Johann August Zeune

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Memorial plaque on the house, Gipsstrasse 11, in Berlin-Mitte

Johann August Zeune (born May 12, 1778 in Wittenberg , † November 14, 1853 in Berlin ) was a German educator , geographer , Germanist and the founder of the Berlin institution for the blind .

Life

Johann August Zeune
For the 100th anniversary on October 13, 1906, the relief unveiled in Georg Meyer-Steglitz's school for the blind

Johann August Zeune was born on May 12, 1778 in Wittenberg as the son of Johann Karl Zeune , Professor of Greek at the University of Wittenberg. In his parents' home he was raised by his father and tutor. In 1798 Zeune was enrolled at the Wittenberg University . He was honored for his dissertation on the history of geography doctorate and got for a short time the dignity of an academic faculty, a quasi Professor of Geography, awarded. His novel "elevation map" of the earth made him known in academic circles.

In 1803 he moved to Berlin, where he became a teacher at the Gray Monastery high school . In Berlin, where he lived as a private scholar, he was on friendly terms with Johann Gottlieb Fichte and the historian Johannes von Müller . He applied unsuccessfully for an expedition into the interior of Africa and shortly afterwards went into the "inner world of the blind ". In the field of ophthalmology , Zeune expanded his knowledge with the founder of the first European institution for the blind, Valentin Haüy in Paris . King Friedrich Wilhelm III. decreed the establishment of an institution for the blind in Berlin on August 11, 1806 and commissioned Zeune to do so. On October 13, 1806, he was able to begin teaching. It was the first school for the blind in Germany.

With money from friends and his own fortune, he saved the school through the chaos of the Fourth Coalition War . In 1809 Johann August left the production of his relief globes to the wood-bronze manufacturer Carl August Mencke , which were shipped worldwide until 1818. In 1810 Zeune became professor of geography in Berlin. From 1811 to 1821 he also read about German language and literature at Berlin University. His handbook for the education of the blind "Belisarius" (1808) and the work "Gea. An attempt at scientific geography ”(1808).

After the French occupation he emerged as a political publicist with a decidedly patriotic tinge. As a Germanist, Zeune was under the spell of romantic ideas; he fought against foreign words and made a special contribution to the introduction of the Nibelungenlied, of which he published a prose translation (1813) and a paperback edition (1815). In 1828 he counted with Johann Jacob Baeyer a . a. to the co-founders of the Society for Geography in Berlin.

Tomb

Johann August Zeune died on November 14th, 1853 in Berlin after he had lost his sight in old age. He was buried in the old Georgenfriedhof in Greifswalder Straße 229/234. His grave is dedicated to the city of Berlin as an honorary grave .

The Johann-August-Zeune school for the blind and the Zeune promenade in Berlin-Steglitz were named after Zeune (for both see Rothenburgstrasse ) .

Works (selection)

  • Goea - attempt at a scientific description of the earth . 2nd edition, Berlin 1811 ( e-copy ).
  • Gothic forms of language and language samples, designed for lectures , Maurer, Berlin 1825 ( e-copy ).
  • Warta and Vistula, the old border rivers between Teutons and Sarmatians . In: Annalen der Erd-, Völker- und Staatkunde , Volume 4, Berlin 1831, pp. 521-527 ( online ).
  • About skull formation for the firm foundation of the human races , Berlin 1846 ( e-copy )
as editor
  • The Nibelungenlied. The original revised according to the best readings, and provided with an introductory text and a dictionary for use in schools . With a woodcut by Gubitz. Maurer, Berlin 1815 ( e-copy ).
  • The war on Wartburg based on stories and poems from the Middle Ages , Berlin 1818 ( e-copy ).

literature

  • Ludwig Fraenkel :  Zeune, August . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 45, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1900, pp. 121-128.
  • [Anonymous]: Expedition into the inner world of the blind . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung of January 26, 2004
  • Heinrich Kühne (text), Heinz Motel (drawings): Famous personalities and their connection to Wittenberg . Verlag des Göttinger Tageblatt, Göttingen 1990, ISBN 3-924781-17-6 .
  • Hartmut Mehlitz: Johann August Zeune. Berlin's blind father and his time . Bostelmann & Siebenhaar, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-936962-05-7 .
  • Rotary Club : Famous Wittenbergers and their guests . Wittenberg, s. a.
  • Friedrich Dreves: "... unfortunately mostly become a beggar ...". Organized care for the blind between the Enlightenment and industrialization (1806–1860). Freiburg im Br. 1998
  • Hans-Eugen Schulze : Review of: Friedrich Dreves: ... unfortunately for the most part become a beggar ... - Organized welfare for the blind in Prussia between the Enlightenment and industrialization (1806-1860). In: Horus. Marburg Contributions to the Integration of the Blind and Visually Impaired / Ed .: German Association of the Blind and Visually Impaired in Studies and Work eV and German Institute for the Blind for the Blind, Marburg, Lahn. 61. Jg., 1999, H. 2, pp. 79-81.
  • Hartmut Mehlitz, Johann August Zeune: Berlin's blind father and his time . Berlin 2003.
  • Alexander Mell (Hrsg.): Encyclopädisches Handbuch des Blindenwesens . Vienna / Leipzig, 1900.

Web links

Commons : Johann August Zeune  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ↑ In 1815 Earth Views or Outline of a History of Geography was published, especially the latest advances in this science ( online )
  2. ↑ (also audio book version: Deutsche Blinden-Bibliothek der Deutschen Blindenstudienanstalt e.V. Marburg, No. 9998, speaker: Hans-J. Domschat. Marburg 2000).
  3. ↑ Full text online at Archive.org
personal data
SURNAME Zeune, Johann August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German teacher for the blind, pedagogue, geographer, Germanist
DATE OF BIRTH May 12, 1778
PLACE OF BIRTH Wittenberg
DATE OF DEATH November 14, 1853
Place of death Berlin