Johann Gurlitt und die ersten jüdischen Schüler am Johanneum

If you think of famous people of our school, the Johanneum, you tend to forget that some of them were Jewish. But they were only allowed to enter the school in the beginning of the 19th century. At this time the public school system received major changes. This also included the Jewish school system. Emancipation and the Enlightenment were importatnt for these changes. The first Jewish students were allowed at Johanneum when Johannes Gurlitt became its principal in 1802. Only Gurlitts reforms made it possible for Jewish students to visit the school. Nevertheless the Johanneum was the first school in Hamburg to allow Jewish studnets to study their. Other schools followed in the 1820s. To learn more about former Jewish students we went to the old library in our school. There we found original documents and sources. We are a group of students from Johanneum and for one week we researched about the first Jewish students at our school. And we also learned about Johannes Gurlitt who started this process. One of the most famous students was David Mendel who came from Göttingen to Johanneum in 1803. He was tutored by Gurlitt a lot. Two years later Mendel gave a speech in which he faught for the equality of Jews. Mendel was baptized in 1806 and from now on carried the name Johann August Wilhelm Neander. He was a professor for protestant church history. The librarian of Hamburg Library, Meyer Isler, was one of Gurlitts students. In the middle of the 19th century Isaak Wolfssohn was a student at Johanneum. Later he was the head of the Hanseatic Bar Council. For 30 years he was part of the Hamburg parliament and another 10 years at Reichstag. Two other students were the banker Gustav Heckscher and Gabriel Riesser who fought for equality and emancipation. The dermatologist Paul Gerson Unna visited the school in the late 19th century. He was famous for being one of the inventors on Nivea Creme. In 1973 the first Jewish teacher was appointed at Johanneum. His name was Adolf Wohlwill. He taught history. But stayed for only one year at Johanneum. It was because of Johannes Gurlitt that Jewish students were allowed at Johanneum. They were able to show their potential there. Many former Jewish students of our school shaped Hamburgs history and are famous even until today.