STEIN IN HISTORY: THE 1960S
Part II of the interview between principal Theresia Schilling and Mrs. Angelika Ziegler, the former first lady of the boarding school Schloss Stein .
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Theresia Schilling in conversation with Angelika Ziegler - a former pupil from the very beginning and the school's "first lady" for many years Schloss Stein
Angelika Ziegler was born in Berlin in 1936; her parents were actors. In 1942, like so many others, she had to leave Upper Silesia with her mother and little brother. The Russians were closing in. The three of them were on their way to their mother's sister in Chiemgau under extremely dangerous conditions when they were caught in a low-flying air raid at the train station in Salzburg. But eventually they ended up with their relatives overseas.
The question of a school for their daughter soon arose! Where can you find a grammar school in the countryside, and for a girl too?
She was finally accepted in Marquardstein. The boarding school was completely overcrowded due to the large number of refugee children and therefore had a branch near Grabenstätt in an estate. This is where the lower school was moved to.
Here, on the first day of her school visit, Angie met a very likeable girl: Isolde Wiskott.
The two girls liked each other straight away and were inseparable from then on. Iso came from Stein an der Traun and was a spoiled "lady of the castle", in Angelika Ziegler's words. But at the time, Schloss was in American hands and served as an officers' mess. The family was quartered out! She had to live in a small apartment near Stein .
Mrs. Ilse Wiskott - Iso's mother - visited the children often and enjoyed reading them stories, taking them for walks and spending time with them.
During one of these visits, she uttered the well-known phrase: "Children, let's make our own school!"
After much effort, bureaucracy and hard work, she was actually able to turn her plan into reality: The Schloss was actually allowed to become a school with a boarding school after the family returned.
Mrs. Wiskott knew how boarding school works from the boarding schools of her older children (including Olaf Ziegler, who would eventually take over from his mother).
It all started with a handful of children.
Angie wasn't there straight away, she had to beg her father for a long time because he thought that Mrs. Wiskott had no idea about education. In the end, however, he gave in to Angie and Iso's pleas and the friends were finally reunited.
The hygienic conditions in the old school were anything but good, no hot water, vermin, once a week the children were showered off, with cold water, mind you. In contrast, Schloss was a paradise for the children.
The school and boarding school were officially founded in 1948: School Schloss Stein .
It was run in the style of the country's educational institutions and the school offered the grammar school program of the time. For a long time, students were not allowed to take their Abitur exams at the school - in the beginning, they even had to travel to Munich to do so. Mrs. Wiskott and the teachers were proud of their pupils, who passed their exams with flying colors.
Even back then, there was a brewery and a farm next to the school.
Until her untimely and completely unexpected death in 1964, Mrs. Ilse Wiskott worked as a school board member at "her" boarding school. You can expect more about her years of work in the 50s and 60s in other blog articles in the near future.
Part II of the interview between principal Theresia Schilling and Mrs. Angelika Ziegler, the former first lady of the boarding school Schloss Stein .
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