Hermann Lietz

Who was Hermann Lietz?

Hermann Lietz was a German educational progressive and theologian who founded the German Landerziehungsheime für Jungen.

In 1898 he taught at the progressive Abbotsholme School for boys, founded in Derbyshire, England, in 1889 by Cecil Reddie. Lietz was impressed by the Abbotsholme system of education, which combined comprehensive individual instruction with physical exercise and recreation. By 1904 he had founded three Landerziehungsheime, based on Reddie’s model, for boys of different ages, in Ilsenburg, Haubinda, and Bieberstein. Lietz eventually succeeded in establishing five more Landerziehungsheime.

Like the Abbotsholme model, Lietz emphasized sports, crafts, modern languages and science, while de-emphasizing rote learning and classical languages. He was a student of Wilhelm Rein, and was himself an influence on Gustav Wyneken, Elisabeth Rotten, and Kurt Hahn. His school was also attended by Elisabeth von Thadden. Lietz's liberalism extended to education and criticism of class privilege only. He was otherwise politically right wing and distrusted socialism, parliamentary politics, and the influence of urban life.