Exclusive insight into "Educating for Peace: 100 Years of Ecolint"
Kurt Zier (shown here in 1938, in front of the Grand Bâtiment), was a graduate of the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts who joined Ecolint after fleeing his native Germany because he had a Jewish grandparent. In addition to teaching Art, he was a master puppeteer. He eventually migrated to Iceland, where he became a prominent cultural figure, having founded the country’s Marionette Society (Marionettufélagid) with a staging of Goethe’s Faust. He taught for many years in the Icelandic College of Art and Crafts.
(Photo credit: Ecolint Archives)
An Alumni Association (or, as its full title was at the time, Association des Anciens Professeurs et Elèves de l’Ecole Internationale de Genève) membership card, covering the fateful 1939-40 academic year, sent by the Treasurer, Vicky Stereva, to former student Beate Arnhold (whose photo albums eventually enriched Ecolint’s archives).