Forgotten Pedagogues of German Education: A History of Alternative Education 3030295699, 978-3030295691

Table of contents :
1 Introduction
2 Joachim Heinrich Campe and the Pedagogical Anthropology of the Child
3 Bernhard Heinrich Blasche and the Romantic Concept of Nature Education
4 Helene Lange, Emancipation and Education for All
5 Heinrich Scharrelmann and the Art of Storytelling
6 Bernhard Hell and the Protestant School Community
7 Gertrud Bäumer, Deconstructing Gender and Discussing Social Work

Citation preview

PALGRAVE STUDIES IN ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION

Forgotten Pedagogues of German Education A History of Alternative Education

Ralf Koerrenz Sebastian Engelmann

Palgrave Studies in Alternative Education Series Editors Helen Lees Independent researcher London, UK Michael Reiss UCL Institute of Education London, UK

This series emerges out of a recent global rise of interest in and actual educational practices done with voice, choice, freedoms and interpersonal thoughtfulness. From subversion to introversion, including alternative settings of the state to alternative pathways of the private, the series embraces a diverse range of voices. Common to books in the series is a vision of education already in existence and knowledge of education possible here and now. Theoretical ideas with potential to be enacted or influential in lived practice are also a part of what we offer with the books. This series repositions what we deem as valuable educationally by accepting the power of many different forces such as silence, love, joy, despair, confusion, curiosity, failure, attachments as all potentially viable, interesting, useful elements in educational stories. Nothing is rejected if it has history or record as being of worth to people educationally, nor does this series doubt or distrust compelling ideas of difference as relevant. We wish to allow mainstream and marginal practices to meet here without prejudice as Other but also with a view to ensuring platforms for the Other to find community and understanding with others. The following are the primary aims of the series: • To publish new work on education with a distinctive voice. • To enable alternative education to find a mainstream profile. • To publish research that draws with interdisciplinary expertise on pertinent materials for interpersonal change or adjustments of approach towards greater voice. • To show education as without borders or boundaries placed on what is possible to think and do. If you would like to submit a proposal or discuss a project in more detail please contact: Eleanor Christie [email protected]. The series will include both monographs and edited collections and Palgrave Pivot formats. More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/15489

Ralf Koerrenz · Sebastian Engelmann

Forgotten Pedagogues of German Education A History of Alternative Education

Ralf Koerrenz Institute for Bildung and Culture Friedrich Schiller University Jena Jena, Germany

Sebastian Engelmann Institute for Education Eberhard Karls University Tübingen Tübingen, Germany

Palgrave Studies in Alternative Education ISBN 978-3-030-29569-1 ISBN 978-3-030-29570-7  (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29570-7 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2019 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Palgrave Pivot imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Contents

1 Introduction 1 2 Joachim Heinrich Campe and the Pedagogical Anthropology of the Child 15 3 Bernhard Heinrich Blasche and the Romantic Concept of Nature Education 39 4 Helene Lange, Emancipation and Education for All 59 5 Heinrich Scharrelmann and the Art of Storytelling 79 6 Bernhard Hell and the Protestant School Community 101 7 Gertrud Bäumer, Deconstructing Gender and Discussing Social Work 125 Index 145

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Introduction

Abstract As humans we all tend to forget things—scientific disciplines do the same. In this book we argue that the history of pedagogical thought and action can often best be characterized by forgetting, a collective amnesia that leaves out, renders invisible or even annihilates ideas from the past. More and more texts and documents are forgotten, some of them for good. The introduction discusses methodological questions of writing a history of “forgotten” concepts. It offers an overview of the approach used in this book. Furthermore, it introduces the six cases of the book and situates them in the field of education. Keywords History · Alternative education · Forgetting · Disciplinary amnesia · Methods

1.1

Disciplinary Amnesia---An Introduction

Sometimes, we tend to forget things—not only where we left our glasses, whether we locked the door properly or if the stove is still turned on. Sometimes, we forget names of old friends, places we have been, the impression of a beautiful sunrise during our last vacation. We forget these things even though they were important to us in the past. In this book we argue that

© The Author(s) 2019 R. Koerrenz and S. Engelmann, Forgotten Pedagogues of German Education, Palgrave Studies in Alternative Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29570-7_1

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the history of pedagogical thought and action can often best be characterized by forgetting, a collective amnesia that leaves out, renders invisible or even annihilates ideas from the past. More and more texts and documents are forgotten, some of them for good. However, without a collective historical memory, education as a practice and Human Science Pedagogy as a scientific reflection of this practice become blind to its failures—and also to the success and learning experiences of educational programs throughout time and space. Without thinking about the ideas we might have forgotten along our way, there is the constant fear—which in itself is not a problem—of disrespecting important tradition or even discussing findings as ‘new’ even though they were already presented by other scholars. Educators have always thought about learning, diversity, how to construct a system for schooling and about the relation between teacher and student—those are time-transcendent problems of Human Science Pedagogy. We are—metaphorically speaking—standing on the shoulders of others. We are evaluating our past through a lens, a perspective that is co-constructed by them and ourselves. This lens sometimes seems to be blurred, even scratched; it is only partially reflecting the light. Some thinkers of education—as Palmer puts it (Palmer 2001)—seem to be founding figures of educational thought. They are stylized as they become idols, their creed is used for disciplinary identification and even for justification of action. This is especially the case of New Education or Progressive Education in the English-speaking world. Instead of referring to the various processes of knowledge transfer, the communal practice of educational thinking and the often-shared projects that were put in practice all around the globe, the narratives mostly focus on just one or two authors. This is especially the case for the meta-narrative of Progressive Education. In comparison to the German discussion, where texts by John Dewey were translated years after his success in the United States, this educator seems to be the almost heroic founding figure of an entirely new strand of discussion. One person—one man—is mentioned when Progressive Education is discussed: John Dewey. Dewey’s democratic idea for a social, just and community-based education—as outlined in his epochmaking work Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education published in 1916—is still influential today. It is still influencing the scholarly discussion. In addition to a large quantity of papers (e.g. Apple and Teitelbaum 2001) various monographs were published, summing up the intellectual development of Dewey’s thought

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and his connection to various other strands of discussion (e.g. Oelkers 2009) or discussing certain aspects such as problem-based learning or civic education in Dewey’s work anew (cf. Konrad and Knoll 2018). John Dewey definitively was and still is influential for the discussion of Progressive, New or Alternative Education in Europe and all over the world (cf. Biesta and Miedema 1996). He influenced thinkers such as Decroly, Ferriere and Blonksy (cf. Koerrenz, Blichmann and Engelmann 2017). Nevertheless, there is more than Dewey—and Dewey himself might have become more of an “empty signifier” as political theorist Ernesto Laclau puts it. One might even argue that Dewey is not read anymore but his ideas are perpetuated and utilized, when educators want to frame their educational models as democratic, progressive or “alternative”. Contrary to this general understanding of Dewey as a “democratic” thinker, Knoll points out, that Dewey’s concept offers a deliberative and cooperative understanding of democracy that does not put emphasis on democratic decision making by voting or even relies on institutionalized party democracy (cf. Knoll 2018). This understanding of democracy must be understood as more radical than is often displayed in educational concepts. So, there might be more to the history of education than what is mediated by introductions, established discourse and carried out in a language-specific, geographicallylocated and culturized context. Often enough, educators and educational theorists do not see the mesh of culture that they are wrapped in. Therefore, sometimes we all forget the most important part of concepts, their critical moments, that can be understood as the real alternative part of them. Certainly, alternative pedagogical concepts are mostly critical concepts. They are part of a larger field called critical pedagogies that consider the societal, political, cultural and economic factors that influence all kinds of educational practices (cf. Kirylo 2013). Critical pedagogies, as well as Alternative Education, want to provide a different way of thinking about education. According to AustroMarxist psychoanalyst and educational thinker Siegfried Bernfeld, education is always conservative. Bernfeld argues that education is always influenced by the thoughts, ideas and ideals of a specific time: We are only teaching to conserve our values and our mode of life. You cannot change a society by education; education adjusts the society to the dominant values of its own time and perpetuates the conservative stance of its time. That’s it. On the contrary, Alternative Education wants to teach and educate for a change; it hopes for a better, a different future that is also put forward by education.

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This insight is part of the argument that is going to be put forward in the next chapters: Sometimes we do not only forget because we struggle to remember everything, but because certain modes of thought, alternative modes that challenge conservative thinking and established orders, are neglected and ignored. Forgetting and selective commemoration of concepts and ideas—we argue—is one of the most interesting parts of disciplining the discipline, educating the Human Science Pedagogy themselves. To stick to one example, one has to keep in mind that Dewey was not the only thinker when talking about Alternative Education. Even though he is perceived as the most important figure of democratic and alternative education, this perception is constructed by certain practices that must be pointed out to better understand both commemoration and forgetting. On the one hand, the Alternative Education movement is composed of manifold thinkers and activists. It is a heterogenous group that is hard to grasp. It’s even harder to represent this highly diverse group by only referring to only one thinker.1 On the other hand, there might be a possibility to integrate various ideas on education into Alternative Education by finding the aspect of the concepts that unites them.

1.2

Alternating Alternatives and the Identity of Human Science Pedagogy

Recent publications offered such a systematic understanding of Alternative Education to integrate marginalized, forgotten or even outlawed concepts. According to Koerrenz, Blichmann and Engelmann the “alternative” in Alternative Education can be understood in two ways. Firstly, the term “alternative” refers to a difference, “an alternative is alternate to something else” (Koerrenz et al. 2017, p. 6). Alternative approaches to education try to offer an alternative to an established concept. They are in this first sense different to the established education and the established, standardized talk about education. Secondly, alternative is always understood in a normative way. There is no alternative set of educational practices that does

1 We approach the issue of gendered language in a sensible way. We try to avoid gendered language or use a generic femininum. In cases of the presented sources all gendered expressions are pointed out as such. Especially when engaging with the history of education, sex repressive comments that are nowadays understood as sexist are omnipresent. We try to deal with this serious issue by pointing out sexist, racist and nationalistic comments in the sources.

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not understood itself as better, more helpful, more humane, more effective, more whatsoever. So, the second understanding of alternative is to be a better education than the established one. Therefore, we understand alternative education as a different option that offers a better education than the established one. Admittedly, this understanding is very broad. Especially in the discussion about Alternative, Progressive and New Education as brand names, it is more or less neglected. The discussion about the systematic core of Alternative Education (and its various national variations) is a very recent one. Link argues that Alternative Education is a bewildering object of research. This object of research is—according to Link—historically situated at the beginning of the twentieth century. On the one hand, it must be understood as a reaction to moments of crisis during the confusions at the beginning of the twentieth century; especially economical change, war, militarization, starting globalization and the “fall of virtue”. On the other hand, it must be understood as a set of pedagogical practices, didactical arrangements and methodological models that are oriented towards the learner, aimed at initiating reform processes in schools (Link 2017, p. 25). However, Link explicitly points out the historical context of Alternative Education; the beginning of the twentieth century. If one follows this understanding of Alternative Education, there simply is no Alternative Education nowadays. Additionally, there can be no Alternative Education before the beginning of the twentieth century. According to Matthes, Schütze and Koerrenz, however, understanding Alternative Education as different and better education that criticizes the established education helps to point out the alternative elements in educational thought throughout earlier periods of educational thought (cf. Matthes and Schütze 2017; Koerrenz 2005). However, this systematic understanding must consider the specific circumstances in which educational thought is situated—it is not without history; on the contrary, it offers a more complex understanding of the various strands of discussion and lines of thought that are more or less coherent across the ages. Thus, it opens up the narrowed understanding of the “canonical texts” of educational sciences in general, and more specifically Alternative Education. According to Gorak (2013) and Oelkers (1994), establishing a canon of texts that serves as the normative foundation for everything from this point on is an impossible task. Talking about the “classics” nowadays seems to be an almost ignorant position that does not consider the variety of positions and voices in

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the discussion. It does not support the voices that were neglected for various reasons, too many and sometimes too repellent to name them all.2 Since postmodern thinkers, poststructuralist theorists and deconstructionists started their critical work on texts, it is no longer possible to talk about “the classics” of a discipline in a self-assured way. There simply is no such thing as a time-transcending quality of texts that talk about education— even though male scholars such as Hans-Georg Gadamer argued for this quality. Even though at some universities, in seminars and talks, scholars talk about “classics”, this talk is cheap and part of a certain culture of dominance, that does not consider its own situatedness. All kinds of texts—even the texts of John Dewey—were written in a specific context, from a specific point of view and with a specific intention. According to feminist scholars such as Donna Haraway, knowledge is always situated, it is produced and dominated by societal power relations. The feminist critique of the canon offers insights into the patriarchal structure of educational thought. Additionally, the postcolonial critique of the canon unveils the latent racism in educational thought and its eurocentrism. The history of education, one can say, is a perpetuation and rigidification of ideas that are “allowed”. The realm of education thought is not an ideal place, power relations are often masked and prevent ideas to surface and become fruitful. The canon is made out of glass; it immediately shatters into pieces when hit from the right angle. These pieces, however, can be used to build a new kaleidoscope of educational thought that serves as an innovative bricolage. According to Markus Rieger-Ladich (2019), the discipline of Human Science Pedagogy can be understood as a “thought collective”. The term was brought up by the Polish-Israeli physician Ludwik Fleck. Fleck used the term in his book Entstehung und Entwicklung einer wissenschaftlichen Tatsache; Einführung in die Lehre vom Denkstil und Denkkolletiv, that was published in German in 1935 and translated to English in 1979. In Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact, Fleck argues that the production of knowledge is heavily influenced by persons that share the same beliefs, work together and thereby produce knowledge in a collective. Sciences—also Human Science Pedagogy, even though some might argue that it’s not even a science— are understood as a social process. In this social process, persons interact 2 Just to name a few categories that are still under researched in Education Sciences: Class, race and gender are still categories of analysis that are not often applied. Especially when talking about the history of education there seems to be a Eurocentric stance towards telling a history of educational thought.

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according to collective-specific restrictions. Fleck emphasizes the rules of the collective, the boundaries set to the register that can be used in the discussion. This understanding is closely connected to the understanding of scientific paradigms that was brought forward by Thomas Kuhn in his book The Structure of Scientific Revolution. Kuhn argues that certain findings— such as the earth circling the sun or oxygen burning—were not possible while paradigms were at work that prohibited these results. Only a paradigm shift, a scientific revolution, could put an end to this neglect and ignorance for some alternative findings.3 Even though Human Science Pedagogy is not dominated by paradigms as heavily as natural sciences, the discipline experiences excess booms of modes of thought called “turns”. The linguistic turn, the semiotic turn, the practice turns and the emotional turn—all those turns try to offer a new mode of thought that tries to separate its own position from previous ideas. They do not always claim to revolutionize science, but often enough they offer severe criticism to the former modes of thought up to this day. But they are no more or less objective than other modes of thought. Sciences and the humanities must be understood as a social context constructed by communication. Karin Knorr-Cetina (2007), one of the most known theorists of a sociology of sciences, argues that there are certain “epistemic cultures”. Epistemic cultures are practiced logics in research areas that are field specific for this microcosm of research. Additionally, epistemic cultures are always closed; they are linked to a specific set of persons that form a complex social constellation. They follow certain rules; knowledge is produced in line with certain principles. Same goes for Education Sciences—just have a look at scientific conferences: They are often constructed by applying a certain mode of thought. Speakers that are important in this thought collective are invited. They give talks that apply the established methods and ideas of this collective. Often there is a network of persons involved. It’s composed of the same persons; they give their talks in front of each other and they perpetuate their own ideas. Rieger-Ladich (2019) argues that these practices are part of a social logic 3 Note that we are not talking about “alternative facts” offered by conspiracy theorists or the Alt-Right. Alternative findings are results that were produced by applying alternative modes of thought, even speculation, alternative methods or doing things “the wrong way”. Alternative findings are not the result of unscientific methods; they are the result of alternative ways of thinking and doing research. Research is not a steady progress. It is a constant struggle with reality that is intertwined with society, culture and economy. The Science and Technology Studies and the work of Bruno Latour or Karen Barad are a great example for what we can learn from thinking in diffracted alternatives.

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of academia—this idea is highly congruent with the logic of epistemic cultures and might serve as an explanation for forgetting and remembering in Education Sciences. To take up the idea of the fragile “canon” of Education Sciences stated above again, this canon must be understood as specific for certain types of epistemic cultures, thought collectives or paradigms. Texts that put forward ideas about education, learning or self-formation are only integrated into the canon, when the stick to the rules. They are only re-printed when they are communicated and marked as “important” by and for the discussion. Positions that are not congruent with the rules do not get accepted. They are not communicated and therefore vanish from the disciplinary memory—they also vanish from the archive of the discipline. Again, Rieger-Ladich (2019) points out that those archives are more important than realized in mainstream Human Science Pedagogy. They are themselves political actors that discipline the discipline. There is always someone who decides what is remembered and what is forgotten. Therefore, every project that tries to do history of education is part of the practice of the collective memory of the discipline—it is therefore a political project that tries to bring positions forward that are neglected due to political stances, gender issues or even racist resentments. It is a tough project to understand why certain thinkers, texts and ideas were excluded from the discourse. However, there is always the chance that adding ideas to the archive that were more or less neglected before might facilitate a differentiated discussion about the history of pedagogical thought. Additionally, one must consider “forgetting” as a very sensible act mediated by language, culture, geographical location and social background. There is no such thing as a list of educators you must know—even though contributions always point out that there are very important educators you should know or some of them are more important than others (cf. Palmer 2001; Kirylo 2013). Nevertheless, there is no reasonable argument that allows us to make a fundamental decision of who is worth being remembered and who is not. In an everchanging discourse on education, some positions might resurface after many years that were neglected at their time. Some other positions might be rendered problematic even though they were prominently discussed during their time. And some others might even be completely unknown because the potentials participants of the discussion are unable to read the sources, or the sources are inaccessible, hidden at the back of the library or even locked away sometimes.

