Christian Heinrich Wolke

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Portrait of Christian Heinrich Wolke

Christian Heinrich Wolke or Christian Hinrich Wolke (born August 21, 1741 in Jever , † January 8, 1825 in Berlin ) was a German reform pedagogue .

Life

Cloud was the son of a farmer and cattle dealer and the daughter of an estate owner and came from Jever. Only at the age of 20 did he attend the provincial school there from 1761. On instructions from his father, he first studied law at the University of Göttingen from 1763 . After the death of his father in 1765, however, he switched to mathematics and physics . After a failed attempt as a mathematics teacher at Gernrode Abbey , he continued his studies in law, linguistics , mathematics and physics at the University of Leipzig from winter 1766/67 . He also took lessons in drawing and painting. In 1769 he returned to Jever and was a tutor in Ovelgönne for a short time .

In 1770, Wolke then worked for Johann Bernhard Basedow , initially working on his elementary work and as an educator for his children. From 1773 he became a teacher at the Philanthropin founded by Basedow in Dessau , a renowned educational institution. In 1776 he was appointed professor. In the same year he married a close relative of Basedows, who was born in Denmark († 1813). From 1778 to 1784 he was head of the Philanthropin, after Basedow had given up the management in 1776.

In 1784 he received a call to Russia , where he - in Saint Petersburg  - set up an educational institution based on the philanthropic principles of his Dessau school. In 1801 he returned to Jever and lived there as the Imperial Russian Councilor . After Jever was occupied by the French , he first moved to Dresden in 1809 and from there to Berlin in 1814.

Meaning and work

Cloud was one of the preeminent educators of the Enlightenment . He wrote numerous papers on everyday education, tried to spelling, to learn to read, to the future youth literature and to the method of arithmetic. Sex education, for which he advocated in treatises, was also important to him. His teaching attempts to educate children in Philanthropin have also been handed down. Through his experience and knowledge of the ability of smaller children to learn, in his writings he attributed a significant value to the parenting work of the mother for the child's development and called for a comprehensive, also public education for children not yet of school age. Cloud was an educational practitioner. In 1777 he invented a reading machine . In Dresden he was a member of the Masonic lodge Zum golden Apfel .

In 1805 he suggested that five to six-year-olds should set up "thinking rooms" which should be equipped with various tools, mathematical measuring instruments, display boards, geometric figures and other didactic materials. The proposal was never implemented; but you can such a room as a replica in today Rochow Museum Reckahn in Castle Reckahn in Brandenburg Reckahn see. In the “Philanthropic Thinking Room” there (see web links) there are, among other things, drawers and peepholes that are intended to encourage self-discovery. There are also original models from the Dessau teaching material collection that Basedow used to illustrate the laws of nature.

In addition to his practical work as an educator and teacher and his literary work, Wolke also worked as a linguist, with the Low German language and a simplified spelling ( phonetic orthography ) being his main focus. He was an opponent of foreign words and advocated using words more in accordance with logic, which in part led to idiosyncratic changes in common words and to new creations. After Friedrich Kluge, however, he was also the first to suggest the term university as a replacement for university .

In his retirement and retirement home in Berlin, he was a member of the predecessor organization of the Berlin German Society , an association of men who dealt with questions of the German language and linguistics.

Publications

Example of an elementary copper tablet that Wolke used as an aid in language lessons
  • Description of the 100 elementary coppers drawn by D. Chodowicke, or a clearer representation of the cloud-style teaching method for the rapid communication of knowledge of every foreign language known to the teacher. 2 volumes. Dessau 1782 (also in French, Latin and Russian translations)
  • The book for reading and thinking. Petersburg, 1785 (also published in Russian, French and Latin)
  • News from the deaf and mute who were delighted at Jever with the Galvani-Voltaic Hearing-Giving Art and from Sprenger's method of practicing it with the Voltaic Electricity. Oldenburg, 1802
  • Instructions on how to make children and the deaf and dumb a loss of time and in a natural way to understand and speak to solve and write or to learn language and concepts, with aids for the deaf, the deaf and the blind, plus a few words. Leipzig, 1804
  • Düdsge ōr Sassisge Singedigte, Gravsgriften, Leder, singable Vertelsels and wonderful Ēventüre sunst nömt Romansen and ballads with ener Anwising, dat Hōgdüdsge and dat Düdsge in hël korter Tīd rigtīg ūttosprēken, to solve un to sgriven. Bi CH Reclam, Leipsig (Lips), 1804
  • Brief educational teaching or instruction for physical, understandable and moral education applicable for mothers and teachers in the first years of the children. Leipzig, 1805
  • Instruction for mothers and child teachers, who are or can become one, to impart the very first language skills and concepts, from the birth of the child to the time of learning to read. Leipzig, 1805
  • Instructions for the entire German language or for the recognition and correction of a few (at least 20) thousand language errors in the High German dialect; in addition to the means of avoiding and saving the countless - […] - typographical errors, by Christian Hinrich Wolke. Dresden, 1812
  • Düdische or Sassian song poems, tombstones, eyelids, singable stories and wonderful e-adventures, novels and ballads with instructions on how to pronounce High German and Düdsche correctly, to read and write. Second unchanged, but cheaper edition. In the Maurerische Buchhandlung, Leipzig and Berlin, 1816
  • Instructions for the German vernacular by recognizing and correcting a few thousand incorrectly formed or mischievous words; In addition to the means, 1) to replace the still missing and foreign expressions with genuine German ones; 2) to write all German words correctly (orthographically) according to the current pronunciation and the purpose of writing. By Christian Hinrich Wolke. Second unchanged, but cheaper edition. Leipzig and Berlin, 1816

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Etymological dictionary of the German language . 18th edition. edit v. Walter Mitzka. de Gruyter, Berlin 1960.
  2. ↑ Kluge: "... with Paracelsus, Luther and Fischart hoheschule with inner flexion."
  3. ↑ Published in: Jul. V. Voss : 1825 fashions of the good old days […]. Campe, 1813, Verd.-Wb. [= Dictionary of the German language, supplementary volume] takes up the suggestion. (Kluge).
personal data
SURNAME Cloud, Christian Heinrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cloud, Christian Hinrich (alternative spelling)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German educator of the Enlightenment
DATE OF BIRTH August 21, 1741
PLACE OF BIRTH Jever
DATE OF DEATH January 8, 1825
Place of death Berlin