Johannes Trüper

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Johannes Trüper (born February 2, 1855 in Rekum / Blumenthal district , † November 1, 1921 in Jena ) was a German educator from the group of Thuringian educators and co-founder of curative education and related educational fields. He represented a true-to-life pedagogy that is geared towards concrete, community-oriented action and wants to meet the individual through the broadest possible approach in support and education. His work is rooted in Christian beliefs and social welfare ideas from the late 19th century. His psychopathy concept pioneered a new understanding of impaired children and adolescents by starting from their health and social situation instead of a supposed moral and moral inferiority, and striving for a link between in-depth education and therapy .

It achieved particular importance through the establishment of a new type of home for schoolchildren who, due to various impairments, could not find a place in the school system of the time.

Life

Trüper, who later called himself Johannes, came in 1855 as the fourth of six children of the ship's carpenter Johann Trüper and his wife Anna Meta, nee. Chantelau, to the world. He first attended elementary school and - far more important for him - a higher private school with remarkable success. As a teenager he was allowed to teach part-time at a village school and gain initial teaching experience. At the age of 17 he entered the teachers' seminar in Bremen , but was seriously disappointed by the overemphasis on the mere transfer of knowledge over psychological aspects and by the state of the school system at the time.

After graduating, the young teacher taught in schools near Bremen for several years . During this time he joined the teachers' association and dealt critically in numerous essays with deficiencies in the school system and other social issues in connection with the upbringing of adolescents. In Bremen, Trüper came into contact with the pedagogue Friedrich Wilhelm Dörpfeld , who greatly enriched his work in educational and philosophical terms. Initial contacts through specialist publications were followed by close personal acquaintance; last he arranged his estate.

Not least for health reasons, Trüper finally asked for a leave of absence from school service and went to Jena in 1887 to take up a broadly based subject, including philosophy , pedagogy , psychiatry and natural sciences . He benefited significantly from the intellectual climate at the university and the pedagogical expertise that was gathered there. He came into contact - partly personally - with many of the most important scholars of his time and heard lectures from Wilhelm Rein , Ernst Haeckel , Rudolf Eucken and Otto Binswanger .

However, he gave up his further study and doctoral projects when he was asked to look after a mentally impaired, intellectually gifted boy for whom, after a consultation with Otto Binswanger, no adequate accommodation could be found. Since he was enthusiastic about this task and there was obviously a need, Trüper gradually took on more children and decided to make this work his life's work.

In 1890 Trüper founded his home for children with developmental impairments and disorders in Jena , for which he acquired the Sophienhöhe , a former sanatorium, two years later . Under different names and changing framework conditions, this home developed its comprehensive therapeutic and socio-educational concept for children and young people with various handicaps. Johannes received sustained support - also in financial terms - from his sister Meta Trüper, who accompanied his work throughout his life.

Together with Julius Ludwig August Koch , the director of the state insane asylum in Zwiefalten (today: Münsterklinik ), Christian Ufer, a regular school teacher, and the Protestant theologian Friedrich Zimmer , founder of the Evangelical Diakonieverein , he started the magazine Die Kinder Fehler , “which on their Area [...] has become of the highest importance for the development of curative education ”. In 1900 the paper was later named Zeitschrift für Kinderforschung. With special consideration of educational pathology . The magazine founders were also publishers, with Trüper taking over the editing. Until his death, the periodical was the organ of the Association for Child Research , which he was involved in establishing in 1898. A high point of his public work was the congress for child research and youth welfare , which took place from October 1st to 4th, 1906 in Berlin and was attended by over 700 people.

In 1896 Trüper married Elisabeth Melaleuka Dörr, daughter of a Bonn pharmacist from Friedrich Wilhelm Dörpfeld's circle. This marriage resulted in six children who later continued their father's educational work. According to tradition, Elisabeth Melaleuka had a decisive influence on the atmosphere of the home community; However, it is not known how the apparently “happy” relationship between the two unfolded under the constant challenges of home life.

Trüper died at the age of 66 as a result of cancer after he had previously managed to hand over the home operation in an orderly manner. He was buried in the park of the Sophienhöhe.

A part of his, so far not fully processed, estate is in the curative education archive of the Humboldt University Berlin as well as in other scientific institutions and in family possession.

Honors

  • A school for educational assistance in Chemnitz was named after him.
  • The Johann-Trüper Street in Bremen- Rekum was named after him.
  • The way to the "Sophienhöhe" in Jena was named "Trüperweg" in 1991.

