Friedrich Froebel

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Friedrich Froebel

Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel (born April 21, 1782 in Oberweißbach / Thuringian Forest , † June 21, 1852 in Marienthal ) was a German educator and student of Pestalozzi . His particular merit lies in not only recognizing the importance of early childhood, but also in promoting the realization of these insights by creating a system of songs, activities and "toys". He is the founder of the " Kindergarten ", the first one was created in 1840 in Bad Blankenburg . This differed from the " child care institutions " that already existed at that time in terms of the educational concept. Associated with this was the expansion of the range of tasks from care to the triad of education, upbringing and care.

In honor of Froebel's educational achievements and the creation of the first kindergarten, April 21 (Froebel's birthday) is celebrated as a worldwide day of kindergarten ( action day ), in the United States as "National Kindergarten Day". Today there are many kindergartens around the world that are named after Froebel and continue his pedagogy . As essential is u. a. the stimulating promotion of children's play by adults and their support in the efforts of children to experience and understand the world.

Life, teaching and educational practice

overview

On June 28, 1840, Fröbel founded the first “General German Kindergarten ” in Bad Blankenburg together with Wilhelm Middendorf and Heinrich Langethal . They were his most loyal employees when it came time to put his educational ideas into practice in Keilhau near Rudolstadt. He introduced " free work " into pedagogy . The game and learning materials he developed are still recognized today.

He placed play as a typical child-like way of life and its educational value at the center of his pedagogy . The game gifts and means of employment he developed were based on his game theory. With his mother and co-songs , Froebel intended to introduce the small child into the adult world.

Family, education and work

Birthplace in Oberweißbach (Fröbelhaus Museum)

Fröbel was born on April 21, 1782 in Oberweißbach in the Thuringian Forest as the sixth child of the Orthodox Lutheran pastor Johann Jakob Fröbel and his wife Jacobine Eleonore Friederike (née Hoffmann). His mother died the following year. The early loss, which Froebel felt strongly, shaped him, as he also had problems with his father's second wife. From 1792 he lived in Stadtilm near Erfurt with his deceased mother's brother, Superintendent Hoffmann, who recognized the child's situation. He attended elementary school here.

From 1797 to 1799 Fröbel completed an apprenticeship in agriculture and forester near Hirschberg (Saale) . From 1799 he studied natural sciences in Jena . From 1802 to 1803 he was a forestry actuary ( land surveyor ) in Baunach and Bamberg . From 1804 to 1805 he served as a private secretary at Gut Groß Miltzow .

He started as an educator in 1805 at the Pestalozzi model school in Frankfurt am Main, where he got to know the ideas of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi . From 1806 to 1811 Fröbel was tutor for the three sons of the noble von Holzhausen family in Frankfurt, and he became friends with Bertha von Holzhausen. He lived with his three children from 1808 to 1810 in Pestalozzi's Institute in Iferten , Switzerland. At the end of this stay, Froebel was disappointed about disputes between teachers at the institute and about Pestalozzi's statements regarding this condition. He further developed Pestalozzi's elementary method and discovered the special importance of early childhood in human development.

In 1811 he continued his studies of languages, physics and chemistry in Göttingen and mineralogy in Berlin without completing them with a certificate. Froebel became a teacher at the Plamann School in Berlin, which was an educational and patriotic center at that time. He had to break off his studies when the wars of liberation against Napoleon broke out in March 1813.

In the Lützow Freikorps he took part in the Battle of Großgörschen in May 1813. During his service in the Freikorps, Froebel made friends with Wilhelm Middendorf and Heinrich Langethal .

General German Educational Institute in Keilhau, today the Free Froebel School Keilhau

In 1814, after his return, Froebel became assistant to Weiß at the Institute and Museum for Mineralogy in Berlin. He gave up this position again and founded the "Allgemeine Deutsche Erziehungsanstalt" (forerunner of the state educational institutions) in Griesheim near Arnstadt in Thuringia in 1816 . In 1817 he moved this to Keilhau near Rudolstadt. In 1831 it was continued by the other co-founders Wilhelm Middendorf and Heinrich Langethal.

