Friedrich Fröbel

Friedrich Fröbel
Born	Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel (1782-04-21)21 April 1782 Oberweißbach,Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt,Holy Roman Empire
Died	21 June 1852(1852-06-21)(aged 70) Schweina,Saxe-Meiningen,German Confederation
Era	Modern philosophy 19th-century philosophy
Region	Western philosophy German philosophy
Main interests	Pedagogy
Notable ideas	Froebel gifts Froebel star(disputed) Kindergarten

Friedrich Wilhelm August FröbelorFroebel(German:[ˈfʁiːdʁɪçˈvɪlhɛlmˈʔaʊɡʊstˈfʁøːbl̩];21 April 1782 – 21 June 1852) was a Germanpedagogue,a student ofJohann Heinrich Pestalozzi,who laid the foundation for modern education based on the recognition that children have unique needs and capabilities. He created the concept of thekindergartenand coined the word, which soon entered the English language as well. He also developed the educational toys known asFroebel gifts.

Biography

House in Oberweißbach where Fröbel was born

Friedrich Fröbel was born atOberweißbachin the Principality ofSchwarzburg-RudolstadtinThuringia.A cousin of his was the mother ofHenriette Schrader-Breymann,and Henriette became a student of his.Fröbel's father, Johann Jacob Fröbel, who died in 1802, was the pastor of the orthodoxLutheran(alt-lutherisch) parish there. Fröbel's mother's name was Jacobine Eleonore Friederike (born Hoffmann). The church and Lutheran Christian faith were pillars in Fröbel's own early education. Oberweißbach was a wealthy village in the Thuringian Forest and had been known centuries long for its natural herb remedies, tinctures, bitters, soaps and salves. Families had their own inherited areas of the forest where herbs and roots were grown and harvested. Each family prepared, bottled, and produced their individual products which were taken throughout Europe on trade routes passed from father to son, who were affectionately calledBuckelapothekeror "Rucksack Pharmacists". They adorned the church with art acquired from their travels, many pieces of which can still be seen in the renovated structure. The pulpit from which Fröbel heard his father preach is the largest in all Europe and can accommodate a pastor and 12 people, a direct reference to Christ's apostles.

Shortly after Fröbel's birth, his mother's health began to fail. She died when he was nine months old, profoundly influencing his life. In 1792, Fröbel went to live in the small town ofStadt-Ilmwith his uncle, a gentle and affectionate man. At the age of 15 Fröbel, who loved nature, became the apprentice to a forester. In 1799, he decided to leave his apprenticeship and studymathematicsandbotanyinJena.From 1802 to 1805, he worked as aland surveyor.

On 11 September 1818, Fröbel wed Wilhelmine Henriette Hoffmeister (b. 1780) inBerlin.The union was childless. Wilhelmine died in 1839, and Fröbel married again in 1851. His second wife was Louise Levin.

Career

Allgemeine Deutsche Erziehungsanstalt inKeilhau,nowadays the Keilhau Free Fröbel School

Throughout his career, Fröbel would move between his interests in nature and in education. He began as an educator in 1805 at theMusterschule(a secondary school) inFrankfurt,where he learned aboutJohann Heinrich Pestalozzi's ideas. He later worked with Pestalozzi in Switzerland, where his ideas further developed. From 1806, Fröbel was the live-in teacher for a Frankfurt noble family's three sons. He lived with the three children from 1808 to 1810 at Pestalozzi's institute inYverdon-les-Bainsin Switzerland.

In 1811, Fröbel once again went back to school inGöttingenand Berlin, eventually leaving without earning a certificate. He became a teacher at thePlamannsche Schulein Berlin, aboarding schoolfor boys, and at that time also a pedagogical and patriotic centre.

During his service in theLützow Free Corpsin 1813 and 1814 – when he was involved in two military campaigns againstNapoleon– Fröbel befriended Wilhelm Middendorf, a theologian and fellow pedagogue, and Heinrich Langethal, also a pedagogue.

