[168] In august 1895 I came into the 1st grade of the Libau [statrealschule]. It was a large class, with over 50 pupils in three rows of school-benches with two places each. There were place numbers and I was 53 or 54, that is either the second worst or third worst pupil. Why? I don't know. I was very distracted, indifferent, careless; at home nobody minded me; mother was ill often, your uncle Erich was a difficult, sickly, child. I did what I wanted, and nobody cared about my schoolwork. When the year ended I was promoted to the 2nd grade, subject to passing three make-up exams, in arithmetic, drawing, and calligraphy. I received tutoring during the summer from a student named Falk, son of the cap maker Falk on the large market, and was promoted. In the 2nd grade (the numbering went up to the 7th, where we would receive the maturity certificate [rife-zeugniss]) [169] I was a normal pupil, that is, I was promoted without make-up exams. I was never held back during the whole school time, but by a narrow margin. The best pupils were promoted without exams. The next best only had to pass the written exams, and were excused from the oral ones. I, however, got nothing for free, but always came through. In 1st grade we had a Russian teacher, A. P. Mossakowoski, a seldom loving, very decent [selten lieben hochanstandigen] person who went to Riga later and died there shortly before WWII. The math teacher was Friedrich Demme from the Dorpat University, a very able mathematician, a fellow student of Wilhelm Ostwold, both of whom were university assistants at the same time. The latter was also librarian for the quite notable Libau city library in the attic of city hall. Our drawing teacher was Sallos, Leonid Ivanovich, of Greek descent. Not only a good teacher [170],but also a productive artist. Geography was taught by Dokrenko Muxaure Ubanoburr, a pure administrative soul [reine beamtenseele], who also taught history in higher grades; I can't thank him for any inspiration. He was head of all the classes.[?] [Er war bis zum einjarigen der klassen vorsteher]. German was taught by old Baumgaertel. He had been director of the Realschule; after Russification he was still tolerated as german teacher. He died soon thereafter, when I was still in the 2nd grade and a German-Russian, Freiberg, with a napoleon beard became my german teacher. From the 2nd grade on [Russian name] taught Russian. The school inspector was F. Ivan Netchaev. As such he was in charge of all school discipline. He was hump-backed [p(b)uckelig], so his nickname was "hump" [puckel]; how cruel children are. No one pitied him, he himself was embittered, strict, and overall not pleasant. He was the nightmare of my schooltime, and remained my Russian teacher until my [171] graduation. Aa a teacher he was outstanding.

In the 3rd grade we started french with Bastin. We hook it for 4 years, but my success was less than great. Although he spoke french fluently, he was not much of a teacher. What I do know of french I learned by myself in later years. Then we started on algebra, which was also taught by Demme. I again failed totally. Place numbers were not used any more, but I would have been one of the last. But instead of place numbers a system was introduced in which the smallest and worst behaved, that is the liveliest pupils, were seated in the first row, under the watchful eye of the teacher. There I sat till the end of school, close to the teacher and the board; perhaps that is why I did not discover until later that I was shortsighted; since I traveled around in the world without glasses until 1907, I must have missed many beautiful sights. I was promoted conditionally into the 4th grade, again with three makeup exams, in math, [172] french, and drawing. Actually, if one had three makeup exams one was kept back, but drawing did not count as a full subject. This time my tutor was again Falk, and I was promoted. After that I had no further makeup exams. From the 4th to the 6th grade I was an average pupil; in the last two years I was a good pupil, but I was never one of the best, the pride of the class, because I was always lacking in the most important subject: Russian. Although I had contact and friendships with 100% Russian school mates, in the home, in the family, and in the city one spoke mostly German, and Russian was the foreign language. In August 1899 I came into the 5th grade, during which I became 14 years old, and my learning started to have sense and purpose [sinn und zweck]. In 5th grade we started with chemistry and mineralogy as natural science subjects, after we had started with biology and zoology and botany in the earlier grades.[173] As teachers we had first [Russian name] (jagodowski) and later [Russian name] (Roshdestwenski) (like the Russian admiral in the battle of Tsusima). Both were Russian intellectuals, but neither was a model of either teaching skill or character. I was very friendly with both of them. They had studied natural science, but had hardly any knowledge of the chemistry and mineralogy they had to teach. And there my schoolwork finally got sense and direction. I built all the apparatus for demonstration of chemical experiments, and made all the experiments, since the teacher had two left hands. These experiments I also had to demonstrate at the girl's gymnasium, and wherever Roshdestwnski gave chemistry lectures. I got practice in glass blowing and experimenting that would later be very handy. The school also had a small mineral collection [174] that nobody took care of. I organized it as well as I could. I was excited and eager, what nonsense I did there; since no one gave me any direction, I pasted together a collection of crystal models, among which I still remember a marvelous Pyramid-otahedron (Triakisoctahedron) with in-going [einspringenden] angles. No one was there to tell me that such a thing could not exist in nature; that the axis sections [axenabschnitte] 1:1:n, even with n=infinity, could give a rhombus-dodecahedron only in the limiting case. However, my miss-form was unhesitatingly and admiringly pointed out [eingezeiht] in the collection.

