August Köhler (pedagogue)
August Köhler (born September 9, 1821 in Traßdorf , † April 22, 1879 in Gotha ) was a Gotha kindergarten teacher and successor to Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel .
Biography and work
August Köhler, baptized Ernst August Heinrich Anton, grew up in very modest circumstances in his earliest childhood. His father, the village school teacher Michael Friedrich Köhler, could only feed his seven sons poorly and properly. Therefore, August, the third son, was given to Dietendorf (today Neudietendorf ) from the age of 4 to a married but childless sister of the father. The sensitive and musically gifted boy should have taken over the farm of the foster parents. But the young man decided to become a teacher, despite threats from his foster parents to disinherit him.
In 1846 he got his first job at the educational institution founded by Christian Gotthilf Salzmann in Schnepfenthal. Here he first learned about Friedrich Froebel and his pedagogy. An older colleague sang Froebel's ball songs for him and gave some explanations about what this pedagogy was trying to achieve. But August Köhler did not share the view of his colleague and considered all of this to be nonsense and gimmick (Witter 2006, p. 13). Two years later, the pedagogue came to Gotha as an elementary teacher at the municipal boys' school. There he turned increasingly to the teaching of Friedrich Froebel and the promotion of the Froebel kindergarten. August Köhler described himself as a “new Froebelian”: he analyzed Froebel's theory, assessed it critically, adopted basic ideas in his kindergarten pedagogy and expanded them from the perspective of a school educator. One can speak of an independent Köhler kindergarten pedagogy.
August Köhler was the initiator, co-founder and chairman of the "German Froebel Association" in 1863, initially for Thuringia, from which the "General Froebel Association" emerged in 1872 and a year later, in 1873, the "German Froebel Association". He was also a co-founder of the magazine Kinder Garten Bewahr-Anstalt and Elementar-Klasse , which he published until his death.
The pedagogue made a significant contribution to putting the kindergarten and the training of kindergarten teachers on a legal basis before and after the ban on kindergartens was lifted by Prussia in 1860 . He also tried to publicize the idea of a kindergarten abroad. That is why he traveled to Austria-Hungary and Russia, for example, where he gave lectures and promoted the establishment of Fröbel kindergartens. In 1870, the magazine Kinder Garten Bewahr-Anstalt und Elementar-Klasse reported on Koehler 's successful work in Moscow: The head of the infant division of the imperial education center in Moscow intends to introduce the principle of the kindergarten there, and Miss C. Gehrke (the head of a neighboring Froebel kindergarten) will do everything possible to encourage this facility. In addition, a force corresponding to the circumstances is sent there from the seminar in Gotha (quoted in Reichel 2000, p. 56).
August Köhler was the first director of a training facility in Gotha who, on the basis of the new school law of Grand Duke Ernst II of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha , Section 41, was also allowed to train teachers at his institution who had equal rights alongside the teaching colleagues in Volks-, Middle and higher daughter schools could get a job. Since 1857, through his single-minded training of the female sex in his institutions, he created the basis for enforcing women's rights to equal treatment when employed in a school. It was an important historical achievement on the way to the further emancipation of women.
However, decades after Köhler's death had to pass before the training of kindergarten teachers was recognized by the state. It was not until 1908 and 1911 that the first state legal regulations were issued. The German Froebel Association , which was brought into being by August Köhler, played a major role in the content of these provisions for the training of kindergarten teachers and in their implementation .
August Köhler had been married to Auguste Aghte since 1849, whom he had met at the " Witternschen Hof ", the school in Neudietendorf , and who always remained a proven helper for her husband in his educational endeavors (Reichel 2000, p. 45). The marriage, which was considered to be happy, had two children.
The pedagogue died on April 22nd, 1879. He found his final resting place in the Gotha cemetery. The following words were carved into his tombstone, which were the basis and leitmotif of his life and work:
The study of mankind is man!
Works (selection)
- A. Köhler, Ms. Schmidt and Ms. Seidel with the participation of the German Froebel Association : Children's garden, preservation institution and elementary class . Journal, 11th year, (autobiography brochure, no .: Goth. 170/18), Verlag Hermann Böhlau, Weimar 1871
- A. Köhler: The leaflet for the students in the first two years of school . Verlag Hermann Böhlau, Weimar 1861
- A. Köhler: The movement games of the kindergarten . Hermann Böhlau publishing house, Weimar 1862
- A. Köhler: Das Flechtblatt , Verlag Hermann Böhlau, Weimar 1863
- A. Köhler: The kindergarten presented in its essence . Hermann Böhlau publishing house, Weimar 1868
- A. Köhler: The practice of the kindergarten . Verlag Hermann Böhlau, Weimar 1878, Volume I.
- A. Köhler: The practice of the kindergarten . Verlag Hermann Böhlaus Successor, Weimar 1907, Volume II
- A. Köhler: The practice of the kindergarten . Verlag Hermann Böhlaus successor, Weimar 1899, Volume III
- A. Köhler: New education . Verlag Hermann Böhlau, Weimar 1872
- A. Köhler: Waves for budding Froebel clubs . Hermann Böhlau publishing house, Weimar 1874
- A. Köhler: Book of stories . Publisher Hermann Böhlau, Weimar 1876
Literature (selection)
- Dr. K. Justus: August Köhler and the Gotha Teachers 'and Kindergarten Teachers' Seminar and its branch establishments . Part III, Carl glasses, Gotha 1877
- Reinhold Reichel, Ingrid Unke: Human beings are a study of their own . Series of pictures, Erfurt, Institute for Educational Media, 1990
- Reinhold Reichel: August Köhler: Recalling an almost forgotten Gotha kindergarten teacher . Gotha 1991
- Reinhold Reichel: August Koehler. A Gotha kindergarten teacher of European format. A biographical study . In: Gothaisches Museums-Jahrbuch, Gotha 2000, pp. 43–62
- Albert Schumann: Köhler: August K. In: General German Biography (ADB). Volume 16, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1882, pp. 436-438.
- Felizitas Witter: Contents, sources and foundations of August Köhler's pedagogy (1821–1879) . Der Andere Verlag, 2006, ISBN 3-89959-455-X
- Manfred Berger : Köhler, Ernst Heinrich August Anton, in: Felicitas Marwinski (Ed.): Paths of life in Thuringia. Fourth volume, Jena 2011, pp. 182–190
- Manfred Berger: Ernst Heinrich August Anton Köhler , in: Kurt Franz / Günter Lange / Franz-Josef Payrhuber (eds.): Children's and youth literature. A Lexicon, 48th Erg.-Lfg. February 2013, Meitingen 2013, pp. 1–16
- Manfred Berger: The Kindergarten from 1840 to the Present, Saarbrücken 2015, pp. 31–36
Web links
- Literature by and about August Köhler in the catalog of the German National Library
- Gravestone with a short biography
Individual evidence
- ↑ Notation according to the information board at Witternschen Hof in Neudietendorf
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Koehler, August |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Köhler, Ernst August Heinrich Anton (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German kindergarten teacher, successor to Froebel |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 9, 1821 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Traßdorf , Saxe-Coburg and Gotha |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 22, 1879 |
| Place of death | Gotha , Saxe-Coburg and Gotha , German Empire |