In 1817 he moved to Keilhau and together with Langethal, Middendorf and Wilhelmine Henriette Hoffmeister set up the educational institution. On September 11, 1818, he married Wilhelmine Hoffmeister (* 1780) in Berlin, the marriage remained childless. As the editor of magazines and publications with various names, he spread his views. In 1820, the first Keilhauer advertising pamphlet, To our German people , appeared, followed by four more Keilhauer advertising pamphlets by 1823.

Main work

Froebel kindergarten in Bad Blankenburg

In 1826 he published his main literary work, Human Education, and founded the weekly Die Erziehenden Familien . In 1828/1829 he pursued the plan of a public education institution in Helba (today a district of Meiningen), the so-called Helba Plan, which he did not implement. In 1829 Johannes Barop took over the management of the school in Keilhau.

Wartensee Castle, Neuenkirch / Switzerland

From 1831 to 1836 Froebel lived in Switzerland again. In 1831 he founded an educational institution in Schloss Wartensee in Neuenkirch in the canton of Lucerne . In 1833 he moved this to Willisau , and in 1835/36 he headed the orphanage in Burgdorf in the canton of Bern . There he published the magazine Basic Characteristics of Human Education. His work Renewal of Life Requires the New Year 1836 was published in 1836 .

In 1837 he returned to Thuringia, devoted himself almost exclusively to the upbringing of children of pre-school age and began producing toys in Blankenburg . There the educator founded a “care, play and employment establishment” for small children in 1837. Children should be stimulated and instructed on all sides according to their age through carefully grouped movement and mental games, sayings, songs with constant contact with nature. From 1838 to 1840 he published the magazine Ein Sonntagsblatt für like-minded people .

In 1838/39 he made lecture tours to Göttingen, Frankfurt, Dresden and Leipzig. His wife died in 1839.

Friedrich Froebel Museum in Bad Blankenburg, in the world's first kindergarten building (opened in 1840)

On June 28, 1840, the founding event of the “General German Kindergarten” took place in the Blankenburg town hall.

Kindergarten teacher courses began in Blankenburg in 1842. Ida Seele was one of his first students who subsequently advocated the idea of ​​a kindergarten. Further writings and lecture tours, particularly to popularize the kindergarten, followed in the years 1843 to 1849.

In 1844, after years of preparatory work and in collaboration with the draftsman Unger and the musician Kohl, Fröbel published his last large, educational total work of art, the mother and co-songs . He wanted to make the mothers understand the importance and responsibility that lie in motherhood and upbringing and at the same time give them holistic help for the education of babies and pre-kindergarten. 100 songs for playing with the ball were also published. Froebel had lived in Keilhau again since 1845 and traveled a lot to spread his ideas.

On January 12, 1847, the first Westphalian kindergarten was opened in Lünen an der Lippe. On June 9, 1847, Froebel opened Luther's kindergarten in Marienberg (Ore Mountains) . The first kindergarten teacher was Auguste Steiger, who was trained by Froebel in 1847.

In 1849, Fröbel moved to Liebenstein on the Aschenberg estate, now the Hotel Fröbelhof . During the winter he stayed in Hamburg, which he left again in early May 1850. In 1850 he moved to the Marienthaler Schlösschen . He founded the first school for the training of kindergarten teachers and published an unification sheet for all friends of human education . A game festival was held on the Altenstein on August 4th.

Froebel and his two wives

On June 9, 1851, he married his former student Louise Levin .

In the Prussian state administration, the kindergartens were considered “atheistic and demagogic” because of alleged “destructive tendencies in the field of religion and politics”. On August 7, 1851, a kindergarten ban was enacted in Prussia, which was published on August 23. For their assessment of the kindergartens as "part of the Froebel socialist system", the Prussian ministers called on Froebel's nephew Karl Froebel , who in 1851 had published a paper on universities for girls and kindergartens . Karl August Varnhagen von Ense commented: “The stupid Minister von Raumer issued an order against the kindergartens, referring to a book by Karl Froebel. He confuses Friedrich and Karl Froebel. ”Friedrich Froebel defended himself in vain, the kindergartens were not allowed again until 1860.

