Philipp Emanuel von Fellenberg
Philipp Emanuel von Fellenberg | |
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agronomist | |
Years active | 1799–1844 |
Philipp Emanuel von Fellenberg (27 June 1771 – 21 November 1844) was a
Biography
He was born at Bern. His father was of patrician family, and a man of importance in his canton, and his mother was a granddaughter of the Dutch admiral Van Tromp. From his mother and from Gottlieb Konrad Pfeffel, the blind poet of Colmar, he received a better education than falls to the lot of most boys, while the intimacy of his father with Pestalozzi gave to his mind that bent which it afterwards followed. In 1790 he entered the University of Tübingen, where he distinguished himself by his rapid progress in legal studies.
On account of his health he afterwards undertook a walking tour in Switzerland and the adjoining portions of
Shortly afterwards, however, he was recalled by his countrymen, and sent on a mission to Paris to remonstrate against the rapacity and cruelty of the agents of the French republic. But in this and other diplomatic offices which he held for a short time, he was witness to so much corruption and intrigue that his mind revolted from the idea of a political life, and he returned home with the intention of devoting himself wholly to the education of the young.
Educational reform
In 1799 Fellenberg purchased the estate of Hofwyl, near Bern.
The pedagogy was radical for the time in that it did not allow corporal punishment or rewards and incentives.[4]
Hofwyl inspired many schools around the world.[2] Often these schools were established to train children from poor families to be productive members of society. In the United Kingdom, Lady Byron established Ealing Grove School that was directly inspired by Hofwyl School. She also published a book on the published a pamphlet titled The History of Industrial Schools (republished as an appendix in Ethel Mayne's biography of Lady Byron) and was probably the author of the book What De Fellenberg has Done for Education, published anonymously in 1839.[5][6] In Australia in the 1840s, James Bonwick named his boarding school Hofwyl House, and was called "the de Fellenberg of Tasmania."[7]
For forty-five years Fellenberg, assisted by his wife, who ran the side of the school devoted to girls,[[4]]() continued his educational labors, and finally raised his institution to the highest point of prosperity and usefulness. He died in 1844. The school at Hofwyl was closed only four years after his death.[1]
Works
- 1808: Landwirthschaftliche Blätter von Hofwyl. 5 Hefte. Aarau: Maurhofer & Dellenbach, 1808-1817
- 1813: Darstellung der Armen-rziehungsanstalt in Hofwyl. Von ihrem Stifter E. v. F. Aus dem vierten Hefte der landwirthschaftlichen Blätter von Hofwyl besonders abgedruckt. Aarau
- 1813: Observations extraites des feuilles d’Hofwyl, sur les semoirs à grains de toute espèce et leur emploi. [Bern?]
- 1808: Vues relatives à l'agriculture de la Suisse et aux moyens de la perfectionner; traduit de l'Allemand par C. Pictet. Genève
- 1811: Vorläufige Nachricht über die Erziehungsanstalt für die höheren Stände zu Hofwyl. [Berne]
- 1830: Beleuchtung einer weltgerichtlichen Frage an unsern Zeitgeist. Bern: bei C. A. Jenni (Reissued by Thoemmes Press, Bristol, 1994 ISBN 1-85506-279-8)
- 1831: Sendschreiben an den Verfassungsrath des Kantons Bern, ... April 1831. Bern: Gedruckt bei Carl Rätzer
- 1833: Der dreimonatliche Bildungskurs, Bern
Note on sources
Parts of this article were taken from Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. This work in turn cites:
- Hamm, Wilhelm von. Fellenberg's Leben und Wirken: zur Erinnerung für seine Freunde, Schüler und Verehrer (Bern, 1845)
- Schöni, Franz Robert. Der Stifter von Hofwyl, Leben und Wirken Fellenberg's (Bern, 1871 & Schaffhausen, 1874)
References
- ^ a b Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Fellenberg, Philipp Emanuel von". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge UP.
- ^ JSTOR 1473017.
- ^ JSTOR 45024023.
- ^ ISSN 0030-9230.
- ISSN 0305-7488.
Lady Noel Byron, widow of the poet, visited Hofwyl in 1828 and sent a representative to learn the ideas before placing two young cousins there for education. She opened a school for vagrants at Ealing Grove in 1834 where gardening, carpentry and masonry were amongst the subjects of instruction. She condemned the violence, drinking and gambling of the public schools, composed a history of the Fellenbergian schools, and was probably the author of What De Fellenberg has Done for Education (1839).
- ^ FELLENBERG, Philipp Emanuel von (1839). What De Fellenberg has done for Education. [By Lady Byron?]. Saunders and Otley.
- ^ "Lecture on Phrenology". Courier. 1846-12-09. p. 2.
Further reading
- H. Gilomen: Die Kinderkolonie Meikirch. Ein pädagogisches Experiment vor hundert Jahren. Beyer & Söhne, Langensalza 1929. (= Friedrich Mann's Pädagogisches Magazin. Heft 1245).
- Kurt Guggisberg: Philipp Emanuel von Fellenberg und sein Erziehungsstaat. Lang, Bern 1953.
- Rudolf Wepfer: "Ich bin auch das Werk meiner selbst". Philipp Emanuel von Fellenberg. Biographische Skizze eines Pioniers der Pädagogik und Kämpfers für ein freies Erziehungswesen. Verl. am Goetheanum, Dornach 2000. ISBN 3-7235-1086-8
- Denise Wittwer Hesse: Die Familie von Fellenberg und die Schulen von Hofwyl. Erziehungsideale, "Häusliches Glück" und Unternehmertum einer Bernischen Patrizierfamilie in der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts. Historischer Verein, Bern 2002. (= Archiv des Historischen Vereins des Kantons Bern; 82) ISBN 3-85731-022-7