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Dropped Cases of a History of Education---The Subchapters

Up until now we talked about education and pedagogy, about learning, transfer of knowledge and the disciplinary mechanisms that shape this transfer. However, the texts that we are going to present and discuss in this book don’t always talk about education—they were not even always part of the discourse on education! Additionally, they are not always part of the mainstream discourse in Education Sciences; they are not part of the official archive or the imagined list of “canonical texts”. Sometimes they were re-published, sometimes they were almost completely forgotten until some idiosyncrasy of the academic system allowed them to surface again. They inform the reader about nature, about gender, politics, religion and about space relations, about literature and about storytelling. What might sound strange in the beginning is tied to the understanding of pedagogy put forward in this book. We do not want to limit education to the faceto-face interaction between teacher and student. There are other terms, more specific, that open up a completely different discussion that must be considered with regards to the specific case. Instead of this we understand pedagogy as follows: It is our view that pedagogy happens where learning is guided with intent, meaning that it is initiated and instructed. In this sense, pedagogy is always Human Science Pedagogy, because on the one hand it is about the control of learning processes by those who shape intentions directly or indirectly. On the other hand, Human Science Pedagogy also focuses on the fact that pedagogy is about the individual processing and reflection of these intentionally designed learning impulses. Pedagogy is always determined by intentions that emanate from and aim at people. Of course, this can happen face-to-face in personal interaction. But it can also happen in contact with media or other structures, such as intentionally constructed classrooms or while giving a public lecture or preaching a sermon. These notions can be found in social practices and in texts that describe social practices or ideas. In this sense, the history of education does not work without a shared reference point. Such an approach focusses an informed look back into history and thereby allows us to see more clearly the things that are in line with the understanding of pedagogy elaborated above. This book elaborates on different concepts that can be considered pedagogical. Sometimes, they were brought forward by educators, sometimes

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by philosophers or politicians. All these persons were entwined with a different historical-cultural context. It is important to clarify this context in the subchapters. Even though there might be similarities between the concepts, all concepts are first and foremost ideas pitched by individuals. The concepts are influenced by world view, even ideology, and economical circumstances—therefore, the concepts offer different alternatives to education. However, they share the systematical reference point of Alternative Education: They offer an alternative to the established system and challenge established modes of thought; they are critical and different. Last but not least, they are more or less forgotten. Forgetting and remembering, access and barriers, power relations and structures of traditions form path dependencies that are often not reflected in hegemonic discourse (Engelmann 2019). However, there are differences to the established order. It is always possible to write a counter history, offer a different perspective on things. Our approach offers the possibility to experience history in a diffracted way—it might confuse the reader, but it also adds to the things that are understood as normal and settled. The general assumption of our project is that there is a history behind history. This history must be considered when one wants to understand the formation of a discipline as a complex rhizome instead of a steady process of progress. Various branches of this rhizome are presented in this book; their interesting feature is their distinctiveness and their connection to political discussions. With regard to the ideas outlined above, all concepts can be understood as “forgotten” in one of the different senses. They were either not translated to English or only partially received. Sometimes, they were not even prominent in their own language and forgotten due to various conditions. We try to offer short and precise introductions to the various concepts with the intent to interest the reader in traditions that are accessible but not that easy to understand. We want to build a bridge, for gapping the divide between continental and anglophone discussion by providing the ideas of the six chapters to a wider audience. All of the subchapters are “dropped cases” of educational thought that are worth reconsideration. The six chapters each offer a different interpretation of a key educational theorist whose respective theories are based on different models of understanding culture and society. Each chapter follows the same structure. After a short biographical summary, the chapter answers the question what is specific about the introduced concept. Due to the content of the various theories, the chapter structure varies at this point. This central part

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is followed by a historical contextualization, which points out the circumstances which fostered the emergence of such a concept. Subsequently, each chapter closes with a critique of the concept and its implications for present day debates. The chapter structure follows the main idea that the models are not only of historical interest; they can be used as mirrors to reflect today’s developments and ways of thinking about education. Additionally, they can fuel the discussion about alternative schools that are often limited by repeating un-reflected commonplaces, the book then will deal with six different educators that are more or less left behind, left out or simply ignored in the national and international discussion in education sciences. The chapters are presented in a chronological order; there is no emphasis on one specific line of thought and there are no political preferences displayed—all the chapters have really in common is that they are one or the other way forgotten. Chapter 1 introduces the ideas of the German educator, editor and linguist Joachim Heinrich Campe. Campe is considered one of the most important authors of children and youth literature of the eighteenth century. His works are marked by the ideas of the Enlightenment and philanthropism and his anthropological understanding of children and childhood. Thus, it is also the nature of the child that for Campe marks the starting point of his educational thinking. In his book “Lectures on Soul” this approach becomes particularly clear: the children are given a loving educator who discusses with them about reason, free will, the love of God, morality and religion. Chapter 2 introduces the long-forgotten ideas of the German educator Bernhard Heinrich Blasche. Only recently, in 2015, Blasche’s ideas on nature education were published by Karsten Kenklies. Blasche’s work is influenced by German romanticism, a period known mostly for its literature and not for its pedagogical ideas. Blasche’s book “Nature Education” discussed the didactic arrangements necessary to educate young people in line with the demands of nature so that they respect it for what it is. Chapter 3 introduces the educational thought and the emancipative political ideas of the liberal politician Helene Lange. Helene Lange is introduced as part of the middle-class women’s movement in Germany that strived for the emancipation of women. Lange is discussed with regard to her activities for opening up higher education to women and the connection of culture and education. She understands education as an integral part of cultural progress and necessary to deconstruct the power asymmetries in society.

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Chapter 4 introduces the ideas of the German headmaster, educator and author Heinrich Scharrelmann. His thinking is characterized by the conviction that the church in modernity has lost its function as a point of orientation for the individual and society. Scharrelmann understands religion primarily as an individual experience, whereby every approach to religion is characterized as free and equal. This, however, confronts the individual with the challenge of finding meaning for his or her own life. Scharrelmann provides readers with one promising way to solve this problem—or at least to deal with it in a proper way. Chapter 5 discusses the ideas of the German educator, school founder and author Bernhard Hell. His educational thinking is guided by the concept of a “Protestant school community”. A school shaped according to this motive has its origin in a community whose structures were formed by the Gospel. Hell thus takes a critical view of school concepts that are primarily marked by the philosophical currents of Positivism and Idealism. Chapter 6 introduces the ideas of Gertrud Bäumer, another protagonist of the women’s rights movement in Germany at the beginning of the twentieth century. The chapter elaborates on Bäumer’s understanding of identity and gender. Further, it elaborates on Bäumer’s position towards the fight of the youth movement and the professionalization of social pedagogy during that time. All six chapters provide an in-depth contextualization of the biography of the educators. They elaborate on key ideas that are presented in the work of the authors. Additionally, they provide at least a small glimpse into the extensive work by translating central passages of their work. The concepts are situated in their respective historical context and tied to recent discussions. Furthermore, roadmaps are offered to foster research on the presented authors thereby hoping to open up the discussion of the presented authors from an international perspective. At this point, we would like to offer our sincere thanks to Mackenzie Lake for her linguistic corrections of this publication and her valuable comments. We would also like to thank Christoph Schröder for his support as well as Helen E. Lees and Michael Reiss for the admission of our book in their series Palgrave Studies in Alternative Education.

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References Apple, M. W., & Teitelbaum, K. (2001). John Dewey, 1859–1952. In J. A. Palmer, L. Bresler, & D. E. Cooper (Eds.), Fifty Major Thinkers on Education (pp. 194–198). London and New York: Routledge. Biesta, G. J. J., & Miedema, S. (1996). Dewey in Europe: A Case Study on the International Dimensions of the Turn-of-the-Century Educational Reform. American Journal of Education, 105(1), 1–26. Engelmann, S. (2019). Alles wie gehabt? Zur Konstruktion von Klassikern und Geschichte(n) der Pädagogik. In M. Rieger-Ladich, A. Rohstock, & K. Amos (Eds.), Erinnern, Umschreiben, Vergessen. Die Stiftung des disziplinären Gedächtnisses als soziale Praxis (pp. 65–93). Velbrück: Weilerswist. Gorak, J. (2013). The Making of the Modern Canon: Genesis and Crisis of a Literary Idea. London, UK: Bloomsbury. Knoll, M. (2018). Anders als gedacht. John Deweys Erziehung zur Demokratie. Zeitschrift für Pädagogik, 64(5), 700–718. Knorr-Cetina, K. (2007). Culture in Global Knowledge Societies: Knowledge Cultures and Epistemic Cultures. Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 32(4), 361–375. Koerrenz, R. (2005). Reformpädagogik: Studien zur Erziehungsphilosophie. Jena: IKS. Koerrenz, R., Blichmann, A., & Engelmann, S. (2017). Alternative Schooling and New Education: European Concepts and Models. London: Palgrave. Konrad, F.-M., & Knoll, M. (Eds.). (2018). John Dewey: Erziehung – Schule – Unterricht. Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt. Kirylo, J. D. (Ed.). (2013). A Critical Pedagogy of Resistance: 34 Pedagogues We Need to Know. Rotterdam: Sense. Link, J. W. (2017). Reformpädagogik im historischen Überblick. In H. Barz (Ed.), Handbuch Bildungsreform und Reformpädagogik (pp. 15–30). Wiesbaden: Springer VS. Matthes, E., & Schütze, S. (2017). Reformpädagogik vor der Reformpädagogik. In H. Barz (Ed.), Handbuch Bildungsreform und Reformpädagogik (pp. 31–41). Wiesbaden: Springer VS. Oelkers, J. (1994). Die Geschichte der Pädagogik und ihre Probleme. Zeitschrift für Pädagogik, 45(4), 461–483. Oelkers, J. (2009). John Dewey und die Pädagogik. Weinheim and Basel: Beltz. Palmer, J. A. (Ed.). (2001). Fifty Major Thinkers of Education: From Confucius to Dewey. London and New York: Routledge. Rieger-Ladich, M. (2019). Archivieren und Speichern. Das Gedächtnis der Disziplin als Politikum. In M. Rieger-Ladich, A. Rohstock, & K. Amos (Eds.), Erinnern, Umschreiben, Vergessen. Die Stiftung des disziplinären Gedächtnisses als soziale Praxis (pp. 17–48). Velbrück: Weilerswist.

CHAPTER 2

Joachim Heinrich Campe and the Pedagogical Anthropology of the Child

Abstract This chapter introduces the ideas of the German educator, editor and linguist Joachim Heinrich Campe. Campe is considered one of the most important authors on children and youth literature of the eighteenth century. His works are marked by the ideas of the Enlightenment and German Philanthropism and his anthropological understanding of children and childhood. Thus, it is also the nature of the child that for Campe marks the starting point of his educational thinking. In his book “Lectures on Soul” this approach becomes particularly clear: the children are given a loving educator who discusses with them about reason free will, the love of God, morality and religion. Keywords Joachim Heinrich Campe · Enlightenment · Anthropology · Religion · Philanthropism

2.1

Joachim Heinrich Campe---A Biographical Summary

To speak of Joachim Heinrich Campe as a forgotten pedagogue requires an explanation. For his name has not actually been forgotten in view of the history of culture and the European Enlightenment. Joachim Heinrich Campe is above all remembered as an important writer of children’s books © The Author(s) 2019 R. Koerrenz and S. Engelmann, Forgotten Pedagogues of German Education, Palgrave Studies in Alternative Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29570-7_2

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and youth books in the Enlightenment period of the eighteenth century (see Ewers 1996). Probably his most famous book Robinson der Jüngere, is a didactic treatment of the Robinson material by Daniel Defoe. Campe turns it into a sequence of conversations between an educator and the children entrusted to him. This book has been translated from German into many languages. Campe also remains present in cultural memory for other youth books such as Die Entdeckung Amerikas. Today, under the auspices of global and postcolonial thought, we have many critical questions about the stereotypes that Campe produces in his stories. Campe did not see the blind spots of the discriminatory construction of the stranger. Nevertheless, Campe stands for a certain line of philosophy and literature of the Enlightenment with the emphasis on freedom, equality and brotherhood. For this, among other things, he was revered in the French revolution as a progressive thinker. A second, internationally known line of memory indicates that Campe has endeavored to clarify the relationship between the German language and foreign languages. Against the widespread trend of introducing foreign language designations into the semantic field of the German language, Campe insisted on using German forms of expression. He’s been working on a big dictionary. As an author of books for children and young people on the one hand and as a linguistic theorist on the other, he is at least still remembered as a name and reference figure. But what about his pedagogy, his contributions to philosophy of education and didactics? Here Joachim Heinrich Campe is largely forgotten in the English-speaking world. His work is very exciting, because it represents its own pedagogical transformation of the Enlightenment‘s thinking. He has written important contributions to a changed understanding of children and childhood. That is why it is worth paying attention to Campe as a pedagogue. Joachim Heinrich Campe was born on the 29th of June in 1746 as son to the merchant Burchard Hilmar Campe and the preacher’s daughter Anna Margaretha Campe (née Gosler) in the small village Deensen near Braunschweig. After being instructed by a private teacher and attending school in his home village and the Holzminden monastery school, Campe studied Protestant theology in Helmstedt and Halle from 1765 onwards. After his studies he was employed as a preacher in Potsdam and as a tutor in the house of the chamberlain Alexander Georg von Humboldt. His two students, who adored him throughout his life, were both to become world-famous: Wilhelm von Humboldt as cultural theorist, politician and authoritative creator

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of the German concept of Bildung and Alexander von Humboldt as discoverer and scientist. After working as a tutor in 1776, his appointment as Education Councillor and co-curator of a reform school of the Enlightenment was the most important turning point in his life. Campe worked at Johann Bernhard Basedows Philanthropinum in Dessau (Garber 2008), which was founded two years earlier. This pedagogical-political context of experience and action had a lasting influence on Campe, who was already oriented towards the principles of the Enlightenment during his studies. The activity in Dessau was only cut short because of disputes between the teaching staff. Campe left Dessau again in autumn 1777. Afterwards he devoted himself to the educational-practical work in a teacher school in a small house and above all to the writing. An important theoretical reference for Campe was the work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, especially his educational novel Emile. On the one hand, Campe shared Rousseau’s intention to educate children and adolescents according to their age and not to see them as small, committed adults. On the other hand, Campe contradicted Rousseau’s idea of an education far removed from society. Campe was interested in moral education from an early age. The aim must be to educate children at an early age to morally responsible behaviour in the emerging bourgeois society. On the one hand there was the recognition of children as children. On the other hand, Campe was convinced that the education of children must from the outset be directed towards enlightening ideals such as reason, freedom and equality. This tension between age-relatedness and bourgeois moral consciousness permeates the extensive educational work of Campe. In addition to pedagogical and religious-philosophical writings, Campe appeared above all as a prominent writer for young people and as a scientific organiser (Allgemeine Revision des gesammten Schulund Erziehungswesen, 1785–1792; Braunschweigisches Journal, 1788ff.). In addition to the broad reception of his children’s and youth writings, his importance lies above all in his consistent advocacy for tolerance, freedom and equality as the normative reference points of an education geared to the general capacity of human reason. Campe died, aged 72, in Braunschweig on the 22nd of October in 1818.

2.2

The Pedagogical Anthropology of the Child

The anthropology of age plays an important role in the understanding of education. How we understand children, what we trust children to do and what we expect of them in terms of possibilities for thinking and acting—the

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answers to such questions have a significant influence on our understanding and practical action as educators. Our ideas of the child and the young person are essentially culturally determined. And important points, such as how many people today think about children, were shaped in the modern age and especially in the context of the European Enlightenment. Joachim Heinrich Campe has made a significant contribution to creating a certain image of the child. Campe introduces the child as a conversation partner and, as such, is taken seriously. The child is attributed his or her own form of judgement within the framework of a conversation with corresponding leading questions. Even if the child is seen as a child (and not already in the middle-class role as an adult), Campe believes the child has an independent and critical way of perceiving the world. An important example of this anthropology of the child is Campes’ writing Lectures on the Soul (see Ewers 1982), which was translated into English in 1792 as Elementary Dialogues, for the Improvement of Youth. In this chapter we are going to recall Campes’ understanding of children and childhood as an important dimension of pedagogy. In a letter by Joachim Heinrich Campe to the famous illustrator Daniel Chodowiecki dated 18 November 1779, the purpose of the entire book is stated, which—like many other writings by Campe—has the form of a conversation between an adult and several children. The point is to “make all those Psicholgian knowledge that children must have before they can be taught religion and morals so sincere and so descriptive that an 8-yearold child of ordinary abilities can grasp them”1 (Schmitt 1996, p. 234). With this short marking Joachim Heinrich Campe tries to convince the famous copper engraver Daniel Chodowiecki to take over the graphic works for the emerging “Lectures on the Soul”. This characterization already reveals exemplary essential motifs of Campes’ writing. Different aspects for the anthropology of the child appear: the reference to sense and use of “psichological” knowledge already for children, the description of the target group regarding age (“8-year-old”) and comprehension (“ordinary abilities”) as well as above all the simultaneous reference to religion and morality. In the Lectures on the Soul, step by step, an idea of children and childhood is developed that has shaped our image of children today. Now in a first step the train of thought of the Lectures on the Soul is to be traced. 1 “[…] alle diejenigen psicholgischen Kenntnisse, die schon Kinder haben müssen, bevor man sie Religion und Moral lehren kann, so sinlich und so anschaulich zu machen, dass ein 8jähriges Kind von gewöhnlichen Fähigkeiten sie fassen kann” (Schmitt 1996, S. 234).

