Clara Grunwald Collection

Clara Grunwald was born in Rheydt, Germany, in 1877. She was the eldest of eleven children of the textile merchant Bernhard Grunwald and his wife Rosalie (née Aberle). Clara Grunwald attended a girls’ school and a teacher training college. After graduating in 1896 she taught in Berlin. Under the influence of Maria Montessori, Grunwald founded the Volkskinderhaus in Berlin-Wedding and lectured widely on the Montessori Method in Germany. She was prevented from teaching by the Gesetz zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums (Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service) in 1933. In 1941 Grunwald started teaching at the hachshara farm Landwerk Neuendorf im Sande. She was deported on April 19th, 1943, as part of Transport no. 37 from Berlin to Auschwitz, where she was murdered.

Margarethe Lachmund was born on September 17, 1896, in Woldegk, Germany, and died on October 14, 1985, in Cologne. She was trained as a teacher and initially was a member of the conservative Deutschnationale Volkspartei before becoming active in left-wing causes, partially in reaction to the Kapp-Putsch and to the assassination of Walter Rathenau. During the Third Reich, Lachmund was active in the resistance and Quaker underground and had close relations with Jews who remained in Germany, such as Clara Grunwald. After the war, Lachmund was a prominent peace activist.