Theodor Heller

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Theodor Heller (born June 9, 1869 in Vienna ; † December 12, 1938 there ) was an Austrian curative educator who advocated improved collaboration between curative educators and doctors.

Live and act

His father, Simon Heller (1843–1922), was director of the Israelitisches Blindeninstitut Hohen Warte in Vienna XIX. As a result, he spent most of his childhood in the company of blind children. Like his father, he wanted to become an educator for the blind. Theodor Heller studied philosophy in Vienna and psychology in Leipzig , where he was supported by Prof. Wilhelm Wundt . In 1894 he completed his studies with a doctorate. He dedicated his dissertation “Studies in Psychology for the Blind” to his father.

After spending a few years in psychology of the blind, he turned to working with mentally abnormal children. In 1895, with the help of his father and the Viennese psychiatrist Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebbig, he founded the later world-famous educational institution in Vienna-Grinzing. Debiles, epileptics, imbezille, mongoloid, spastic and cretins, were the names used at the time. In his curative education work he was supported by his wife Hella, geb. Flame, supports.

Theodor Heller published his main work “Outline of Curative Education” in 1904, which was later translated into Russian , Polish , Spanish and Japanese . The author emphasized the need for cooperation between curative educators and doctors . In doing so, he localized curative education as a border area between education and psychiatry. This work was later supplemented by Pedagogical Therapy (1914) and a series of treatises on psychopathology in children and adolescents, which were followed by youth criminological studies.

As early as 1907 he described dementia infantilis , as a form of adolescent insanity that is still viewed today with different symptoms, but not as an etiopathogenetic unit . This clinical picture is characterized by the fact that after a period of normal or almost normal mental development, usually in the third or fourth year of life, a slowly onset or rapidly progressing dulling process with profound mental changes begins. The language becomes indistinct, slurred, slurred, and finally incomprehensible. Speech comprehension also goes out. Streotypical repetition of words and sounds and echolalia were often observed until it fell completely silent in the further course of the disease. The child's external appearance and physiognomics do not change, which means that it often creates a particularly intelligent ('prince's face') and undisturbed impression .

Theodor Heller was a co-founder of the Society for Curative Education in Munich, founder of the Society for Children's Research in Vienna, co-editor of the Journal for Children's Research and took part in the organization of curative education congresses that took place between the two World Wars in Munich (1922, 1924 and 1926), Leipzig (1928) and Cologne (1930) took place.

In addition, the pioneer of curative education was honorary chairman of the German Society for Curative Education and executive chairman of the Austrian Society for Curative Education, which he founded . In 1937 he was instrumental in initiating the International Society for Curative Education , of which he was appointed Honorary President.

As early as 1935 in Vienna he spoke of the collapse of curative education in Germany . But his appeal to help preserve the humanistic traditions of German curative education in Austria , which are threatened in Germany, was doomed to failure by the 'Anschluss' of Austria . Theodor Heller gave his last public speech on March 9, 1938. Soon afterwards, the Austrian of Jewish faith was deposed as director of the institution by the Nazis. A few weeks later he attempted suicide as a result of which he died. His wife and daughter were deported to Riga and killed. On the occasion of the 1st International Congress for Curative Education in Geneva (June 1939) Heinrich Hanselmann remembered the deceased Honorary President with the following words:

In our present times, the political borders of individual countries around the world are being walled high with particular vigilance. It is therefore all the more urgent to attempt to overcome distrust and to renew the evidence that the borders of the country do not have to be and should not be borders of the spirit. Because for the human mind all autarky means life threat, it leads to dystrophy and finally to atrophy. Our honored honorary president, the main initiator for the foundation of our society, the father of modern curative education in Europe, Dr. Theodor Heller, died. His good spirit will live on in us as long as we are sincere and have goodwill .

Theodor Heller's fate was not addressed by curative education after 1945. This undoubtedly corresponded to the desire to forget the past.

Works (selection)

  • Outline of curative education . Leipzig 1904
  • Educational therapy . Leipzig 1914
  • Curative education in the present and future . In: H. Goepfert (Ed.): Report on the first congress for curative education in Munich 2.-5. August 1922 . Berlin 1923, pp. 66-79
  • About child psychology and psychopathology . Vienna 1925
  • The Austrian Society for Child Research . In: J. Trüper (Ed.): Journal for Child Research . Volume 31, Berlin 1926

Literature (selection)

  • H. Asperger: Dr. Theodor Heller, the curative teacher . In: special issue, supplement of the magazine Erbildung und Studium . 1959, pp. 17-22
  • J. Pitsch: The importance of Dr. Theodor Hellers for curative education , In: Heilpädagogik. Special issue Dr. Theodor Heller . 1978, pp. 130-135
  • G. Heller: Theodor Heller (1869-1938) - a pioneer of curative education. His life, his work and its significance for curative education as a scientific discipline in the past and present , Salzburg 1998 (unpublished diploma thesis)
  • D. Lotz: Theodor Heller (1869-1938) . In: M. Buchka, R. Grimm and F. Klein (eds.): Life pictures of important curative educators in the 20th century . Munich and Basel 2000, pp. 111–128
  • G. Nissen: Cultural history of mental disorders in children and adolescents , Stuttgart 2005, pp. 473–474
  • SL Ellger-Rüttgardt: History of Special Education . Munich and Basel 2008

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. Heller 1904, p. 5 ff.
  2. ↑ Nissen 2005, p. 474
  3. ↑ Nissen 2005, p. 473
  4. ↑ Lotz 2000, p. 126
  5. ↑ Elger-Rüttgardt 2008, p. 218 f
  6. ↑ cit. n.Special issue, supplement to the magazine Education and Teaching 1959, p. 6
personal data
SURNAME Heller, Theodor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian curative educator
DATE OF BIRTH June 9, 1869
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH December 12, 1938
Place of death Vienna