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In a second step, an examination of the preface to this script will show what understanding of children and childhood Campe develops in his text. The fourteen conversations in the Lectures on the Soul 2 take place between a father and several children (John, James, Charles, Thomas, George, Ferdinand)3 The starting point of the first conversation is the difference between body and soul. The soul is defined as something that “can neither been seen, heard, tasted, smelt, nor touched”4 (Campe 1792, p. 4). The conversation leads to the insight that the soul can first be determined by imagination. In the second dialogue, four types of presentation are distinguished: dark, clear, clear and general. The basic difference in determining human characteristics is the difference between humans and animals: Animals never discover that they possess distinct ideas, so that we have reason to think they are incapable of them. This is the first advantage Providence has given our souls over those of brutes; and if you wish to know the name for this property of the soul which confers on such a superiority, it is the understanding; so that we can say the soul of man is endued with understanding, how is that to be expressed in other terms? (Campe 1792, p. 33)5

Here again the structure of knowledge and argumentation with which the father figure addresses the children becomes visible. The starting point and normative frame of reference at the same time is human reason, with which man, in contrast to animals, can recognize his own abilities. The prerequisite for this and the following course of conversation is that the 2 The citation follows the English version: Campe, J. H. (1792). Elementary dialogues, for the improvement of youth. Translated by Mr. Seymour. Illustrated with sixteen cooper plates. London: Hookam and Carpenter. Each English citation from the “Lectures on the soul” will be accompanied by a German citation, following the version: Campe, J. H. (1831). Sämmtliche Kinder und Jugendschriften. Vierte Gesamtausgabe der letzten Hand. Achtes Bändchen. Seelenlehre für Kinder. Nebst siebzehn Kupfertafeln. In: Koerrenz. R. (Ed.), Joachim Heinrich Campe. Seelenlehre für Kinder. Jena: IKS Garamond. 3 German names: Diedrich, Ferdinand, Gottlieb, Johannes, Matthias, Nicolas. 4 “Die Seele ist also ein Wesen, welches man nicht sehen, nicht hören, nicht fühlen, nicht

schmecken und nicht riechen kann” (Campe 1831, S. 4). 5 “Deutliche Vorstellungen und allgemeine Begriffe äußern die Thiere niemahls; man hat daher Recht zu sagen, daß sie zu solchen Vorstellungen unfähig sind. Das ist also der erste Vorzug, den der liebe Gott unsern Seelen vor den Seelen aller Thiere gegeben hat. Und wollt ihr wissen, wie man diesen unsern Vorzug zu nennen pflegt? Man nennt ihn – den Verstand” (Campe 1831, S. 32).

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adult requires both intellect and reason from the children themselves. Even children have sense and reason. It is then only a matter of promoting this through appropriate education and conversation. For in the third conversation the ability to reason, which was given to man by God, is introduced. So, reason is another advantage which Providence has been pleased to grant us over all other terrestrial animals. An advantage so considerable, that it qualifies us to know and love our Creator; and to become, by observance of his laws, partakers of felicity not attainable by any irrational being. It is therefore our duty to thank him for, and by a good se of it, to render ourselves more worthy of this inestimable gift. (Campe 1792, p. 39)6

Mind, reason, judgement, memory, imagination, etc.—Endowments of man, for which man may be grateful to God as his Creator. Pedagogically interpreted: prerequisites and basics for the conversation between adults and children. The same applies to the quality of free will discussed by Campe. Free will is directly linked to the points of judgement and responsibility. Here again there is a difference to the animals: “Providence, you see, has so formed the souls of brutes, that they are impelled to like and dislike, without knowing why. This blind inclination and aversion is called instinct. God has bestowed it on them instead of reason and free-will”7 (Campe 1792, p. 88). Thus, the constitution of animals is also part of a well-established order of creation. Ultimately, however, it is a question of building up an enlightened activity of reason with a view to human beings. Even if man occupies a prominent position in creation, this does not mean, however, that he does not possess any natural instincts. Children 6 Reason is “abermahls ein großer Vorzug, den der Schöpfer uns vor allen andern lebenden

Wesen hienieden verliehen hat! - Und welcher Vorzug! Er ist es, der uns in den Stand setzt, Gott, unsern Schöpfer, zu erkennen, zu lieben, und durch die Erfüllung seiner Gesetze einer Glückseligkeit theilhaftig zu werden, deren kein vernunftloses Wesen fähig ist. Laßt uns ihm dafür danken, und durch einen guten Gebrauch dieses Geschenkes uns dessen immer würdiger zu machen suchen!” (Campe 1831, S. 39). 7 “Seht, Kinder, der liebe Gott hat die Seelen der Thiere so eingerichtet, daß sie einige

Dinge begehren, andere verabscheuen müssen, ohne daß sie wissen, warum? Dieses Begehren und dieses Verabscheuen, dem sie folgen müssen, sie mögen wollen oder nicht, nennt man Instinkte, auf Deutsch, Naturtriebe. Diese hat Gott den Thierseelen gegeben, um sie wegen des Mangels an Vernunft und freien Willen einiger Maßen schadlos zu halten” (Campe 1831, S. 88).

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can be used to study the fact that humans also have an instinct-like ability to differentiate: “Such an effect produced by the senses, we have named a sensation. It is therefore instinct acting on an infant’s soul which renders it fond of agreeable sensations; while it experiences disagreeable ones unwillingly”8 (Campe 1792, p. 91). This sensitivity, however, also distinguishes man as a whole. The natural disposition of man to distinguish between the pleasant and the unpleasant is still present in adulthood. Campe writes about the adults: “No person has any aversion to eating strawberries; nor is fond of having the nose or ears cut. So that we must all, like you and the sucking infant, have the instinct of a sensitive soul”9 (Campe 1792, p. 93). This peculiarity of man can be summed up in the reference to the “innate desire to prolonging life, and an equal abhorrence of whatever may occasion death”10 (Campe 1792, p. 96). Human predispositions also include the instinct for self-preservation and the instinct of curiosity, which should be valued as a gift of creation, especially from the pedagogical point of view. The drive of curiosity serves to train one’s own wisdom through constant learning: “And the more enlightened we are, we improve in goodness; and the better we become, the happier. Therefore, the instinct of curiosity is give, to render us happier”11 (Campe 1792, p. 100). The instinct of love also belongs to the creative nature of man: “For all men with whom I [Tutor, S.E. & R.K.] have ever conversed, have appeared inclined to love and to be beloved”12 (Campe 1792, p. 104). One of the constitutive characteristics of being human, then, is “that we

8 “Eine solche Empfindung, die die Seele durch Hülfe ihrer Sinne erlangt, nennt man eine sinnliche Empfindung. - Die Seele des Kindes wird also durch die Natur angetrieben, daß sie einige sinnliche Empfindungen, nähmlich die angenehmen, gern, andere hingegen, nähmlich die unangenehmen, nicht gern haben will?” (Campe 1831, S. 91). 9 “Wir wollen Alle auch gern Erdbeeren essen, und wollen uns Alle ungern Nase und Ohren abschneiden lassen. Wir Erwachsenen müssen also auch wohl noch eben denselben Naturtrieb der Sinnlichkeit haben, den ihr habt, und den die kleinen Wickelkinder haben” (Campe 1831, S. 93). 10 “Also haben wir Alle eine angeborene Begierde, unser Leben zu erhalten, und einen

angeborenen Abscheu gegen alles, was unserm Leben schaden kann” (Campe 1831, S. 96). 11 “Je klüger wir aber werden, desto leichter wird es, gut zu werden, desto glücklicher werden wir auch. Gott hat uns also den Trieb der Neugierde gegeben, damit wir immer glücklicher werden möchten” (Campe 1831, S. 99). 12 “Denn so viel ich jemahls Menschen gesehen habe, hatten Alle ein Verlangen, irgend Jemand zu lieben, und von anderen geliebt zu werden” (Campe 1831, S. 102).

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wish for an acquaintance in whole company to please and be pleased?!”13 (Campe 1792, p. 106). In the further course of the conversations, the positive natural drives of gratitude, compassion and imitation as well as the passions of hope, fear, horror, numbness, longing, love, compassion and wonder are unfolded. In the twelfth conversation (Campe 1792, p. 162ff.) the negative passions are then developed with explicit reference to religious-moral ideas. Campe refers to the equality of all human beings to classify the dangers to man resulting from negative passions: “Are not all men brethren, as the children of a common parent, and the care of one Creator and Preserver? Is it not therefore grievous to see any of them lost in error and rushing to destruction?”14 (Campe 1792, p. 162). Against the background of equality, certain passions become recognizable as negative aberrations. One of these aberrations is the passion of hatred, which is understood as “disgrace to our species”15 (Campe 1792, p. 164). The second negative passion introduced is envy. This passion is illustrated by the biblical story of “Joseph and his brothers”. Regarding Joseph’s brothers, it is “astonishing how any who have the least knowledge of the Deity, should entertain such detestable sentiments. Yet that was the case with those unnatural brethren”16 (Campe 1792, p. 167). What is interesting at this point is the connection between the example story and the conclusions for the parent-child relationship: “So pious man as Jacob, it may be presumed, could not have been wanting early to inform his children of the true God: thought it seems that they had not been duly attentive to him; or failing to reflect on his paternal instruction, it escaped their recollection. A shocking instance of the depravity incident

13 “Oder etwa lieber so: das heißt, wir haben Alle ein Verlangen, wenigstens einen oder den anderen Menschen zu finden, in dessen Gesellschaft wir Freude empfinden, und der auch wieder an uns seine Freunde haben möge” (Campe 1831, S. 105). 14 “Stammen nicht alle Menschen von Einem Vater her? Haben nicht alle einen und denselben Gott zum Schöpfer und Erhalter? Sind also nicht alle Menschen wirklich leibliche Brüder, und müssen wir also nicht traurig sein, wenn wir einige von ihnen auf Irrwegen sehen, die zum Verderben führen?” (Campe 1831, S. 150). 15 “Denn Schande für die Menschheit, daß es jemhals menschliche Seelen gab, die mit dieser häßlichen Krankheit behaftet waren!” (Campe 1831, S. 152). 16 “Denn wirklich ist es ja unbegreiflich, wie derjenige, der den lieben Gott auch nur erst ein wenig hat kennen gelernt, so abscheulich gesinnt sein könne! Und doch war das hier der Fall” (Campe 1831, S. 154).

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to children levity, and heedlessly trifle during the exhortations or lessons of their friends and teachers”17 (Campe 1792, p. 167). The second biblical story—again to illustrate a negative passion—follows immediately thereafter. The reference to the extracts of Cain and Abel illustrates the passion of anger. In a longer explanation of this endangerment of man, the father formulates prayer-like sentences which are to be placed between intercession and blessing: “Heaven preserve your minds from violence or ungentleness to any fellow creature”18 (Campe 1792, p. 170). Stinginess, ambition and shame are the further negative passions in the thirteenth conversation (Campe 1792, pp. 173–182) that Campe allows to unfold dialogically in the situation of conversation. Thus Campe has reached the point in the Lectures on the Soul at which his course of conversation reaches its goal: Now, in the fourteenth conversation, the basic features of religion and religiosity can be developed on this knowledge base, as they correspond to the nature of man. This religion describes Campe as Christian. At its centre is the idea of an immortal soul. In addition to the figure of Jesus, Campe refers the children in the conversation to the person of Socrates. In both the New Testament and the philosophy of Plato represented by Socrates, one can learn to understand the immortality of the soul. But the insight into the immortality of the soul is the goal of all thinking about what constitutes man. The course of conversation in the Lectures on the Soul thus leads to a Christian Platonic anthropology. And at the same time, the nature of the entertainment reflects a certain understanding of age. Children are believed to be able to comprehend this insight into the essence of Being Human. Thus, an anthropology of the child is unfolded that no longer regards childhood as deficient with regard to world knowledge. Rather, children are like adults in the ability to grasp the central content of being human through reflection. Perhaps—as Campe indirectly suggests—children are

17 “Denn Jacob, der selbst ein frommer Mann war, wird vermuthlich nicht unterlassen haben, seine Kinder frühzeitig mit dem lieben Gotte bekannt zu machen; aber ohne Zweifel hatten sie auf diesen Unterricht nicht recht geachtet, hatten nicht oft genug darüber nachgedacht, hatten ihn in den Wind geschlagen. Ein warnendes Beispiel, was aus Kindern werden könne, wenn sie erst anfangen, sich dem Leichtsinne zu ergeben, und bei dem Unterrichte und Ermahnungen ihrer Aeltern oder Lehrer flatterhaft zu sein!” (Campe 1831, S. 154). 18 “Gott der allmächtige bewahre doch ja eure jungen Seelen, daß sie sich nie dem Zorne über ihrer Brüder öffnen” (Campe 1831, S. 157).

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even superior to adults, because adults are more trapped in the everyday life of their civic role than children. In all of this, Campe’s contribution to the understanding of children and childhood can only be seen against the background of the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Campe takes a critical look at the image of the innocent and unspoilt child that Rousseau developed in his educational novel Emile or on Education. “Everything is good as it leaves the hands of the author of things; everything degenerates under the hands of man” (Rousseau 1762, p. 161)—with this sentence at the beginning of Emile Rousseau formulated a departure from the traditional doctrine of original sin. Rousseau claimed that man was unspoilt at birth. If not from birth—where does the factual alienation state of humans come from? The alienation comes through culture and its institutions, especially the church institutions. The anthropology of the child near Rousseau leads directly to criticism of confessional churches and certain forms of moral education. In the conception of a “natural” education, Rousseau rejects religious-moral education in childhood. A religion of the child cannot, should and must not exist for Rousseau. Campe takes up these anthropological motifs of a high estimation of childhood, but at the same time criticizes Rousseau. On the one hand, Campe shared Rousseau’s intention to educate children and adolescents according to their age and to proclaim the peculiarity of age as the norm. The logic of the argument was: childhood and adolescence must be respected in their own way and in their own right. This peculiarity in turn has a normative influence on the determination of pedagogical maxims for action. On the other hand, Campe—in contrast to Rousseau—was in favour of a much more targeted influence on the children, especially in questions of religion and morality. The idea of Campe was: children already have a natural judgement in these areas. Only you must encourage them. Campe’s ultimate aim is to simultaneously build up an age-appropriate religiosity and to shape a morally defined behaviour in the emerging bourgeois society (Koselleck 1973). This tension between age-appropriateness and bourgeoisie permeates Campe’s extensive literary oeuvre. Unlike Rousseau, Campe defends a specific type of religious education in childhood, while Rousseau had only envisaged the thematization of religion for advanced adolescence. At Campe, the problem of wanting to be both an advocate for the world view of children and a representative of a set of values committed to the Enlightenment is evident. Thus, the thinking of Campe can

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be understood as a mirror of the normative fundamental problems in the Western European age of the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century. If we want to take a closer look at Campes’ contribution to an anthropology of the child, then the introduction to the Lectures on the Soul offers a good basis for this. In this preface Campe feels compelled to justify having written such a work as the Lectures on the Soul at all. Thus, he makes the statement that “from principle and experience I am thoroughly convinced how prejudicial to Children, is an attempt at a premature improvement of their intellectual faculties”19 (Campe 1792, p. I). The inviolability of age appropriateness is a theoretical maxim of his anthropology, which, however, at least in certain respects, educational practice as a rule does not and cannot correspond to. Thus Campe writes “as I have wished to see the instruction of Children in morality and religion, by a chain of regular lessons, deferred till they were qualified to collect and compare ideas, have I found it improbable that the majority of parents, or superintendents of education, should, from persuasion to its justness, agree with me in opinion”20 (Campe 1792, p. If.). In contrast to Rousseau’s ideal construction, reality is interspersed, for example, with religious and moral ideas and claims that are already pervading children. This had to be considered as a fact and one had to ask what kind of education under the sign of reason this had to have for consequences. So for pragmatic reasons he was “obliged to relax in the practice of my theory; and that from having, like all other speculators, experimentally proved the advantages to be derived from anything, are usually frustrated by too obstinate all at once from it every possible benefit”21 (Campe 1792, p. II).

