Rosa Katz (teacher)

Rosa Katz (born Rosa Heine ; born April 9, 1885 in Odessa , † March 26, 1976 in Stockholm ) was a German educator and developmental psychologist.

Biography and work

Rosa Heine was born in Odessa on April 9, 1885. After completing school in Egypt and Odessa, she undertook further studies in Odessa. In 1907 she went - according to her autobiography on the recommendation of the philosopher Leonard Nelson - to Göttingen, where she studied psychology at the University of Göttingen with Georg Elias Müller . She was looked after by David Katz , an assistant to Müller and her future husband. In 1913 she received her doctorate in psychology with G. E. Müller with a work on memory psychology ( on recognition and retroactive inhibition ). Further examination subjects were art history and philosophy.

As a Jew of Russian origin, at the time as an enemy foreigner , Rosa Heine had to give up her work as a teacher at the Odenwald School after the outbreak of the First World War . The timely termination on October 1, 1914 was linked to a violent (legal) dispute with the founder and director of the educational home, Paul Geheeb . Eventually the disputed matter ended in a settlement.

As a result, Rosa Heine worked in various auxiliary positions in Berlin (for example in Ernst Cassirer's library ) and probably worked occasionally as a translator for the Russian or Soviet embassy in Berlin.

In 1919 she married David Katz, who in the same year received a professorship at the University of Rostock . The couple had two sons: Theodor (1920–1997) and Gregor (1922–2015). During her time in Rostock (1919–1935), Rosa Katz dealt scientifically with language development and the social behavior of children and published - in some cases with her husband - on this and on educational issues. In addition, she made Montessori pedagogy known in Germany and founded a hiking kindergarten herself in Warnemünde , in which principles of Montessori pedagogy were implemented and practically tested.

In 1933 her husband David Katz was excluded from the academic world by the National Socialist government and on leave, which is why he went to England. Rosa Katz stayed with the children in Rostock until the financial situation and the school possibilities of the two sons were clarified. During this time she published smaller developmental and educational-psychological works under difficult professional and family conditions. In 1935 she was able to follow her husband to England and supported him in his animal psychology experiments at the London Zoo.

In 1937 Rosa Katz followed her husband to Stockholm, where she led a child psychology station at the psychological institute of Stockholm University and carried out psychological experiments that did not always find scientific recognition. For example, her investigation (which had already started with German children in Rostock and was then completed with Russian and Swedish children in Stockholm) on motor and mental changes when normal solution methods were switched off was criticized as follows: In order to demonstrate the ability to compensate, normal Requires children and auxiliary students to do with one hand what they usually did with both, to carry out assignments blindly or with clogged ears, to communicate without speaking or writing. As expected, the result was nothing special. The whole thing is more of a pastime than a scientific work (quoted from Ida-Seele-Archiv / files: Rosa Katz; No. 1/2/3).

The psychologist also worked in the diagnostic training of Swedish school psychologists and was also involved in educational psychology in Sweden. She also worked closely with her husband on developing intelligence tests. Rosa Katz also stayed true to Montessori pedagogy. In 1939 she published her reform pedagogical overview work on the theory of the Italian doctor and pedagogue under the title Montessoris Uppfostringsmetod . In addition to an appreciation of the life and work of Maria Montessori and the illustration with current image sources, the author added the latest scientific references and findings in the field of child-rearing, with particular reference to her publication The Child as Inventor .

After the death of David Katz in 1953, Rosa Katz initially concentrated on the publication or new editions of her husband's works. In addition, and until the 1970s, she took up new topics independently and worked and published, among other things, on linguistic talent and the psychological meaning of the first name. Another focus was gerontopsychology . In doing so, taking into account the social change of the post-war period, she pursued the (today particularly topical) question of how older people want to shape their old age or are already being forced to shape it as a result of the fundamental changes in social conditions and the changed relationships between the generations (Katz 1972, p. 123).

In the 1960s, Rosa Katz visited psychologists at the University of Rostock several times. In 1964 she received honorary membership of the German Society for Psychology . She went to Baden-Baden on cure until old age. She spent the last months of her life in a Jewish retirement home. Rosa Katz died on March 26, 1976 in Stockholm.

Works (selection)

Rosa Katz wrote a total of 12 books and over 50 essays, including:

Heine, Rosa (1914) On recognition and retroactive inhibition . Dissertation, Leipzig: Barth.
The educational system of Maria Montessori . Rostock 1925.
The wandering kindergarten . In: "New German Women's Magazine" 1927, no.12.
Conversations with children . Berlin 1928 (together with David Katz, translated into English and Swedish).
The child as an inventor . In: "Zeitschrift für Psychologie" 1934, 124, pp. 93-102.
Montessoris Uppfostringsmetod , Stockholm 1939.
About motor and mental adjustments when switching off normal solution methods . In: "Zeitschrift für Kinderpsychiatrie", 7, 1940, p. 1726.
Handbuch der Psychologie , continuation of her husband's editorial activity over several new editions.

literature

Manfred Berger : Leading women in social responsibility: Rosa Katz . In: Christ und Bildung 1994, no. 12, p. 202.
Manfred Berger: Jewish women in the circle around Maria Montessori . In: »Our Youth«, 1999, no. 10, pp. 411–418.
Manfred Berger: Rosa Katz - your life and work. A contribution to the history of Montessori education . In: »Das Kind«, 27, 2000, pp. 85–92.
Manfred Berger: Rosa Katz - an important psychologist, but not only unknown in Rostock. A search for clues . In: "Contemporary history regional communications from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania" 2002, no. 2, pp. 65–73.
Billmann-Mahecha, E .: Conversations with children: On the historical and methodological value of the investigations by David and Rosa Katz . In H. Gundlach (Ed.): Investigations on the history of psychology and psychotechnology . Munich: Profile 1996.
Billmann-Mahecha, E .: Rosa Katz: In search of a cultural psychological developmental psychology . In S. Volkmann-Raue & HE Lück (eds.): Important psychologists. Biographies and writings . Weinheim: Beltz 2002. (pp. 153–166)
Rosa Katz: Rosa Katz . In: J. Pongratz; W. Traxel; EG Wehner (Ed.): Psychology in self-portrayals . Bern: Huber 1972. (pp. 103–125)
Kaden, B .: Rosa Katz. Your life and international work for child psychology and Montessori pedagogy. A critical analysis . (Unpublished thesis). Munich: University of Applied Sciences for Social Education 1999.
Perleth, Ch .: Rosa Katz . In: U. Wolfrad; E. Billmann-Mahecha; A. Stock (Ed.): German-speaking psychologists 1933–1945 (2nd edition). Wiesbaden: Springer 2017. (p. 227f)
Riedmann, B .: Rosa Katz. Life and work of a psychologist . (Unpublished master's thesis). Hagen: FernUniversität Hagen 2003.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Katz, pink
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Heine, Rosa (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German pedagogue and developmental psychologist
DATE OF BIRTH	April 9, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH	Odessa
DATE OF DEATH	March 26, 1976
Place of death	Stockholm