Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia

Francisco Ferrer Guardia

"The Modern School" translated into English by Voltairine de Cleyre (1901)

Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia (born January 10, 1859 in Alella near Barcelona, † October 13, 1909 in Barcelona ) was a libertarian Spanish educator .

Life

Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia came from a strictly Catholic family. During his bookkeeping apprenticeship, he came into contact with socialist and libertarian ideas. He then developed into an opponent of religion and joined the Masonic lodge Veritat (cat.) And Verdad (cast.) In Barcelona. As a supporter of the failed attempt Ruiz Zorrilla to proclaim the republic , he had to flee to Paris in 1885 . In his 15-year exile he earned his living as a Spanish teacher and maintained contacts with the protagonists of French anarchism.

There was also an old lady among his students whom he convinced of his ideas. With the inheritance that she left him, he returned to Spain in 1901 . There he opened a reform school, the Escuela Moderna . Because of his (especially for the time) radical, anarchist- oriented reform pedagogical concepts, he was exposed to violent hostility. In 1906 he was suspected of being involved in an assassination attempt on King Alfonso XIII. being involved, arrested and held for over a year. Certain sections of the Church had called for the court martial, but the Spanish government decided against it for political reasons. The school then had to close.

In 1909, after anarchist uprisings in Barcelona (“the tragic week ”), martial law was declared . Ferrer was accused of being involved in the riot. He was brought before a court-martial that sentenced him to death without being allowed to defend himself or to call witnesses to his defense, without any evidence , which aroused indignation around the world. The general hope that King Alfonso XIII. will not sign the death sentence, did not come true.

On the day of his execution , he was taken to a cell that was set up as a chapel and where Catholic priests wanted to give him spiritual assistance, but he firmly refused. He was executed in the Castell de Montjuïc . Before he was shot standing , his last greeting went to his school:

"I am innocent. Long live the modern school! ” (Original Spanish: ¡Soy inocente! ¡Viva la Escuela Moderna!)

After his death, Ferrer's ideas a. a. picked up in the USA . Several schools based on the Escuela Moderna emerged (called Modern Schools or Ferrer Schools ), the first in New York City in 1911 .

He found his final resting place in the Cementiri de Montjuïc mountain cemetery in Barcelona.

In response to his murder, 15,000 people gathered outside the Spanish embassy in Paris and stormed it. Activists hung a black flag from the great cathedral in Milan and Ferrer made the front page of the New York Times. In the decades that followed, numerous streets and squares, especially in Italy and France, were named after him.

literature

Francisco Ferrer: The Modern School. New ed. u. with a contribution to the context and reception of Francisco Ferrer's libertarian reform pedagogy by Ulrich Klemm, Verlag Edition AV , Lich 2003 ISBN 3-936049-21-1
Ulrich Klemm: Francisco Ferrer. A libertarian school reformer in the context of educational history . Edition Anares, Bern 2004. ISBN 3-905052-72-5
Alfons Paquet : Comrade Fleming. A novel about the Ferrer riots. Edited and supplemented with a biographical-historical essay by Oliver M. Piecha . Edition AV, Lich 2004 ISBN 3-936049-32-7
Daniel Stoller: Anarchist pedagogy, using the example of Francisco Ferrer and the "Escuela Moderna" . Pedagogical Institute of the University of Zurich , 1992. Available online in the CIRA catalog .

Web links

Commons : Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Wikiquote: Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia - Quotes

Literature by and about Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia in the catalog of the German National Library
Fundación Francisco Ferrer Guardia (Spanish)

Footnotes

↑ ^a ^b ^c Francisco Ferrer i Guàrdia. (Calendar sheet) Against the power of the Spanish state church. In: Humanistic press service. January 10, 2015, accessed on January 10, 2015 (German).
↑ Konrad Beißwanger: In the land of the sacred lakes. Travel pictures from the homeland of the Chibcha Indians (Colombia) . Beißwanger, Nuremberg 1911, p. 10.
^ Avrich, Paul: Modern School Movement. Anarchism and Education in the United States . Princeton University Press, 2014, pp. 32 f . ( myilibrary.com ).

personal data
SURNAME	Ferrer i Guàrdia, Francesc
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Ferrer, Francesc; Ferrer, Francisco; Ferrer i Guàrdia, Francesc
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	libertarian Spanish educator
DATE OF BIRTH	January 10, 1859
PLACE OF BIRTH	Alella near Barcelona
DATE OF DEATH	October 13, 1909
Place of death	Barcelona

[hpd-1] Francisco Ferrer i Guàrdia. (Calendar sheet) Against the power of the Spanish state church. In: Humanistic press service. January 10, 2015, accessed on January 10, 2015 (German).

[2] Konrad Beißwanger: In the land of the sacred lakes. Travel pictures from the homeland of the Chibcha Indians (Colombia) . Beißwanger, Nuremberg 1911, p. 10.

[3] Avrich, Paul: Modern School Movement. Anarchism and Education in the United States . Princeton University Press, 2014, pp. 32 f . ( myilibrary.com ).