19 “Diejenigen, welche mich oder einige meiner Erziehungsschriften kennen, werden wissen, daß wol Keiner von der Schändlichkeit einer frühen Verstandesausbildung der Kinder, besonders durch Bücherunterricht, inniger durchdrungen sein kann, als ich es durch Grundsätze und aus Erfahrung bin” (Campe 1831, S. III). 20 “So sehr ich nähmlich auch wünschte, daß man den eigentlichen zusammenhängenden Unterricht in der Religion und Tugendlehre bis dahin verschieben möchte, wo die Seele des Kindes zum zusammenhängenden Denken reif zu werden anfängt: so wenig Wahrscheinlichkeit ist gleichwohl da, daß der größere Theil der Väter, der Erzieher und der Aufseher derselben, in die Gründe dieses Wunsches eingehen, und die Richtigkeit desselben anerkennen werde” (Campe 1831, S. IVf.). 21 “Ich […] sehe mich, nach Abwägung des größeren, bei einigen Nachgeben gegen allgemeine Vorurtheile mir erreichbaren sittlichen Nutzens, genöthigt, von der Strenge einiger meiner Grundsätze in der Ausübung hie und da ein wenig nachzulassen, weil ich mit jedem

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Thus, the thematization of religion in early childhood is ultimately an acceptable evil owed to the real circumstances. And it is a lesser evil than the suppression of this topic, because the latter would run counter to the claim of the rational penetration of all areas of life. Religion and morality can only be thematized and prepared to this extent in the horizon of children’s perceptive faculties. For even “the most independent tutor can hardly dispense with, giving to Children of eight or ten years old, such moral and religious lessons as I have mentioned”22 (Campe 1792, p. II). Campe distinguishes two criteria for the way this instruction is given. On the one hand, it is the standard that the educator in such a task should “work in a reasonable way”23 (Campe 1792, p. II). On the other hand— and here the ambivalence of an education committed to the Enlightenment postulates at least in childhood emerges—it is precisely a matter of hiding this reasonable procedure from the children behind a garment of lightness and comfort. Campe says that the educator had “to conceal his method, at the same time adapting it to the weakness of their tender age “24 (Campe 1792, p. II). However, it was not possible to seriously shake the concept of a rational way of dealing with people and thus also with children. Finally, in view of the existing educational conditions, there is not only a necessity, but unquestionably also a benefit, to present a book like the Lectures on the Soul. For this writing can be understood as a kind of elementary grammar for basic questions of being human. These basic questions of being human are differentiated by Campe into questions of religion (“What can I believe?”) and custom or morality (“What may or should I do?”), whereby both areas are closely interwoven via anthropology (“What constitutes man?”).

anderen Weltbeobachter die Erfahrung gemacht habe, daß man gemeiniglich alles Gute hindert, wenn man alles erkannte Gute auf ein Mahl hartnäckig erringen strebt” (Campe 1831, S. IVf.). 22 “Sonach glaube ich annehmen zu dürfen, daß auch der freieste Erzieher fremder Kinder

nicht umhin, “schon acht bis zehnjährigen Kindern eine Art von zusammenhängender Unterweisung in der Religion und Sittenlehre zu geben” (Campe 1831, S. V). 23 “Zum einen ist es der Maßstab, dass der Erzieher bei einer solchen Aufgabe “auf eine vernünftige Weise zu Werke” gehen solle” (Campe 1831, S. V). 24 Campe spricht davon, dass der Erzieher “die gelehrte Denkbande, die er dem jungen Geiste anlegen soll, so sehr er kann, zu verstecken” habe (Campe 1831, S. V).

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In his text Campe makes it clear that the examination of the doctrine of man has a function both for the foundation of religion and for the foundation of moral doctrine. Regarding religion it is a matter of clarifying the ultimately rhetorical question “how for an instance, shall he impart a just and worthy idea of the Deity, his spirituality, infinite wisdom, holiness, and collateral attributes, without having before given the necessary introductory information of the nature and properties of the human understanding”25 (Campe 1792, p. II). Campe’s answer can be deduced indirectly: Only through the reflection of the peculiarities of the human soul can man be enabled to develop an adequate capacity for reflection in religious questions. Childhood deserves a thematization of religion and morality oriented to the standards of reason; indeed it is dependent on it if man is to be oriented in his further course of life towards the postulate of reasonableness as the standard for thinking and acting. Thus the normative premises and the argumentative basic structure of the entire script become clear: The starting point is man with his perceptive faculty; from man the path rises beyond himself into the transcendence of the divine and the moral; at the same time the guiding idea and means of this process is man’s own reason, which is not to be dealt with openly in dealing with children, but “hidden” for pedagogical reasons, even if reason and nothing else is to guide education in childhood. This first reason for motivation for the publication of the “Lectures on the soul” is supplemented by two further aspects. The second reason cited by Campe refers directly to the anthropology of the child. Campes’ question is what does teaching and the literature used in it do to children. Or to put it another way: What forces are addressed in the children through teaching and the literature used in it? Campe is concerned with the stimulating structure that emanates from the contents and the dialogical structure of the conversations documented in the “lectures on the soul”. In the light of this stimulation structure, the “exercises” are ultimately to be interpreted as a contribution to the “equilibrium” of

25 Mit Blick auf die Religion geht es um die Klärung der letztlich rhetorischen Frage,

“wie man z.B. einen wahren und würdigen Begriff von Gott, von seiner Geistigkeit, von seinem unendlichen Verstande, von seinem heiligen Willen, von allen daraus abfließenden untergeordneten Eigenschaften desselben er-wecken könne, ohne erst die nothdürftigsten Vorbegriffe von dem Wesen und den Eigenschaften des menschlichen Geistes entwickelt zu haben” (Campe 1831, S. V).

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the soul26 (Campe 1792, p. IV). In the background stands the ideal of a harmony of the child’s powers, the promotion of which represents a central challenge for education. It must be undisputed “that the most perfect plan must tend equally, and at the same time to the improvement of the young student in morality and physics”27 (Campe 1792, p. III). For education, this presents itself as a task to develop the forces present in the children evenly. However, Campe empirically sees this central task of education as being subject to conditions that are more likely to oppose than promote the promotion of such harmony. On the one hand the educator simply must become aware of the limits of his own possibilities of action in order to not succumb to false ideas of the feasibility of education as well as formability above all in the areas of religion and morality. Thus, a corresponding education could never simply be brought about by “line and compass”28 (Campe 1792, p. III). The limits that lie in the freedom of the educators and in the matter in equal measure are to be considered as constitutive for the educational process. At the same time, however, it is coincidence that, with all the necessary thinking about planned education, always appears on the scene in reality and as a rule, as an element of the unpredictable, also determines the educational process. The factual limitation of what is feasible, and the contingency experience accordingly make the harmonious formation of all forces a goal, which on the one hand can serve as orientation for programmatic reasons, but on the other hand can be relativized in practice due to the nature of the educational reality. Campe thus criticizes the one-sidedness of traditional teaching, which is in any case contrary to the programmatic goal of balancing the mental powers of children. Thus, “most of the lessons given at present to Children, only serve to exercise their memory”29 (Campe 1792, p. III). Yes,

26 Im Lichte dieser Anregungsstruktur sollen die “angestellten Uebungen des Verstandes” letztlich interpretiert werden als Beitrag zur “Beförderung des Gleichgewichts unter den Seelenkräften der Kinder” (Campe 1831, S. VIII). 27 Es müsse unstrittig sein, “dass die vollkommenste Erziehung diejenige ist, welche alle

körperliche und geistige Anlagen der Kinder, in dem besten Verhältnisse zu einander, gleichmäßig auszubilden sucht” (Campe 1831, S. VI). 28 “So könne eine entsprechende Erziehung niemals mit ‘Zirkel und Maßstab’ funktionieren” (Campe 1831, S. VII). 29 So setze “der beträchtlichste Theil des gewöhnlichen Schulunterrichts nur das Gedächtniß der Kinder in Wirksamkeit” (Campe 1831, S. VII).

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in general, this “preponderance”30 (Campe 1792, p. IV) is to be deplored in school lessons, to which the Lectures on the Soul represents a necessary corrective. As a third intention, Campe would like his book to be understood as a contribution to the general debate on the appropriate forms of teaching and learning. Campe targets readers who want to apply his work directly in their own teaching and educational practice: as a source of methodological and content-related impulses or directly as a (pre)reading book. Campe initially refers to his own pedagogical competence acquired over many years. This competence is based on “long habit of teaching” as well as “observations occasionally made on the minds of Children,” and his skill of “communicating and developing ideas”31 (Campe 1792, p. IV). The question now is how such competence can best be implemented in writing. It would have been possible to write a theoretical treatise with a more or less plausible and understandable set of rules. Regarding practical application, however, there was little benefit in expecting to present one’s knowledge “precepts of instruction” (Campe 1792, p. IV), since “they would appear satisfactory only so such as had experimentally discovered them, and from whole knowledge and practice they would be rendered quite unnecessary. With respect to the remaining crowd of instructors, they would be stopped in their career, so great is the difference between precept, and the application to be made of it”32 (Campe 1792, p. IV). As an alternative to presenting a set of educational instructions, Campe instead chooses literature that can be read with children. Such a kind of children’s literature is about “a faithful account of the application already made, for it levels the meanest capacity, both precept and practice. Besides,

30 “Ja insgesamt sei ein ‘Uebergewicht der Uebungen des Gedächtnisses von Zeit zu Zeit zu unterbrechen’” (Campe 1831, S. VII). 31 Diese Kompetenz basiere auf “ziemlich langen Uebungen im Unterrichte, und nach eben so langen Beobachtungen über die Kinderseelen” und “in der Kunst, Begriffe zu entwickeln und mitzuteilen” (Campe 1831, S. VIII). 32 Mit Blick auf die praktische Anwendung habe es jedoch wenig Nutzen erwarten lassen, seine Kenntnisse “als Regeln vorzutragen” (Campe 1831, S. IX), da “diese Regeln nur Derjenigen ganz einleuchtend sind, die während ihrer eigenen Ausübungen schon von selbst drauf gekommen waren -also für solche, die sie schon kannten, schon angewandt hatten, und ihrer folglich am wenigsten bedürfen. Für den übrigen größeren Haufen ist zwischen Regel und Anwendung eine solche Kluft befestigt, daß die meisten bei der ersten wohl stehen bleiben müssen, ohne zu der anderen fortschreiten zu können” (Campe 1831, S. IX).

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it inspires a spirit if imitation, an instinct we effect common to all men”33 (Campe 1792, p. IVf.) Thus, it is about a tool with the help of which the teacher himself should be able to “endeavour to familiarize to the Children notions contained in it by mine, or a similar method”34 (Campe 1792, p. VI). In the critical examination of the didactic strategies of his time, Campe distinguishes between four stages, which in ascending order are increasingly oriented towards the demands of a pedagogy committed to the Enlightenment. Traditionally, (I) at the lowest level, methodological use would be made of literal explanations of facts which is “the most ineligible of all other methods”35 (Campe 1792, p. V). The use of (II) sensual illustrations such as paintings or copper engravings seems to be on a similar level to (III) the use of sample stories, whether true or fictional. In both cases of the intermediate stages, the presentation of phenomena to the children is at the centre of the method. This phenomenological presentation of facts in pictorial or linguistic form is better than the simple explanation of words and facts by the teacher, since it gives more space to the children’s own activity and at the same time leaves the teacher behind the things. Campe himself regularly uses references to the copper engravings in the appendix in his depiction. Without this connection, his didactic approach can hardly be understood, as the dialogue with the panels reflects Campes’ claim to lawfully assert the children’s world appropriation based on questions. The stage in which the rational potential of the children and the simultaneous development of all soul forces are simultaneously promoted can only be achieved when the children themselves come to the fore as learners. For Campe, the best didactic guideline is “to put the young soul, through all sorts of easily invented institutions, in the case that it must do or feel that which is intended to make it vivid, so that the teacher may then only remind it to turn its gaze within 33 In einer solchen Art der Kinderliteratur geht es um “eine treue Darstellung einer wirklich geschehenen Anwendung solcher Regeln” (Campe 1831, S. IX). Damit kann “das Wie? die Art und Weise dieser Anwendung vor’s Auge gerückt, und der ihm, wie allen Menschen, eigene Nachahmungstrieb zu eigenen Versuchen in ähnlichen Fällen gereizt wird” (Campe 1831, S. IX). 34 So gehe es um ein Hilfsmittel, mit dem der Lehrer selbst die in den Gesprächen “entwickelten Begriffe den Kindern auf eine gleiche oder ähnliche Weise abzulocken” (Campe 1831, S. XII). 35 Traditionell würde (I) auf der untersten Stufe methodisch auf wörtliche Erklärungen von Sachverhalten zurückgegriffen – die “schlechteste und unwirksamste Lehrart unter allen” (Campe 1831, S. XI).

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itself to read that which it was to be taught (Campe 1831, p. XI). This is the actual turning point: Away from the central position of the teacher or the subject and towards the implementation of anthropological focus in an emphasis on appropriation processes in teaching-learning processes. It is the children themselves who are supposed to advance their own learning considerably in a (thoroughly controlled) conversation. In the sense of Campe’s understanding of enlightenment, the new role of the children as active persons influencing the learning process corresponds exactly to the goal that Campe tries to achieve by expanding the claim to reason and with the resulting right to respect for all ages. Thus, the change of perspective from the teachers to the learners is understood, their appropriation and processing capacity as the basis of teaching-learning processes for Campe is a redemption of the postulates of enlightenment reason and equality. It is therefore only logical for a pedagogy committed to the Enlightenment to elevate the potential self-activity of learners to the guiding norm for “teaching” behaviour—despite all the tensions that this entails regarding the bourgeois standards of value to be conveyed at the same time.

2.3

Historical Context

Joachim Heinrich Campe stood in the historical context of the European Enlightenment. The eighteenth century is often referred to as the “educational century”. This is based on the basic constellation of the Enlightenment. Because enlightenment presupposes a human’s freedom and ability to learn. And Enlightenment addresses precisely these anthropological points: Every single human being should learn to look critically at the world through his intellect, but above all through universally thought reason. In his famous text An answer to the question “What is Enlightenment?” the German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) wrote: “Enlightenment is the outcome of self-inflicted immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one’s mind without the guidance of another”36 (Kant 1784/1996, p. 9). The programme of the Enlightenment is about learning to think for oneself. The hope that every human being could learn this and that this would

36 “Aufklärung ist der Ausgang aus der selbstverschuldeten Unmündigkeit. Unmündigkeit ist das Unvermögen, sich seines Verstandes ohne Leitung eines anderen zu bedienen” (Kant 1784/1996, S. 9).

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lead to an improvement in humanity and ultimately to a better future, carried the Enlightenment movement. Thinking and writing about education therefore took a central place. Many educational pamphlets were produced. These writings were no longer so much about the right way of teaching, but about the comprehensive handling of human freedom, human reason and human hope. In contrast to the seventeenth century, the term “education” therefore became the guiding concept, while the term “didactics”, which was central in the seventeenth century, receded into the background. The movement of the “Enlightenment”—German Aufklärung , French Lumières —was connected by some central values and by a lively exchange of ideas in writings and conversations. Common to the various representatives was above all the belief in the power of reason and in the reasonableness of man. After the negative experiences with the European religious wars and civil wars in the seventeenth century, human reason was seen as a means to order co-existence and to bring about understanding between the various parties. Reason, in conjunction with proper education, should ensure peace and prosperity and lead to a better future. According to the Enlighteners, rational thinking leads to reasonable and ethically correct action, since reason and morality agree according to their conviction. For science, this meant that reasonable observation and experimentation were now regarded as important methods for gaining new knowledge. This was seen as a step forward for mankind, which Alexander Pope (1688–1744) celebrated in his poetry with allusion to the biblical story of creation: “Nature and Nature’s Law lay hid in Night: / GOD said, Let Newton be! And all was Light.” There was a new enthusiasm: humanity can go beyond the knowledge of the ancient Greeks and the Bible! We can come to a better society than the “old”, because tolerance, reason and science make a life in peace and prosperity possible! This new conviction shaped the eighteenth century. Where the progress in knowledge comes from, however, was controversial. Precisely because reason and knowledge became so important, many scholars turned to the question of how knowledge can be gained. The key question was: How can we gain real knowledge: from listening to human reason alone or from sensory impressions and experiences? The one answer was: knowledge is gained through rational thinking and reasoning. Because gaining knowledge is a similar process to learning, this attitude also affects the design of teaching and learning: The study of clever thoughts of different authors and the training and challenge of thinking are then important for the teaching. The other answer to the question about

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the gain in knowledge was: observation and experiment lead best and safest to new knowledge. The philosophical advocates of this direction were called “empiricists” because, in their opinion, experience (Greek: empeiria) is decisive. Knowledge is primarily gained through sensory impressions. The empirical attitude also had an effect on teaching-learning methods: Here it is important to perceive the world with eyes and ears and the other senses, or at least to look at selected objects from the world. Although the various protagonists of the Enlightenment saw reason as inherent in every human being, man was not regarded as thinking and acting rationally by nature. His instincts oppose this. They keep him from acting wisely and virtuously. Man must learn to master them; for many representatives of the Enlightenment this is an important task of education. Without education, man cannot live up to his destiny as a rational being. The German Philanthropists, the “humanitarians’ friends”, formed a special line of thought in pedagogy. In addition to Campe, this group included Johann Bernhard Basedow (1724–1790) and Christian Gotthilf Salzmann (1744–1811). They not only wrote about education, but also tried to put their ideas into practice. For example, they founded boarding schools in the cities of Dessau (Basedow 1774) and Schnepfenthal (Salzmann 1784). The philanthropists also wrote corresponding schoolbooks as well as children’s and youth literature. They wanted to establish an education that was rational, experiential and childlike. In addition, it should be an education that helps the children to later earn a living and be useful members of society. This was intended to provide a better future for the children themselves, some of whom came from poor backgrounds, and at the same time to benefit the community. The philanthropists were particularly critical of the work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, as could be seen from Campe’s book Theory of the Soul. With a view to the historical context, Joachim Heinrich Campe stands for the German line of Enlightenment education. With his conception of the anthropology of the child, he contributed to a pedagogy of modernity that took the motives of freedom, equality and solidarity into account. His co-formulated view of the child has consequences up to the present day.

