ABSTRACT
Schoenhausen is a village of about 2,000 in a semirural but urbanizing area in Land Baden Württemberg, Southern Germany. Schoenhausen was known, and still is to some extent, as an ausgesprochener Weinort (emphatically a winemaking place). The native-born are swaebisch and protestant. Most of the Newcomers’ originally migrated from the former east zone, Sudetenland, or other areas from which Germans were expelled or from which they fled after World War II. They are somewhat more urbanized as a rule, and more often than not Catholic (Spindler, 1974). The Grundschule (elementary school) is charged with the responsibility for educating all of the children and preparing them for a changing Germany and world. Its 127 children are distributed in four grades staffed by six teachers and a Rektor (Principal), and various other special services personnel. The Schoenhausen Grundschule has enjoyed a good relationship with the community and with the parents whose children attend it. Partly, at least, this relationship is due to the benign influence of the Rektor (Principal) who has been in that position since the beginning of our study in 1968.
