GOA

Gymnasium Oberalster is the name of the high school I graduated from. Last Friday, I was in Hamburg to attend a party celebrating the 77th anniversary of GOA's foundation. This was the postponed festivity due to Corona for the 75th anniversary of 2020.

©GOA

The name of the school has changed many times over the years. It was actually founded on September 11, 1944, on a hill above the banks of the upper Alster River as Langemarck-Schule. The school survived Germany's defeat in May 1945 and was refounded on October 2, 1945, as Oberschule für Jungen und Mädchen in Poppenbüttel* (Higher School for Boys and Girls).
*A Hamburg suburb in the north

The school chronicle was on sale.

In 1953 the name became Wissenschaftliche Oberschule in Poppenbüttel, underlining the scientific orientation. On April 24, 1957, the high school became Gymnasium in Poppenbüttel; the gymnasium is a designation of German schools that lead to the general entrance qualification in universities, the Abitur. When the nearby suburb of Sasel complained that all premises of the school were not located in Poppenbüttel but on its territory, the "final "name settled down to Gymnasium Oberalster on May 22, 1963.

In his welcome speech, the school principal Dr. Martin Widmann said that the letters GOA stand for more than just the building. The education at the GOA is characterized by three virtues:

- Gemeinschaft pflegen (foster companionship)
- Orientierung bieten (offer orientation)
- Aktives Lernen (active learning)

Companionship was the essential attitude of my former class, engraved by our initial class teacher. The Klassengemeinschaft (class community) still drives our yearly class reunions.

What a change for the other two virtues. Individual orientation in the 1950s did not exist because everybody had to follow either a language-orientated or a scientific teaching branch. Concerning my "orientation," I recall a short conversation with my class teacher in my last year in school where he expressed the hope I may become a teacher. Nope.

Active learning in my days was limited. I remember we had to read an English book and write an essay afterward, or should I call a working group on oil painting active learning?

Young folks animated the jubilee party, but it was somewhat disappointing for us old. Red Baron was the second age group that "passed the Abitur" in 1954. Nobody was there from the year before (Abi53), so my friend Wulf and I were the oldest "Abiturienten." 

©GOA

We had to stand up - not easy at our age - and got an ovation from the audience.

Distribution of meeting rooms

Later, we assembled in a room with all those who graduated before 1960. I learned that there was nobody of the 1955 vintage and only a few of Abi56. Too sad.

Jens Baggesen, Danish-German poet

I left the party at 9 p.m. and walked my old way from school back home toward the S-Bahn station Poppenbüttel.

I took a photo of my parents' house on Baggesenstieg 6, where I lived from 1947 to 1954. The new owners had transformed the building, so I nearly did not recognize it.

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