Martin Ehlers (pedagogue)

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Martin Ehlers (born January 6, 1732 in Nortorf ; † January 9, 1800 in Kiel ) was a German reform pedagogue and professor of philosophy at the University of Kiel during the Enlightenment .

Life

Martin Ehlers was born as the son of Delff Ehlers (1705–1770) and Gesa Ehlers. Leverent (died 1760) born. Ehlers studied in Kiel from 1754 to 1756 and obtained his master's degree. From 1757 to 1760 he studied theology and philosophy in Göttingen. He was a student of Johann Matthias Gesner . On April 9, 1760, he married Helene Marg. Eckhoff, daughter of Archdeacon Wilhelm Eckhoff from Wilster, in Wilster. From 1760 to 1768 Ehlers was the principal of the Latin school in Segeberg (today Bad Segeberg ). Here he was the teacher of Ernst Christian Trapp , whose study he made possible through his petition from 1764 (The bey approval ...) .

In 1768 he succeeded Johann Michael Herbart , the grandfather of Johann Friedrich Herbart , rector of the Latin school in Oldenburg in Oldenburg (then Danish) in order to reform the Oldenburg school system. Since he encountered numerous obstacles that could not be overcome, he switched to teaching and rector at the Christianeum high school in Altona in 1771 , at that time Danish as part of Schleswig-Holstein . As rector, he was one of the first four teachers of the Christianeum alongside the two directors and professors Paul Christian Henrici and Johann Jakob Dusch and the vice-rector Friedrich Konrad Lange .

In 1773 the Christianeum received new school regulations, which were significantly influenced by the provost Georg Ludwig Ahlemann , the Altona physicist Philipp Gabriel Hensler , the successor to Johann Friedrich Struensee and later professor in Kiel, and the rector Martin Ehlers. The three knew each other from their time in Segeberg. At least on paper, they put their philanthropic ideas through in these school regulations . The school should be open to students of the moral classes, both those who wanted to study and those who did not. Modern languages ​​and realities have been given a permanent place in the curriculum. The aim was to guide people to think for themselves, and the spirit of tolerance should come first in religious education .

Around 1775 Martin Ehlers was promoted to Dr. phil. PhD. He received offers to the universities of St. Petersburg, Weimar and Stralsund, but all of them he refused. Until 1776 the Enlightenment held the position of the main reviewer for educational literature in Friedrich Nicolai's General German Library (1765-1806), which he then left to his former student Ernst Christian Trapp. In 1776 Ehlers became professor of philosophy at Kiel University. Until his death in January 1800 he read there not only theoretical and practical philosophy but also education.

Act

In his "Thoughts of the Requirements Necessary to Improve Schools" of 1766 he developed a reform program on 330 pages and was probably the first in the German-speaking area to formulate the idea of ​​education by the state (national education), he advocated the secularization of the school system and the professionalization of the teaching profession. This book can be seen as the prelude to the educational discussion in the Enlightenment .

Ehlers was close to both the Pietist Johann Julius Hecker and the philanthropists Johann Bernhard Basedow , Joachim Heinrich Campe and his student Ernst Christian Trapp . In calling for more in-depth teacher training, like Hecker, he started from pietistic ideas. With Basedow he agreed in the demand for school master seminars and calls for manual skills lessons and practice school. As the first in German-speaking countries, he explicitly called for the professionalization of teacher training and opposed the fact that the teaching profession was only used as a waiting stand for the ministry. In contrast to the Pietists, he advocated musical education and art education, and he considered the game to be important in learning processes.

Immanuel Kant mentions Ehlers in his review of Johann Heinrich Schulz 's attempt at a guide to moral teaching for all people regardless of religion, along with an appendix on the death penalty , which Kant published in 1783. Kant points out that Prof. Ehlers gave a concept of freedom of will , namely as the ability of the thinking being to act in accordance with its ideas . Ehlers' main philosophical work is considered to be the work mentioned by Kant and published in Dessau in 1782. On the doctrine of human freedom and the means of attaining a high level of moral freedom .

Works

  • The caution necessary for admission and promotion of young people to study seeks to praise the opportunity for a speech to be issued on September 7th, to which all patrons and friends of the Segeberg School are appropriately invited, and at the same time to highly recommend a hopeful young man of all patrons and friends of the student youth Martin Ehlers, intended school rector . Iversen, Altona / Lübeck 1764.
  • Thoughts of the necessities necessary to improve schools . Altona / Lübeck 1766.
  • Thoughts on vocabulary learning when teaching languages. Along with a letter to his students . Iversen, Altona 1770.
  • Some remarks and thoughts concerning the high school in Altona. Program . Iversen, Altona 1774.
  • Collection of small writings relating to schooling and education . Korte, Flensburg 1776.
  • Reflections on the Morality of Pleasures . Korte, Flensburg / Leipzig 1779.
  • About the doctrine of human freedom and the means of attaining a high level of moral freedom . Bookshop of Scholars, Dessau 1782.
  • Discours sur la liberté . Librairie des Savants, Dessau / Leipzig 1783.
  • About the inadmissibility of reprinting books under natural compulsory law . Bookshop of scholars, Dessau / Leipzig 1784.
  • Wave for good princes, educators of princes and friends of the people First part . Bohn, Kiel / Hamburg 1786.
  • Wave for good princes, educators of princes, and friends of the people, second and last part . Bohn, Kiel / Hamburg 1787.
  • Considerations on the Morality of Pleasures in Two Parts . 2nd improved edition. Korten, Flensburg / Schleswig / Leipzig 1790.
  • Political essays . Kiel 1791.

literature

  • Felix Kelle: Martin Ehlers' educational reform efforts. A contribution to the history of pedagogy of the XVIII. Century . Baßler, Kamenz 1907 (also dissertation, Leipzig 1907).
  • Berend Kordes: Lexicon of the now living Schleswig-Holstein and Eutinian writers . Röhss, Schleswig 1797.
  • Carl von Prantl:  Ehlers: Martin E . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1877, p. 699 f.
  • Ferdinand Weinhandl :  Ehlers, Martin. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1959, ISBN 3-428-00185-0 , p. 347 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Günther Wolgast: Martin Ehlers (1732–1800). A forgotten teacher of the 18th century . In: Werner Keil (Hrsg.): Pedagogical reference points. Exemplary suggestions. Festschrift for Hans Scheuerl . Roderer, Regensburg 1995, ISBN 3-89073-755-2 , p. 191-207 .
  • Wilhelm Weil: The idea of ​​national education in La Chalotais, Ehlers and Basedow . Bensheim 1925 (inaugural dissertation Frankfurt am Main 1926).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In the article by Ferdinand Weinhandl in the Neue Deutsche Biographie on the subject of Martin Ehlers, Oldenburg in Holstein is erroneously mentioned.
  2. ↑ See Heinrich Kröger:  Trapp, Ernst Christian. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 12, Bautz, Herzberg 1997, ISBN 3-88309-068-9 , Col. 414-417.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  3. ↑ Cf. Immanuel Kant: Smaller writings on the philosophy of history, ethics and politics . Felix Meiner, Hamburg 1973, p. 184 (reprint of the 1913 edition).
personal data
SURNAME Ehlers, Martin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German reform pedagogue and professor of philosophy
DATE OF BIRTH January 6, 1732
PLACE OF BIRTH Nortorf
DATE OF DEATH January 9, 1800
Place of death Kiel