AfterWaterlooand theCongress of ViennaFröbel found himself a civilian once again, and became an assistant at the Museum of Mineralogy underChristian Samuel Weissduring 1814–1816,studying and cataloging mineral crystals.He became fascinated with their structure, and later would write: "I continually proved to be true what had long been a presentiment with me, namely, that even in these so-called lifeless stones and fragments of rock, torn from their original bed, there lay germs of transforming, developing energy and activity. Amidst the diversity of forms around me, I recognised under all kinds of various modifications one law of development...And thereafter, my rocks and crystals served me as a mirror wherein I might descry mankind, and man’s development and history...Geology and crystallography not only opened up for me a higher circle of knowledge and insight, but also showed me a higher goal for my inquiry, my speculation, and my endeavour. Nature and man now seemed to me mutually to explain each other, through all their numberless various stages of development."

In 1816, he was offered a professorship in Stockholm, but he turned it down and instead founded theAllgemeine Deutsche Erziehungsanstalt(German General Education Institute) inGriesheimnearArnstadtin Thuringia. A year later, he moved the school to Keilhau nearRudolstadt.In 1831, work would be continued there by the other cofounders Wilhelm Middendorf and Heinrich Langethal.

In 1820, Fröbel published the first of his five Keilhau pamphlets,An unser deutsches Volk( "To Our German People" ). The other four were published between then and 1823.

In 1826, he published his main written work,Die Menschenerziehung( "The Education of Man" ) and founded the weekly publicationDie erziehenden Familien( "The Educating Families" ). In 1828 and 1829, he pursued plans for a people's education institute (Volkserziehungsanstalt) in Helba (nowadays a constituent community ofMeiningen), but they were never realized.

From 1831 to 1836, Fröbel once again lived in Switzerland. In 1831, he founded an educational institute inWartensee.In 1833, he moved this toWillisau,and from 1835 to 1836, he headed theorphanageinBurgdorf,where he also published the magazineGrundzüge der Menschenerziehung(Features of Human Education). In 1836 appeared his workErneuerung des Lebens erfordert das neue Jahr 1836(The New Year 1836 Calls For the Renewal of Life).

He returned to Germany, dedicated himself almost exclusively to preschool child education and began manufacturing playing materials in Bad Blankenburg. In 1837, he founded acare, playing and activity institute for small childrenin Bad Blankenburg. From 1838 to 1840, he also published the magazineEin Sonntagsblatt für Gleichgesinnte(A Sunday Paper for the Like-Minded).

In 1840, he coined the wordkindergartenfor the Play and Activity Institute he had founded in 1837 atBad Blankenburgfor young children, together with Wilhelm Middendorf and Heinrich Langethal. These two men were Fröbel's most faithful colleagues when his ideas were also transplanted to Keilhau near Rudolstadt. In 1840 the educatorEmily Ronaldswas the first British person to study Fröbel's approach and he urged her to transplant his kindergarten concepts in England.

He designed the educational play materials known asFroebel Gifts,orFröbelgaben,which included geometric building blocks and pattern activity blocks. A book entitledInventing Kindergarten,by Norman Brosterman, examines the influence of Friedrich Fröbel onFrank Lloyd Wrightandmodern art.

Friedrich Fröbel's great insight was to recognise the importance of the activity of the child inlearning.He introduced the concept of "free work" (Freiarbeit) intopedagogyand established the "game" as the typical form that life took in childhood, and also the game's educational worth. Activities in the first kindergarten includedsinging,dancing,gardening,and self-directed play with the Froebel Gifts. Fröbel intended, with hisMutter- und Koselieder– a songbook that he published – to introduce the young child into the adult world.

These ideas about childhood development and education were introduced to academic and royal circles through the tireless efforts of his greatest proponent, the Baroness (Freiherrin)Bertha Marie von Marenholtz-Bülow.Through her Fröbel made the acquaintance of the Royal House of the Netherlands, various Thuringian dukes and duchesses, including the Romanov wife of the Grand Duke von Sachsen-Weimar. Baroness von Marenholtz-Bülow, Duke von Meiningen and Fröbel gathered donations to support art education for children in honor of the 100th anniversary of the birth ofGoethe.The Duke of Meiningen granted the use of his hunting lodge, called Marienthal (Vale of Mary) in the resort town ofBad Liebensteinfor Fröbel to train the first women as Kindergarten teachers(Kindergärtnerinnen).

After suppressing theGerman revolutions of 1848–49,the Prussian government continued a crackdown on new ideas, banning kindergartens in 1851.This dismayed Fröbel, who died on 21 June 1852 in Marienthal, now a constituent community ofSchweina.His grave can still be found in the cemetery at Schweina, where his widow, who died inHamburg,was also buried on 10 January 1900.

