Part of the Hamburger Illustrierte Zeitung, 1922, Loheland Foundation Archive

Loheland was founded in 1919 as a school for adult education, following seven years of research and evaluation around the concept of body education by Hedwig von Rohden and Louise Langgaard. These evaluations were conducted from 1912 as they began teaching in schools they named the "Seminar für klassische Gymnastik". Without a permanent residence of their own, they were frequently relocating across various parts of Germany. In the spring of 1919, these two visionary women finally found a large area of land in the highlands of the Rhön, situated in the heart of Germany, where the school was subsequently settled. Formal classes began in September 1919 and over the next decade the project developed with great speed.

The „Loheland school for body education, agriculture and craft“ specifically aimed to encourage women to develop their abilities and individual talents, promoting the belief that they should be in a position to shape their socio-cultural environment in an independent manner: Loheland as a place for the education of freedom and social responsibility.

The decades of research archived by the women of Loheland, called “Loheländerinnen”, influenced the professional and  general education politics with lasting effect. One of the distinguishing marks of their approach was the integration of theory and practice: research, testing, evaluation and ongoing development went hand in hand with their working day. As was observed externally, high standards were set by this course and its subsequent results from these early decades: Loheland as a place of the „lived utopia“ (Köhn/Fischer 2004/2007) and the „Moderne in der Provinz” (Köhn/Fischer 2004/2007).

The Archive of the Loheland Foundation collects items from this history.