At the end of September 1851 a meeting of teachers took place in Bad Liebenstein. On June 3, 1852 Froebel took part in the general German teachers' meeting in Gotha. He died on June 21, 1852 in Marienthal . His grave is in the Schweina cemetery.

Appreciation and aftermath

The Froebel memorial in the Froebel kindergarten in Mühlhausen / Thuringia shows the basic pedagogical forms.
Memorial stele for Froebel in front of the entrance to the Holzhausenschlösschen in Frankfurt am Main
The Froebel Tower near Oberweißbach
Froebel view near Keilhau

In addition to his contributions to pedagogy in early childhood, Froebel is to be honored as

  • "Schulmann": In 1816 he founded a school with the General German Educational Institute in Griesheim near Stadtilm , and from June 1817 in Keilhau , which today is continued in the same place in the spirit of Fröbel's pedagogy.
  • Publicist: Beginning in the Keilhau years, he created and published his educational ideas and ideas.
  • Vocational trainer: He founded the first school for nannies in Marienthaler Schlösschen in 1850, creating a new professional profile and at the same time one of the first vocational training institutions for women in Germany.
  • In addition, Fröbel and his playing system are seen in international discussions as an inspirer of modern art and architecture .

Pupil and successor

Froebel's work was continued by his students. Froebel's student Margarethe Schurz founded the first kindergarten in the USA in Watertown, Wisconsin, in 1856. She inspired Elizabeth P. Peabody , who opened the first English-language kindergarten in Boston in 1860 and thereby spread the kindergarten idea in the USA. The German emigrant, journalist and educator Adolph Douai founded a kindergarten in Boston (Massachusetts) in 1859, which he had to close again after a year. From 1866 he founded others in New York City.

The pedagogue August Köhler was the initiator and co-founder of the "German Froebel Association" in 1863, initially for Thuringia, from which the "General Froebel Association" emerged in 1872 and a year later, in 1873, the "German Froebel Association". August Köhler analyzed and evaluated the Froebel theory critically, adopted fundamental ideas in his kindergarten pedagogy and expanded them, developed an independent "Köhler kindergarten pedagogy". He trained kindergarten teachers for the first time in Gotha in 1857. Before that, he wanted to address exclusively male educators; Too few answered, however.

Thekla Naveau founded the first kindergarten in Sondershausen in October 1853 and the first kindergarten in Nordhausen on April 1, 1867 after the ban was lifted .

Angelika Hartmann founded the first Fröbel kindergarten in Köthen, Anhalt , in 1864 .

Significant personalities from high society campaigned for the kindergarten and its pedagogy, such as Bertha von Marenholtz-Bülow and Lina Morgenstern , who were significantly involved in the lifting of the kindergarten ban. Cosima von Bülow , who later became the wife of Richard Wagner , praised the kindergarten as the first important place for music lessons . The named stated:

"So Froebel, after listening to the child's inarticulate sounds with moving concern and loving attention, and after realizing that these sounds are tones and that the first babbling is a rhythm, he concluded that just as the flower unfolds in sunlight that the soul of the young creature must develop to the sound of music. In this way he gave the proof that he recognized the ethical mission of harmony, and felt that it had to be fulfilled even with those whose later life would not be dedicated to music as a profession and special study. He made music an integral part of his first upbringing, convinced that singing, as a respite from work, soothes the character of children, is the true appeasant of young souls, and strengthens the bond which the kindergarten among them loops. The coarseness in dealings, as well as the roughness of the voice, disappear at the same time when this rule of morality and health is applied, and one can say that singing, being the first companion of the children in the garden, is indeed their guardian angel becomes."

