Abstract
On the afternoon of August 24, 1946, a plane carrying the tenmember U.S. education mission to Germany landed in the war-torn city of Berlin. Chaired by the president of the American Council on Education George Zook and comprised of such nationally renown educators as theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, U.S. Office of Education official Bess Goodykoontz, and president of the George Peabody College for Teachers Henry H. Hill, the mission had been invited by the U.S. State Department to “observe and evaluate” America’s effort in reconstructing educational institutions in Germany following World War II. Spending almost four weeks visiting elementary, secondary, and vocational schools, as well as universities in the American zone of occupation, mission members interviewed U.S. military officials, German teachers, pupils, and professors, and toured the burned-out remains of school buildings. The result of their visit was a 50-page report on the U.S. program to rebuild Germany’s educational system in the immediate postwar era.1
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© 2009 Noah W. Sobe
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Dorn, C., Puaca, B. (2009). “The Appeal to the German Mind”: Educational Reconstruction in the American Zone of Occupation, 1944–49. In: Sobe, N.W. (eds) American Post-Conflict Educational Reform. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230101456_5
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