Ernst Christian Trapp

Ernst Christian Trapp (born November 8, 1745 on Gut Friedrichsruhe near Drage , Steinburg district ; † April 18, 1818 in Salzdahlum ) was a pedagogue , teacher , headmaster and the first German holder of a chair for pedagogy .

Life

Ernst Christian Trapp was the son of a Brandenburg-Kulmbach estate manager. At the age of 15 he attended the Latin school in Segeberg (today Bad Segeberg ) in 1760 and was influenced and promoted there by the rector Martin Ehlers .

From 1765 Trapp was enrolled at the University of Göttingen as a theology student, but mainly studied philology and pedagogy, especially with professors Johann Peter Miller and Christian Gottlob Heyne . When his former teacher and sponsor Ehlers was called to Oldenburg in Oldenburg in 1768 , Trapp was appointed his successor in Segeberg, where he stayed until 1772.

In 1772 Trapp was appointed rector of the Latin school in Itzehoe . In 1776 Trapp went to Altona to the Christianeum high school as vice principal . There he was the successor of Friedrich Conrad Lange. In 1777 Joachim Heinrich Campe brought him to the Philanthropinum in Dessau . During these years he became the main reviewer for the General German Library of Friedrich Nicolai , where he can be found under the Fraktur abbreviation "KM". The disputes between Campe and Basedow strained him very much and he took care of a change.

Professor at the University of Halle

Trapp's friend Nicolai recommended him to the Prussian minister Karl Abraham Freiherr von Zedlitz . The latter appointed Trapp to the University of Halle in 1778 , where he was the first professor to teach pedagogy. In his inaugural lecture "The necessity to study upbringing and teaching as an art in its own right", he advocated 'empirical' pedagogy. With this point of view, he stood in contrast to the traditional, humanistic approach of education. In 1780 his main work "An attempt at pedagogy" was published. In it he stated that the science of pedagogy does not come to definitive results if it is to serve the individual. Above all, he demanded constant observation of the students and the willingness to discard what seems to have been tried and tested when something better is in prospect.

There can be no pedagogical and didactic rules and principles, no maxims of school reform that do not have to be changed from case to case, adapted to the respective circumstances and corrected.

At the same time as the pedagogical chair, Trapp became head of a newly established educational institute located at the theological seminary , whose task it was to train teachers. For the first time, pedagogical-theoretical and practical school studies were to be combined at a university. In 1782 he published his opinion on this in the treatise "About the Hallische Erziehungsinstitut". The involvement of the chair in the theological faculty led to disputes in view of Trapp's 'empirical' view. In addition, the favors Trapps caused by v. Zedlitz Resistance and competence disputes in the institute - especially between Trapp and Johann Salomo Semler .

Attempts at reform in Braunschweig

In 1783 Trapp gave up his chair and left the University of Halle. His experiment to set up teacher training for 'experimenting pedagogues' in Halle had failed. In the same year Trapp went to Trittau and there took over the management of the private educational institution with five students originally founded by his friend Campe in Hamburg on Hammer Deich. In 1786 Trapp was appointed to the school board of the Duchy of Braunschweig by Duke Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel . There he was supposed to reform and modernize the state's school system together with Johann Stuve and Joachim Heinrich Campe . The administrative management of the project was incumbent on Karl August von Hardenberg , who later became Prussian reform chancellor. Despite considerable approaches, the major reform project failed in the end due to the resistance of the church and corporate bodies.

In 1790 the school directorate was dissolved and Trapp retired in exchange for an annual pension. Trapp moved his residence to Salzdahlum near Wolfenbüttel , where he founded a 'teaching institute for girls' (boarding house). As a writer, he gathered a small group of like-minded people here. He died at the age of 72 on April 18, 1818 in Wolfenbüttel.

Individual reform ideas

Trapp was close to philanthropic views and consistently represented educational ideas. He sat down for an academic teacher training one, opposed the prevailing influence of theologians on the school system and recommended that in addition to the ancient languages and modern foreign languages teaching. He also advocated teaching "future scholars" and "non-students" together. In this respect, he can be seen as the earliest proponent of the comprehensive school .

Appreciation

Since 1996, the German Society for Educational Science has awarded the Ernst Christian Trapp Prize every two years .

