Description:1. history of the associationsIn Prussia there was no municipal or state school for girls until 1909, which led to the higher education entrance qualification. The daughter schools had both different curricula and different goals from the boys' grammar schools. Although all universities had admitted women as listeners since 1899, Prussia could hardly decide to give the girls the same school education as the boys. Helene Lange was the first to set up courses leading to university entrance qualifications. They were attended by women who had completed the daughter's school or private lessons. The pupils had to make up for the lack of knowledge in 3 - 4 years, i.e. the school-leavers were often older than 20 years. The Cologne association Mädchengymnasium had set itself the goal of establishing a complete, nine-class girls' grammar school in order to give the girls the opportunity to obtain the university entrance qualification at the same time as the boys. The model was the Mädchengymnasium in Karlsruhe, founded by the women's association Reform. After preliminary discussions, the association members began their activities in 1899 to found a girls' grammar school: they collected money, won friends and sponsors and contacted the responsible authorities. After several unsuccessful submissions, the Prussian Minister of Education finally allowed the Cologne Association to establish a six-class grammar school in 1903, which could accommodate girls from the age of 12. The Cologne school was thus the first girls' grammar school in Prussia. The associations in other Prussian cities had been satisfied with the establishment of "courses", because they had considered the resistance of the state insurmountable. 1905 the first pupils of the Mädchengymnasium were able to graduate from the school as the Kölner Verein had prepared some girls in a family school. Mathilde von Mevissen was the driving force behind the Madchengymnasium association, and one could say that without her and her colleague, archive director Joseph Hansen, the Gymnasium would not have come into being. Mathilde von Mevissen also donated considerable sums to the school and rented the first school building at the Apostles' Monastery.After consultation with the other members of the association, Josef Hansen not only wrote the submissions to the ministry, but also, like Mathilde von Mevissen, held personal talks with the responsible authorities in Koblenz and Berlin.1908 after the school reform of 1908, the city of Cologne took over the school after fierce debates in the city council.1909, after the association had reached its goal, it changed into the association Frauenstudium (formerly Mädchengymnasium) and devoted itself to new tasks. Thought up the promotion of women's studies to the program and awarded scholarships. He benefited from an inheritance from Pauline Christmann, but other patrons also financed study grants. However, inflation later destroyed the association's assets. It is not clear from the files available when exactly the association ceased its activities. Both the Mädchengymnasium association and the Frauenstudium association that emerged from it have always had very good relations with the city archives; in fact, they were founded in the archive building at the Gereonskloster 12. Archive Director Joseph Hansen was a member of the Executive Board. His wife, Johanna Hansen, was chairman of the association Frauenstudium for many years. City archivist Hermann Keussen was co-founder of the association Frauenstudium, archive secretary Philipp Nottbrock produced the fair copies of the submissions to the ministry (the editor knows his handwriting).2. Registry and order procedureMost of the files were stored as stock 1067, Cologne association Frauenstudium (formerly Mädchengymnasium) in 8 overfilled boxes in the magazine.When exactly they reached the archive can no longer be determined. Possibly some files of the association Madchengymnasium were stored here from the beginning - no wonder with the good relations. However, a finding list only shows 14 files of the association Frauenstudium, 8 files of the Pauline-Christmann-Stiftung as well as 1 file "Feierliche Begebenheiten 1924/25 ". Except for this list, there was no directory. Only issue 47 of the Mitteilungen aus dem