Icking has had a grammar school for 100 years.
This anniversary was celebrated on Friday.
Due to the corona, however, only in the smallest group.
Icking - In the very first years it could happen that not only children were sitting in the classroom and a teacher was standing, but also chicks or cats were walking around.
The Rainer-Maria-Rilke-Gymnasium in Icking is now well equipped with everything a gymnasium needs - and can offer 780 pupils the choice between three directions with six language sequences.
"Isn't it almost a miracle?", Director Stefan Nirschl asked some invited guests at the 100th anniversary of his school, which took place on Friday in the smallest group.
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The much-invoked “Ickinger Geist”, in this case distilled into a strong liquor, for headmaster Stefan Nirschl - presented by Mayor Verena Reithmann (center) and her deputy Claudia Roederstein.
© Andrea Kästle
A good 20 visitors had come to the educational center.
In the first row sat Alfred Vogel, the son of the school founder - whose name was just like him and who started a family quite late with a second wife.
Vogel was visibly happy to be there at the anniversary - and when the official part was over after a good two hours, he was happy to tell about his father and his activities.
Promotion to the 100th
But first of all, the compiled festival program ran, which included eight speeches, a lot of music, an exhibition and the short version of a film that the Technik-AG gave their grammar school as a birthday present. Stefan Nirschl rolled out the history of the school. He had been promoted to senior university council on time for his 100th and received the relevant certificate that afternoon from the ministerial officer Brigitte Grams-Loibl.
Nirschl remembered the beginnings in a classroom that Vogel had set up on a farm.
22 boys and girls were the first pupils, they were Catholic and Protestant and they were of different ages.
Very early on, actually from the very beginning, the "Ickinger Geist" took effect in the matter: In order to obtain approval for the school operation, a parents' association that was quickly founded took over the sponsorship.
Now nothing stood in the way of expanding the “private higher education institution”.
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The "Bullrichvilla" was the first stone schoolhouse built by a committed father.
© Schweiger private archive
Exactly this "Ickinger spirit" was conjured up several times during the two hours of the small celebration. It stands for the cohesion between teachers and parents, teachers and students. They also worked together in 1949 when it came time to rebuild the school on the current site. Those involved must have sacrificed a few weekends for this, there are photos of them in the exhibition. The “Ickinger Geist” also ensures that the friends' association usually has enough cash in its coffers. And it was probably also the “Ickinger Geist” who induced a father to erect the school's first stone building, the so-called “Bullrichvilla”.
How those involved managed not to repeat themselves over and over again in their greetings will ultimately remain their secret.
In the end, the representatives of the parents' council, the support association and the teaching staff addressed various aspects of the checkered past of the school, which has been named after one of the most famous German poets since 2011.
100 years of Icking high school in numbers
Schoolchildren and teachers have done a lot of research on the eventful history of the Ickinger Gymnasium, including some figures that document the ever-lively school life: Since 1921, 106 plays have been performed at the Rainer-Maria-Rilke-Gymnasium, as the school has been called since 2011 125 concerts given. Classes went to the ski camp 516 times, 203 class and study trips took place. An estimated 8.5 million sandwiches were unpacked and eaten on the site. In addition, 1.2 million signatures were made by parents, students and teachers.
Third District Administrator Klaus Koch kept his remarks rather general and said: "We have to be socially responsible for school." Mayor Verena Reithmann (UBI), who was also the chairwoman of the Parents' Council on Ullrichstrasse for a while, made it clear: "The grammar school is the center of our community life." While the student representative Jahmin Chidi-Umeh did not take it for granted that he was allowed to speak: "The SMV had nothing to say here for a long time."
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The exhibition is worth a visit, for which a P-seminar and deputy headmistress Beate Demmelhuber also contacted former students.
She also does not omit the bitter years of National Socialism, in which, of course, Jewish students also had to leave school in Icking.
Not all teachers let themselves be internally brought into line - and some, as has been documented, broke down under the terror regime.
Big festival is to follow in 2022
While Alfred Vogel told everyone who wanted to hear that his father moved to Icking in 1912, was the private tutor of Erich Benjamin's children's sanatorium in Ebenhausen and had also opened a dormitory for schoolchildren, namely in Walchstadt, some of the guests had already moved to the ground floor, where there were snacks at high tables.
But the birthday is not over yet.
Headmaster Nirschl had promised right at the beginning: "Next year in September we will have a blast."
Andrea Kästle
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