Educational concept

Basics and ideas

Trüper basically strived for a true-to-life pedagogy which, with its broad approach, captures the personality of its (impaired) students as a whole and enables them to take an active part in social life through an in-depth, individualized education. The defining guiding principles are the “educational lessons”, which, in addition to conveying learning content, are also intended to support the further development of the personality, and the newly introduced combination of therapy and medicine in order to fully do justice to the problems of stressed students.

Practical action and work (for example in the facilities of the home) becomes, in addition to the actual teaching, an important element of education for an independent life. With this expansion of the educational program, even more severely handicapped pupils can find meaningful employment and acquire concrete skills.

In Trüper's approach, young people with impairments are perceived anew as fellow human beings with characteristic traits, strengths and weaknesses, whose problems must be addressed through targeted upbringing in order to give them better opportunities to grow. The educator personality plays a decisive role here, who has to contribute strongly and authentically and is constantly faced with the task of combining psychological expertise with pedagogical intuition in order to arrive at appropriate solutions in the respective concrete, individual situation.

Despite the model of upbringing, which is strongly geared to the individual situation, upbringing in and for the community remains a declared goal, with Trüper particularly emphasizing mutual support between (differently impaired) children. Punishments as a means of education - especially in curative education - are withdrawn contrary to traditional ideas; the educator, however, always remains a benevolent, insightful, and credible but definite authority . A clearer accentuation of the self-development of children according to their values, as they propagate the following approaches, is rejected.

Trüper's pedagogy is also based on a positive image of nature typical of the time and a Christian-inspired ideal of the family as a protective place for growing up. He hoped that contact with “the great outdoors”, especially in contrast to the urban landscapes of early industrialization , would provide diverse impulses for successful personal development; the family, on the other hand, as a building block of society, should ensure a role -based upbringing through loving role models .

With regard to the learning content, Trüper generally calls for the requirements of that time to be updated so that the learners can be addressed in their life situation, which is often unusually difficult due to the emerging industrialization, and their upbringing prepares them for life in the changed society.

In particular for his pupils in need of support, but also for the entire school system, he strives for a concentration and reduction of the learning material in order to prevent the pupils from being overwhelmed, which could favor undesirable developments, and from being overloaded with misunderstood book knowledge without concrete references.

Implementation and working method

Trüper based his upbringing on the principle of coeducation, which was still widely questioned at the time , since he saw the uncomplicated coexistence of boys and girls as an important preparation for an active life; However, this was by no means associated with a more profound criticism of traditional roles and morals.

The lessons were generally given in three grade levels, which were roughly tailored to the different requirement levels of the general school system. However, lessons were also regularly held in flexibly formed groups with the same learning needs. Accordingly gifted students were able to take their Abitur externally and still remain residents at the home.

Pedagogical practice: The Sophienhöhe

Original concept

Trüper's conception developed mainly in the educational practice of his home, the Sophienhöhe near Jena, which was built up step by step, especially in the period up to the First World War. Almost 30 educators there looked after around 125 students with different illnesses and difficulties based on the co-education principle, which was still unusual at the time. These included children and adolescents who brought with them not mainly health problems, but school and social problems from their original environment.

The - emphatically closely connected - home community was organized in groups modeled on families: the children each had a fixed reference person to look after them, who usually also lived with their group on the Sophienhöhe and was closely involved in the home. The organization clearly relied on authority and hierarchy. On the one hand, this close involvement created a very intensive human and pedagogical situation, but it required extreme commitment on the part of the staff and, from today's perspective, brought about problematic working conditions.

The Sophienhöhe offered a comparatively modern infrastructure that included several residential buildings for the groups as well as business and common rooms. The facility had its own agriculture and gardening shop , a carpentry and locksmith's workshop - all of which were not least used for the practical work of the young people - as well as opportunities for technical object lessons, a swimming pool and a gym with meeting facilities. In this way, Trüper's comprehensive approach found a practical implementation option in the community of the “Sophienhöher”.

Further development

After the death of its founder, the Sophienhöhe initially ran into conceptual and financial-organizational difficulties: the changed socio-political framework in particular presented the work with new challenges, which, however , could be successfully tackled with new impulses under the new head Otto Haase (until 1930) . Subsequently, the home was again run by Trüper's descendants , at times with the help of Hanns Eyferth .

During the time of National Socialism, this home also had to face a system that was fundamentally opposed to the ideas of curative education. Under the most difficult conditions, attempts were made to continue the work in the interest of the students, even with the least possible adjustment, which apparently succeeded in many cases. However, details cannot always be clearly clarified and processed.

