Gunter Otto (pedagogue)

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Gunter Otto (born January 10, 1927 in Berlin , † January 28, 1999 in Bad Bevensen ) was a German art teacher and didactic .

Life

In the winter semester 1945/46 he began studying at the University of Art Education in Berlin. In 1951 he was able to finish his studies with the second state examination . In 1953 he took over the management of a seminar. He ended his active work in the school service in 1956. In that year he was appointed as an academic teacher at the University of Education in Berlin .

In 1958 Otto stopped painting and devoted himself to subject didactics . As an employee of Paul Heimann , he developed the so-called Berlin model of didactics , which dominated teaching design in Germany in the 1960s and 1970s.

His first own draft of a subject didactics appeared in 1964 under the title Art as a Process in Class . Since 1968 Otto published the magazine Art and Teaching . In 1969 his subject didactics appeared in a revised second edition.

Otto's focus shifted in the 1970s to an aesthetic education for people. In 1971 he moved to the University of Hamburg and worked there as a professor of educational science . He was also co-editor of the magazines Westermanns Pedagogical Contributions and DIALOGE . As a professor at the Hamburg Institute for Didactics of Aesthetic Education and through his publications, this became the “most efficient scientific institution in its field in Germany”.

Otto was always interested in what was happening in the GDR . His "partner" in East Germany was the art educator Günther Regel from Leipzig, who clearly distinguished himself from Otto's concept of "aesthetic education" and thus provoked a sustained and popular specialist dispute.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Otto made a significant contribution to the art-theoretical and art-educational dialogue between East and West.

In 1992 Otto retired .

Otto's twin brother was the Protestant theologian Gert Otto .

Meaning and theory

In 1963 Otto demanded a renewal of the subject in order to differentiate himself from the art education prevailing at that time. One of his concerns was also to insert the word art lesson as a substitute term in order to emphasize the dominance of factual information. His aim was to structure the learning processes and expand the aesthetic potential of art education. The aim was to introduce the student to modern art and to awaken potential. Otto understood teaching as a process that took place in several phases, but not strictly linear. In this context he spoke of initiation - exploration and finally objectification. He reinforced his position with new developmental psychological findings.

Fonts

  • Heiman / Otto / Schulz: Lessons - Analysis and Planning. Hanover 1965 (numerous new editions)
  • Art as a process in class. Braunschweig 1969, ISBN 3507363100 .
  • Didactics of aesthetic education. Braunschweig 1974, ISBN 3886571386 .
  • (with Maria Otto): Laying out. Aesthetic education as the practice of interpreting in pictures and the laying out of pictures. 2 volumes, ISBN 3617322409 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Obituary in the Berliner Zeitung on February 1, 1999
  2. Wolfgang Legler: Gunter Otto - Justification and End of Art Didactics (PDF; 438 kB) ( Memento from October 9, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ^ Karl-Josef Pazzini , Andrea Sabisch, Wolfgang Legler, Torsten Meyer (eds.): Günther Regel: Memories of Gunter Otto: Aesthetic Rationality - Key to Understanding Art? . Festive lecture by Günther Regel. Hamburg 2002
  4. Thomas Klemm: Laudation for Günther Regel on the book presentation "Günther Regel, Das Künstlerischen Mediating." Essays, lectures, statements and discussions on art, art teaching and art education . Leipzig. March 14, 2009
  5. Gert Otto, Gunter Otto: Notes on G. von G. In: Albrecht Grözinger , Henning Luther (ed.): Religion and Biography. Perspectives on the lived religion [Festgabe for Gert Otto]. Kaiser, Munich 1987, pp. 13-29.
  6. Martin Gensbaur: Gunter Otto - Art as a process in class PDF (79KB) Contribution to the seminar for art education at the Luitpold-Gymnasium, Munich

Web links