Henriette Schrader-Breymann

Henriette Schrader-Breymann

Johanne Juliane Henriette Schrader Breymann (* 14. September 1827 in Mahlum ; † 25. August 1899 in Schlachtensee ) was a German educator , founder of educational institutions, promoter of Froebel education and women's education .

Live and act

Johanne Juliane Henriette was the eldest of ten children of pastor Ferdinand Christian Breymann (1797–1866) and his wife Louise geb. Hoffmann (1802-1876). She was the older sister of the sculptor Adolf Breymann . After initial lessons from her father, she attended the “daughter's school” in Wolfenbüttel. The eager to learn girl had great difficulty in integrating into the school discipline, she suffered from the lack of imagination of the lessons .

In 1841 Henriette returned to her parents' house. A difficult time followed, interrupted by stays in Reichenbach and Pyrmont. The young girl was always looking for a “new female path”.

The summer of 1848 finally brought the longed-for change. Henriette went to the educational institution in Keilhau near Rudolstadt, which her great-uncle, Friedrich Froebel , had started, first as a student, then as his employee.

After Breymann broke up with Friedrich Fröbel and after short stays in Schweinfurt and Baden-Baden, she founded an educational institution for girls between the ages of 7 and 17/18 in the vicarage of Watzum, where her family had since moved Years. The institute grew continuously (a Froebel course and kindergarten were established). It quickly enjoyed a high reputation far beyond the country's borders and increasingly became a center of kindergarten propaganda. The educational institution was u. a. visited by Adele von Portugall (1857–1910), Mary Lyschinska (1861–1937) and Eugenie Schumann (1851–1938), the youngest daughter and the seventh of eight children of Clara and Robert Schumann . Well-known representatives of the kindergarten, for example Bertha von Marenholtz-Bülow , taught there or gave lectures. In 1864 the educational institution moved to Wolfenbüttel, called Neu-Watzum , after the place where it was founded. The institute consisted of five departments: in addition to kindergarten and elementary classes, there were classes for 12 to 14 year-old and 14 to 17-year-old girls, as well as an advanced training class for adults, which prepared for the profession of kindergarten teacher. Neu-Watzum developed extremely successfully. The renowned writer Gabriele Reuter was one of the students there . Just two years after it opened, an extension had to be added to the facility to accommodate the rapidly increasing number of female students. In addition to her diverse tasks as head of school / boarding school and teacher, Henriette Breymann also traveled to Belgium, Scotland and Switzerland. There she gave lectures on Froebel, kindergartens and women's education.

Memorial plaque on the house at Karl-Schrader-Strasse 7, in Berlin-Schöneberg

On April 30, 1872, the pedagogue married the lawyer Karl Schrader , with whom she moved to Berlin. There she founded the “Association for People's Kindergartens and Education” and the “ Pestalozzi-Fröbel-Haus ” (PFH), which still exists today, and which quickly developed into one of the leading educational / vocational training institutions for girls and women as well as educational institutions for children. Henriette Schrader-Breymann adopted Fröbel's central idea of ​​women's education in her concept : to transfer “spiritual motherhood”, the “female-motherly powers” ​​to a female life context that is not only linked to physical motherhood, marriage and family.

This included a seminar for kindergarten teachers, a housekeeping and cooking school, a crèche, a kindergarten and a special kindergarten, an after-school care center, a country school home, day and night homes, etc. like m. At the turn of the century, the PFH was considered to be the modern direction of kindergarten education, oriented towards political progress and social effectiveness.

Until shortly before her death, Henriette Schrader-Breymann was actively involved in the expansion of her all-encompassing socio-educational institution, which is still committed to the intellectual legacy of its founder. Henriette Schrader-Breymann associated with many important women of her time. These included Helene Lange , Luise Jessen , Hedwig Heyl , Emma Julia Hohenemser , and Crown Princess Friedrich , later "Empress and Queen Friedrich", to name just a few of the many who she in her "fight" for female education and the professionalization of the Education supported.

Streets in Wolfenbüttel and Braunschweig are named after her. A youth center bears her name in her birthplace. There is a Henriette Breymann comprehensive school in Wolfenbüttel.

Parts of her estate as well as literature from and about her are in the Ida-Seele archive and in the archive of the Pestalozzi-Froebel House .

Educational concept

The trained kindergarten teacher became a staunch advocate of Froebel's educational principles, but felt called upon to reformulate them in connection with Pestalozzi's thoughts on education. It was her experience with big city children that confirmed that teaching kindergarten children in practical activities made more sense than abstract and philosophical Froebel games. She recognized that “full-time” educational institutions are necessary for children from working-class families, which enable the children in as many areas as possible for their future life. That is why, in addition to play, the care and development of the child's willingness to work was a special concern for her, which is why she introduced domestic activities (e.g. cooking, gardening and animal care) as a means of education. She also wished to introduce the name of Volkserzieherin instead of the Froebel name of kindergarten teacher .

