Friedensau Missionary and Industrial School, Friedensau, Germany
By Otto Luepke
At the July meeting in Magdeburg (1898), it was voted to establish a school for the education of young men and women who had dedicated their lives to the Lord, to serve either as evangelical or medical missionary workers in the third angel’s message. The institution, in harmony with the Testimonies, was to be located in the country, and to offer an education in practical manual training. “Klappermuehle,” as it was called, was found located in the heart of Germany. This was a piece of land containing about ninety American acres, passing through whose meadows and forests is the Ihle, a stream furnishing the water-power for the grist-mill located on the estate. From the first, the health food factory, as well as the sanitarium opened in 1900, has been a help to the school, by furnishing opportunity to the students to engage in practical labor. The Friedensau school opened in November, 1898, with one teacher and seven pupils. During that year Dr. A. J. Hoenes began to teach in the nurses’ department, while the writer conducted the missionary course. The small schoolroom had only twenty-four seats; it also served as our meeting hall and office. Part of the sleeping apartments were in the garret. This was our school outfit—a modest beginning, with, however, an important educational influence. In 1900 followed two provisional dwellings,—used afterward as workshops,—and after July there was a two-room schoolhouse, which would accommodate about forty, and the attendance varied from thirty to forty, against twenty-two, the largest number in attendance the first year. Permanent conditions began to be established by the erection of the south wing of our present school building, in 1902. First of all, there was a larger room that would accommodate fifty pupils. On the second floor were living rooms for the lady students, while on the third floor the gentlemen lived. More teachers were now necessary to give the thorough instruction demanded. Until 1904 students with an excellent education, and two lady teachers for the English and Russian languages, were employed. In 1904 came the completion of the school building, furnishing us four class rooms, forty-nine living-rooms and workrooms, and a neat chapel, with a total value of from one hundred thirty to one hundred forty thousand marks. Every extension of our room was accompanied by a corresponding increase in our enrolment, so we can say that to-day our last place has been taken, as we have one hundred fifty students in the school. However, the school still seems small in comparison with the greatness of the German Union Conference, for which it is intended to train workers. During the history of the school we have sent about two hundred evangelical workers and one hundred nurses into the field. During the examinations of this school year, held last July, fifteen Bible workers, ten lady nurses, and five brethren who take up labor in other departments of the work, completed their courses. One of these brethren was drafted into the military service. The classes which finished their work in December, turned out nine nurses and sixteen Bible workers; that makes, in all, fifty-four workers who finished the two-year course in 1907. (The course included two years of instruction up to July—for those who have remained until now, it makes two and a half years.) The following studies have been taught: Bible and history in all courses; natural sciences, arithmetic, canvassing, Bible work, rhetoric, church order, and foreign languages. All these studies, have been obligatory, while those in the nurses’ department receive special scientific instruction in addition to the above. There are now twelve teachers. Two of these are occupied almost wholly in teaching the Bible; one has the German language; one has the natural sciences; two give their attention to foreign languages; three are engaged in the Russian department, which was opened in the autumn of 1906. The sanitarium physician and his two head nurses assist in the medical missionary department. A further extension of the school is planned for the future, which will mean a broader foundation for the elementary sciences, as well as a raising of the standard of the school. A continual advancement seems to us to be the only normal condition in the development of the school that serves the growing work of the third angel’s message.