The
Business and Trade School
~Furnishing the School with Teaching
Agents
by Peter Lang
Translated by Brad Schwebler
Apprentice School
The craftsmen of Beschka asserted that a trade
school would be built in the village as recently
as the turn of the century. When Georg Mahler
was apprentice he slowly hugged a fellow married
student on the apprentice school bench, and
played a joke on their teacher Spaniel. It
drove him crazy. It was in the school at No. 69
Reiter Square, which as already mentioned, was
formally the city hall and had a vault from that
time. In this vault teacher Spaniel wanted to
lock up a sinner during the instruction. The
apprentice followed him without resistance, but
as the teacher locked up the kitchen, the
apprentice pushed him into the vault, closed the
door, and calmly went home. First, after a
while the remaining apprentices freed their
teacher from his misery. From then on teacher
Spaniel received police protection during the
lessons. However, the next time nothing more
happened. On the contrary, there were
apprentices who were very eager and far exceeded
the quota in mathematics. Architect Beck had,
for example, an apprentice by the same name from
Bulkes, who I asked such difficult questions for
the examination that the principal Jovanovic
wanted to intervene against it, for which I
assured him that the apprentice was competent
and it should be felt as an honor to receive a
difficult problem which he also solves. Another
18 year old amazed me with his honest
character. During one hour I had to write
something I instructed Prpic to pay attention to
the others. But he said to me he did not want
to betray his comrades because of a prank. The
class waited tensely for what was coming next.
But I only praised Prpic and no longer used an
observer. The apprentice and trade schools were
divided for 3 years. Each student nine hours
each week. Twice for 3 hours on weekday
evenings and unfortunately also for three hours
at a time on Sunday afternoons. There was still
no youth protection at the time. The political
community paid very well for these hours. An
uneducated worker was rewarded with a full days
wage for one hour. The instruction was also a
worthwhile spare-time occupation for the
teacher. Each teacher took part in it and each
one chose the specialty that he mastered the
best. Business and trade laws were taught by
Starcevic, drafting was taught by Stojadinovic,
handwriting was taught by Bächer, Serbian
language was taught by Buta, and mathematics
with geometry as well as physics and chemistry
were taught by me – Peter Lang. The instruction
was supervised by the principal and the chamber
of commerce. In 1941 the trade school was also
German. German instruction was now given by
Vikar Poglitsch. But because many master
craftsmen were inducted by the Nazi SS, the
number of apprentices fell sharply, which is why
the school was temporarily closed in the fall of
1943.
Equipping the School with Teaching Aids
Thanks to the
generous furnishing of the trade school as well
as the public school with the necessary teaching
material such as land maps, apparatus for
physics, chemistry, geometry and so forth it was
not worse equipped than the schools in Germany.
Only blackboards should have been bigger. One
Siemens narrow gauge film projector – my old
dream – I could purchase in 1942. For the
principal’s office I bought a typewriter. The
local school council approved both large
acquisitions, after which I showed them teaching
films with the projector. Foreseeing the
structural changes at the school and service
apartment I could no longer acquire anything
because of the material shortages in the war.