Stadtarchiv von Köln (1963) contains a brief overview of the holdings: some files were already neatly bound (thread-stitching), but most of them were found in the most varied formations: they lay in folders or envelopes, loosely in a large subfolder or tied with silk ribbons. Sometimes bound files were enriched with loose documents. Often files had to be created first. The first review revealed that the collection contained not only the files of the associations Mädchengymnasium and Frauenstudium, respectively, but was also enriched with correspondence from Mathilde von Mevissens on various women's issues as well as with documents from other association members, who were often active in several associations at the same time. Therefore, the files were first roughly presorted and divided into 3 groups (girls' grammar school, women's studies, other associations etc.). It was recommended not to divide the files into several smaller holdings, as some of them were kept continuously (the members of the associations Mädchengymnasium and Frauenstudium were for the most part the same). Some of the files were only added to the collection in 1989 and 1990. 3 larger boxes of files were stored as an estate of Mathilde von Mevissen in the university library. Further files were later found by Dr. Quarg during clearing work and were also handed over to the archive (acc. 1792 and 1877). I had looked through the then still disordered appendix of the estate of Gustav von Mevissen and added those files to the holdings of 1067 which belong to the association files. Two further files were handed over in December 1990 by Dr. Groten, the processor of the Mevissen estate. The list shows the former storage location of the files in question and the form of recording varies. In most cases, analysis has been chosen, particularly because of the numerous letters in the collection. The bundles were occasionally labelled, but the description did not always correspond to the actual content. The old file title - marked by quotation marks - has only been retained if it makes a statement about the actual content. Apart from content and date, the scope of the file is indicated. Most documents are handwritten, written in ink on good paper, duplicates and prints are the exception. The paper formats, especially the numerous private letters, are of great diversity - usually smaller than A4 - and do not correspond to today's standards. The archives date mainly from the period between 1899 and about 1924, when the associations Mädchengymnasium and Frauenstudium were active. Only a few earlier or later documents can be found in the files. The collection comprises 343 files in 14 boxes as well as 1 folder with four pictures. In this folder (black with silver overprint "Erinnerungen an meinen Theuern Vater, geboren 20. Mai 1815, died 13. Aug. 1899") the archives no. 315-320 were found, which were taken out for reasons of storage technology. not preserved are pupils' lists or school report lists of the girls' high school. these files were possibly handed over after the takeover of the school by the city and must, like the files of the school, be counted as war losses. The names of the schoolgirls who paid school fees in the period 1903-1908 are preserved in the "Kassenbuch" (1067/91). Johannes Kreutzer has listed the names of the high school graduates in his school history, and the indexing work begun in 1986 took several years. An initial interruption of several months took place to await the progress of the clean-up work in the university library and possible access to files. In 1988 the production of the finding aid book had to be stopped completely because of another work. In 1989 Monika Voigt was able to write most of the finding aid book. The amendments and corrections were not completed until 1993. The final work (introduction, register, concordance) could finally be done with PC and software of the Heinrich Böll Foundation. Cologne, May 10, 1994, M. Fäuster3. Sources on the history of the associations and the schoolThe files of the Studienanstalt, the Merlo-Schule and also those of the Kaiserin-Augusta-Schule before 1945 were - as far as they had not already been lost before - almost completely destroyed in the World War.a) Historical archive of the city of Cologne:Chronicles and representations 