2.4

Contemporary Relevance

The present importance of Joachim Heinrich Campe can be seen positively above all in his contribution to an anthropology of the child. The idea that children are different from adults, that children perceive differently, think

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differently, express themselves differently, are responsible differently—this has been firmly anchored in the consciousness of adults since ancient times. In the time of the Enlightenment, however, the view of children and childhood changed decisively. It is no longer just about the otherness of children and childhood itself. Rather, it is a question of what this otherness means, how it is to be evaluated and what normative consequences it has. From all this the question arises once again: What does it mean in modern times to speak of child-centred pedagogy? The pedagogical significance of a new understanding of children and childhood also lies after Campe in the field of the reflexive redefinition of the normative basis of education. After that, it is no longer just a question of taking the children’s and young people’s own activities into account, for example in school lessons. Rather, the consequences reach so far that it can be considered to -make the perception of children the (sometimes exclusive) guiding idea of pedagogical practice. The aim is to make the postulates of the Enlightenment such as freedom, reason and autonomy in the perception of children and childhood the starting point of a contemporary education. It is controversial whether and to what extent pedagogy and, for example, structures of schooling and education, should be thought of and designed from the child. The pedagogy of Campe has contributed to making the discussion about it possible. At the same time, the new anthropology of the child in the eighteenth century has substantially promoted a development that first came to a provisional conclusion in the second half of the twentieth century: the declaration of children’s rights. The 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child summarises the essential rights of children. The framework assumes that children have a right to individual support, protection and overall well-being. It is a matter of well-being that is expressed not only in physical and mental integrity but also in access to development opportunities. The preamble sets out the objective that the child should be fully prepared for an individual life in society and educated in the spirit of the ideals proclaimed in the Charter of the United Nations and in particular in the spirit of peace, dignity, tolerance, freedom, equality and solidarity. For the national legal context, the Convention in this sense constitutes a kind of appellate body which requires justifications and corrections if the fundamental concerns of this Convention are deviated from. The perspective from the child is transformed into a differentiated idea of the child’s well-being. Remarkable and far-reaching for educational practice in this context is the idea that “discipline in school

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is maintained in a manner consistent with the human dignity of the child and in conformity with this Convention” (Article 28, sentence e). Even if this sentence still leaves enough room for interpretation, it is still decisively restricted by the reference to human dignity and the overall framework of the Convention. For the manner in which public education and training is to take place is essentially focused by the educational objectives formulated in Article 29 it states as a normative framework for all professional and educational action that “the education of the child must be directed towards: a. the full development of the child’s personality, giftedness and mental and physical capacities; b. the promotion of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms and for the principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations”. All these rights for children, i.e. the age up to 18 years, are intended to express something universal. This is exactly where opportunity and boundary lie at the same time. Postcolonial theories and postcolonial pedagogy rightly point out that the advocacy and use of universals necessarily leads to tendencies of appropriation that are mostly hegemonically structured and paternalistically coloured. But: As much as this must be considered, it seems necessary in times of new (nationalistic and religious) demarcations to defend at the same time the indispensability and importance of universal rights beyond belonging to certain groups. It is this paradox that especially regarding dealing with children (the right to) equality and (the right to) difference are to be defended simultaneously and yet always must criticize each other. With his anthropology of the child, Joachim Heinrich Campe had provided building blocks for us to be able to think about children’s rights in this way today.

References Selected German Sources Allgemeine Revision des gesamten Schul- und Erziehungswesens. Von einer Gesellschaft praktischer Erzieher (Hamburg, Wolfenbüttel, Wien, Braunschweig, 1785 bis 1792). Briefe aus Paris (1790). Die Entdeckung von Amerika (1781). Erste Sammlung merkwürdiger Reisebeschreibungen für die Jugend (12 Volumes, Hamburg 1785 to 1793, 6 Volumes, Braunschweig, 1794–1801).

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Kleine Kinderbibliothek (12 Bände, Hamburg, 1779–1784). Robinson der Jüngere. Ein Lesebuch für Kinder (Vol. 1, Hamburg, 1779; Vol. 2 Hamburg 1780). Sammlung einiger Erziehungsschriften (Leipzig, 1778). Sämtliche Kinder- und Jugendschriften (38 Volumes, Braunschweig, 1806–1822). Sittenbüchlein für Kinder aus gesitteten Ständen (Dessau, 1777). Theophron oder Der erfahrene Ratgeber für die unerfahrene Jugend (Vol. 1, Hamburg 1783; Vol. 2, Hamburg, 1783). Väterlicher Rath für meine Tochter. Ein Gegenstück zum Theophron, der erwachsenen weiblichen Jugend gewidmet (1789). Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache (5 Volumes, 1807–1812). Wörterbuch zur Erklärung und Verdeutschung der unserer Sprache aufgedrungenen fremden Wörter (2 Volumes, Braunschweig, 1801).

Translations into English Elementary Dialogues, for the Improvement of Youth. Translated by Mr. Seymour. Illustrated with sixteen copper plates. London: Hookam Carpenter (1792). Robinson the Younger. Translated by the author himself. Hamburg: C.E. Bohn (1781/1782). The Discovery of America; for the Use of Children and Young Persons. Translated by the author himself. London: J. Johnson (1799–1800).

References Campe, J. H. (1831). Sämmtliche Kinder und Jugendschriften. Vierte Gesamtausgabe der letzten Hand. Achtes Bändchen. Seelenlehre für Kinder. Nebst siebzehn Kupfertafeln. In R. Koerrenz (Ed.), Joachim Heinrich Campe. Seelenlehre für Kinder. Jena: IKS Garamond. Ewers, H.-H. (1982). Joachim Heinrich Campe (1746–1818): Kleine Seelenlehre für Kinder. Hamburg 1780. In T. Brüggemann & H.-H. Ewers (Eds.), Handbuch zur Kinder- und Jugendliteratur. Von 1750 bis 1800 (pp. 1050–1057). Stuttgart: Metzler. Ewers, H.-H. (1996). Joachim Heinrich Campe als Kinderliterat und als Jugendschriftsteller. In H. Schmitt (Ed.), Visionäre Lebensklugheit. Joachim Heinrich Campe in seiner Zeit (1746–1818) (pp. 159–177). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. Garber, J. (Ed.). (2008). „Die Stammutter aller guten Schulen“. Das Dessauer Philanthropinum und der deutsche Philanthropismus 1774–1793. Tübingen: Niemeyer. Kant, I. (1784/1996). Beantwortung der Frage: Was ist Aufklärung? In E. Bahr (Ed.), Was ist Aufklärung? (pp. 8–17). Stuttgart: Reclam.

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Koselleck, R. (1973). Kritik und Krise. Eine Studie zur Pathogenese der bürgerlichen Welt. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp. Rousseau, J.-J. (1762). Emile or on Education. Includes Emile and Sophie, or the solitaries. In C. Kelly & A. Bloom (Eds.), The Collected Writings of Rousseau (Vol. 13). Hanover and London: University Press of New England. Schmitt, H. (Ed.). (1996). Briefe von und an Joachim Heinrich Campe. Briefe von 1766–1788 (Vol. 1). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

CHAPTER 3

Bernhard Heinrich Blasche and the Romantic Concept of Nature Education

Abstract This chapter introduces the long-forgotten ideas of the German educator Bernhard Heinrich Blasche. Only recently, in 2015, Blasche’s ideas on nature education were published by Karsten Kenklies. Blasche’s work is influenced by German Romanticism, a period known mostly for its literature and not for its pedagogical ideas. Blasche’s book “Nature Education” discussed the didactic arrangements necessary to educate young people in line with the demands of nature so that they respect it for what it is. Keywords Bernhard Heinrich Blasche · Nature · Romanticism · Ecology · Sustainability

3.1

Bernhard Heinrich Blasche---A Biographical Summary

The literature on Bernhard Heinrich Blasche is not at all numerous. Blasche seems to be almost completely forgotten. This might be due to the fact that Blasche was writing during the time of other more established educational thinkers and practitioners such as Joachim Heinrich Campe (see Chapter 1). However, Blasche’s work must be considered when tracing

© The Author(s) 2019 R. Koerrenz and S. Engelmann, Forgotten Pedagogues of German Education, Palgrave Studies in Alternative Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29570-7_3

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back the line of educational thought that is nowadays known as ecological education or education for sustainable development. Besides this line of discussion that is going to be sketched out in more detail in the subchapter on contemporary significance, this first subchapter offers a biographical approach to Bernhard Heinrich Blasche. First, one must note that there is little biographical literature on Blasche.1 According to Osterheld, Blasche was neglected by his contemporaries because of the missing systematicity of his work—we’ll come back to this argument later on. To sum up: Not much is known about the early life and adolescence of Blasche. Bernhard Heinrich Blasche was born in 1766 in the city of Jena. Jena is situated right in the middle of Germany. It is known as the centre of German Idealism and Romantic philosophy (Bach and Waldmann 2015). Important thinkers of this strand of thought such as Hegel, Fichte, Schiller and even Goethe studied, worked and lived in Jena or its neighbouring town of Weimar. Blasche was raised in Jena as one of 14 children—nine of his siblings died at an early age. His siblings and he were brought up in a highly religious and educated household. His mother, Klara Katharina Sophia Blasche was from Hamburg. Her great-grandfather was the well-known mathematician and educator Erhard Weigel (Kenklies 2009). His father Johann Christian Blasche was the headmaster of a Latin school in the city of Jena. Additionally, he was professor for theology and philosophy at the University of Jena. Blasche attended school in Jena and started his studies at the university in the same city in 1783 at the age of 17. However, according to the archival sources available, Blasche did not finish his studies. In a source published a few years later we learn that he was not allowed to be active intellectually. He probably quit university because of his health. Nevertheless, he engaged in handicraft and learned a lot about this topic through active repetition—this later became relevant for his job as a teacher. He started teaching at Campes famous Philantropin Schnepfenthal in 1796. According to Trommer, Blasche was heavily influenced by the ideas of the philanthropists, especially Christian Gotthilf Salzmann (Trommer 1990, p. 139). Salzmann himself asked Blasche to come to Schnepfenthal because he needed an able person to build up the classes for handicrafts from scratch. Additionally, Blasche taught history of nature, mathematics and technology. In 1797 Blasche wrote his book Der Papparbeiter oder 1 The most important texts for this first subchapter are the biography on Blasche written by Osterheld from 1909 (Osterheld 1909) and the close-reading of this text and other lesserknown documents by Thonwart and Töpper (2015).

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Anleitung in Pappe zu arbeiten. Vorzüglichen Erziehern gewidmet —a book about handicraft—and published it for the employees of the Philantropin.2 Between 1800 and 1802 Blasche also wrote a book aimed at parents that told them how to supervise children in handicrafts titled Werkstätte für Kinder. Ein Handbuch für Eltern und Erzieher zur zweckmäßigen Beschäftigung ihrer Kinder und Zöglinge. Two years later he published a picture book that aimed at preparing children and teachers for visiting workshops and artists. In 1806 Blasche left the Philantropin. He moved to UnterWirbach. With time on his hands he started to get involved with the work of Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling. Schelling was one of the main representatives of German idealism, however, most of his work is not even translated to English. Nevertheless, he influenced the thought of Blasche. Blasche’s intensive study of Schelling and other thinkers of philosophy of nature led to the book Naturbildung. Ein Buch für Lehrer, Erzieher, Naturund Jugendfreunde in 1815. After his time away from Schnepfenthal he moved back to Waltershausen, a city near the Philantropin. In 1820 he was proclaimed Educationsrat in Waltershausen. This position marked his acceptance as an expert in questions of education. His last pedagogical book about handicraft and the use of manual labour, Der Papierformer, was published in 1819 during this period. However, Blasche turned away from educational sciences. Philosophy of nature—already present in his later book Naturbildung —became his main field of interest. But he returned to educational sciences again. In 1828 his Handbuch der Erziehungswissenschaft, a handbook of educational sciences, was published. In this book, Blasche constantly raised the question of what education is. Therefore, he sketched out his idea of founding a scientific theory of education. Though, Blasche’s idea was not realized. He turned away from educational sciences again and started thinking about general questions of philosophy. The life of Bernhard Heinrich Blasche ended in 1832 because of hepatitis. On the one hand, one can understand the life-time project of Blasche as incomplete. He did not write a systematic theory of education. On the other hand, one can argue that the Papparbeiter of Blasche and his work Naturbildung represent important fragments of a larger picture not yet visible. This text follows the second assumption. The systematic ideas of the Naturbildung are going to be introduced and discussed in the next subchapter. 2 In 1809 he published a supplement to this first book called Sammlung neuer Muster von Papparbeiten, dargestellt in Abbildungen derselben und ihrer Netze. Nebst speciellen Anleitungen, die als Nachträge zum Papparbeiter zu betrachten sind.

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3.2

Education and Nature

Blasche’s work Naturbildung. Ein Buch für Lehrer, Erzieher Natur- und Jugendfreunde, translated as Nature Education, was published in 1815. The book itself is divided into a more theoretical preface and a more practical part that can be considered as an example of an ideal realization of Blasche’s didactic ideas. This chapter first introduces Blasche’s didactical ideas laid out in the preface. In this context, it discusses relevant aspects of his philosophy of nature. Second, the chapter offers an in-detail discussion of selected passages of the dialogue. This chapter corresponds with an analysis of Blasches thought published by Engelmann (2019), that tries to read Blasche as a posthumanist thinker and elaborates on some of the aspects already mentioned here. This paper can be considered for an indepth discussion of Blasche. First and foremost, Blasche argues that it is generally a good thing that nature became a part of the curriculum. Sciences, according to Blasche, were already integrated into the curriculum of his time to a certain degree. However, nature education as a specific subject is not part of the curriculum yet. If it is taught, Blasche states, it seems to be more of a fashionable supplement than a systematic approach to foster Bildung . Blasche therefore starts by criticizing the state of the art of his time: One may only consider the lack of planning of most of the so-called natural history picture and entertainment books which have appeared frequently enough since then from fair to fair, in order to see that the thing resembles more a fashion than a reasonable education business. (Blasche 1815/2015, p. 60)3

Blasche criticises that the didactic material used in classes is only based on books. Classes are mere repetition of things that are written in these books. Instead of Bildung —understood as transformative self-formation— the children and youths are on the one hand only entertained. On the other hand, they are forced to learn different individual aspects of so-called nature by hard and cognitive work in a disconnected way. Sustainable learning— understood by Blasche as understanding the complexity of nature’s mode 3 “Man darf nur die Planlosigkeit der meisten unter den zeither von Messe zu Messe häufig genug erschienenen sogenannten naturhistorischen Bilder- und Unterhaltungsbücher erwägen, um zu sehen, daß die Sache mehr einer Mode als einem vernünftigen Bildungsgeschäft gleicht” (Blasche 1815/2015, p. 60).

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of operation—is not possible in this way. This is mostly because of the medium that is used as a source for learning. A restless rummaging of superficial descriptions on the part of the text, which one tries to make enjoyable by slight alterations of the clothing, and a continuous fleeting copying of the already copied on the part of the illustrations, are not the slightest shortcomings which one can basically accuse this fashionable branch of writing of, whose products may well provide the youth with a fleeting entertainment but not an education. (Blasche 1815/2015, p. 60)4

Blasche emphasizes that teachers that work with this mediocre material are often not aware of the fact that the material alone does not secure good instruction. Most of the teachers were not schooled in what is called sciences today and did not know more than they’ve read in the books used for instruction. Even though the material for this kind of instruction is not criticized by Blasche as a whole, he wants to transcend this state-of-the art by introducing a more experience-oriented approach and a new medium of learning. However, realizing this complex idea is not up to the children and youths themselves, as they are understood as the receiving end of education. Therefore, Blasche’s book Naturbildung is not aimed at children and youth—it is not written as a textbook for systematic instruction. On the contrary, it is aimed at educators and parents. This target audience of Blasche’s work is understandable in the light of his first main argument, that is entwined with his understanding of nature education that will be elaborated later on. With his publication, he directly addresses teachers, educators and parents who—in line with his criticism summarized above— are currently failing in carrying out a sustainable and “right” way of Naturbildung. Therefore, training the teachers, educators and parents is the first step to improve the educational practices that try to transfer knowledge about nature.

4 “Ein rastloses Wiederkäuen oberflächlicher Beschreibungen von Seiten des Textes, den

man durch leichte Abänderungen der Einkleidung genießbar zu machen sucht, und ein fortgesetztes flüchtiges Copiren des Copirten von Seiten der Abbildungen, sind nicht die geringsten Mängel, welche man diesem modischen Zweige der Schriftstellerei mit Grunde vorwerfen kann, deren Produkte der Jugend wohl eine flüchtige Unterhaltung aber nicht Bildung gewähren mögen” (Blasche 1815/2015, p. 60).