The worldwide impact of the concept of the monthly item developed in the PFH is undisputed . This resorted to the concentration principle of the Herbartians and has not lost its effectiveness in kindergarten practice to this day. For the teacher, the most important selection criterion for the monthly item is the characteristic of the season and the month in question (Hoffmann 1930, p. 88). With this family-oriented kindergarten concept, she sought to enable the children to meet in kind, which should enable them to understand and appreciate household chores as the basic human care method…. One topic, such as pets, their way of life and their use for humans, was brought into the children's interest every month and provided with information and practical activities, e.g. B. butter, quark and cheese from milk, song verses, fairy tales and stories, handicrafts or with construction tasks from the Froebel construction kit, z. B. build a cowshed, introduced to the children (Erning 1987, p. 69).

Works (selection)

• The main features of Froebel's ideas applied to the nursery and kindergarten. Braunschweig 1872.
• The monthly item in kindergarten. Berlin 1885.
• The Volkskindergarten in the Pestalozzi-Froebel-Haus. Berlin 1885.
• Domestic activities and gardening as a means of education in the Pestalozzi-Froebel house. Berlin 1893.

literature

• Gabriele Armenat (ed.): Women from Braunschweig. Stadtbibliothek, Braunschweig 1991, pp. 59-64 OCLC 64263113 .
• Brigitte Augustin : Henriette Schrader-Breymann, a pioneer in socio-educational work. Your life and your work. Oldenburg 2004 (unpublished diploma thesis)
• Brigitte Augustin: Henriette Schrader-Breymann. Biographical reconstruction with special consideration of their contribution to the professionalization of pedagogical work for women in Germany in the 19th century. Kiel 2012.
• Manfred Berger : Women in the history of kindergarten. A manual. Frankfurt / Main 1995, pp. 162-167.
• Manfred Berger: Henriette Schrader-Breymann. A pioneer of experiential education? Lueneburg 1995.
• Manfred Berger: Henriette Schrader-Breymann. Life and work of a pioneer in girls' education and kindergarten. Frankfurt / Main 1999.
• Manfred Berger: The kindergarten from 1840 to the present day. Saarbrücken 2015, pp. 25–30.
• Manfred Berger:  Schrader-Breymann, Johanne Juliane Henriette. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 23, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-428-11204-3 , p. 505 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Angela Dinghaus (ed.): Women's worlds . Biographical-historical sketches from Lower Saxony. Hildesheim 1993, pp. 179-192.
• Sandra Donner : From major daughters and learned women. Education for girls and women in the 19th century - presented at the Wolfenbüttel castle institutions. Frankfurt / Main 2005, pp. 121–194.
• Günter Erning : Pictures from kindergarten. Image documents on the historical development of public education for young children in Germany. Freiburg / Breisgau 1987.
• Erika Hoffmann : Henriette Schrader-Breymann. Langensalza 1930.
• Bergit Korschan-Kuhle: Johanne Juliane Henriette, b. Breymann [gen. Schrader-Breymann]. In: Horst-Rüdiger Jarck , Günter Scheel (ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon - 19th and 20th centuries . Hahnsche Buchhandlung, Hannover 1996, ISBN 3-7752-5838-8 , p. 543 .
• Elisabeth Moltmann-Wendel : Power of motherliness. The story of Henriette Schrader-Breymann. Berlin 2003.
• Mary Lyschinska : Henriette Schrader-Breymann. Your life from letters and diaries. In two volumes, Berlin 1922.
• Kurt von Marenholtz: The Froebel Understanding Henriette Schrader-Breymanns (1827-1899). Critical analysis of Froebel reception in the 19th century. Ulm 2001. (unpublished diploma thesis)
• Paul Zimmermann :  Schrader-Breymann, Henriette . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 54, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1908, pp. 172-178.
• Manfred Berger:  Henriette Schrader-Breymann. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 23, Bautz, Nordhausen 2004, ISBN 3-88309-155-3 , Sp. 1312-1328.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Regine Nahrworld: Breymann, Adolf August Wilhelm. In: Horst-Rüdiger Jarck , Günter Scheel (ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon - 19th and 20th centuries . Hahnsche Buchhandlung, Hannover 1996, ISBN 3-7752-5838-8 , p. 99 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Henriette Schrader-Breymann in the catalog of the German National Library
• Wolfenbüttel women's places: Henriette Schrader-Breymann. ( as PDF )
• Manfred Berger: Women in the history of the kindergarten: Henriette Schrader-Breymann.
• Portrait picture on brigitte-augustin.de