Elisabeth von Grunelius

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Elisabeth Marie Adelheid von Grunelius (born June 15, 1895 in Kolbsheim , Alsace , † October 3, 1989 in Schopfheim ) was a German educator. She is considered to be the "original kindergarten teacher of Waldorf education " in Germany. She also had a decisive influence on the development of Waldorf education in the USA.

Life

Elisabeth Marie Adelheid was the fourth of six children of Eisenhüttenwerk- and Schlossgutbesitzers Maurice (Moritz) Edouard (Edward) of Grunelius that the peerage (1908 letter Adel was applicable), and his wife Virgine Emma Baroness von Türckheim. She received private lessons with her siblings. In Bonn , Elisabeth von Grunelius completed the Klostermannsche Higher Girls' School and then the associated Comenius kindergarten teacher seminar , which trained in the spirit of Froebel pedagogy. In 1914 she passed the state kindergarten teacher examination. This was followed by a short stay in Dornach , where she took part in the elaboration of the wooden sculptures, the plinths and architraves of the first Goetheanum with a hammer and chisel. She then worked as an educator in a private daycare center in Berlin . She then trained as a youth leader at the renowned Pestalozzi-Froebel-Haus and successfully passed the exam in 1918.

After training as a youth leader, Elisabeth von Grunelius went to Stuttgart. There the newly founded Waldorf School was to be connected to a kindergarten under their leadership. But it was not until Easter 1926 that the first German Waldorf kindergarten could be opened. Elisabeth von Grunelius led this until it was banned by the Nazis in 1938.

After Waldorf education was banned, Elisabeth von Grunelius went to the USA. There she founded a Waldorf kindergarten and a Waldorf school in Kimberton , Pennsylvania . Both institutions were directed by her. She also established a Waldorf kindergarten on the campus of Adelphi College in Garden City near New York in 1948 , which was soon followed by a Waldorf Demonstration School . In 1950 Elisabeth von Grunelius published her experiences in Germany and the USA under the title Early Childhood Education and the Waldorf School Plan (published in German in 1955 as education in early childhood ). In it she noted about the educational concept of the Waldorf kindergarten:

Upbringing in a Waldorf kindergarten tries everywhere to avoid interfering with the free natural development of the child's being and tearing it out of the equilibrium of its still dreamlike state of consciousness; on the other hand, it does not leave the child to its own devices, but gives guidance, even careful guidance, but with the right means of example and imitation .

In 1954 Elisabeth von Grunelius returned to Europe and founded a Waldorf kindergarten in Paris. In the early 1960s she moved to Stuttgart, and in 1970 to Dornach. In 1969 she was elected honorary chairman of the International Waldorf Kindergarten Association. Elisabeth von Grunelius spent the last years of her life in a nursing home in Schopfheim.

Works

  • Upbringing in early childhood. The Waldorf Kindergarten . Die Kommenden, Freiburg im Breisgau 1955; 4. A. Schaffhausen 1980, ISBN 3-7214-5001-9
  • The essence of the small child (with Helmut von Kügelgen ). Association of Waldorf Kindergartens, Stuttgart 1971

literature

  • Manfred Berger : Women in the history of kindergarten. A manual . Brandes & Apsel, Frankfurt am Main 1995, ISBN 3-86099-255-4 , pp. 60–63 ( online resource )
  • Manfred Berger: Elisabeth von Grunelius , in: kindergarten heute 2013 / H. 6-7, pp. 30-35
  • Melanie Großkurth: Waldorf Education and Early Childhood. Elisabeth von Grunelius' share in the conception and realization . Düsseldorf 2004
  • Helmut von Kügelgen: The first Waldorf kindergarten teacher. Elisabeth von Grunelius. June 15, 1895 - October 3, 1989 . In: Erziehungskunst , 53/1989, pp. 1096–1100

Web links

  • Biographical entry in the online documentation of the anthroposophical research center Kulturimpuls

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Berger 1995, p. 60
  2. ↑ cf. Großkurth 2004, p. 4 ff.
  3. ↑ Grunelius 1980, p. 21.
  4. ↑ http://www.waldorfkindergarten.de/
personal data
SURNAME Grunelius, Elisabeth von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Grunelius, Elisabeth Marie Adelheid von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German educator, primary kindergarten teacher of Waldorf education
DATE OF BIRTH June 15, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Kolbsheim , Alsace
DATE OF DEATH 3rd October 1989
Place of death Schopfheim