Eleonore Heerwart

Eleonore Heerwart (born February 24, 1835 in Eisenach ; † December 19, 1911 there ) was a kindergarten teacher, pedagogue and writer who was particularly committed to Friedrich Froebel , his pedagogy and the idea of ​​a kindergarten .

Biography and educational work

Eleonore Heerwart (portrait of old age)

At the age of 18 she went to the educational institute founded by Friedrich Fröbel in Keilhau near Rudolstadt to train as a kindergarten teacher. At the time, this was not common practice for a young girl of her class. In this regard she stated in her autobiography: “In Eisenach everyone who knew me was amazed at my decision; it had not yet happened that a young girl took up a profession - I was the first to leave home for this purpose and to pave the way for many others ”. In addition to Louise Fröbel , Friedrich Fröbel's widow, it was above all Wilhelm Middendorff who introduced the pupil to Fröbel pedagogy and shaped her understanding of Fröbel.

After training as a kindergarten teacher, Heerwart was a private tutor / educator for six years at Gut Storckau ad Elbe / Altmark and the neighboring manor Billberge . With particular energy, she pursued the plan to unite the Thuringian kindergarten teachers to form an association from which the German Froebel Association finally emerged in 1868 . This still exists today as the Pestalozzi-Froebel Association . She was also actively involved in founding a specialist magazine entitled Kinder-Garten und Elementar-Klasse . The Fachperiodikum (which changed name several times over the decades) first appeared in 1860.

In April 1861 Heerwart went to Great Britain / Ireland. There she worked for Fröbel for 22 years , first as a kindergarten director, then as the headmaster of a training center for kindergarten teachers and teachers, first in Manchester, then in Dublin and finally for many years in London (at Stockwell College ). In the latter city, she was instrumental in founding the Froebel Society . Noteworthy are her many publications in English, which made an enormously important contribution to the spread and establishment of Froebel pedagogy in Great Britain .

At the end of 1883 Heerwart moved to (now Bad) Blankenburg and in 1889 to Eisenach. Until 1898 she traveled to London once a year to teach the kindergarten teacher exam. In the years up to her death she developed an enormous creative power. Heerwart founded and directed a. a. the General German Kindergarten Teachers Association (1892), edited its association magazine, the Reports , campaigned for the rescue of Froebel's birthplace in Oberweißbach (which was to be demolished) and for the construction of a Froebel memorial room, published the papers from Blankenburg and was Active as a writer, in German and English. She also founded a museum in Eisenach to preserve the memory of Friedrich Froebel. She taught kindergarten pedagogy in the newly established kindergarten teacher seminar at the deaconess mother house.

Her two-volume autobiography Fifty Years in the Service of Froebel provides a vivid historical insight into 50 years of history of the German and English Froebel movement from the mid-19th to the beginning of the 20th century.

Afterlife

The Friedrich-Froebel-Museum in Bad Blankenburg and the Ida-Seele-Archiv in Dillingen an der Donau preserve not only the personal estate of Eleonore Heerwart but also several publications, photos, letters etc. a. Documents from and about the Froebel pedagogue. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of her death, the Ida-Seele-Archive organized an exhibition that was presented in several specialist academies / specialist (high) schools for social education.

Works (selection)

• Explanation of the Kindergarten System. London 1871.
• Music for the kindergarten. London 1877.
• The kindergarten system. Edinburgh 1883.
• Guide for mothers and educators in the acquisition and use of Froebel toys and means of employment. Berlin 1897.
• Introduction to the theory and practice of kindergarten. Leipzig 1901.
• The mother as a kindergarten teacher. Leipzig 1904.
• Fifty years in the service of Froebel. Volume I: Until 1895. Eisenach 1906.
• Fifty years in the service of Froebel. Volume II: From 1896 to 1906. Eisenach 1906.

literature

• Manfred Berger : Women in the history of kindergarten. A manual. Frankfurt am Main 1995, pp. 75-79.
• Manfred Berger: Heerwart, Eleonore. In: Felicitas Marwinski (Ed.): Paths of life in Thuringia. Third collection, Weimar 2006, pp. 147–151.
• Manfred Berger: A life in the service of Friedrich Froebel. Memories of Eleonore Heerwart on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of her death. In: Theory and Practice of Social Pedagogy. 2011, pp. 44-45.
• Manfred Berger: Pioneers of early childhood and after-school care: Eleonore Heerwart (1835–1911). In: Irmgard M. Burtscher (Hrsg.): Handbook for educators in crèche, kindergarten, daycare and after-school care. Edition 77/04, Munich 2014, pp. 1–19.
• Rosemarie Boldt: Some thoughts on the Froebel understanding of Eleonore Heerwart. In: Helmut Heiland, Karl Neumann, Michael Gebel (eds.): Friedrich Fröbel - aspects of international comparative histography. Weinheim 1999, pp. 160-170.
• Rosemarie Boldt: More recent results of the Heerwart research. In: Helmut Heiland, Elisabeth Gutjahr, Karl Neumann (Hrsg.): Froebel research in discussion. Weinheim 2001, pp. 57-72.
• Helmut Heiland : Froebel movement and Froebel research. Important personalities of the Froebel movement in the 19th and 20th centuries. Olms, Hildesheim 1992, ISBN 3-487-09591-2 , pp. 147-163.
• Dorothea Jahn: Eleonore Heerwarts Froebel Understanding (1835-1911). A critical analysis of Froebel reception. Ingolstadt 2000. (unpublished master's thesis)

Web links

• kindergartenpaedagogik.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Eleonore Heerwart (1835-1911) ( Memento from July 31, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) on: creathur.de
2. ^ Eleonore Heerwart: Fifty years in the service of Froebel .
3. ^ Helmut Heiland: Froebel movement and Froebel research. Important personalities of the Froebel movement in the 19th and 20th centuries . Olms, Hildesheim 1992, p. 166.