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Addressing this audience is closely connected to the premises that Blasche elaborates in his book. A certain understanding of nature is necessary to carry out nature education the way Blasche thinks it’s meant to be. Therefore, educators need to develop a certain view on nature, they have to change their perspective before they can teach about nature the right way. Nature is understood as dynamic and ever-changing—but it is not at will. That is because Blasche assumes certain principles inherent to it that have to be understood: For Blasche, therefore, the object of Natura proves to be something dynamic - not a frozen collection of things, objects, phenomena that it would be encyclopaedic to grasp, describe and learn by heart. In fact, it is precisely the dynamic element of education that becomes the specific feature of Blasche’s conception. (Kenklies 2015, p. 46)5

According to Kenklies, the dynamic aspect of Blasche’s understanding of nature and in line with this, education is the most important part of Blasche’s educational thought. Blasche neglects earlier understandings of education that assumed a static structure of the world. The first and foremost example for this kind of educational thought—as mentioned by Kenklies—is the pedagogy of Comenius. Comenius understood world as a wellstructured assemblage of things that have to be learned. When the different things, respectively the words for them, are learned, the students have grasped the world. Teaching everybody everything by this method was the goal of Comenius. To achieve this goal, Comenius designed one of the first picture books, the Orbis Sensualium Pictus. Contrasting the ordered and never-changing ontology of Comenius’, Blasche offers a dynamic understanding of nature. Nature, human beings, artefacts and other entities are all part of this constantly changing world that can be understood as worlding. Understanding worlding as a process that crosses and even destroy boundaries between the transcendental, cultural and natural leaves Blasche with a holistic understanding of nature. In a nutshell: Nature is everything and everything is nature.

5 “Für Blasche erweist sich demnach der Gegenstand der Natura als etwas Dynamisches – nicht als erstarrte Sammlung von Dingen, Gegenständen, Phänomenen, die es enzyklopädisch zu erfassen, zu beschreiben und auswendig zu lernen gälte. Tatsächlich ist es gerade das dynamische Element der Bildung, die zum Spezifikum der Blasche’schen Konzeption wird” (Kenklies 2015, p. 46).

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In line with these considerations about the structure of the world, he tries to define nature education. He understands nature education as follows: The education of man for nature, that he may truly recognize it and learn to love it in knowledge, inherit (sic!) but also necessarily through it: the education of nature in man, that he may attain its own, higher consciousness. (Blasche 1815/2015, p. 62)6

This fourfold definition of nature education is understood by Kenklies as education based on nature, for nature, according to nature and by nature. Kenklies phrases this hermeneutical key for Blasche’s text as following: The fourfold dimension of nature education as an education from nature, for nature, according to nature and through nature proves this educational concept to be an encyclopaedic project in the new garb of dynamics. (Kenklies 2015, p. 56)7

As the first dimension of Blasche’s concept, education based on nature leads to the anthropological foundation of his thought. As all other educators—sometimes explicitly, sometimes implicitly, he assumes a certain model of development and learning in human beings. He argues that instruction by educators must be tied to a natural feeling for nature that is present in all human beings. However, this feeling for nature, Blasche calls it “religious”, can be overwhelmed by instruction carried out in a wrong way or different kinds of deprivation. Nevertheless, the right way of education can be used to foster this feeling in children and youth. According to Blasche, instruction can start as soon as the feeling for nature is awakened in children. The second dimension of Blasche’s concept is that education must always be for nature. As already pointed out, the boundaries between culture and nature, human and other entities, are not understood as static. The human being becomes a part of nature in this conceptualization. Education for nature means that the education of the human is part of the development of the ever-changing nature itself. Therefore, the education 6 “Bildung des Menschen für die Natur, daß er sie wahrhaft erkennen und in der Erkenntnis lieben lerne, erben (sic!) dadurch aber nothwendig auch: Bildung der Natur im Menschen, daß er diese zu ihrem eignen, höhern Bewusstseyn gelange” (Blasche 1815/2015, S. 62). 7 “Die vierfache Dimension der Naturbildung als einer Bildung von Natur aus, für die Natur, gemäß der Natur und durch die Natur erweist dieses Bildungskonzept als enzyklopädaisches Projekt im neuen Gewand der Dynamik” (Kenklies 2015, S. 56).

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of the human being can be understood as a contribution to the development of nature and therefore every education in the way Blasche imagines it is for nature. The third dimension encompasses education according to nature. Education according to nature means that educational practices must be carried out in line with the ontological order Blasche developed. When nature is everything and everything is nature this means that a holistic method must be applied. The instrumentalization of single “parts” of nature without taking into account their connectedness to other “parts” is contrary to the idea of a holistic harmony that constitutes all other aspects of Blasche’s educational thought. In addition to this normative foundation of educational practices it is now possible to answer the question of what is meant by right education already mentioned above. To realize education the right way educators must have developed the feeling for nature themselves on the one hand, they have to understand the interconnectedness of nature. Therefore, Blasche’s text is aimed at educators, teachers and parents; everybody, who is assigned the important task to educate children and youths. On the other hand, the right education also realizes that all education is based on nature, respectively the development of children and youth and the connectedness to the holistic nature: “Genuine nature education, which is based on a true understanding of nature, will therefore always be natural, not violent, not respecting the nature of things” (Kenklies 2015, p. 55).8 This aspect serves as a normative boundary for educational practices. Teaching children to destroy nature or to use it in a non-sustainable way is rejected. A cherishing handling of nature is therefore secured and deeply fixed in Blasche’s educational thought. The right kind of education—to sum up—is fueled by the religious feeling for nature that understands nature as a holistic system in which humans, animals and everything else is entwined. Therefore, nature has to be cherished and respected. Right education takes the natural basis of education in children and youth into account, and understands and promotes the interconnectedness with nature for nature and acts according to nature. Considering this, the fourth dimension of Blasche’s nature education is quite obvious. Nevertheless, this aspect of Blasche’s concept might be the most important for today. It is nature itself, that develops an educating 8 “Echte Naturbildung, die von einem wahren Verständnis der Natur ausgeht, wird demnach auch immer naturgemäß, also nicht gewalttätig, der Natur der Dinge nicht achtend, sein” (Kenklies 2015, S. 55).

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power; nature becomes the source and the medium for learning experiences. Blasche advises teachers and educators to help children and youths to experience nature, e.g. plants, animals and weather conditions. By privileging the direct experience of nature, he also points out his criticism of other practices of education, that often rely on book studies, monotonously repeating what teachers said or and less connected thinking. Instead of telling the children and youth what is right and what is wrong, the educator in Blasche’s texts helps the children to experience different aspects of nature for themselves. He offers them a variety of activities and they are asked to carry them out for themselves. In addition to this general intentional regulation of experience-making, the educator serves a second task: He helps the children to grasp the fundamental principles that appear to be effective in nature. This he does by talking to the children. He asks questions, helps them to focus their attention and gives feedback on their statements. To sketch out this argument, we are going to give an example derived from Blasche’s fictional dialogue between educator, educated and sometimes the parents of the educated. Imagine the following situation: An educator named Florus and a bunch of children called Gustav, Pauline, Elise, Eduard, Emil and Karl, are roaming through a nicely ordered garden. The children are a little bit older—they are not infants anymore but still they show signs of child-like wonder. The feeling for nature as a complex and interconnected system that is important on its own is already established in the children—how to do this the proper way was sketched out by Blasche in the earlier part of the book. In this earlier part, the children carried out different tasks such as drawing plants, looking at insects and growing their own plants and flowers in a small garden. It is noteworthy that things such as collecting an herbarium are not part of the methods the educator Florus uses. He states that e.g. the herbarium is not suitable for children as it rips the flowers and plants from their natural environment. Moreover, collecting nature like a good is a first step to not cherishing nature and can foster greed in the children. Additionally, the group of children taught by Florus in the second part of the book is larger. In the first part, the children only visited their relatives, now they all stay together at one place, forming a community of learning. They are older, have learned the basics and are now ready for more complex learning experiences that aim at the realization of the laws inherent to nature. And of course, the educational experience itself is situated in nature. The children are not in the city anymore; they are now in

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a very romantic and secluded—but therefore also idyllic—environment— that detains unwanted impulses from them. According to Blasche’s didactics, scientific instruction can start at this stage in the life-course. So, the educator with the rich sounding name Florus, starts to talk about bees. He introduces the children—who are already familiar with bees, because of a subsequent experience harvesting honey—to the fine arts of the bees. He asks the children if they can see any similarities between humans and bees. Florus.

Gustav. Pauline. Elise.

I know that you like to notice the similarities that the theaters seem to have in their dealings with humans: Is there such a similarity between bees? They live socially like humans. They build artificial dwellings for themselves. They also carry food supplies into their homes. (Blasche 1815/2015, p. 116)9

And of course, the children are aware of similarities—again, Blasche describes an ideal process of learning. The educator Florus elaborates on the statements of the children by pointing out the similarity between the political order of a human state and the order of the bee colony. The bees live in a sort of state, they are social animals and their life is organized like in some human states. Additionally, they collect food and build accommodations like human beings. By paralleling animal life and human life, the educator Florus connects the idea of animals living together to the idea of humans living together in a political entity called the state. His idea of an ideal state is very specific—and it matches the bee colony: That’s right. The individual members of a state are now called citizens; in each state they are divided into several classes or estates, each of which is engaged in a particular type of occupation, whereby each individual can contribute to

9 “Florus. Ich weiß, das ihr gern die Aehnlichkeiten bemerkt, welche die Theiere in ihrer Handlungsweise mit den Menschen zu haben scheinen: Findet sich etwa auch bei den Bienen eine solche Aehnlichkeit? Gustav. Sie leben gesellschaftlich wie die Menschen. Pauline. Sie bauen sich künstliche Wohnungen. Elise. Sie tragen auch Vorräthe von Nahrungsmitteln in ihre Wohnungen” (Blasche 1815/2015, S. 116).

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the whole and to the preservation of the whole in society. If, in the realm of animals, we were to come across a picture, even an imperfect picture, of a state, would that not be very strange? Reasonless animals, which act only after blind instincts, without being conscious, would have united to many thousands in the form of a state, in a society in which each individual animal would contribute by its Daseyn and by certain works to the preservation of the whole, how miraculously. (Blasche 1815/2015, p. 118)10

Florus’ idea of the state matches the general ideas of the philanthropists during that time—he implicitly states that an ordered state, in which every individual citizen carries out work that is beneficial to the greater good, is a good state. As nature itself is understood by Blasche as being attributed with an inherent nature, the state as a part of nature is also understood in an organic way. Additionally, Blasche decenters the human being, by letting Florus point out that even bees—who are generally not understood as entities with reason—are able to form an ordered state. The ordered state of the bees—hence the ideal state—is a very utilitarian one. All of the members of the state have to work, so the state can prosper and maintain order. One of the children reacts to Florus statement, that the drones are killed by the worker bees when they become a burden to the state. Elise states that the drones were beneficiary for the state before they became useless. Florus’ reaction to this statement reveals the utilitarian nature of his thought: And that’s why, you mean, out of gratitude, you should treat drones more gently? But in the bee state, if it is to exist, the individual must not be spared if it demands the preservation of the whole. (Blasche 1815/2015, p. 124)11

10 “Ganz recht. Die einzelnen Mitglieder nun eines Staates heißen Bürger; diese sind in

einem jeden Staate in mehrere Klassen oder Stände getheilt, deren jeder eine besondere Gattung von Beschäftigungen treibt, wodurch jeder Einzelne zum Whole und zur Erhaltung des Ganzen in der Gesellschaft beitragen kann. Wenn wir nun im Thierreiche auch von einem Staate ein Bild, wenn auch nur ein unvollkommenes Bild anträfen, wäre das nicht sehr merkwürdig? Vernunftlose Thiere, welche nur nach blinden Trieben, ihne Bewußtseyn handeln, hätten sich zu vielen Tausenden in der Form eines Staates vereinigt, in eine Gesellschaft, in welcher jedes einzelne Thier durch sein Daseyn und durch bestimmte Arbeiten zur Erhaltung des Ganzen beitrüge, wie wunderbar” (Blasche 1815/2015, S. 118). 11 “Und darum, willst Du sagen, sollte man aus Dankbarkeit die Drohnen mit mehr Schonung behandeln? Aber im Bienenstaate, wenn er bestehen soll, darf der Einzelne, wenn es die Erhaltung des Ganzen fordert nicht geschont werden” (Blasche 1815/2015, S. 124).

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He even states that the killing of the drones is a just decision in the bee colony: “Also the bees could probably defend the justice of there hard method, since individual useful services can never entitle a citizen to the consequence of idleness” (Blasche 1815/2015, p. 124).12 Besides these explanations of the similarities between the human state and the bee colony, Florus also leads the children to a closer examination of the building processes in the hive. He points out that nature itself offers the bees the resources to build their hive. The wax that is produced to build the hive itself is a result of the work of the bees. They fly from flower to flower to collect pollen that is used to build the hive. At the same time, the bees fertilize flowers and plants by carrying the pollen from one flower to another. The children realize this cycle of life for themselves: Pauline.

Florus.

And in the summer, I often enjoyed the hustle and bustle of the bees, the humming and roaring under a blossoming lime tree, thinking how many thousands of such animals might enjoy their daily lives. And yet the tree only gives them of its surplus. (Blasche 1815/2015, p. 131)13

This understanding of a cycle of life can be read as a very early understanding of ecological interdependences. Even today, bees are an important aspect of teaching children how fragile an ecosystem is. Looking for bees that are active around certain areas can lead to a reflected observation on how nature reproduces itself. Pauline states such an observation in a very naïve, childish way. She talks about the joy she experiences when looking at the diligently working bees. Florus reacts to this statement and elaborates on her observation by pointing out that the tree itself gives the bees the necessary resources to procreate their own and the life of the bee hive. Nature itself recreates itself by offering useful and necessary resources to the bees.

12 “Auch könnten die Bienen wohl die Gerechtigkeit ihres harten Verfahrens vertheidigen, da einzelne nützliche Dienste einen Staatsbürger für die Folge nie zum Müßiggange berechtigen können” (Blasche 1815/2015, S. 124). 13 “Pauline. Und im Sommer habe ich mich oft unter einem blühendem Lindenbaum über

das geschäftige Treiben und Drängen der Bienen, über das Summen und Brausen gefreut, indem ich mir dabei dachte, wie viel tausende solcher Thierchen sich wohl täglich ihres Lebens freuen mögen. Florus. Und doch gibt ihnen der Baum nur von seinem Ueberschusse” (Blasche 1815/2015, S. 131).

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The wax that is produced by the bees was—and still is—a resource needed by human beings. At the time of the Naturbildung, there was no such thing as artificial wax, so the bees were the master-builders of this important resource. More important than the specifics about the production of wax is the interrelation between the activity of the bees and the plants. The bees and the plants form a circle of production, that can be experienced and understood by the children. By understanding this circle, the children learn about the interconnection between all the distinct elements of nature that are not as distinct as they seem to be. Instead of analysing one thing at a time, treating different phenomena of nature as decoupled from others, the Naturbildung aims at promoting the understanding of nature’s connectedness. The children themselves point out the joyful and productive process of this didactical approach: Eduard. O how beautiful it is, Mr. Florus, to reconsider this great order which prevails in the housekeeping of bees, and how much we owe you for making us acquainted with it! (Blasche 1815/2015, pp. 137–138)14

In response to Eduard, Florus points out how fruitful the experience of nature is for educational processes: Nature, good Eduard, always tends to exuberantly reward her friends, who with diligence and attentiveness investigate her creations, with the sweet feeling of admiration and love for what she reveals to them in these investigations. Therefore, be ever more attentive to all that occurs to you in nature, research, as much as you can, by your own reflection and investigation, the connection of their appearances, and you will never lack pleasures which belong to the noblest which man can acquire. (Blasche 1815/2015, p. 138)15

14 “Eduard. O wie schön ist es, Herr Florus, diese große Ordnung zu überdenken, welche in der Haushaltung der Bienen herrscht, und wie viel Dank sind wir Ihnen schuldig, daß Sie uns damit bekannt gemacht haben!” (Blasche 1815/2015, S. 137–138). 15 “Die Natur, guter Eduard, pflegt immer ihre Freunde, welche mit Fleiß und Aufmerksamkeut ihren Schöpfungen nachforschen, überschwänglich zu belohnen mit dem süßen Gefühl der Bewunderung und Liebe für das, was sie ihnen bei diesen Nachforschungen offenbart. Seid daher immer aufmerksamer auf alles, was in der Natur euch vorkommt, forscht, so viel ihr könnt, durch eigenes Nachdenken und Untersuchen dem Zusammenhange ihrer Erscheinungen nach, und es wird euch nie an Freuden fehlen, welche zu den edelsten gehören, welche der Mensch sich erwerben kann” (Blasche 1815/2015, S. 138).

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All in all, this last statement of the educator Florus summarizes Blasches ideal didactical approach. Everything that is learned must be learned from nature. Nature itself is the best teacher. More precisely, the experience of nature is the privileged source of learning. At the same time, it is the preferred medium of learning. Instead of learning from books, the children and youths shall experience nature by going into nature itself. Nevertheless, Blasche’s Naturbildung does not become educational by mere contact with nature. From this example we can learn that the experience of nature—according to Blasche’s didactics—must be led by two things. On the one hand, the learner must be in a constant state of awe and love for nature. This is the foundational aspect of Naturbildung. On the other hand, the experience of nature is mediated by a knowledgeable and respectful educator such as Florus. The educator must be informed about nature and the different principles that are at work in it. However, the educator must not present these principles to the children in a lecture or systematic instruction. Instead of these two modes of teachingcriticized by Blasche, the educator is asked to show the children the beauty of nature, its events and its manifold situations that stagger the normality of the children. Nature is therefore nor presented as a stipulation of different phenomenon’s, but as a whole. Awakening and fostering a specific, highly normative perception and understanding of nature and the whole cosmos therefore is the goal of Blasche’s educational thought. This might sound estranging for today’s readers—and it seems to be necessary to elaborate on this summary of Blasche’s educational thought a bit more. On the one hand, there is a systematic argument made in Blasche’s writings, that can be used for today’s educational practices. He argues that children and youths have to understand the complexity of nature based on their own experience. In situations where children in urban areas are often deprived from experiencing nature as a significant other this might be understood as a call to action. On the other hand, strictly speaking, Blasche’s thought is a result of the philosophical and educational lines of thought present at his time to be the outlined in the next subchapter.

