Teaching Gender in Social Work - MailChimp

In the middle of the page we see a photo depicting students in the rooftop
garden, one of the first in the city of Berlin (figure 19). This illustrates
the character of the school as does the class of students in front of the school
who are wearing their so called Reformkleidung, that is, the modern clothing
favoured before World War I instead of the restrictive clothes of the Wilhelminian
area (figure 20). Finally you can see the façade of the house, built in 1914
(figure 21). Let us keep this picture in mind; the modern architecture differs
from the neo-gothic style of the surrounding buildings that was typical of the
imperial period. I will come back to this later.
First, however, we proceed with the album: The following pages show
another aspect of school life, namely the boarding school, a necessity because
it encouraged parents of foreign students to allow their daughters to study in
the big city of Berlin (figure 22). The last page referring to school life contains
pictures of educational tours and leisure time at a house in the country (figure
23). As you can see these photos were made in the 1920s; the students appear
self-confident and modern, as does the architecture (figure 24). 6
Before looking at the second part of the album I would like to emphasise
this modernity, one of self-confidence and pride combined with a kind of
modesty. This is the first impression we receive from these pictures of the
Soziale Frauenschule, later called the Alice Salomon School. The same impression
is also suggested by the material form of the album.
6
Cf. Despina Stratigakos, A Women’s Berlin: Building the Modern City (Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota
Press, 2008), (especially “Chapter V: The Architecture of Social Work,” 137-167).
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