Anni - The Perfect Wisdom Web

a n n ichildren. The following year too, when the little girl wasolder, and later, when a little brother came along, my wishremained the same. I drifted a little from this idea in theninth and tenth grades, but by the time I finished preparatoryschool I knew clearly that I wanted to become aYouth Director in a school or kindergarten.To prepare herself for this, Anni enrolled in the SozialeFrauenschule, a women’s college in Thale. Founded inthe years following World War I by Maria Keller, whoremained the school’s guiding spirit and its beloved FrauDirektorin, the college offered trainings that wouldenable young women to provide for themselves andcontribute to society. A generation of men had died in thewar, and many women would never be able to marry.In order to equip her students with the confidence theywould need as single women, Frau Direktorin set a hightone at the college, selecting her staff only from upper classfamilies. Students were required to curtsy whenever theysaw a teacher, even if only at a distance.By the time Anni began classes in 1929, the school hadaround a hundred students and offered courses of studyin social work, kindergarten teaching, home economics,and the administrative skills needed to manage a children’shome or school (the so-called Jugendleiterinnen,or “Youth Directors”). Although hands-on skills wereemphasized (Anni received lessons in cleaning a bath tuband packing a suitcase), Frau Direktorin’s main goal wasto help each girl become a Vollmensch –a complete individualwith the practical and inner resources for a fulfilled34