Christian Gotthilf Salzmann

Christian Gotthilf Salzmann(1 July 1744 – 31 October 1811) was a Germaneducational reformerand the founder of theSchnepfenthal institution.

Christian Gotthilf Salzmann

Life and career

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Salzmann was born on 1 July 1744 nearErfurt,Thuringia.His father was a Protestant minister, and Salzmann himself trained to become a pastor.

Salzmann wroteBibliothek für Jünglinge und Mädchen,giving instructions on how to teach religion to children, but it was widely rejected by his superiors. Because of this rejection, he accepted a position atBasedow'sPhilanthropinum.From there, he continued to write papers about education reform, including hisMoralische Elementarbuchin 1783.

In 1785, Salzmann opened his own school, theSchnepfenthal institution,which taught his new brand of practical education. While teaching at the school, he continued to publish works and even issued the periodicalDer Bote aus Thüringen.

He died on 31 October 1811.[1]

Connections to Mary Wollstonecraft

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Salzmann's work reached the British public asElements of Morality for the Use of Children(1790-91), under the auspices of the liberal publisherJoseph Johnson.This was written byMary Wollstonecraft,who began the work as a translation, but "made the stories English, and added and altered where necessary", according toJanet Todd.This translation found a wider readership with a two-part essay in Johnson'sAnalytical Review.[2]Salzmann's work was further adapted in 1872, whenCharlotte Mary Yongeedited aStorehouse of Stories.[3]

According toHenry Crabb Robinson,Salzmann and Wollstonecraft were in correspondence with each other.[4]Salzmann returned her interest by publishing herA Vindication of the Rights of Woman,in German in 1793. The main translation of hermagnum opuswas performed by one of the teachers at his school, Georg Friedrich Christian Weissenborn, but Salzmann employed the author's licence to make what Robinson called "edifying improvements".[5]Salzmann also published a German version ofMemoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman,written by her widower,William Godwinand again translated by Salzmann's employee Weissenborn. In the prefaces to both these works, he expresses sympathy for her ideas and her life.[6]

Connections to Freemasons and Illuminati

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While it is not known whether Salzmann himself was a member of theFreemasonsor theIlluminati,his school was supported and funded by members of both groups.[7]

Selected works

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  • Moralische Elementarbuch(1783)
  • Bibliothek für Jünglinge und Mädchen
  • Moralischen Erzählungen zur Bildung des Herzens für Knaben und Mädchen[8]
  • Gymnastics for Youth[9]
  • Rettung der Rechte des Weibes mit Bemerkungen ueber Politische und Moralische Gegenstande von Maria Wollstonecroft(1793) (German translation ofA Vindication of the Rights of Woman)[10]

References

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  1. ^Rush, Benjamin (1981).Benjamin Rush's Lectures on the Mind.American Philosophical Society. p. 200.ISBN9780871691446.Retrieved19 June2018.
  2. ^Todd, Janet (1976).Mary Wollstonecraft: An Annotated Bibliography.ISBN978-0415752664.
  3. ^Todd, Janet (1976).Mary Wollstonecraft: An Annotated Bibliography.ISBN978-0415752664.
  4. ^Johns, Alessa (2014).Bluestocking Feminism and British-German Cultural Transfer, 1750-1837.University of Michigan Press. pp. 61–62.ISBN9780472035946.Retrieved19 June2018.
  5. ^Johns, Alessa (2014).Bluestocking Feminism and British-German Cultural Transfer, 1750-1837.University of Michigan Press. pp. 61–76.ISBN9780472035946.
  6. ^Todd, Janet (1976).Mary Wollstonecraft: An Annotated Bibliography.ISBN978-0415752664.
  7. ^Whaley, Joachim (2012).Germany and the Holy Roman Empire: Volume II: The Peace of Westphalia to the Dissolution of the Reich, 1648-1806.OUP Oxford. p. 520.ISBN9780199693078.Retrieved19 June2018.
  8. ^Maeyer, Jan de; Ewers, Hans-Heino; Ghesquiere, Rita (2005).Religion, Children's Literature, and Modernity in Western Europe, 1750-2000.Leuven University Press. p. 83.ISBN9789058674975.Retrieved19 June2018.
  9. ^Salzmann, Christian Gotthilf; GUTSMUTHS, Johann Christoph Friedrich (1800).Gymnastics for Youth; or a practical guide to healthful and amusing exercises for the use of schools... Freely translated from the German of C. G. Salzmann [or rather, of J. C. F. Gutsmuths]... Illustrated, etc.J. Johnson. p.247.Retrieved19 June2018.Christian Gotthilf Salzmann.
  10. ^Todd, Janet (2013).Mary Wollstonecraft: An Annotated Bibliography.Routledge. p. 23.ISBN9781136234552.Retrieved19 June2018.