3.3

Historical Context

Bernhard Heinrich Blasche’s work is connected to various streams of thought. On the one hand, his work is situated in the context of German Philanthropism. On the other hand—as already stated above—his work is closely connected to the philosophical strand of discussion known as the

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Romantic philosophy of nature. Philanthropism itself was already mentioned in the chapter on Campe and Blasche perfectly ties to this historical context. However, as a small reminder it is useful to point out Blasche’s connection to Philanthropism here. Philanthropism—meaning love for the human being—is used in educational sciences to signify a movement of educators. This manifold educational thinking is united by the general assumption that the human being is good in its nature and that every human being is endowed with the capability to act according to a universalized reason. This general foundation of philanthropist thought was heavily influential on educational thinking. The free development of the child, his or her natural ability to learn, is the guiding assumption of Philanthropism. Therefore, educational environments were constructed matching the assumed needs of the child. Philanthropism aimed at a practical orientation towards daily life and at educating a useful citizen to further develop society. For this, the philanthropists integrated the physical dimension of learning. They planned extensive programs that included gymnastics and physical work (cf. Goldfriedrich 2014). Additionally, the mother tongue—contrary to other positions privileging Latin and Greek—was taught and learned because it was necessary for daily life. According to the emphasis on daily life, the philanthropists emphasized the role of experience in the process of learning—like Blasche’s Naturbildung. Therefore, going out into nature and experiencing it became the preferred mode of learning. Despite this general coherency to the foundational ideas of Philanthropism, Blasche’s work is even more influenced by the thought of the Romantic philosophy of nature and the idea of natural sciences evident during that time. German Romanticism is mostly connected to the name of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the famous German poet and—most people do not know this— scientist. German Romanticism strived for the unity of arts, philosophy and science. Trommer argues that romantic philosophy in general criticises a mechanistic understanding of the world (cf. Trommer 1990, p. 129f.). Natural scientists such as Oken understood nature as an organized Whole assuming a vital power of the bios. The term biology was coined during that time as the science of vitality. Romanticism is fuelled by a criticism of industrial production and the valorisation of nature. In fear of losing the beauty of nature, the romanticists emphasized the importance of nature and its beauty. However, the focus of Blasche’s interest was the philosophical foundation of natural sciences. The romantic understanding of natural sciences is marked by the attempt to combine subjective and objective aspects of perception. The idea of the laws of nature that is fostered in Blasche’s

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Naturbildung must be understood as a direct result of this view. The idea is simple as it is: by experiencing nature, the human mind can gain insight into the principles of nature. This general idea of a foundational principle of nature can be termed as the most prominent figure of thought during that time. The work of the German philosopher Schelling can be considered as the culmination point of this kind of thought. He pointed out that even a materialistic philosophy of nature needs a speculative idea of nature—and he tried to integrate those two components into one concept. His epistemological assumption is that both grasping and experiencing an object are identical. Assuming this identity of object and perception allows him to transcend the gap between epistemological order and the scientific world. All this highly complex thinking culminates in the idea of the Romantiknatur, nature of Romanticism. The Romantiknatur is characterized by its idea of harmony. Both human and nature, but also objects and the production of objects are understood as a holistic and therefore intangible unit. This difficult philosophical foundation of Blasche’s thought, however, still needs further elaboration—the connection between German Romanticism and education is a field, necessitating much more research. Nevertheless, famous educational scientists such as Otto Friedrich Bollnow started to map the terrain—Blasche was not mentioned, instead of him, other important educators such as Ernst Moriz Arndt, Jean Paul or Friedrich Fröbel were mentioned (Bollnow 1952). There are definite similarities between those three and Blasche. However, comparative studies were not conducted yet. Blasche himself was mostly understood as one of many educators around the community of Schnepfenthal. His work was not considered to be as important as the work of other educators during that time. Additionally, German Romanticism is a period not known for its educational thought. Instead of talking about education during that time, nowadays we mostly talk about literature, paintings and sometimes—but not very often—the philosophy of nature present during that time.

3.4

Contemporary Relevance

Blasche must be considered one of the most important but forgotten pedagogues when it comes to the discussion of education for sustainable development. Education for sustainable development is one of the most recent

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goals of the UNESCO. The idea of education for sustainable development has two main points of reference: today and tomorrow. On the one hand, it aims at educating children and youth to a more reflected use of energy and consumer goods. Mainly considered as a task of the global north, the UNESCO states that changing environmental and societal circumstances “urgently require a shift in our lifestyles and a transformation of the way we think and act. To achieve this change, we need new skills, values and attitudes that lead to more sustainable societies” (UNESCO 2017, p. 1). In 2015 the UN General Assembly agreed upon the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UNESCO 2015). This agenda includes 17 goals considered as an operationalized version of the goals of education for sustainable development. Besides the fight against poverty (cf. Koerrenz and Bunk 2013) and hunger, the UN also aims to “[p]rotect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss” (UNESCO 2017, p. 6). This ecological dimension of education for sustainable development can be considered an update of Blasche’s ideas. Taking ecology and nature into account, however, seems to be a general turn in contemporary educational sciences. Social sciences such as sociology and political science also consider environmental change as a crucial factor in daily life more and more nowadays. For example, Bruno Latours most recent work Facing Gaia: Eight Lectures on The New Climatic Regime (Latour 2017) takes the importance of nature and natural phenomenons into account as an entity with active agency. Additionally, contemporary educational thought considers animals as an important part of educational thinking more and more. Combining Blasche’s ideas with the thought of Donna Haraway (2016), one sees hints to the necessity of changing the relation between humans and their fellow entities to foster the feeling of an interconnectedness between humans, animals and nature in general: “Response-ability is about both absence and presence, killing and nurturing, living and dying—and remembering who lives and who dies and how in the stringfigures of naturalcultural history” (Haraway 2016, p. 28). From a theoretical point of view, Blasche thus offers a theory of pedagogical thought introducing other agents than humans into the manifold practices of educational action (Engelmann 2019). He thereby increases the level of complexity and points this complexity out in educational processes. From a more practical point of view, Blasche offers a useful variety of hints and suggestions for teachers and educators who want to raise awareness for the

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relevance and beauty of nature to children and youth. Despite the religious connotation of Blasche’s thought, his ideas like e.g. starting one’s own botanical garden, drawing wild flowers in nature or watching the bees work and produce honey in a sustainable way, can be used to educate children and youth. They all aim at a deeper understanding of the relation between humans and nature, whereas emphasis is placed on the fact that humans are always a part of nature—even though humans often think that they are more powerful than nature. By considering Blasche’s sensitization for natures agency and its educational value, his ideas can still be adapted for today’s education for sustainable development in a more and more complex society. The philosophy of nature developed throughout the time of German Romanticism should also be considered when talking about education for sustainable development. Even though the normative assumptions in Blasche’s educational thought sometimes seem to be weird, estranging or even disturbing, his contribution to pedagogical thought must be considered in order to understand the development of educational practices and legitimation practices at work today.

References Bach, C., & Waldmann, M. (2015). Romantische Naturphilosophie und Naturwissenschaft nach Schelling in Jena um 1800. In B. H. Blasche (Ed.), Naturbildung (pp. 21–42). Leipzig: EVA. Blasche, B. H. (1815/2015). Naturbildung. Leipzig: EVA. Bollnow, O. F. (1952). Die Pädagogik der deutschen Romantik. Von Arndt bis Fröbel. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer. Engelmann, S. (2019). Kindred Spirits—Learning to Love Nature the Posthuman Way. Journal of Philosophy of Education. Goldfriedrich, M. (2014). Ganzheitlicher Religionsunterricht bei Salzmann und GutsMuths. Schriften zur Leiblichkeit und zur Leibeserziehung. Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt. Haraway, D. (2016). Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Durham and London: Duke University Press. Kenklies, K. (2009). Erhard Weigels Vision universeller Bildung. In R. Koerrenz (Ed.), Laboratorium Bildungsreform. Jena als Zentrum pädagogischer Innovationen (pp. 15–33). Paderborn: Fink. Kenklies, K. (2015). Natürliche Ordnung und Pädagogische Natur. Zur Programmatik der Naturbildung von Bernhard Heinrich Blasche. In B. H. Blasche (Ed.), Naturbildung (pp. 43–58). Leipzig: EVA.

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Koerrenz, R., & Bunk, B. (Eds.). (2013). Armut und Armenfürsorge. Paderborn: Schöningh. Latour, B. (2017). Facing Gaia: Eight Lectures on the New Climatic Regime. Cambridge: Polity Press. Thonwart, T., & Töpper, S. (2015). Bernhard Heinrich Blasche—Leben und Werk. In B. H. Blasche (Ed.), Naturbildung (pp. 9–20). Leipzig: EVA. Trommer, G. (1990). Natur im Kopf. Die Geschichte ökologisch bedeutsamer Naturvorstellungen in deutschen Bildungskonzepten. Weinheim: Deutscher Studien Verlag. UNESCO. (2015). Agenda für Sustainable Development. https:// sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/21252030%20Agenda% 20for%20Sustainable%20Development%20web.pdf. Last Accessed 13 June 2019. UNESCO. (2017). Education for Sustainable Development. http://unesdoc. unesco.org/images/0024/002474/247444e.pdf. Last Accessed 14 June 2019.

CHAPTER 4

Helene Lange, Emancipation and Education for All

Abstract This chapter introduces the educational thought and the emancipative political ideas of the liberal politician Helene Lange. Helene Lange is introduced as part of the middle-class women’s movement in Germany that strived for the emancipation of women. Lange is discussed with regard to her activities for opening up higher education to women and the connection of culture and education. She understands education as an integral part of cultural progress and necessary to deconstruct the power asymmetries in society. Keywords Helene Lange · Politics · Social justice · Higher education · Women’s movement

4.1

Helene Lange---A Biographical Summary

Helene Lange was born in 1848 in Oldenburg in Lower-Saxony, Germany. As one of the most influential female German politicians, Lange’s work was highly important for the women’s emancipation movement and the emancipation of women in general (cf. Dollard 2009). Even though several public schools are named in her honour, the educational thought of Helene Lange is mostly neglected by mainstream educational sciences in Germany despite the fact that the German Dictionary of Pedagogy includes a short © The Author(s) 2019 R. Koerrenz and S. Engelmann, Forgotten Pedagogues of German Education, Palgrave Studies in Alternative Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29570-7_4

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biographical entry.1 Her international degree of popularity also seems to be quite low; her texts were not translated to English. The situation of Lange’s upbringing can be considered representative for the discrimination of women in modernizing western societies in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Due to institutionalized discrimination, there was no easy way for Lange to gain access to higher education. This was not only the case for women in the public education system. Alternative educational institutions such as the Landerziehungsheime, country boarding schools, must also be understood as discriminatory and sex repressive (Koerrenz et al. 2017, p. 28). Notwithstanding that, Helene Lange visited a so called Höhere Mädchenschule, a “higher” school for girls. This term disguises the fact that there was no such thing as an academic education at those schools. In the case of the higher schools for girls, “high” only referred to the societal position. These schools were understood as a demarcation from the girls that attended the Volksschule, the elementary school. In addition to this demarcation from the “lower” classes, the female persons that attended the Höhere Mädchenschule were allowed to attend a Lehrerinnenseminar, a school for female teacher education. This was one of the few ways for women to gain at least a small formal higher education in Germany during that time. Because of that, many intellectual women who became influential in the international women’s movement or German politics—such as Clara Zetkin or Minna Specht—attended this type of pedagogical institution (Engelmann and Stiebritz 2016; Engelmann 2017). Nevertheless, before Lange was able to attend such an institution, she was not only cooled out2 by the educational institutions of her time, but also by her own family. After a short stay in southern Germany, she returned to her hometown of Oldenburg. After the death of both of her

1 However, in 2001 and 2003 Caroline Hopf and Eva Matthes published collected texts

by Helene Lange and Getrud Bäumer that are informative for a perspective of education. Even though Hopf and Matthes started this project the discussion of Langes and Bäumers work never really took off in educational sciences. In their edited volume, Hopf and Matthes especially refer to Langes autobiographical text Lebenserinnerungen, her Memoirs, from 1928, a very expressive text that represents the biographies of many women from the middle class in Germany during that time. Despite the severe criticism by Kleinau in her review, the anthologies can be considered as a systematic entry point to the work of Lange and Bäumer. 2 For those unfamiliar with the term: “Cooling out” a person refers to a set of “silent” practices that are used to dissuade persons from aspired educational goals. Cooling out must be understood as one of the most toxic and complex practices in educational institutions (Rieger-Ladich 2010, 2018).

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parents she had to stay with her grandfather who did not allow her to attend the Lehrerinnenseminar. Instead of learning in an institutionalized context, Lange started to teach herself topics of interest by reading books. Additionally, according to her memoirs, she “waited” in intense boredom for the next steps in the life-course of a women from the middle class. Even though her intellectual development was restricted, she decided to work as an educator in Elsass. Later, she earned a heritance from her deceased parents and moved to Berlin. Finally in Berlin, she started studying at a Lehrerinnenseminar, an institution for female teachers. After a period of teaching at a private school for girls, Lange became the director of a teacher-training facility for women. During her stay in Berlin, she was involved in the work of the women’s movement and started to fight for a more just educational system for girls and women. Consequently, she established different qualification courses for girls and women andeven helped the first six girls in Germany to qualify for their A-levels. But the work of Helene Lange is also visible in the organizational field during the time—influencing the discussion up until today. In 1890, she founded an occupational union for female teachers. She became especially famous for founding the journal Die Frau, The Women, that she edited until her death in 1930. Although one must admit that Lange greatly influenced the political and educational landscape of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the field of educational sciences has mostly neglected her thoughts up until recently.3 This chapter aims not only at presenting her thoughts on the organizational reconstruction of the educational system and her influence on the education of girls, but also aims to present her ideas about educational theory that are, according to German researcher Eva Matthes highly interesting for today’s discussion about philosophy of education. Emphasizing the systematic educational thought of Lange, this chapter tries to first shed light on Helene Lange’s contribution to the foundations of education. We hope to thereby indicate the central position of Lange’s educational thought instead of limiting her contribution to the special educational thought on girl’s education. In a second step, Lange’s ideas for higher education are considered and discussed in more detail.

3 Of course, one has to mention the close relationship of Helene Lange and Getrud Bäumer that at least lasted from 1899 until Langes death in 1930. It almost seems weird to discuss both authors separately. However, we think that it is important to understand both as individual persons even though their thought is connected (Schaser 2000). Therefore, Bäumers thought is also discussed more detailed in this book.

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4.2

Education and Culture---A Theoretical Project

First and foremost, this chapter aims at elaborating on the thesis that Lange emphasized an understanding of the social underlining the importance of relations. Instead of describing a detached individual, Lange consequently understand the human being as embedded in and oriented towards social relations. According to this assumption, this chapter is going to point out that Lange strived for political education focusing on a change in cultural patterns through education. This assumption is shared by e.g. Matthes and Hopf (2003, pp. 11–13), who wrote an introduction to the more theoretical texts of Lange. However, there seem to be some variations that might be worth considering. One of the most important texts for this project is Lange’s Das Erziehungsziel unserer Zeit, a transcript of a lecture given in 1888 in Berlin. In her text, roughly translated as The Educational Aim of Our Time, that was published in a journal called Die Lehrerin in Schule und Haus, The Female Teacher in School and Household, Lange firstly criticizes approaches that try to offer a concise and abstract analysis of present figurations of society—put in sociological terms, she offers a cultural diagnosis of her time. However, such abstractions often lead to contradicting reductions that do not represent the state of society itself. The reduction of complexity—one might say—destroys the complexity by offering primitive answers to difficult questions that emphasize certain aspects of reality without taking others into account. Lange states that there are questions that arise again and again. It is eminently important that those questions be asked. Instead of questions concerning politics or economy, Lange identifies questions about education and religion as the most important of her time: Even though in this century questions concerning natural sciences, politics or economics became more and more prominent, religion and education are constantly contemplated and whoever rises to speak about one of these two questions certainly gets attention. (Lange 1888/2003, p. 28)4

4 “Und auch in unserem Jahrhundert, so sehr andere Fragen auf dem Gebiete der Naturwissenschaften, der Politik und des wirtschaftlichen Lebens in den Vordergrund getreten sind, beschäftigen doch Religion und Erziehung die Geister unaufhörlich, und wer in einer der beiden Fragen das Wort ergreift, ist der Aufmerksamkeit sicher” (Lange 1888/2003, S. 28).