In any case, from 5th grade on it was clear to me that I would study at university level, that I would study chemistry, and since universities were closed to Realschule students, I would study for "Chemical engineer" at a polytechnic (as the Russian technical [175] universities were called). I had no idea at that time of what a tangled thread my studies would follow, that I would indeed study chemistry, that I would become an engineer, that my study and occupation would finally peak on chemical mineralogy. More of that later. I was promoted to the 6th grade after the usual examinations, then took the maturity exam [Reifeprufung], that gave one the right to volunteer for service in the army for a year. Then I went into the 7th, or completion, grade, which one left with graduation and then had the right to attend a technical university, with the constraint of the quota. I was no longer the bratty rascal of earlier times, but still rather childish (immature[?]) [kindlich]. In all classes I was the second youngest; only a Russian schoolmate was a few months younger. I passed my exams well, though not with brilliance, but [176] still with the hope of university study. I carried on with chemistry at home through self-study. The room in which I and cousin Julius slept was my realm. Occasionally something [knallgas] would explode, or I would stink up the whole house. I had a lively interest in pyrotechnic, made "Bengal Matches" (matches that burn with a colored flame) [bengalishe lichter] and similar things; I still wonder that I did not fly up into the air along with the whole house with the abundance of mixtures of potassium chlorate that I handled. But this was no longer part of the school requirement; neither was my activity with astronomy. I studied the star charts diligently, and am still rather familiar with the starry sky, though I am less current with the southern sky which I was not used to. My pride was that I turned to Camille Flamarion and applied for membership in the Societe Astronomique [177] de France, and he answered in a friendly way and I became a member. I received the yellow journal every month felt my membership and felt great. Even in later years I would observe the stars whenever I could [sternwarten besichtigt]. With school subjects it was different. In mathematics and physics, which the school director Dobrosrakov taught (a wonderfully good person with a weakness for the soul catching (evangelism) [seelenfang] for the Russian orthodox church, in whose house I spent much time) I was above average. I was always in a struggle with the Russian language; school compositions were always a horror for me. In drawing I was always weak, and though I had a great longing to be able to draw well, it did not work. While many schoolmates were doing figure drawing, and some where working with clay, I kept bungling with ornaments. In contrast I was so much the better in singing class; unfortunately my good memory [178] let me sing faultlessly by ear, and so I never learned to read notes, since that was not actually taught.

Sport was hardly known then. I also had no interest in it; I have never attended a football game or anything similar. In school there was gym [turn] instruction, for which we were led to the city gym [turnhalle] next to the old german theater on the Herrenstrasse. I was already rather corpulent during my school time, and had exceptionally weak arm muscles, so I was good for nothing [taugte ich zu nichts]. I could not do the simplest thing on any apparatus [gerate], and also never learned to climb [klettern]. I was the shame of Knigge, the gym teacher. When I learned to ride a bicycle skillfully he got reconciled with me. So there was little bodily activity for me: rowing and bicycling. In winter even these disappeared, and I never could learn to skate. [179] No other ice sport was known then. The gymnasts [gymnasiasten] leased the swan pond each year, which became a great skating rink in winter. We Realschule pupils made a competing rink, but it was always a deficit enterprise; I was steward [ordner], but as soon as I put on skates I'd be sitting on the ice. I stood out from my age mates, I was no gymnast, no skater, no dancer; always very busy, I also did not participate in afternoon walking around and flirting on the Kornstrasse and the Kurhausprospect; In the world of girls I was never even noticed, and in the family people shook their wise heads [weisen Haupter] thoughtfully about this strange [aus der art geschlagenen] boy who made powders, swallowed [schlukte] stars, did not care for any girl friend [um keine freundin kummerte], and busied himself with the strangest [ausgefallensten] things.

During the last school years, when I was in the 5th - 7th grades, I had every Sunday afternoon set aside. [179] At that time there was in Libau a Commission for Popular Lectures: [Russian phrase]. Every Sunday afternoon there were popular lectures on science, literature, and occasionally Russian holy legends, illustrate with slides. I was the projectionist, so I had to set up the projector, set up the screen, since the slides were projected from the stage, and after the lecture put everything away, all without compensation. When I left the school I received certificate of thanks, with a silver [Teton?] as memento. Naturally I was considered an expert for slide projection, and whenever a slide lecture took place, whether it was in the war harbor to fight alcoholism among the sailors, or in the imperial technical association, [181] the projector and I were a permanent fixture [Unentgehrliches Factotum]. Those Sunday afternoons, and the Saturday afternoons also, were occupied with such useful [nutzbringender] activity. Libau had a rather nice city library, located in the attic of city hall. Mostly there was old german trash that no one took care of, but there was also a modern section with literature, travelogues, etc., which were loaned out quite a lot. The city librarian was my math teacher Demme, and he entrusted me with loaning out books, so every Saturday afternoon I sat there loaning out and taking back books, and was lost to family life which mostly took place at that time. This must have been sad [kummer] for my parents, but I was already known as a an odd one [sonderling].

