la pédagogie libertaire.François Maspero, Paris.

Sandkühler Hans Jörg, (1970). «Psychoanalyse und Marxismus. Dokumentation einer Kontroverse. Theorie Suhrkamp Verlag.

 

 

[1] Tiré du Bhagavad Gità, in : Ananda Cooramaswamy (1996) « La philosophie chrétienne et orientale d l’art », Ed. Pardès, p.27.

 

 

[2] Following this experience, he will become one of the important theorists in the implementation of the Kibbuz in Palestine. Voir Ulrich Herrmann,(2011) « Nachwort », in : Siegfried Bernfeld, Jugendbewegung-Jugendforschung, Werke, Band 2, Psychosozial-Verlag, Giessen, p. 488.

 

 

[3]   Dudek Peter (2012) "Er war halt genialer als die Anderen". (He was greater than the others). Biographische Annäherung an Siegfried Bernfeld. Psychosizial-Verlag.  Siegfried Bernfeld's book "Sisyphus oder die Grenzen der Erziehung" (Sisyphus or the limit of education) was first published in 1925, Internationalen Psychoanalytischen Verlag, Leipzig, Vienna, Zurich.» It was only through the research and perseverance of a student, Alexander Mitscherlich, who circulated pirate prints (4,000 copies in 1967) that the book reappeared in colleges and universities, not without having been banned between 1933 and the end of the 1960s by the Nazis and the refusal to question their purges in academic circles. See Dudek's book on this subject, above. From 1973 onwards, it was reissued by Suhrkamp Verlag until its 12th edition in 2012 for a total of over 55,000 copies sold”, Dudek, p. (2012).

[4] See introduction of Sandkühler Hans Jörg, (1970) «Psychoanalyse und Marxismus. Dokumentation einer Kontroverse». Theorie Suhrkamp Verlag. Avec des textes de Bernfeld.

[5] Siegfried Bernfeld « Sisyphe ou les limites de l’éducation », a été traduit et publié en 1975, Payot, Petite Bibliothèque, Paris.

[6] 

 

 Freely translated, Bernfeld S. (2011) « Jugendbewegung – Jugendforschung. Werke, Band 2 », p.14. Psychosozial-Verlag, Giessen. Recueil des écrits de Bernfeld sous la dir. de Ulrich Herrmann.

[7] 

 

 See on this subject Dudek P. "Fetisch Jugend. Walter Benjamin und Siegfried Bernfeld -Jugendprotest am Vorabend des Ersten Weltkrieges". Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt. 2002. 268 p.

 

Gustav Wyneken worked with his wife as a teacher at the Landerziehungsheim Haubinda where he worked with Herman Lietz. In 1906 he founded the "Freie Schule Wickersdorf" together with Paulus Geheeb and later the "Odenwaldschule". In the school of Wickersdorf, 1906.

[8] See Schmid J.R., 1979, Le maître-camarade et la pédagogie libertaire. François Maspero, Paris.

 

 

[9] Der Anfang, Zeitschrift der Jugend (herrausgegeben von Georges Barbizon, Siegfried Bernfeld, Berlin, Wien.

 

L’ensemble des numéros sont disponible sur le site de l’université de Goethe Frankfurt am Main.

 

http://sammlungen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/cm/periodical/titleinfo/2709933 repéré le 3 mai 2020.

 

 

[10] P. 33-34, in: Bernfeld S. (2011) « Jugendbewegung – Jugendforschung. Werke, Band 2 », p.14. Psychosozial-Verlag, Giessen. Recueil des écrits de Bernfeld sous la dir. de Ulrich Herrmann.

[11]  P. 35, in: Bernfeld S. (2011) op. Cit.

[12] https://archive.org/details/DieAktion01jg1911, consulté le 23 mai 2022.

 

 

[13] p. 91-98. Dudek, P.  (2011) Bernfeld S. , Op. Cit.