Johanna Goldschmidt

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Johanna Goldschmidt , née Schwabe (born December 11, 1806 in Bremerlehe , today: Bremerhaven ; died October 10, 1884 in Hamburg ) was a German suffragette , writer and philanthropist .

Biography and work

Johanna was the fourth of seven children of the Jewish businessman Marcus Hertz Schwabe (1766–1862) and his wife Henriette, nee. Lazarus (1768-1826). When she was six years old, her parents, who belonged to the Reform Judaism group, moved to Hamburg. By being incorporated into the Napoleonic Empire at the end of 1810, the Hanseatic city temporarily brought the Jews full civil and political equality. Johanna received private lessons, first from her mother and then from a tutor, in languages, handicrafts and religion. Great emphasis was placed on promoting their musical talent. She played the piano, violin and harp very well and was an excellent singer.

On September 9, 1827, Johanna Schwabe married the Jewish merchant Moritz David Goldschmidt (1794-1881). The marriage had eight children; including the sons Otto Goldschmidt (1829-1907), who became a famous piano virtuoso, composer and conductor and was married to the celebrated Swedish singer Jenny Lind , as well as the son Alfred Oscar Goldschmidt (1841-1891), whose son Arthur Goldschmidt (1873- 1947) and grandson Georges-Arthur Goldschmidt each made their own fame.

In 1847 Johanna Goldschmidt began to work literarily and socially. She anonymously published the fictional correspondence between a Jewish woman and a Christian noblewoman: Rebekka and Amalia. Correspondence between an Israelite and a noblewoman on contemporary and life issues . The publication was to have far-reaching effects, as in the fifth letter the author had drafted a plan for a women's education association that would work to raise the moral level of the female sex and determine the wealthy, educated women to stand up for the less well-off and workers, but especially afterwards strive to give female youth a human education over and above the inherent [sic] limitation (Morgenstern 1889, p. 325, see below). This idea met with great interest and in 1848 the women's association to fight and balance religious prejudices was founded . However, the association dissolved again in 1849. The women then became involved in the university for women or in a forerunner of the Hamburg Froebel Association.

As the responsible mother, Johanna Goldschmidt was interested in pedagogical questions. In self-study she had dealt with many great educators from Jean-Jacques Rousseau to Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi , Jean Paul to Adolph Diesterweg and other contemporaries. Based on the knowledge she gained, she published the two-volume work Muttersorgen und Mutterfreuden in 1849/1851 . Words of love and seriousness about childhood care. From a mother . In it she pleaded for religious tolerance in raising children, represented a. a. the view that children should not be hindered in their thirst for action by rules and prohibitions that they do not understand and should not be forced to blind obedience: This in no way means renouncing authority, but this should arise from trust in a mother who is always truthful and that Child explains their point of view according to their level of development. She should answer his questions, but not allow excessive arguments. The author believes that indulgence and 'effeminate forgiveness' are 'parodies of true love' and educate people to be little tyrants (Grolle 2000, p. 73).

Since 1848 Johanna Goldschmidt had been in correspondence with Friedrich Froebel , whom she had met personally in Bad Liebenstein in 1849. She then campaigned for the kindergarten and its dissemination as well as the training of kindergarten teachers. At her initiative, the then controversial teacher came to Hamburg in November 1849 to train 22 kindergarten teachers and set up a kindergarten. Her pamphlet On Friedrich Fröbel’s , published in 1853, caused a sensation. In it, she defended her educational role model against unjust allegations.

In 1860 Johanna Goldschmidt founded the Hamburger-Froebel-Verein in association with other important Hamburg personalities . Its task was to train young girls as family kindergarten teachers and to disseminate Froebel's educational theory. The seminar has its own kindergarten as a practice facility. Johanna Goldschmidt stated about the new training center: It was necessary to send apostles of the new educational doctrine to the families, especially where there were no kindergartens, on goods, in small places etc. Taking this need into account, ... opened in 1860 (the Hamburger-Froebel-Verein a) course for the training of family kindergarten teachers. the name should immediately express the purpose and position of the person concerned, and neither nanny nor nanny seemed to us to determine what we wanted to achieve. The course started with 16 students and with them we achieved everything we could expect for the beginning; after the apprenticeship they were well placed and in some cases proved to be completely up to their task (Goldschmidt 1871/1872, p. 34).

Johanna Goldschmidt herself taught the young girls and women and was responsible for managing the training center. This still exists today as the State Technical School for Social Pedagogy I (Fröbelseminar) . When she had to give up more and more skills in favor of the young teacher Anna Wohlwill , Johanna Goldschmidt stepped down from the school management and devoted the rest of her life to the Hamburger Froebel Association .

Works (selection)

Articles in magazines

Literature (selection)

  • Manfred Berger : Women in the history of kindergarten. Ein Handbuch, Frankfurt 1995, pp. 55-59
  • Imgard Maya Fassmann: Jewish women in the German women's movement 1865-1919 , Hildesheim 1996, pp. 37–156
  • Inge Grolle: Die freisinnigen women , Hamburg 2000, pp. 49–90
  • Inka Le-Huu: Johanna Goldschmidt's contribution to the meeting of Jewish and Christian women in Hamburg (1847–1849) , in: Salondamen und Dienstboten . Jewish bourgeoisie around 1800 from a female perspective (Juden in Mitteleuropa vol. 2009), pp. 40–48.
  • Lina Morgenstern : The women of the 19th century . Second series, Berlin 1889, pp. 323–328
  • Manfred Berger : Goldschmidt, Johanna , in: Hugo Maier (Ed.): Who is who of social work . Freiburg: Lambertus, 1998 ISBN 3-7841-1036-3 , pp. 209f.

Web links

Wikisource: Rhenish sheets for education and instruction  - sources and full texts
personal data
SURNAME Goldschmidt, Johanna
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schwabe, Johanna (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German suffragette, writer and philanthropist
DATE OF BIRTH December 11, 1806
PLACE OF BIRTH Lehe (Bremerhaven)
DATE OF DEATH October 10, 1884
Place of death Hamburg