The Städtische Werklehrer-Seminar in Berlin

At the beginning of the 1930s, Arnold Bode came into close contact with the reform pedagogical teachings of the Weimar Republic. His former professor for art education at the Kassel Art Academy, Hans Wilhelm Michel, was appointed director of the Berlin Städtische Werklehrer-Seminar in 1929 and was able to obtain Bode as a lecturer on May 1, 1930. Bode moved with his wife from Kassel to Berlin and taught the basic course "Prevocational Training in Surface - Space - Color – Black-and-White.” Two years later, on April 1, 1932, he had become deputy director of the institution7/9.

The reform pedagogically oriented, state-approved seminar was a department of Diesterweg University in Berlin. It had been established in May 1924 to further train Berlin teachers in handicrafts and manual work. Only municipal teaching staff who were on leave from teaching for training purposes were accepted. Similar to the Bauhaus, the subjects included woodworking, paperwork and bookbinding, metalwork, art needlework, writing, sketching, decorative and plastic design, work pedagogy, and theory of handicrafts. The technical courses were led by masters with artistic talent and pedagogical aptitude. Passing the examination enabled the graduates to give handicraft lessons at elementary schools as well as at secondary and higher schools.

The program gives insight into the educational orientation of the school.

In 1928, the Werklehrer-Seminar did not yet have had its own building and was spread out over four widely separated locations. Later, it was given premises at Jägerstraße 33 in Berlin-Mitte, where Michel and Bode would work.

Arnold Bode also prepared parties with his pupils by letting decorate entire rooms. Two rare photographs with his students at work bear witness to this. Festive decorations were also common practice at the Bauhaus.

On May 1, 1933, both Hans Wilhelm Michel and Arnold Bode were dismissed, accused of practicing unacceptable teaching methods. In addition, Bode's social democratic attitude (he had joined the SPD in 1930), was no longer compatible with the National Socialists’ concept.