In 1908 and 1911, the training of kindergarten teachers in Germany was recognized by state legal regulations.

Froebel education today

Froebel's work enjoys a great reputation worldwide, especially in Austria, Japan, the USA, Korea and Russia, and is represented in many ways. However, different priorities were set here. In the USA in particular , a form oriented more towards physical education prevailed, while in Germany targeted motor training in kindergarten age was viewed with skepticism. For example, the basic pedagogical forms developed by Fröbel are still popular today . The three three-dimensional shapes ball, cylinder and cube are still popular shapes for toddler toys; originally only made of wood and now made of plastic. Froebel kindergartens are also still widespread. They see the stimulating promotion of play by adults as their essential tasks as well as their support in the endeavors of children to experience and understand the world.

There are now many kindergartens in Germany that are named after Froebel and continue his pedagogy. Often these kindergartens emerged from parents' initiatives or on the initiative of other private individuals. The largest Froebel association, Froebel e. V. , today operates over 100 kindergartens, after-school care centers and educational support facilities across Germany through the Froebel Group .

In general, there is a large number of initiatives that deal with the scientific and practical reception of Froebel pedagogy.

The New Thuringian Froebel Association e. V. (NTFV) sees as one of its goals the protection of Froebel's ideas from market economy appropriation. He runs a school museum and the Froebel archive in Keilhau and is involved in Froebel institutions worldwide (USA, England, Japan). Matthias Brodbeck and the NTFV created a Fröbeldiploma, which is currently being awarded by the Froebel Academy International (FAI) in Nordhausen.

The International Froebel Society also exists across national borders, which forms sub-groups in various countries, including Germany. The efforts to process Froebel pedagogy in theory and practice can be seen, among other things, in the biennial Froebel Conference, which met in Kassel in 2016 and will be held in Hiroshima in 2018 . At the moment, the scientific research into Froebel pedagogy is far from over.

Postage stamp from 1949 issued by Deutsche Post

Coins and postage stamp

Further aftermath

The Fröbel system of toys is also  discussed internationally as a source of inspiration for modern (abstract) art and architecture - in particular the Bauhaus movement . Evidence for this is u. a. Frank Lloyd Wright's tape recordings , publications such as B. The kindergarten of abstraction by Brigitte Werneburg, or Norman Brosterman's book Inventing Kindergarten , but also the fact that the founder of the Bauhaus movement, Walter Gropius , designed a Friedrich Froebel house for Bad Liebenstein in 1924 .

As Fröbelstern an elaborately folded paper star is called. Paper is cut to size beforehand (unlike origami ) and then processed.

The Dutch verb fröbelen is derived from Froebel's name . Langenscheidt specifies the meaning: "how to keep children busy in a toddler group".

Various Froebel schools bear his name, and several streets are named after him. In Vienna 1160 ( Ottakring ), a street was named after Froebel as early as 1883, and its name remains unchanged.

On the Kirchberg near Fröbel's birthplace Oberweißbach stands the Fröbelturm , a lookout tower that was built in his honor in 1888–1890.

