Description:
The German school of Suceava was founded in 1784. The earliest archival records for the school date from 1883 when, on the occasion of the school's 100th anniversary, a ”school chronicle” book was started which gave the history of the school and recorded events affecting the school as they occurred (this Schul-Chronik is listed in our catalog as a separate item). The next items in the collection are individual class registers from 1894. Beginning with 1900 there are class registers for every year, though there are some gaps in the grades. By the turn of the 20th century, the school had a significant Jewish student body, in general it was attended primarily by German and Jewish boys. So, for example, in 1915 one first grade class had 61 students, of whom 26 were Jewish, 23 were Roman-Catholic, 7 were Greek-Catholic (Eastern Catholic), 4 were Protestant and 1 was Romanian-Orthodox. Of these 53 claimed German as their mother tongue (all the Jewish, Protestant, and most of the Catholic students plus, unusually, the one Romanian Orthodox pupil), 5 Ruthenian (Ukrainian), and 3 Polish. The other first grade class also had 61 students, of whom 27 were Catholic, 26 were Jewish, 5 were Eastern Catholic, and 3 were Protestant. Of these 56 claimed German as their mother tongue, 1 Ruthenian, and 4 Polish. The school was closed in the 1920s as a result of the Romanization measures introduced by the Romanian government.