Elisabeth Rotten

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Elisabeth Friederike Rotten (born February 15, 1882 in Berlin , † May 2, 1964 in London ) was a German reform pedagogue and peace activist .

Life

Elisabeth Friederike Rotten was the daughter of the Swiss couple Moritz and Luise Rotten. She attended the ten-class high school for girls "Luisenschule" from 1888 to 1898, later the Victorialyzeum Berlin from 1904. In September 1906, she passed the final examination at the Kaiserin-Augusta-Gymnasium Charlottenburg . She studied philosophy and German in Heidelberg , Berlin, Marburg and Montpellier . The meeting with Hermann Lietz and Gustav Wyneken in Marburg was decisive for their further career. In 1913 she defended her doctoral thesis at the University of Marburg on “Goethe's Urphänomen and the Platonic Idea” and went to Cambridge University as a lecturer for German literature .

In 1914 she returned to Berlin and worked with Friedrich Siegmund-Schultze at the rescue service “Information and Help Center for Germans Abroad and Foreigners in Germany” . In the same year she co-founded the “ Bund Neues Vaterland ”, later the “ German League for Human Rights ”. In 1915 she traveled as a representative of the Federal 1st  International Women's Peace Conference in The Hague and was instrumental in the establishment of the "Women's International League for Peace and Freedom" (the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom , WILPF) with.

In 1919 she gave the much-acclaimed speech at the International Education Conference in Geneva on “The Attempts at a New Education in Germany”. She was one of the founders of the " Federation of Decided School Reformers ". Until 1921 she was the head of the pedagogical department of the "German League for the League of Nations" and published the "Internationale Erziehungsrundschau" from 1920 to 1921 (as a supplement to the magazine "Die neue Erbildung"). In 1921 she was co-founder of the World Association for the Renewal of Education ( New Education Fellowship ) and director for the German-speaking countries. Elisabeth Rotten published the magazine Das Werdende Zeitalter (from 1926 together with Karl Wilker ) as the German-speaking organ of the World Association, following on from the Internationale Erziehungsrundschau . In 1922 she worked in the school farm Insel Scharfenberg near Berlin. In 1923 she participated in the establishment of the arts and crafts settlement on Gut Kohlgraben near Vacha in the Rhön . Until 1923 she worked with the English Quakers in children's aid ( Quäkersfeisung ), in 1930 she became a member of the Religious Society of Friends ( Quakers ). From 1925 she was co-director of the International Bureau of Education in Geneva.

From 1930 to 1934 she worked in the garden city of Hellerau , among other things as co-founder of the Hellerau State Welfare School . During this time she conducted an intensive exchange of views with Siddy Wronsky , which also included Friedrich Siegmund-Schultze , the founder of the Berlin-East Social Working Group . “In this group, for example, Ben Schemen was discussed in detail , as everyone involved knew Siegfried Lehmann from his time in the Jewish People's Home in Berlin. Elisabeth Rotten was also interested in Ben Schemen and the idea of ​​the " Children's Republic " as a co-founder of the Pestalozzi Children's Village in Trogen / Switzerland (1944) and the International Federation of Children's Villages. "

During this time in Hellerau, Elisbeth Rotten founded the Swiss Montessori Society together with Jean Piaget ; from 1937 until her death she was Vice-President of the Association Montessori Internationale . In 1934 she emigrated to Switzerland, to Saanen in the Bernese Oberland . There she continued her work with lectures, courses, publications and translations.

After 1945 she participated in the establishment of the aforementioned International Pestalozzi Children's Village in Trogen in the canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden . Rotten's participation in the construction and development of the children's village placed it in the educational reform movement of the 20th century. Her book "The Spiritual Place of the Children's Village", published in March 1945, received a lot of attention in the educational community. In 1947 she worked as a lecturer at the University of Education in Berlin . In 1948 she headed the “Office for Cultural Exchange” of the “ Swiss Donation for War Victims”. In addition, Elisabeth Rotten also worked as a translator (from Erich Fromm , Upton Sinclair and others). Rotten died in May 1964 and was buried in Saanen.

Fonts

  • The unification of Europe: collection of sayings and documents on the reconciliation and organization of Europe from one and a half centuries , selected and introduced by Elisabeth Rotten, with a foreword by Jean Rudolf von Salis . House of Books, Basel 1942, DNB 993166148 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Stibbe, Matthew (2007): Elisabeth Rotten and the 'Information and Help Center for Germans Abroad and Foreigners in Germany 1914-1919'. In: Alison S. Fell, Ingrid Sharp (Eds.): The Women's Movement in Wartime. International Perspectives, 1914-19. Basingstoke, Hampshire et al, pp. 194-210.
  2. ↑ Ludwig Liegle / Franz-Michael Konrad (ed.): Reform pedagogy in Palestine. Documents and interpretations of attempts at a 'new' education in the Jewish community of Palestine (1918-1948) , dipa-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 1989, ISBN 3-7638-0809-4 , pp. 229-230
  3. ^ Schmidlin, Guido (1996): Walter Robert Corti. The founder of the Pestalozzi Children's Village in Trogen. Speer Published by Zürich. P. 211.
personal data
SURNAME Rotten, Elisabeth
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rotten, Elisabeth Friederike
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Reform pedagogue and peace activist
DATE OF BIRTH February 15, 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH May 2, 1964
Place of death London