The University of Halle supports the 'Ernst Christian Trapp Scholarship for Research into Enlightenment and Education'. The founder of the scholarship is the Ulm educational scientist Prof. Dr. em. Werner Heldmann.

Works

• On the promotion of effective knowledge. Itzehoe 1778. Review: Allgemeine Deutsche Bibliothek, appendix to 25. – 36. Volume 4th section (Walch).
• Of the need to study education and teaching as an art in itself. Halle 1779. (Printed in the new edition of An attempt at pedagogy. Paderborn 1977)
• Promenoria to reform the curriculum at the Dessau Philanthropin. In: O. Franke (Ed.): Communications from the Society for German Educational and School History II. 1, 1892, pp. 31–33.
• Theological proof that Doctor Bahrdt was to blame for the earthquake in Calabria. The Reverend Theological Faculty in Halle humbly appropriated by Simon Ratzbergern the younger, former editor of the famous Vademekum for funny people. o. O. 1785.
• About the study of ancient languages. In: General revision of the entire school and education system. Volume VII, Wolfenbüttel 1787.
• Lessons in languages. In: General revision of the entire school and education system. Volume XI.
• About the study of the ancient classical writers and their languages, from an educational point of view. In: General revision of the entire school and education system. Volume VII, Wolfenbüttel 1787.
• From teaching in general. In: General revision of the entire school and education system. Volume VIII, Wolfenbüttel 1787. (New edition, discussed and introduced by Klaus Schaller. Quelle & Meyer, Heidelberg 1964, DNB 455099413 )
• About the necessity of public schools and their relationship to state and church. In: General revision of the entire school and education system. Volume XII, Wolfenbüttel around 1790.
• About the Hallesches Educational Institute. 1782.
• Conversations with the youth. 1775. (Reprinted in 1776 in: General Library for Schools and Education in Germany. )
• Attempt at pedagogy. Schöningh, Paderborn 1977, ISBN 3-506-78368-8 . (Reproduction of the Berlin 1780 edition, digitized version )
• On the promotion of effective knowledge. 1777.
• Trapp published numerous articles on educational issues in Joachim Heinrich Campes revision work , in the "Braunschweigische Journal" founded in 1788, which later appeared as "Schleswig Journal" for political reasons in the Danish Altona or Flensburg, and in the "Allgemeine Deutsche Bibliothek".

literature

• A. Pinloche: History of Philanthropism. Leipzig 1896.
• Theodor Fritzsch: Ernst Christian Trapp. Bleyl & Kaemmerer, Dresden 1900.
• Max Fuchs: The failure of the philanthropist Ernst Christian Trapp. Beltz, Weinheim 1985.
• Hermann Götz: The first and last full professor of education in Prussia. Beltz, Langensalza 1913.
• Ulrich Hermann : Ernst Christian Trapp - Person and Work. In: EC Trapp: An attempt at pedagogy. New edition of the Berlin 1780 edition. Paderborn 1977.
• Ulrich Hermann: The Philanthropists: Ernst Christian Trapp. In: H. Scheuerl (Ed.): Classics of Pedagogy. Volume 1: From Erasmus from Rotterdam to Herbert Spencer. Beck, Munich 1991, p. 151 ff.
• Gernot Scholz: 250th birthday of Ernst Christian Trapp, the first pedagogy professor in Germany. In: Cologne magazine for economics and education. Issue 19, December 1995, pp. 127-148.
• Paul Zimmermann :  Trapp, Ernst Christian . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 38, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1894, p. 497 f.
• Heinrich Kröger:  TRAPP, Ernst Christian. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 12, Bautz, Herzberg 1997, ISBN 3-88309-068-9 , Col. 414-417.

Web links

• Literature by and about Ernst Christian Trapp in the catalog of the German National Library
• Entry on Ernst Christian Trapp in the Catalogus Professorum Halensis
• About teaching in languages. 1788. Excerpt from goethezeitportal.de

Individual evidence

1. ^ G. Parthey, The staff at Friedrich Nicolai's General German Library Nicolaische Buchhandlung, Berlin, 1842.
2. ↑ Cf. for 'life': Ulrich Herrmann: Die Philanthropen: Ernst Christian Trapp. In: H. Scheuerl (Ed.): Classics of Pedagogy. Volume 1: From Erasmus from Rotterdam to Herbert Spencer. Beck, Munich 1991, p. 151 ff.