Otto Blensdorf

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Otto Blensdorf (born November 14, 1871 in Linnich ; † January 15, 1947 in Bad Godesberg ) was a German rhythmist and “ Dalcroze student from the very beginning”.

Live and act

Otto Blensdorf was an elementary school and gym teacher. Very early on he, who took part in the first Dalcroze summer course in Geneva in 1906, recognized the importance of "rhythmic gymnastics" for education, "which caused him to incorporate rhythmic education into existing curricula with great difficulty vis-à-vis school authorities and administration". From around the mid-1920s he gave up the term "rhythmic gymnastics" and from then on spoke of "rhythmics":

Rhythmic gymnastics is a misleading and misleading expression, as there is no longer such a thing in specialist circles .

In 1906 Otto Blensdorf founded the first German rhythm school in Elberfeld and held numerous rhythm courses for children, adolescents and adults, financially supported by wealthy families as well as independent, state and church organizations. He also taught at the Theater School of the Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf and at the Conservatory in Dortmund. In 1926 he and his school moved to Jena, where he was involved in the pilot project by the school reformer Peter Petersen . The rhythmic-musical education was an important part of the curriculum of the “community school” (see “The little Jenaplan”).

Two years later, the "Blensdorf'sche Movement School" moved again to Bad Godesberg. There her focus was primarily on the advanced training of kindergarten teachers and teachers. The "Bad Godesberg Summer Courses" that took place in August every year were particularly appreciated:

Rhythm and music as a means of education in school and kindergarten. A way to create your own. Head: Otto Blensdorf. I. The joy of form = empathizing and recreating. a) Metric body school; b) Rhythmic play and children's play and dance songs; c) Movement-related design of rhythmic and musical events in canon; Song, old dance forms and small pieces of music. II. The joy of shaping = finding oneself and creating oneself. a) Formation and design of play and dance forms and group games from natural experience and from the exercises of the body school; b) Introduction to ear and melody training as well as instrumental accompaniment (improvisation) in the most elementary form; c) Musical illustration of movements and games. d) Self-made bamboo flutes and other instruments, their handling and their pedagogical use; e) Practical exercises with children of different ages .

In the absence of useful children's songs, Otto Blensdorf had published various collections of songs for rhythmic education in kindergarten and school. His songs are inconceivable without the rhythmic play, especially since the nursery rhyme should not function as a finished whole:

Instead of teaching a song, it should be developed from experience in rhythmic play, where the child himself finds the right movements, creates the musical motifs from himself through the speech melody and also improvises rhymes and verses by rewriting the action .

This quote shows that for Otto Blensdorf the widest space is devoted to rhythmic play, at the end of which there is a song or ... a piece of music for children .

Daughter Charlotte and Gerda Alexander , founder of Eutonia , worked closely with him. His estate is in the German Dance Archive in Cologne .

Works (selection)

  • Education for independence in singing lessons for elementary and secondary schools, Elberfeld 1913
  • Practice of rhythm and body technique in school and at home. Part I: Kindergarten and Elementary School, Elberfeld 1923
  • Funny children's music without singing for children of all ages, Elberfeld 1923
  • Singing and jumping in kindergarten and elementary school. Book I: Animal Songs and Games, Bad Godesberg 1928
  • Singing and jumping in kindergarten and elementary school. Book II: The Child Himself, Bad Godesberg 1928b
  • Children's games and dance songs (7 booklets), Elberfeld 1920–1928
  • Rhythmic games with the ball, Bad Godesberg o. J.

literature

  • Charlotte MacJannet b. Blensdorf: Otto Blensdorf - A picture of the life of the pioneer of rhythmic education in Germany, in: Rhythmics in education 1985, pp. 74-679
  • Barbara Schürhaus: Music Education in Pre-School Age between 1900 and 1933, Frankfurt / Main 1986, pp. 159–200
  • Günther, H .: Historical outline of the German rhythm movement, in: Bannmüller, E./Röthing, P .: Basics and perspectives of aesthetic and rhythmic movement education, Stuttgart 1990, pp. 13–49
  • Tervooren, H .: The rhythmic-musical education in the first third of our century, Frankfurt / Main 1987
  • Ring, R./Steinmann, B .: Lexikon der Rhythmik 1997, pp. 42–43

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Günther 1990, p. 23
  2. ↑ Tervooren 1987, p. 292
  3. ↑ Blensdorf 1928a, p. 3
  4. ↑ Kindergarten 1936, p. 138
  5. ↑ Blensdorf 1928b, p. 115 f
  6. ↑ Schürhaus 1986, p. 202
  7. ^ Estate in the German Dance Archive Cologne.
personal data
SURNAME Blensdorf, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German rhythmist
DATE OF BIRTH November 14, 1871
PLACE OF BIRTH Linnich
DATE OF DEATH January 15, 1947
Place of death bad Godesberg