Valentin Haüy

Valentin Haüy (born November 13, 1745 in Saint-Just-en-Chaussée , Département Oise , † March 19, 1822 in Paris ) was a French teacher and brother of the mineralogist René Just Haüy . Another name is Valentin Aj .

Life and work

Valentin Haüy was the founder of the first educational institution for the blind , the Institution Royale des Jeunes Aveugles (Royal Institute for the Young Blind), now the Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles .

The Haüy brothers; in the foreground Valentin. Engraving by Alphonse Boilly.

Haüy first devoted himself to the study of linguistics and later became a civil servant in the French ministry. He was a teacher in Paris when he saw how at Place de la Concorde in Paris the Blinde des Quinze-Vingts Hospice were made the mockery of the people during the religious street festival Saint Ovid's Fair by using them as a chapel with fool's caps and (unskilled) instruments played. He came up with the plan to care for blind children in the same way as Abbé Charles-Michel de l'Epée had done for deaf and dumb children.

With the help of the blind composer, pianist and music teacher Maria Theresia Paradis from Vienna, it was possible for him to develop his ideas and systems into Braille. For Maria Theresia Paradis, the Austro-Hungarian polymath Wolfgang von Kempelen had constructed a kind of type case, with the help of which she could write her own correspondence, print her own sheet music and thus teach blind and sighted pupils together. On her three-year European tour she also made a guest appearance in Paris - at one of her concerts she met Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and Haüy, who was fascinated by her type case and also tried to implement this system at his school. His most tester students, Louis Braille , the system further developed and created valid botanical Braille . In 1784 Haüy established an institution in Paris for this purpose, which was taken over by the state in 1791. The expansion of the institution to one hundred pupils was interrupted by the start of the French Revolution . Napoleon Bonaparte , who was not very inclined to the idealists, thanked him for his work in 1802 and appointed another director. Haüy immediately founded a private institution for the education of the blind under the title Musee des Aveugles . Haüy, however, had little success with this and found himself in an increasingly difficult position.

In this situation he received the order from Emperor Alexander I to found an institution for the blind in St. Petersburg in Russia. He worked out a plan for it in 1803. During the trip to Russia Haüy met the then famous ophthalmologist Dr. Know the pit pourer. Fournier's achievements , one of his students, moved the doctor in such a way that he made Haüy stay longer. The king also found the idea of setting up an institution for the blind to be laudable. However, Haüy's plans were too largely designed for the troubled times at the time and could therefore not be implemented.

There is not much that is favorable to report about Haüy's successes in St. Petersburg. After an eleven-year stay, he returned to Paris in 1817 without having set up an institution for the blind. Haüy died in Paris in 1822, where he was buried in the Père-Lachaise cemetery.

The grave of Valentin Haüy and his brother René-Just Haüy in the Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris.

Works

Essai sur l'éducation des aveugles. Paris 1786 (considered to be the first book for the blind. In it Haüy provides information about his views on the education of the blind)
- Essai sur l'éducation des aveugles. Reprint of the edition Paris 1786 and Düren 1883. Ed. Bentheim, Würzburg 1990, ISBN 3-925265-22-8 . (contains a translation of the book "Treatise on the Education of Blind Children" by senior teacher Michel)

literature

M. Dupré: Adresse du citoyen Haüy, author des moyens d'éducation des enfans aveugles et leur premier instituteur aux 48 sections de Paris, présentée à la suite d'une adresse de la section de l'Arsenal, en date de l'an I de la République française le 13 décembre 1792, dont il étoit porteur par ... Microform -Next. d. Ed. 1793, Micro Graphix, Witney 1992
Johann Wilhelm Klein: History of teaching for the blind and the institutions dedicated to the blind in Germany, together with news from institutions for the blind in other countries . Vienna 1837.
Aleksander Skrebickij: Valentin Haüy in Petersburg; After not previously published. Documents from Alexander Skrebitzky . Paris 1884. (On behalf of the German Blind Teachers Association, translated by H [ubert] Horbach. Hamel, Düren 1917)
Pierre Villey and Georges Pérouze: Etudes pédagogiques: recueil d'articles extraits du Valentin Haüy, revue universelle des questions relatives aux aveugles; (1884-1923) . Robert, Caën 1923.
Gerda Wachsmuth: Light the blind: story about Valentin Haüy, the inventor of Braille . Kranz-Verlag, Neustadt an der Haardt 1948.
Alfred Mell: From Vives to Haüy: Documents and reflections on the history of the foundation of education for the blind . Association for the Promotion of Education for the Blind, Hanover 1952.
Pierre Henri: Valentin Haüy: premier instituteur des aveugles; 1745-1822 . Assoc. Valentin Haüy, Paris around 1970.
Pierre Henri: Le siècle des Lumières et la cécité: de Molyneux à Valentin Haüy, 1692–1822 . Ed. Groupement des Intellectuels Aveugles ou Amblyopes, Paris 1984.
Pierre Henri: Le siècle des Lumières et la cécité. Presses Universitaires de France, Paris 1984, ISBN 2-13-038642-3 . (Extrait de "Le Siècle des Lumières et la cécité").
Alexander Mell (Ed.): Encyclopaedic Handbook of the Blind. Vienna / Leipzig 1900.

Web links

Commons : Valentin Haüy - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Association Valentin Haüy (in French)

Individual evidence

^ Raymonde Monnier: Haüy Valentin. In: Albert Soboul (ed.): Dictionnaire historique de la Révolution française. Presses universitaires de France, Paris 1989, p. 536.
↑ Cf. Marion Fürst: Maria Theresia Paradis. Mozart's famous blind contemporary. 2005, ISBN 3-412-19505-7 .
^ Zina Weygand: The Blind in French Society From the Middle Ages to the Century of Louis Braille. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California 2009, ISBN 978-0-8047-5768-3 .

personal data
SURNAME	Haüy, Valentin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Aj, Valentin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	French educator for the blind
DATE OF BIRTH	November 13, 1745
PLACE OF BIRTH	Saint-Just-en-Chaussée
DATE OF DEATH	March 19, 1822
Place of death	Paris

[1] Raymonde Monnier: Haüy Valentin. In: Albert Soboul (ed.): Dictionnaire historique de la Révolution française. Presses universitaires de France, Paris 1989, p. 536.

[2] Cf. Marion Fürst: Maria Theresia Paradis. Mozart's famous blind contemporary. 2005, ISBN 3-412-19505-7 .

[3] Zina Weygand: The Blind in French Society From the Middle Ages to the Century of Louis Braille. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California 2009, ISBN 978-0-8047-5768-3 .