Altenkirchen, Kusel - Economy and Infrastructure - Education

Education

It is likely that there were efforts to introduce schooling into Altenkirchen even before the Thirty Years' War. Records show that in 1782, some 70 or 80 schoolchildren were being taught. The schoolhouse fell into disrepair and was renovated beginning in 1785. Schoolchildren from Dittweiler and Frohnhofen also attended lessons in Altenkirchen. In those days, the married teacher received as a year’s remuneration four Malter of grain, worth 16 Gulden, and also 10 Gulden in cash. He also received a Glockenkorn of grain worth 44 Gulden and 24 Gulden’s worth of wood. The schoolchildren also had to pay a school fee, which all together amounted to 10 Gulden. Furthermore, the teacher even worked a major cropfield and a meadow, bringing him a further 10 Gulden. In the 19th century, there were an “upper” school and a “lower” school, each one with an average of 60 pupils. Expenditures for teaching and learning materials and for the teacher’s own needs were suggested by the municipality and finalized by the Landkommissariat of Homburg, which usually raised the amount suggested by the municipality. In 1862, expenses for the upper school were assessed at 47.33 Gulden for the garden and fields, 5.00 Gulden for a cord of wood, 12.00 Gulden for the teacher’s dwelling and 285.27 Gulden from the municipal coffers. The 350.00 Gulden in school fees from the parents was no longer levied. The grand total was therefore 349.60 Gulden; the municipality had only wanted to pay 323.33 Gulden.

For the “second school” (or “preparatory school”), a similar pattern prevailed, along with a similar total, namely 350 Gulden. The municipality had great difficulty raising this sum, as the families in question mostly found it very hard to pay or could not pay at all. The 146 families owned on average about 3 ha of land each. In a municipal council decision, it says “…although it is very timely for the teacher’s support to be raised, it is also to be seen that the municipality is overburdened with costs.”

Of special importance is that schooling in Altenkirchen has a link with a famous revolutionary’s name: Daniel Hirsch. In 1835, Hirsch came to Altenkirchen as a young teacher, aged 21. He succeeded the old, alcoholic teacher Peter Dennis, an old playmate of the later king of Bavaria, Maximilian Joseph I, when Dennis had spent part of his childhood at Schloss Pettersheim in Herschweiler-Pettersheim. Hirsch himself was deemed to be a hardworking and successful teacher, but because of his participation in the 1849 Badish-Palatine Uprising, he was fired, and in 1850, he emigrated to the United States.

In the course of the 20th century, the school began by holding three classes. The teachers often complained about their inadequate living quarters. As a result of school reform after the Second World War, the school was expanded in 1970 to accommodate seven primary school classes, which were also attended by children from neighbouring villages. Hauptschule students have since then attended the Hauptschule at the Schönenberg-Kübelberg school centre. The Altenkirchen primary school has so far been retained.