Legacy

The Fröbel Memorial at the Fröbel Kindergarten in Mühlhausen, Thuringia shows the pedagogical basic forms.

Fröbelturmnear Oberweißbach

Fröbel’s idea of the kindergarten had found appeal, but its spread in Germany was thwarted by thePrussiangovernment, whose education ministry banned it in aKindergartenverbotedict on 7 August 1851 as "atheistic and demagogic" for its alleged "destructive tendencies in the areas of religion and politics".Other German states followed suit.

The reason for the ban, however, may have been a confusion of names. Fröbel's nephew Karl Fröbel had written and publishedWeibliche Hochschulen und Kindergärten( "Female Colleges and Kindergartens" ), which apparently met with some disapproval. To quoteKarl August Varnhagen von Ense,"The stupid minister (Karl Otto) von Raumer has decreed a ban on kindergartens, basing himself on a book by Karl Fröbel. He is confusing Friedrich and Karl Fröbel."

The sudden ban caused a diaspora of teachers from Germany, spreading their ideas to other countries.Fröbel's studentMargarethe Schurzfounded the first kindergarten in the United States atWatertown, Wisconsinin 1856 (though another student, Louisa Frankenberg, founded a school based in Fröbel's methods in Columbus, Ohio in 1836, prior to Fröbel's coining of the term "Kindergarten".) In both schools instruction was in the German language, and primarily served immigrant communities. She inspiredElizabeth Peabody,who went on to found the first English-language kindergarten in the United States, inBostonin 1860.The German émigréAdolph Douaihad also founded a kindergarten in Boston in 1859, but had to close it after only a year. By 1866, however, he was founding others inNew York City.

From the mid to late 19th century, many missionary women from Western countries disseminated Froebel’s theory of kindergarten education across Japan. The prominent American missionary and Froebelian Annie L. Howe (1852–1943) was particularly influential through the establishment of her Glory Kindergarten teacher training school. Howe developed curricula specifically for Japanese students and trained hundreds of Japanese women to use Froebelian methods in kindergarten education.

The pedagogueAugust Köhlerwas the initiator and cofounder in 1863 of theDeutscher Fröbelverein(German Fröbel Association), first for Thuringia, out of which grew theAllgemeiner Fröbelverein(General Fröbel Association) in 1872, and a year later theDeutscher Fröbelverband(German Fröbel Federation). Köhler critically analyzed and evaluated Fröbel theory, adopted fundamental notions into his own kindergarten pedagogy and expanded on these, developing an independent "Köhler Kindergarten Pedagogy". He first trained kindergarten teachers inGothain 1857. In the beginning, Köhler had thought to engage male educators exclusively, but far too few applied.

Thekla Naveaufounded in October 1853 the first kindergarten inSondershausenand on 1 April 1867 the first kindergarten after the Prussian ban was lifted inNordhausen.Angelika Hartmann founded in 1864 the first kindergarten after Fröbel’s model inKöthen,Anhalt. In 1908 and 1911, kindergarten teacher training was recognized in Germany through state regulatory laws.

Since then, there are many kindergartens in Germany named after Fröbel that continue his method. Many have sprung from parental or other private initiatives. The biggest Fröbel association,Fröbel e.V.,today runs more than 100 kindergartens and other early childhood institutions throughout the country through theFröbel-Gruppe.

Committed to Fröbel's legacy is also theNeuer Thüringer Fröbelverein(NTFV; New Thuringian Fröbel Association), and in particular to protecting the legacy's business receipts. As well, the Association runs a school museum and the Fröbel Archive in Keilhau. Furthermore, it engages itself in Fröbel institutions worldwide (United States, United Kingdom, Japan). Through this network, the NTFV further continues one of the most prominent lines of modern pedagogy from the authentic "Fröbel town" of Keilhau. The Fröbel Diploma, now conferred by the Fröbel Academy in Nordhausen, can also be traced back to the NTFV. All this ensures that Fröbel’s ideas will live on into the future.

In 1892, followers of Fröbel established a college of teacher education in South West London to continue his traditions.Froebel Collegeis now a constituent college ofRoehampton Universityand is home to the university's department of education. The University of Roehampton Library is also home to the Froebel Archive for Childhood Studies,a collection of books, archives, photographs, objects and multi-media materials, centring on Friedrich Fröbel’s educational legacy, early years and elementary education. The Demonstration School, originally located at Colet Court, Kensington, has evolved intoIbstock Place School,Roehampton.