511 and 511aBestand 551 (some few, very thin files)b) Hauptstaatsarchiv Düsseldorf: Regierung Köln, Nr. 7404c) Landeshauptarchiv Koblenz: fonds 405. under the designation "Merlo-Mevissenschule" also the files about the girls' high school before 1924 are filed there.d) It has not yet been checked whether files of the responsible Prussian ministry have been preserved.references:Apel, Hans-Jürgen, Sonderwege der Mädchen zum Abitur im Deutschen Kaiserreich, in: Zeitschrift für Pädagogik, 34. Jg., 1988, No. 2, p. 171-189.Braun, Lily, The Women's Question, its Historical Development and its Economic Side. With an introduction by Beatrix W. Bouvier. Reprint of the first edition published in 1901 by Verlag Hirzel, Leipzig, Berlin, Bonn 1979.Centralblatt für die gesamte Unterrichtsverwaltung in Preußen, 1899, pp. 371-404.Dertinger, Antje, Die bessere Hälfte fights for her right. The women's claim to employment and other self-evidences, Cologne 1980 - The article about Hildegard Wegscheider shows, among other things, very nicely how difficult it was for girls to obtain a grammar school education and the right to study.Eckert, Li, Mathilde von Mevissen. Memorial speech held in the Gürzenich on 12 October 1924, edited by the Association of Cologne Women's Associations (Stadtverband). Festschrift zum 25 jährenten Bestehen der gymnasialen Studienanstalt 1903-1928, Köln 1928.Greven-Aschoff, Die bürgerliche Frauenbewegung in Deutschland 1894-1933, Kritische Studien zur Geschichtswissenschaft 46, Göttingen, 1981.Gymnasialklassen für Mädchen in Köln, in: Praktische Sozialpolitiker aus allen Ständen vom Throne bis zur Werkstätte, Cöln (1909).Hundred Jahre Hildegard-von-Bingen-Schule, Köln (1988).Hundred Jahre Mädchen-Gymnasium in Deutschland. Published by: City of Karlsruhe, G. Braun. (Karlsruhe 1993)Annual reports of the municipal Merlo-Mevissen-Schule, Lyzeum with a secondary school in Cologne on the Rhine, school years, 1926/27,- 1929/30, presented by the director of the institution, headmaster Carola Barth, Cologne 1927 ff.Kailer, Gerhard, girls' education and women's studies. The founding of the first German girls' grammar school in Karlsruhe and the beginnings of women's studies at Baden universities (1890-1910), in: Zeitschrift für die Geschichte des Oberrheins, edited by the Commission for Historical Regional Studies in Baden-Württemberg, 140th volume, Stuttgart 1992, pp. 361 - 375.Kettler, Johanna, "Die Wettbewerb der Frau", 1890, "Gleiche Bildung für Mann und Frau", 1891, in : Die Frau ist freigeboren, Texte zur Frauenemanzipation, hg and commented by Hannelore Schröder, vol. 2, 1870 - 1918. Beck'sehe Schwarze Reihe, vol. 231, Munich 1981. The introduction to this text reads as follows: "In 1893 the association Frauenbildungsreform, which was led by her, founded the first German girls' high school in Karlsruhe. Despite bitter counter-reactions and slander, girls' high schools were founded in Berlin, Cologne, Wroclaw, Hanover, Leipzig and Bremen until 1900. This representation is not correct. There was no girls' grammar school in Cologne, only grammar courses in Berlin and other places in Prussia. Kindheit in Köln, Die Bestände des Kölnischen Stadtmuseums, bearbeitet von Helmut Hane, Köln, 1989.Kleinertz, Everhard, Joseph Hansen, in: Joseph Hansen, Preußen und Rheinland von 1815-1915, Dokumente und Darstellungen zur Geschichte der Rheinischen Provinzialverwaltung und des Landschaftsverbandes Rheinland, 4, Köln, 1990.Kleinertz, Everhard, Joseph Hansen (1862-1943), in: Rheinische Lebensbilder, Bd. 13, Köln 1993.Schenk, Herrad, Die feministische Herausforderung. 150 Years of the Women's Movement in Germany: Beck's Black Row 213, Munich 1983, Negotiations of the City Assembly of Cologne, 1902 and 1908, Vogt, Helmut, Zur Geschichte des Höheren Schulwesens m Köln-Kalk von 1896-1938, in: Rechtsrheinisches Köln. Vol. 15. 1989. S. 101-128.Voss, Ludwig, History of the Higher Girls' School. General school development in Germany and history of the higher schools for girls in Cologne, Opladen, 1952.Wagner, Rita, Cöln. The Social Conditions around 1900, Cologne 1989.Weber-Kellermann, Ingeborg, Die deutsche Familie, Versuch einer Sozialgeschichte. Frankfurt 1974 Weiland, Daniela, History of Women's Emancipation in Germany and Austria. Hermes Handlexikon, Düsseldorf, 1983.
