Friedrich Bodecker

Friedrich Bödecker (born July 22, 1896 in Bockenem / Harz , † April 30, 1954 in Hanover ) was a German educator. As a teacher, he promoted reading in school. The Friedrich Bödecker Prize for children's and young people's literature named after him is awarded every two years . The Friedrich-Bödecker-Kreis eV promotes reading nationwide in Germany.

Life

Bödecker began training as a primary school teacher at the preparatory institute in Hanover. The First World War forced him to drop out, but in 1920 he was able to complete his exams as a teacher. He became a teacher in one-class village schools near Bremen, first in Borwede and then in Rüssen . He built a school library and tried to instill a passion for reading in his students. He came into contact with the Volksbüchereibund and the youth book committees that existed in the teachers' associations at the time. He got involved in it. As these committees with the Nazi Teachers League gleichgeschaltet were, he stepped out of the 1933rd

In 1946 the head of the United Youth Writing Committees, John Barfaut, asked him to work again. He judged books for children and young people and passed his texts on to the teaching staff's youth literature committees that had been set up throughout Lower Saxony. His recommendations appeared in many official, trade union and private magazines and newspapers in Lower Saxony.

From 1950 to 1952 Bödecker was seconded to the Lower Saxony Ministry of Education. He was given the task of organizing book exhibitions for the school libraries in the administrative districts. Business people, especially the Pelikan factory for writing tools in Hanover, supported Bödecker's work financially.

After his sudden death in April 1954, the “Arbeitsgemeinschaft Buch, Film und Fernsehen” founded shortly before was renamed “Friedrich-Bödecker-Kreis eV” (FBK) on September 1st, 1954. His son Hans Bödecker was elected first chairman of the Friedrich Bödecker circle in Lower Saxony in 1964. From 1981 to 2002 he was also chairman of the newly founded Federal Association of Friedrich-Bödecker-Kreise eV, which gradually formed in the western federal states - and after the unification of Germany also in the eastern states.

Since 2000, Insa Bödecker has continued the life's work of her grandfather Friedrich Bödecker and her father Hans Bödecker as first chairwoman in Lower Saxony and since 2002 as a board member of the federal association. Hans Bödecker was honorary chairman of the federal association from 2002 until his death in 2012.

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personal data
SURNAME	Bödecker, Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German educator
DATE OF BIRTH	July 22, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH	Bockenem
DATE OF DEATH	April 30, 1954
Place of death	Hanover