Arno Fuchs

Johann Friedrich Arno Fuchs (born February 24, 1869 in Eisenach , † February 13 or 14, 1945 in Dresden ) was a German auxiliary school teacher . Today he is considered one of the pioneers of the German auxiliary / special school movement.

Life

Publication by Arno Fuchs

He was the third child of the master carpenter Johann Christian Fuchs and his wife Maria, geb. Bonicke. In his hometown he completed the teacher training college from 1886 to 1888. After four years of school service, his professional path led him to Jena . There he attended the university and worked for Johannes Trüper in his famous “Sophienhöhe” reformatory. In 1894 Arno Fuchs moved to Berlin. There he took over responsibility for a so-called secondary class four years later. These were set up at community schools with a twofold aim: on the one hand, they were supposed to bring the lagging but normally intelligent students back to the normal school as soon as possible; on the other hand, their task was to sort out those children who turned out to be mentally weak and therefore had to be referred to a special institution . Arno Fuchs was a staunch opponent of cosets as feeble-minded children can not promoted community schools and for not making teaching capable of primary education are and also the elementary school not be returned to. Insane students need a special method in all subjects.

In 1919 he was appointed school inspector and head of department for special schools. As such, he was responsible for the development / expansion of the Berlin auxiliary / special school system (which became the model for the entire German Reich):

Schools for the visually impaired, speech therapy schools, graduation classes, classes with educational difficulties, school kindergartens and the open-air school were created . As the organizer of the 'Heilpädagogische Woche' he was able to point out in 1927 that Berlin had the best-developed special school system (Schmoldt 1991, p. 147).

Arno Fuchs campaigned intensively for the establishment of the "Berlin-Brandenburg Curative Education Seminar". His primary endeavor was to establish curative / special education as a university discipline.

In addition to his professional duties, he was also active as a journalist. His work Schwimminnige Kinder, their moral and intellectual rescue advanced for many decades to the standard work of curative / special education, which was published in 1967 in a shortened form.

The pedagogue belonged to the "Advisory Committee of the German Association for Cripple Welfare", which had been founded in 1909, as well as the "Educational and Welfare Association for Mentally Retarded (Insane) Children" founded in 1903. Arno Fuchs was instrumental in founding both associations.

For his services to the auxiliary school system, the pedagogue was awarded the Kgl. Order of the Crown 4th grade awarded.

In Berlin, a primary school and secondary level I and II school, Richard-Wagner-Straße 30, bears his name.

Arno Fuchs died on the night of February 13-14, 1945 in the air raids on Dresden .

Works

• The Education Council. Practical proposal for the reform of the education of our morally underage youth for state, church, school, local authorities, associations etc., Leipzig 1895
• Insane children, their moral and intellectual salvation, Gütersloh 1899
• The Special Education Week in Berlin from May 25th to 22nd, 1927. Detailed report, Berlin 1927
• The special education system in Berlin, Berlin 1927
• Educational classes (E = classes) for difficult-to-educate children in elementary school, Halle 1930

literature

• Gerhard Hesse (Hrsg.): Encyclopedia manual of special education. Vol. 1, Berlin-Charlottenburg 1969, Sp. 1012-1013
• Sieglind Ellger-Rüttgardt : The auxiliary school teacher. Social history of a group of teachers, Weinheim / Basel 1980
• Benno Schmoldt (Ed.): Pedagogues in Berlin . Baltmannsweiler 1991, pp. 146-169
• Dagmar Hänsel and Hans Schwager: Special educational school theory . Weinheim 2003, pp. 74-98
• Manfred Berger : Arno Fuchs. His life and work. In: heilpaedagogik.de 2008 / H. 4, pp. 27-31
• Manfred Berger : Fuchs, Johann Friedrich Arno. In: Felicitas Marwinski: Paths of life in Thuringia. Fifth collection, Jena 2015, pp. 77–80

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Quotation from Ellger-Rüttgardt 1980, p. 312