Founded as a technical school, Lette-Verein was organized to suit the special social conditions of its time. It was agreed to aim at adapting itself to existing institutions, rather than creating a school for more highly educated future generations. It received the support of influential members of German society, beginning with the Emperor and Empress. From the first it owed much to the substantial aid and personal interest tendered by the Crown Princess. The Lette-Verein was designed as a handful of societies, all closely knit together, located in the same premises, and with the same main object, namely, the promotion of women's education, the improvement of the working capacities of those who are self-dependent. Besides the trade school, there was the Victoria Stift, a foundation offering a temporary home to ladies of limited means; a bazaar for the sale of work; a registry for women in search of employment; a loan society; a lending library, and a school for servants, factory girls, and others seeking self-improvement. The school – open to girls 15 years and older – was designed to only provide a technical, not a general, education.
Schools
For admission to the School of Commerce division, girls must be able to prove that they have previously had a good general education. Here they receive special training that will thoroughly qualify them for situations in mercantile houses. In its early years, he pupils' fees were 77. 10s. a year, the classes were in the morning, and occupied 20–23 hours a week. The principal subjects were: mercantile handwriting, mercantile arithmetic, office work, and commercial correspondence, bookkeeping, commerce by bills of exchange, French and English, German, geography. In general, on leaving the Lette-Verein, the girls obtained employment as clerks, cashiers, and correspondents. The drawing school had two divisions: one of these was expressly for the training of drawing mistresses for similar schools in the country, the other gave art instruction with special reference to certain branches of industry. The fees ere 30s. a quarter in the late 19th century. The studies included linear and freehand drawing, geometry, colouring, ornamental design, flower-painting, china-painting, and modelling. The industrial division of the school was the largest. In the late 19th century, classes were attended by over 800 students. There were classes for dressmaking, machine-sewing, the cutting-out of linen, the manufacture of artificial flowers, glove-making, millinery, and hair-dressing. The monthly fees for instruction varied from 12 to 15 shillings. Many of the pupils trained here were afterwards engaged as teachers in industrial schools in the country. At the Lette-Verein cooking school, the pupils cooked for a restaurant for ladies attached to the building. The school for compositors was housed in a different building. It was an offshoot of the Lette-Verein, and under the management of the society. Candidates for admission had to be at least 16 years of age, must have received a good education, and must have had sufficient means of support for the first six months, during which they earned nothing. After that time, they were paid according to the normal German tariff. The school was in connection with a Berlin printing company, for which it worked regularly. The best students earned 20-30 shillings a week. The pupils were divided into three classes; those in the upper division were drafted off in turn into other printing offices. In 1877, there were 30 pupils in the printing school, daughters of landed proprietors, clergymen, doctors, schoolmasters, and government officials.