In the post-war period, the home continued to exist under the direction of the family, but found no promising future prospects in the school system of the GDR ., After their withdrawal, it was transformed into a special school in the sense of socialist practice and existed in various forms until 1966 structural defects, but above all a severe fire in which several students were killed, leading to the closure of the home.

After the end of the GDR, it was not possible for the descendants to continue Trüper's work in Jena. The area found a new use in residential construction.

Conception and discussion

The importance and potential of Trüper's healing education concept can only be assessed with difficulty in a clear and uniform manner. It was undoubtedly a fundamental new approach to dealing with children with disabilities when it was first created and, accordingly, met with great international interest. However, for various reasons it did not develop into an independent direction after the death of Johannes Trüpers. The focus of his pedagogy was always practical work: the specific entirety of the Sophienhöhe was obviously difficult to transfer to another environment. A separate, self-contained theory structure for his work there does not exist.

The historical significance of Johannes Trüpers in education has not yet been fully explored scientifically. The end of the home business met with deep incomprehension from some contemporary witnesses; however, a continuation could not be realized. The development potential of his pedagogy for subsequent current approaches will not least depend on how his thinking is detached from its original, conservative, historical context and reconciled with new values ​​and requirements - such as the self-determination of children or a changed understanding of authority and the image of the disabled can.

Fonts (selection)

  • To simplify the writing of our handicapped . Langensalza 1892.
  • Psychopathic inferiorities in childhood. A warning for teachers, parents and educators. Gütersloh 1893.
  • For educational pathology and therapy. Langensalza 1896.
  • Friedrich Wilhelm Dörpfeld's social education in theory and practice. Gutersloh 1901.
  • The beginnings of abnormal phenomena in the child's mental life. Altenburg 1902.
  • Psychopathic inferiorities as a cause of legal violations by adolescents. Langensalza 1904.
  • On the question of ethical hygiene with special consideration of boarding schools. Altenburg 1904.
  • How far back does adult memory go? Langensalza 1910.
  • Trüper's reformatory and youth sanatorium on the Sophienhöhe near Jena. Jena 1912.
  • A bankruptcy declaration of the school barracks. o. o. u. J.
  • On the history of the school system. o. o. u. J.
  • About Dörpfeld's political and social reform efforts. o. o. u. J.

literature

  • Manfred Berger , Jörg W. Ziegenspeck (foreword): Johannes Trüper. A pioneer of modern experiential education . Edition Erlebnispädagogik, Lüneburg 1998, ISBN 3-89569-037-6 .
  • Christel Bettermann, Alexandra Schotte: "Out of the classrooms, away from sleep-robbing homework, into the great outdoors". Johannes Trüper's life's work: the Sophienhöhe near Jena . (= Documentation of the Jena Municipal Museums. Volume 10). Municipal museums Jena, Jena 2002, ISBN 3-930128-51-9 .
  • Horst-Heinz Richter: Johannes Trüper and his Sophienhöhe in Jena . Bussert and Stadeler, Quedlinburg / Jena 2003, ISBN 3-932906-40-3 .
  • Karel Zimmermann: Johannes Trüper. A curative educator between pedagogy and child and adolescent psychiatry . Dissertation . University of Cologne, 2005, ( http://d-nb.info/978391233/34 PDF; 6.5 MB).
  • Alexandra Schotte: curative education as social education. Johannes Trüper and the Sophienhöhe near Jena . Dissertation. University of Jena 2010. IKS Garamond, Jena 2010, ISBN 978-3-941854-11-6 .
  • Helmut and Irmela Trüper: Origins of curative education in Germany. Johannes Trüper: Life and Work . Concepts of human sciences, applied science. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1978, ISBN 3-12-928200-9 .
  • Uwe-Jens Gerhard, Anke Schönberg: Johannes Trüper - The development of child and adolescent psychiatry in Jena under the influence of and in interaction with pedagogy. In: Rolf Castell (Ed.): Hundred Years of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry: Biographies and Autobiographies. V & R Unipress, Göttingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-89971-509-5 , pp. 17-44.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Henze 1934, Col. 2947f.
  2. ↑ Deutschlandfunk: Jena's expropriated story Die Sophienhöhe , report from the series Das Feature , broadcast on April 28, 2020
personal data
SURNAME Trüper, Johannes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Trüper, Johann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pedagogue, co-founder of curative education
DATE OF BIRTH February 2, 1855
PLACE OF BIRTH Recum
DATE OF DEATH November 1, 1921
Place of death Jena