Works

literature

  • Henny Schumacher: Friedrich Froebel's Ideas in the Light of the Present . (= The School of Life . Volume 13). CA Schwetschke & Son, Berlin 1923.
  • Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz:  Froebel, Friedrich. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 1, Bautz, Hamm 1975. 2nd, unchanged edition Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-013-1 , Sp. 136-138.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  • Manfred Berger : 150 years of kindergarten. A letter to Friedrich Froebel. Frankfurt 1990, ISBN 3-925798-47-1 .
  • Manfred Berger: Women in the history of kindergarten. A manual . Frankfurt 1995, ISBN 3-86099-255-4 .
  • Manfred Berger: Köhler, Ernst Heinrich August Anton. In: Felicitas Marwinski (Ed.): Paths of life in Thuringia . Fourth collection, Jena 2011, ISBN 978-3-939718-57-4 , pp. 182–190.
  • Manfred Berger: The kindergarten from 1840 to the present day. Saarbrücken 2015, ISBN 978-3-639-79277-5 .
  • Manfred Berger: History of the Kindergarten. From the first pre-school facilities in the 18th century to daycare centers in the 21st century. Frankfurt am Main 2016, ISBN 978-3-95558-183-1 .
  • R. Boldt, E. Knechtel, H. König (Eds.): FWA Froebel. “Come, let us live for our children!” From the pedagogical work of a human educator . 3 volumes. Berlin 1982, DNB 550701788 .
  • Hans-Ulrich Grunder: Froebel, Friedrich. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  • Sigurd Hebenstreit: Friedrich Froebel - image of man, kindergarten pedagogy, play promotion. Jena 2003, ISBN 3-934601-58-8 .
  • Helmut Heiland : The conception of the subject teaching at Froebel (1782-1852). In: A. Kaiser, D. Pech (Hrsg.): History and historical conceptions of subject teaching. Baltmannsweiler 2004, pp. 69-72.
  • Helmut Heiland: Friedrich Froebel in personal testimonies and photo documents. Reinbek 1982.
  • Helmut Heiland: The school pedagogy of Friedrich Froebel . 1993.
  • Helmut Heiland (Ed.): Friedrich Froebel. Selected writings . Volume 3: Preschool Education and Game Theory. 1974. (3rd edition. Stuttgart 1998)
  • Heppe :  Froebel, Friedrich . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1878, p. 123 f.
  • Erika Hoffmann (Ed.): Friedrich Froebel. Selected writings . Volume 1: Small writings and letters from 1809–1851. 1951. (4th edition. Stuttgart 1984); Volume 2: Education. 1951. (4th edition. Stuttgart 1982)
  • E. Hoffmann (Ed.): Friedrich Froebel. Selected writings . Volume 4: The Game Gifts. Stuttgart 1982.
  • E. Hoffmann, R. Wächter (Ed.): Friedrich Froebel. Selected writings . Volume 5: Letters and documents about Keilhau. First attempt at spherical education. Stuttgart 1986.
  • Erika Hoffmann:  Froebel, Friedrich. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1961, ISBN 3-428-00186-9 , p. 643 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Detlef Krone: The pedagogue F. Froebel and the women. Relationship needs from the early days of kindergarten . Frankfurt am Main 2011, ISBN 978-3-631-61980-3 .
  • Detlef Krone: Biographical study on the person and work of Friedrich Froebel. Frankfurt am Main 2016, ISBN 978-3-631-64897-1 .
  • Detlef Krone: On the psychology of an educator. Friedrich Froebel, the man who devised the kindergarten. Berlin 2020, ISBN 978-3-96138-203-3 .
  • Wichard Lange (Ed.): Friedrich Froebel's collected educational writings. First department: Friedrich Fröbel in his development as a person and a pedagogue . Volume 1: From Froebel's life and first striving. Autobiography and Minor Writings. Berlin 1862. (facsimile print, Osnabrück 1966)
  • Wichard Lange (Ed.): Friedrich Froebel's collected educational writings. First department: Friedrich Froebel in his development as a person and educator . Volume 2: Friedrich Froebel's ideas on human education and essays with various contents. Berlin 1863. (Facsimile print, Osnabrück 1966)
  • Wichard Lange (Ed.): Friedrich Froebel's collected educational writings. Second department: Friedrich Froebel as the founder of the kindergartens. The pedagogy of the kindergarten. Friedrich Froebel's thoughts on play and the children's play objects . Berlin 1862. (facsimile print, Osnabrück 1966)
  • Karl Neumann , Ulf Sauerbrey, Michael Winkler (eds.): Froebel pedagogy in the context of modernity. Education, upbringing and social action . Jena 2010, ISBN 978-3-941854-31-4 .
  • Albert Reble (Ed.): Friedrich Froebel. Small educational writings . Bad Heilbrunn / Obb. 1965.
  • Hans-Joachim Schmutzler: Froebel and Montessori. Two brilliant educators - what differentiates them, what connects them. 3. Edition. Herder Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau 1991, ISBN 3-451-22178-0 .
  • F. Seidel (Ed.): Friedrich Froebel's educational writings . 3 volumes. Vienna / Leipzig 1883.
  • Heinz Stübig : Friedrich Wilhelm August Froebel. Contributions to the biography and impact history of a "deserving German educator" . Bochum, Freiburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-89733-220-1 .
  • H. Zimmermann (Ed.): Froebel's human education . Leipzig 1913.
  • Matthias Brodbeck: Resonances - Thoughts on 200 years of Keilhau - A memory for the future . (PDF) Keilhau 2017.
  • AE: The school in the forest. A peace work from the wars of liberation . In: The Gazebo . Issue 37, 1867, pp. 580-583 ( full text [ Wikisource ]).
  • Wichard Lange : For Friedrich Froebel’s centenary . In: The Gazebo . Volume 6, 1881, pp. 104 ( full text [ Wikisource ]).
  • Friedrich Hofmann : Friedrich Froebel . In: The Gazebo . Issue 16, 1882, pp. 265 ( full text [ Wikisource ]).