During my school time my education in two other subjects ended for me: music and religion. When I was in the 2nd grade in 1896 it was decided that I should take violin instruction. [182] During my childhood, when I listened to the concerts in the Kurhaus garden almost daily during the summer, and was acquainted with almost all the musicians, I showed strong interest. Then, after my father's second marriage the concert visits stopped. In school I sang in the choir until my voice change, always in the first voice [erste stimme], but did not know a single note, because due to my good memory I sang everything correctly with ease. Now I was to learn music. In Libau there was a city orchestra, with about a dozen old musicians. The violinist Weissborn also taught, and I wanted to learn with him. Maybe I would have learned violin in spite of my short thick fingers, but the family council decided it differently. Around that time a Berliner, Hand Hochapfel and his wife came to Libau and opened a music school. There I was stuck in spite of my protests. He was a very good violinist, pianist, and conductor, but had no talent as a teacher, [183] no patience, and I felt very unhappy with him. There were three students in the one hour lesson. Each one played for ten minutes and waited 20 minutes to have another turn. That amounted to 2 X 10 minutes per hour. The progress = 0. I learned the first position [lage], the third position, which took several years; in the 6th grade the high pressure of final exams was present. I had to abandon all extra-curricular activities, so the music lessons were dropped, though I don't think I would ever have learned much with that system.

Religion instruction ended even earlier, that is, working with the [Melamed]. With the deeply religious stance of the parents it was natural that much weight would be given to religious education. But no Jewish teacher came to the house, as happened later with my brothers Erich and George. Instead I went to the cheider, on Sunday and holiday afternoons and during school vacations. [184] The cheider was led by Melamed Ilja Blumenau, a bankrupt [verkrachter] merchant, who was married but had no children, or they had left home, since they were never mentioned. All ages were in a single room, the bigger boys in front, the younger ones in the back benches where the helper Chait supervised.

Blumenau was a quite good teacher, spoke a pure German, and a pretty good Russian, but that did not matter, since the main thing for a Melamed was to be strict, and Blumenau trained the children in an unbelievable way. While in the Russian Realschule beating [prugeln] was absolutely forbidden, where in the time from the preparatory classes to graduation I never received a single stroke or pinch [kneif], where even the smallest pupil was addressed formally [gesiezt], but the teachers, in the Russian way, were never addressed with family names or titles, but only with given name and father's name, [185] Blumenau's students were beaten from early till late. Every small error resulted in ear slaps [ohrfeigen], and near the desk stood and hung a large selection of canes and leather straps with which he worked over the boys according to mood and severity of error. It always hurt, and much, but neither my nor other pupils souls were damaged by it. I learned to read Hebrew quickly and confidently, and some translation, which only was considered for the main parts of the Jewish bible [Tanach]. One had to be able to read the prayers without error, but translating them was something even my father could not do. At home we prayed the morning prayer, and in the evening the [Krischma}, at meals the table prayer. A little Hebrew grammar was done, which was hopelessly pointless, since for a true Melamed any grammar was a laughable western invention. The most trouble was the [Raschrift] and the [Schulchan-Oruch], [186] the most pleasure for me was the "[tropp]", the sing-song with which the [Torah] and [Haftorah] were recited. Then my bar-mitzva came along. I had [Parsche] [Hebrew word] and [Haftora] [Hebrew words] and spouted [schmetterte] everything [unbefangen vom Almemor der Chorschul herunter], then I gave a speech at home that Blumenau had copied somewhere and I had to memorize. Everyone was touched, I less so, but I was happy about the more than 100 books I got as gifts. After the bar-mitzva I went to Blumenau for another year; he was to teach me the elementary foundations of the Talmud. He started with the [Baba metzia], but it did not go, it definitely did not go. Then Blumenau, who believed in natural remedies, got sick and treated himself with liquor [kneipp] and about six other methods. When he clearly did not improve he let a doctor see him, who was no longer able to help him, [187] he cured himself to death. And with that my Jewish education ended. Until I left home I prayed every morning with [Tefilim] and [Arbekanfess]. I kept getting more hostile [aufsassig] to religion, but dared not do anything against my father's convictions. What I know of Hebrew I learned later exclusively from self-study; I copied and translated the entire Tanach, still in the year 1932. I have not prayed since I left home, and have not fasted, but always had deep respect all Jewish religious activity, from concern with my ancestors and all Jews for whom it is still sacred today.

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