Julius Bernhard Engelmann

Julius Bernhard Engelmann on a painting by Georg Oswald May from 1811

Julius Bernhard Engelmann (born December 26, 1773 in Bacharach ; † April 20, 1844 in Bad Kreuznach ) was a German educator and author.

Live and act

Julius Bernhard Engelmann was the eighth of 13 children of the Reformed pastor Erasmus Theodor Engelmann (1730–1802) and his wife Anna Margaretha Hartmann (1742–1825). One of his brothers was the publisher Joseph Engelmann , one of his nephews Theodor Erasmus Hilgard . Together with his brothers, he was tutored by his father until he graduated from university. On April 27, 1793 Engelmann matriculated to study theology and philosophy at the University of Halle . After completing his studies in 1798, he took up a position as private tutor ( Hofmeister ) for the family of the businessman Sarasin in Frankfurt am Main . Here Engelmann joined a group of young educators who were supposed to prepare the sons of wealthy families for their studies. This group included the educator Elias Mieg (1770–1842), the later geography professor Carl Ritter , the poet Friedrich Hölderlin and the philosopher Friedrich Hegel . In particular, they discussed the new methods of the Swiss pedagogue Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi .

In 1800 Engelmann began to work as a writer, editor and translator of educational works in addition to teaching. From 1803 to 1806 he published the New Children's Friend with his Frankfurt teacher friends , for which he wrote all articles. On the basis of his publications, Engelmann was awarded his master's degree and doctorate from the philosophical faculty of the University of Erlangen on July 23, 1807 . In 1807 Engelmann stayed with Ritter and Mieg and their students for a while at Pestalozzi's in Yverdon . In addition to his work in the Sarasin household, he taught at the daughter school founded by Charlotte Augusta Christiana Bunsen (1766–1847) in 1807 . There he tried Pestalozzi's methods. Engelmann founded a series of successful travel guides in 1807 with his paperback for travelers through Germany and the neighboring provinces .

On January 12, 1808, Engelmann opened its own non-denominational educational institution for girls in the Junghof in Frankfurt am Main, where teaching was carried out according to Pestalozzi's reform pedagogical principles. Lessons were given in German, French, description of nature and the earth, history, arithmetic, religion, painting, handicrafts, music and dance. Carl Ritter taught geography there. In addition, the pedagogue Karl Frickhöffer (1791–1845) and, from 1817, the composer Xaver Schneyder von Wartensee (1786–1868) worked there. Marie de Flavigny was one of his students , later the wife of Franz Liszt and mother of Cosima Wagner , who went to school there from 1815 to 1816. Through a statement by Bettina von Arnim , some details of the school program that she received from Franz Joseph Molitor are known .

On March 11, 1808, Engelmann was one of the founding members of the Frankfurter Museumsgesellschaft together with Carl Ritter and in July of the same year, also together with Ritter, he was a founding member of the Wetterau Society for All Natural History in Hanau .

On April 3, 1808 Engelmann married Julie Antoinette May (1789–1865), a daughter of the painter Georg Oswald May, in Offenbach am Main . This marriage resulted in 13 children, including the doctor and botanist George Engelmann . In 1811 he took over the office of secretary of the museum society together with Carl Ritter. On June 4, 1814, Engelmann submitted an application to the Senate of the City of Frankfurt for citizenship . However, it is not known whether the request was granted.

In 1832 Engelmann closed his educational institution for girls in Frankfurt am Main and moved with his family to Bad Kreuznach . Here he founded a girls' school again, which his widow continued after his death.

Fonts (selection)

• New functional facilitator for learning the French language . Guilhauman, Frankfurt 1800; 3rd edition 1813.
• General geography in letters to a woman . Guilhauman, Frankfurt 1804.
• About the essay by Hofrat Guts Muths: Do all Germans want to be musicians? In: Guts Muths library of educational literature . May 1805, p. 102ff.
• Fragments of letters written on a trip to Switzerland . In: Morgenblatt for educated stands . Yverdon 1807, pp. 1187-1188.
• Paperback for travelers through Germany and the neighboring provinces . Wilmans, Frankfurt 1807
• Some thoughts about education and instruction, especially of the daughters, as an announcement of an educational institution for daughters from the educated classes, together with the plan of the institution . Mohr, Frankfurt 1808.
• In memory of Georg Pforr [1808] : In: Collection of some of the works presented in the Frankfurt Museum . 1st part, Eichenberg, Frankfurt 1810, pp. 30-40.
• Experiences and comments about upbringing and teaching, especially of the female sex, along with news from an educational institution for daughters and an associated educational institution for educators . Andreä, Frankfurt 1811.
• French and German conversations on matters of domestic and civil life . Andreä, Frankfurt 1816.
• Routes des Postes par l'Allemagne et les pays limitrophes, avec des notes tres-utiles aux voyageurs . Wilmans, Frankfurt 1821.
• Heidelberg's old and new times. City, university, library, castle and surroundings . J. Engelmann, Heidelberg 1823, 2nd edition 1830. ( Google Books )
• Prayers and Revivals to Prayer, a family devotional book . J. Engelmann, Heidelberg 1825.
• The renewed Merian or prehistoric times and the present on the Rhine, 50 images of remarkable cities in the Rhineland after Merian, along with their history and description of their condition two centuries ago, a contribution to German national history . J. Engelmann, Heidelberg 1826. ( Google Books )

literature

• Hans Hermann Fries: Engelmann, Julius Bernhard . In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon . Volume 33, 2012, Col. 383-390.
• Joseph Raimar: The Engelmann family from the Electoral Palatinate . In: Palatinate Genealogy . 1952, pp. 17-28.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Werner Milch: Julius Bernhard Engelmann and the education of girls. An unknown letter from Bettina Brentano . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . Volume 161, number 183, Zurich 6./7. February 1940.