Broadcast reports

Web links

Commons : Friedrich Fröbel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Friedrich Froebel  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kleiner-kalender.de accessed on April 21, 2017.
  2. ↑ Kindergarten day . kuriose-feiertage.de; accessed on April 21, 2017.
  3. ↑ Helmut Heiland: Friedrich Froebel in self-testimonies and image documents. Reinbek 1983, pp. 29-34.
  4. ↑ froebelweb.de
  5. ↑ People Education at froebelweb.de
  6. ^ Matthias Brodbeck: The Fröbelsche Helba Plan - the failure of a vision froebelweb.de
  7. ↑ In an article with the headline Froebel's Kindergartens , which appeared on October 30, 1849, page 6, in the Hamburger Nachrichten , it was stated at the beginning that he would be coming to Hamburg in these days.
  8. ↑ In a report in the Hamburger Nachrichten it said under daily reports , page 2, from May 9th, 1850, "... who spent the passed winter within our walls, left us on May 7th ..."
  9. ^ History of early childhood education in Germany . Federal Agency for Civic Education , December 20, 2016, see section “The Prussian Kindergarten Ban” with info box.
  10. ↑ Manfred Berger, 2011, p. 182 ff.
  11. ↑ Quotation from Berger, 2015, p. 25.
  12. ^ Joe Frost: Evolution of American Playgrounds Scholarpedia
  13. ↑ Arnd Krüger : When should children start exercising? In: Peter Lösche (Hrsg.): Göttinger Sozialwissenschaften today. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1990, ISBN 3-525-35838-5 , pp. 278-308.
  14. ^ Froebel group
  15. ↑ bildungsserver.de
  16. ^ New Thuringian Froebel Club
  17. ^ International Froebel Society
  18. ^ International Froebel Society - Germany
  19. ^ International Froebel Society: Conferences
  20. ↑ See, for example, the regular publications of the Froebel researcher Ulf Sauerbrey ( list ).
  21. ^ Brigitte Werneburg: The kindergarten of abstraction .
  22. ↑ translation for Dutch fröbelen . langenscheidt.com
  23. ↑ Source: Austrian Advertising Museum Vienna
  24. ↑ Only volume 1 appeared, see: Michael O. Krieg: More not published. A directory of unfinished printed works (= Bibliotheca bibliographica. Volume 2, 1). Volume 1: A-L. Krieg, Vienna 1954, p. 241.
personal data
SURNAME Froebel, Friedrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Froebel, Friedrich Wilhelm August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pedagogue and educational scientist, founder of the first German kindergarten
DATE OF BIRTH April 21, 1782
PLACE OF BIRTH Oberweißbach , Thuringian Forest
DATE OF DEATH June 21, 1852
Place of death Marienthal