Georg Christian Raff

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Georg Christian Raff (born September 30, 1748 in Stuttgart , † June 5, 1788 in Tübingen ) was a German writer and educator . Raff is one of the pioneers of German children's and youth literature .

Live and act

Raff was one of the early exponents of non-fiction for children; he wrote a natural history for children (1781) and later a geography for children (1783). He studied at the University of Göttingen , where he heard lectures from, among others, Johann Peter Miller , and then worked as a full teacher of history and geography at the Göttingen Lyceum and in Tübingen until his death in 1788. Raff tried to develop science lessons in a way that was child-friendly. The Meyers Konversations-Lexikon paid tribute to him a hundred years later:

“He was one of the first educators to apply the new principles of teaching to natural history. He based the natural history lessons on the consideration and description of individual typical representatives of the important families and led in three expediently extended courses up to an indication of the system. His youth writings, written in dialogue form, were received with great acclaim. "

He wrote his textbooks in a dialogically stimulating form. This brought him great success, but also ridicule. The mathematician AG Kästner said of his natural history: “Here the animals arrived talking, except for the donkey; the author has taken on the role! ”.

In 1778 Georg Christian Raff published his natural history for children in Göttingen . Almost 2000 plants, animals and minerals are presented in it. The childish tone of the language was heavily criticized by his contemporaries. In spite of this, or certainly because of this, this book enjoyed great popularity well into the 19th century. This is how he wrote about a local herb garden:

“Tell us, dear sir… what smells so extraordinarily strong and sweet in this garden? It is good, children, that you should ask about it, otherwise I would really have forgotten to lead you to anise, fennel, coriander and dill. So follow me! See, those little elongated grains smell so strong. What use are they? You can eat them all. Try it once! Oh yes! They are also used for various baked goods and even for medicines. And the anise, dill and fennel also make a healthy oil. "

In his work on old children's books, Horst Kunze exemplifies the beginning of the dialogue between the author and the pig:

“Tell me your story! O how can I do that! And why not? You should and must repeat them, you desolate and nasty pig! If you can always roll around in the dung and dung, and rummage through fields and meadows and gardens, and otherwise do all sorts of mischief, you can do that too. So talk, or you will be beaten! "
"So! So you want to force me? Well that's funny! But then do they also know that the whip does not go through my coarse bristles, hard skin and thick bacon, and so I do not feel and fear them very much? Or do they want to beat me and cut my head and feet in two? "(...)

G. Ch. Raff's Natural History for Children saw sixteen editions and countless reprints by 1861, but later editors changed the work by including (because they seemed too childish to them) "the author's conversations with the animals he presented as too silly to omit ”. Karl Hobrecker wrote: "The most delicious natural history that has ever been written."

Works

  • Natural history for children . Göttingen, Johann Christian Dieterich, 1783.
  • Geography for children . Göttingen, Johann Christian Dieterich, 1783
  • Georg Christian Raff and Christian Carl Andre : Geography for Children. Part two, which contains Asia and Africa. Continued after the author's death by Christian Carl Andre . Göttingen: Johann Christian Dieterich, 1792.

literature

  • Karl Hobrecker: Old forgotten children's books . Berlin 1924.
  • Horst Kunze: treasurer of old children's books . The children's book publisher, Berlin, 1981

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Meyers 1888, online
  2. ↑ Information on Raff's work: Natural History for Children ( Memento of the original of July 24, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed July 18, 2010)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.heise-marktplatz.de
  3. ↑ Discussion of the book at Huettenhilfe (accessed July 18, 2010)
  4. ↑ a b H. Kunze, treasurer of the best from older German children's literature. Hanau 1965, p. 131 f.
  5. ^ Karl Hobrecker: Old forgotten children's books . Berlin 1924. pp. 36-38.
personal data
SURNAME Raff, Georg Christian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer and educator
DATE OF BIRTH September 30, 1748
PLACE OF BIRTH Stuttgart
DATE OF DEATH June 5, 1788
Place of death Tübingen