Today thePestalozzi-Fröbel-Hausin Berlin continues to train nursery school teachers.

There is a National Kindergarten Day in the United States on his birthday, April 21.

Cultural influence

Fröbel's building forms and movement games are forerunners ofabstract artas well as a source of inspiration to theBauhausmovement.In Fröbel’s honour,Walter Gropiusdesigned theFriedrich Fröbel Haus.Many modernist architects were exposed as children to Fröbel's ideas about geometry, including Frank Lloyd Wright,Le Corbusier,andBuckminster Fuller.

Works

In the Netherlands,fröbelenmeans to be busy with arts and crafts, as promoted in a shop inTerborg.

(Selected from those of his time at Keilhau)

• An unser deutsches Volk(To Our German People). Erfurt 1820.
• Durchgreifende, dem deutschen Charakter erschöpfend genügende Erziehung ist das Grund- und Quellbedürfnis des deutschen Volkes.Erfurt 1821.
• Die Grundsätze, der Zweck und das innere Leben der allgemeinen deutschen Erziehungsanstalt in Keilhau bei Rudolstadt.Rudolstadt 1821.
• Die allgemeine deutsche Erziehungsanstalt in Keilhau betreffend(Concerning the General German Educational Institution in Keilhau). Rudolstadt 1822.
• Über deutsche Erziehung überhaupt und über das allgemeine Deutsche der Erziehungsanstalt in Keilhau insbesondere.Rudolstadt 1822.
• Fortgesetzte Nachricht von der allgemeinen deutschen Erziehungsanstalt in Keilhau.Rudolstadt 1823.
• Die Menschenerziehung, die Erziehungs-, Unterrichts- und Lehrkunst, angestrebt in der allgemeinen deutschen Erziehungsanstalt zu Keilhau.Erster Band. Keilhau-Leipzig 1826.
• Die erziehenden Familien. Wochenblatt für Selbstbildung und die Bildung Anderer.Keilhau-Leipzig 1826.

Further reading

• Berger, Manfred:150 Jahre Kindergarten. Ein Brief an Friedrich Fröbel.Frankfurt 1990
• Berger, Manfred:Frauen in der Geschichte des Kindergartens. Ein Handbuch.Frankfurt 1995
• Fröbel, Friedrich (1900)The Student's Froebel: adapted from "Die Erziehung der Menschheit" of F. Froebel,byWilliam H. Herford.2 vols. London: Isbister, 1900–01. pt. 1. Theory of education – pt. 2. Practice of education (Substantially a translation of Froebel's work, with editorial comments and annotations)
• Froebel, Friedrich and Mathis, Miriam (Ed.).Where Children Grow: Wisdom for Raising Resilient Humans from the Inventor of Kindergarten.Plough, 2024.
• Hebenstreit, Sigurd:Friedrich Fröbel – Menschenbild, Kindergartenpädagogik, Spielförderung.Jena 2003.ISBN978-3-934601-58-1
• Heiland, Helmut:Die Konzeption des Sachunterrichts bei Fröbel (1782–1852).In: Kaiser, A./Pech, D. (Hrsg.):Geschichte und historische Konzeptionen des Sachunterrichts.Baltmannsweiler 2004, pp. 69–72
• Heiland, Helmut:Friedrich Fröbel in Selbstzeugnissen und Bilddokumenten.Reinbek 1982
• Heiland, Helmut:Die Schulpädagogik Friedrich Fröbel.1993
• Wollons, Roberta. L., (Ed). Kindergartens and cultures: the global diffusion of an idea. New Haven, CT, Yale University Press, 2000ISBN978-0300077889

External links

• Works by Friedrich FröbelatProject Gutenberg
• Works by or about Friedrich FröbelatInternet Archive
• Friedrich Fröbelin theGerman National Librarycatalogue
• Heinrich Heppe (1878), "Fröbel, Friedrich",Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie(in German), vol. 8, Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 123–124
• "Friedrich Fröbel".Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL)(in German).
• Froebel Education Centre – Demonstration School for The Froebel Institute
• Information about Friedrich Fröbel
• Friedrich Fröbel website
• Friedrich Fröbel: His life and influence on education
• Friedrich Fröbel’s letters
• How to make a Fröbel star
• "Fröbel, Friedrich Wilhelm August".New International Encyclopedia.1905.