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According to Lange, education is not only one trending topic on Twitter or a one hit wonder in the charts; it is a recurrent topic that must be discussed over and over. Because of its inherent connection to historical, cultural and societal factors, it is also one of the most diverse topics. There seems to be no consequent systematic answer to questions about education, and Lange sees a long-standing discussion of these questions especially in Germany. Although the Germans, per Lange, always strive for a systematic, complete understanding of phenomena, the nineteenth century especially is no longer characterized by a specific aim of education; it lost track of a clear goal. Contrary to the eighteenth century, when Europe especially was vibrating with the neo-humanist ideas of Wilhelm von Humboldt and others, the nineteenth century seems to be torn apart by different interests. A constant struggle to find the way seems unavoidable. It is noteworthy that Lange’s thought—even though it must be considered patriotic—does not privilege the neo-humanist ideas of the previous century; on the contrary, she polemically points out that the contemplative dialogue with antiquity alienated schooling and therefore people from the reality: Only lately, the national element was developed in Germany and Germans were able to realize the affectionate and pensive relation to an alien, antique world to a degree, in which real life with its more and more increasing demands and its meaning vanished. (Lange 1888/2003, pp. 28–29)5

One of the dominant interests of the nineteenth century must be understood as a merely economic one. On the one hand, Lange criticizes the trend in society to individualize one’s own course of life. She points out that instead of striving for human, moral or religious virtues, parents force their children into schools that allow them to survive in the struggle for positions in a changing society. Lange points out that in such actions an “atomistic” (Lange 1888/2003, p. 29) understanding of society becomes evident- a constant confrontation with other human beings that are mainly recognized as opponents in a fight. She heavily disagrees with a system for schooling that is no longer based on moral, humane or even religious norms, but on the constant economic fight of humans. On the other hand,

5 “Erst spät hat sich bei uns das nationale Element entwickelt, und ganz ungestört konnte sich das dem Deutschen so eigene liebevolle Versenken in eine fremde, antike Welt vollziehen, bis zu einem Grade, daß das wirkliche Leben mit seinem immer gewaltiger wachsenden Ansprüchen und seiner Bedeutung davor verschwand” (Lange 1888/2003, S. 28–29).

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Lange does not defy the positive results of individualization and secularization. Even the most pessimistic person must admit that […] never before has so much care been taken for those who cannot help themselves, for the poor and miserable, for those who are spiritually and morally neglected, for the spiritual and material upliftment of the people, on a purely private initiative in every direction; even the increasing dissatisfaction, which the harsh pressure of earlier times did not allow to arise, may bear witness to this. (Lange 1888/2003, p. 30)6

For Lange, development seems to be a highly complex and dialectical process. On the one hand, it is a sign for progress, even in a nationalistic sense. On the other hand, progress further dissolves to the already staggering, fragile order of cooperation in a society. Lange understands the nineteenth century as a century generally interested in doing good and following the Christian idea of Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself (Matt. 22. 33–40). Even though it is very often “harsh and business-like” (Lange 1888/2003, p. 31), the tendency of the century is oriented toward greater societal good and the integration of others. Regarding tendencies such as the ongoing individualization and atomization of society, Lange calls to arms. She calls for a fight “against the inner and outer softness of youth, against the paralyzing overfeeding with positive knowledge, but above all against the material and egoistic conception of life” (Lange 1888/2003, p. 32).7 Even more important than this is fostering a deeper insight in children and youths: Without other people, society is simply not possible. Lange states that the individual strength and skills developed throughout the life-course must be tied to the society. Society is not a mere accumulation of individual entities, but a network of interaction. Ignoring the interactive character of society means the end of progress—to work against this worst-case scenario, the culture of society must be handed to the next generation via education. 6 “[…] noch nie aus rein privater Initiative nach jeder Richtung hin so viel Sorge getragen ist für die, welche sich selbst nicht helfen können, für die Armen und Elenden, die geistig und sittlich Verwahrlosten, die geistige und materielle Hebung des Volkes; schon die lauter werdende Unzufriedenheit, die der harte Druck früherer Zeiten nicht aufkommen ließ, mag dafür zeugen” (Lange 1888/2003, S. 30). 7 “[…] gegen die innere und äußere Verweichlichung der Jugend, gegen die lähmende Überfütterung mit positivem Wissen, vor allem aber gegen materielle und egoistische Auffassung des Lebens” (Lange 1888/2003, S. 32).

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But what are the problems of this process? The problems are situated in cultural development itself. In another important text, Lange analyses the problematic tendencies she observed in culture throughout the nineteenth century. 20 years after the educational aim of our time, Lange pointed out the cultural patterns present during the nineteenth and early twentieth century again. In Die Zukunft unserer Kultur, The Future of our Culture, Lange was asked which cultural and educational policies must be developed in order to foster societal development. Lange first of all states that she thinks that the future can be altered through political actions and education in the present. However, she does not think that culture can be created in an intentional manner. Instead of a technical idea and the intention to produce a different future, Lange argues for preparing this future: There is no doubt that culture cannot be created intentionally, but can only be prepared, placed under favourable conditions, freed from obstacles and harmful side effects. Cultural policy can only consist of bringing the existing creative forces to the strongest and most far-reaching positive effects possible. (Lange 1908/1909/2003, p. 33)8

Considering the understanding of cultural and educational policies Lange offers, one can say that she understands education in the same way. Education as an intentional act towards the future does not immediately succeed. Though education is not able to realize intentions right away, it can prepare a different future, by supporting the assumed creative powers in human beings. Education is understood as a scaffolding for the flourishing of individual capabilities Lange assumes in human beings. Therefore, education is an active act that does not veil his intentions. While taking the individual characteristics of children into account, educators act intentionally and do not only defend the child from the influences of society. On the contrary, they take an active role in the development of children. Lange’s idea of human flourishing—because of her emancipatory goals—is predominately aimed at intellectual flourishing. In a time in which physical security was not at stake for the middle-class Lange was a part of, the emancipation was aimed at intellectual emancipation. She understands the 8 “Ohne Zweifel kann Kultur nicht absichtsvoll geschaffen, sondern nur vorbereitet, unter günstige Bedingungen gestellt, von Hemmnissen, schädlichen Nebenwirkungen befreit werden. Kulturpolitik kann nur darin bestehen, die vorhandenen schöpferischen Kräfte zu möglichst starken und weittragenden positiven Wirkungen zu bringen” (Lange 1908/1909/2003, S. 33).

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acquisition of knowledge as the most utile way to emancipate women, to help them overcome their subordination in a society dominated by knowledgeable, educated men. Over and over, Lange emphasizes that the intellectual development of her time was both positive and negative. Social institutions, political regulations and educational practices became more and more progressive. However, the intellectual development also pushed things aside such as feelings, emotions or religion. These are aspects of human life that must be considered—especially in education. To raise awareness for this, Lange calls for a new Bildungsideal, a new aim of education. By changing education, the culture itself can be changed. To realize all this, fundamental changes must be applied to schooling: If therefore now in our school system the working principle consciously and methodically replaces by the principle of learning, if the fight against empty abstraction, verbalism and sham knowledge is actively waged, this means an intensification of the forces which today in art, literature and philosophy of life point to a new balance between intellectual and moral-aesthetic culture. (Lange 1908/1909/2003, p. 34)9

Instead of focusing on knowledge-based exercises and teaching, Lange supports a school based on individual work by the students. Her ideas are in line with other educators such as Georg Kerschensteiner, who became famous for developing the model of an industrial school and is “often depicted as the father of vocational education. He emphasizes goal-oriented and self-directed manual work in school to reach both a higher level of morality and personal gains via schooling” (Koerrenz et al. 2017, p. 36). Empty abstractions—as already mentioned above—are not in line with Lange’s concept for cultural development. She aims at enriching schooling and education with art, literature and work-related tasks. Thereby she hopes to solve the overemphasis of intellectual tasks. Not only does she refuse such an overemphasis because of her insight that learning is more than knowledge reproduction. She also refuses it, because this mode of learning is mostly centred on the individual learner. Her idea of education 9 “Wenn deshalb jetzt in unserem Schulwesen bewußt und methodisch das Arbeitsprinzip an die Stelle des Lernprinzips gestellt wird, wenn der Kampf gegen leere Abstraktion, Verbalismus und Scheinwissen tatkräftig geführt wird, so bedeutet das eine Verstärkung der Kräfte, die heute in Kunst, Literatur und Lebensphilosophie auf einen neuen Ausgleich von intellektueller und sittlich-ästhetischer Kultur hinweisen” (Lange 1908/1909/2003, S. 34).

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is a social one. All kinds of education must be tied to the development of the social life. Whereas education in the eighteenth century was mostly aimed at individual development, in the nineteenth century the social circumstances became more and more important. Helene Lange grasps education as one way to democratize social life. Cultural change is only possible when democratization is pushed forward: This is only possible in one way: through an increasing democratization of our social life. The strong, super-personal interests, without which our society can exist less than ever, can only be created if the individual is bound to the whole with duties and rights, is at the same time dependent on the whole and thinks in terms of creating the whole. (Lange 1908/1909/2003, p. 35)10

Democratization by education in daily life is the main goal of education in Helene Lange’s concept for education. She wants to connect the capabilities of all individuals to the goal of a good, moral, diverse development of the state. Even though this might sound strange to today’s readers, her ideas are very liberal. Even though she emphasizes the role of politics and the state, the individual persons are not suppressed; on the contrary, they are emancipated. New options are offered, that might help them to flourish. Education therefore must be understood theoretically as the action that helps to push a society forward by freeing the potential of the individuals. As Matthes put it, this idea of education reminds us of a communitarian approach to education: The community becomes important, because it supports the individual development. With all its critical points, Lange understands the state as this community. But during the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century not everyone was part of this community. Women especially were excluded from developing their potential by supportive concepts of education. It is because of this fact that Helene Lange also rigidly developed positions for the higher education of women. We’ll turn to this idea in the next subchapter.

10 “Das ist nur auf einem Wege möglich: durch eine zunehmende Demokratisierung unseres sozialen Lebens. Die starken, überpersönlichen Interessen, ohne die unsere Gesellschaft weniger denn je bestehen kann, können nur dadurch geschaffen werden, daß der einzelne mit Pflichten und Rechten an das Ganze gebunden wird, sich zugleich vom Ganzen abhängig und im Ganzen mitschaffen denkt” (Lange 1908/1909/2003, S. 35).

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4.3

Higher Education for Girls

Lange must be considered as one of the canonical thinkers of the feminist movement in Germany—even though the concept of “the canonical” itself is highly contested as elaborated in our foreword. However, certain texts of Lange are considered to be of high importance in the discussion of their time (cf. Glaser 2008). Besides the theoretical ideas elaborated above, Lange also developed more practical ideas directly aimed at the emancipation of women by providing them with access to higher education. These ideas for higher education are tied to the aims of education developed in the first subchapter: emancipation and the individual development in connection to the development of the community. Even though Helene Lange became especially prominent in Germany for a text that is known as the Yellow Brochure, Eva Matthes argues that another text, Das Wissen der Frau, The Knowledge of the Women, already includes her most important ideas on education. Instead of focusing on her practical approaches to education, we follow along Lange’s more theoretical discussion of schooling. Instead of discussing specific aspects or pedagogical arrangements, this text develops the general criticism of Lange—therefore, it is substantial to revisit this text. The first thing to mention about this text is that it’s surprisingly coherent with other texts by Lange, she actually even uses phrases and tropes of argumentation over and over. But what is the main idea of the text? The foundation of her whole concept for girls schooling is the turn to experience as a fundamental change in the practice of instruction. Not unlike the various protagonists of the alternative education movement—slowly gaining momentum at the end of nineteenth century—Lange criticizes the organizational structure of schooling for girls and the characteristics of instruction itself. With regard to the schooling of girls and their possibility to gain access to secondary education abide the Höhere Töchterschule, Lange refused two lines of argumentation. On the one hand, she didn’t acknowledge a copy of the already established Gymnasium, a secondary school that nowadays leads to the A-levels and thereby provides access to university, limited to girls. On the other hand, she abided a type of secondary schooling that emphasized “womanly” skills such as cooking, sewing or ironing. According to Lange, both positions, do not facilitate the emancipation of women in the long run. Consequently, Lange offered a third position—derived from her understanding of womanhood, woman’s nature, that she developed as the cornerstone of her argumentation:

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The woman is in general neither called to the promotion of abstract and practical science more or less than the man, nor is she there alone for the kitchen, the house and the man, as he likes to claim: she is in the broadest sense of the word for others in the world. (Lange 1885/2001, p. 118)11

Women are not more or less able to learn about abstract things or to fulfil complex tasks compared to men. The potential and the tasks of women are very clear to Lange. Women are not generally better or worse than men. However, they are more oriented to other human beings, they are “for others” (Lange 1885/2001, p. 118) in the world. Instead of highly individualized males, women are oriented towards the social. Therefore, women are even more important for the development of the society. They must be considered, because without them, the cultural-political task sketched out above could not be fulfilled. They are—to put in in a nutshell—an integral part of society. Besides this general task for women, Lange also states that the education of the following generations must be considered one of the central tasks of women. This might sound very restrictive at first—nowadays, education and especially child-rearing is subsumed under the umbrella term of reproductive work. Even though most politicians agree that education is the most integral part of a society’s future, the monetary funding is still way too low. Lange counters this lip service by emphasizing the importance of education. She does not argue that education and child-rearing are the “natural” tasks of women; nevertheless, she states, that women are better at it. Adding to this almost essentialist argument, she offers a valid point for the political discussion that shows her pragmatic and realistic mind-set: Women must be considered in education—and especially in schools—because the influences of man are too high. So if a cooperation of both sexes is desirable in the educational teaching, then at least, analogous to the relationship in the family, the woman would have to be granted the most significant influence on the girls, while in reality just

11 “Die Frau ist im allgemeinen weder zur Förderung abstrakter und praktischer Wissenschaft berufen wie der Mann, noch ist sie allein für Küche, Haus und den Mann da, wie dieser sehr gerne behauptet: sie ist im weitesten Sinne des Wortes für andre auf der Welt” (Lange 1885/2001, S. 118).

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there, where it would be so urgently necessary, with the half grown-up girls, virtually none is permitted. (Lange 1885/2001, p. 129)12

It is because of this imbalance that the instruction of girls does not fit their needs and ends in frustration. During the time Lange wrote her article, women were not allowed to teach at secondary level—so even in cases where higher education was possible, the girls were taught by men. Those men prevented them from flourishing by forcing them to adapt to an assumed male style of teaching. Lange assumes this male style of teaching, a biased instruction that does not resonate with the needs of girls. Women must therefore take part in the secondary education of girls to solve this problem: It does not occur to me to attribute more teaching talent to the woman as such as the man. The man is without question far more suitable for teaching boys than a woman, but she is also far more suitable for teaching girls. This is something so natural that only the practice, which has existed for thousands of years and is opposed by the lack of knowledge of women, can explain that this truth does not belong to the most general insights of pedagogy. (Lange 1885/2001, p. 132)13

So, on the one hand, Helene Lange claims that the organization of schooling must be changed drastically. Female teachers must be employed to secure a secondary education that anticipates the needs of girls. On the other hand, she also suggests implementing a new subject in schools. She calls this subject Lebenskunde, Life Science or Study of Life. Again, similarities to German educators from the Alternative Education movement become evident; those educators also focused on the life itself as an important part of all kinds of education. Lange imagines the subject Life Sciences to be a holistic approach to a changing society: 12 “Ist also ein Zusammenwirken beider Geschlechter beim erziehenden Unterricht wünschenswert, so müßte doch wenigstens, analog dem Verhältnis in der Familie, der Frau der bedeutendste Einfluss auf die Mädchen eingeräumt werden, während in Wirklichkeit gerade da, wo er so dringend notwendig wäre, bei den halberwachsenen Mädchen, so gut wie gar keiner gestattet ist” (Lange 1885/2001, S. 129). 13 “Es fällt mir nicht ein, der Frau als solcher mehr Lehrtalent zuzuschreiben als dem Mann. Dieser ist ohne Frage für den Knabenunterricht weit geeigneter, als die Frau, ebenso ist sie es aber für den Mädchenunterricht. Das ist etwas so Natürliches, daß nur die Jahrtausende lange, durch die Unwissenheit der Frauen bedingte entgegengesetzte Praxis es erklären kann, daß diese Wahrheit nicht zum ABC der Pädagogik gehört” (Lange 1885/2001, S. 132).

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So one teaches them to remedy this evil, to know the real world, to teach them to do, to intervene, to show them at least for later the ways to it. In the future, the school will have to include in its learning program a new subject for which I don’t know a right name yet; one could call it “the study of life. (Lange 1885/2001, p. 121)14

According to Lange, this subject is necessary for coping with a society of increasing complexity. To act in this society in a sovereign way, the girls need practical knowledge about the societal circumstances. It is the task of schools to mediate between children and the complex society. Educational experiences should be provided, guided and reflected upon in classes. This way, schooling provides a way for children to get in touch with a vibrant reality instead of an alienating fixation on positive knowledge, mostly present in schools at this time (and today). However, this very basic and because of that unspecific guideline for instruction is connected to content and concrete practices: If the young girl is to go through life differently with open eyes and a helping hand, she must be taught a concept of the living conditions and circumstances of the various classes of society, of their needs and emergencies, of public nursing, care for the poor and their organization and the practical institutions that take effect in this regard, but above all a consciousness of the solidarity of human interests, of the liability of one for the other, especially of the richer for the poorer. (Lange 1885/2001, p. 123)15

The girls should get in touch with all aspects of society; they should see the varying routes a life can take to experience their own situatedness and— one might say—privilege. Instead of letting the girls live in illusions, dream

14 “Man lehre sie also, um diesem Übelstande abzuhelfen, die reale Welt kennen, man lehre

sie tun, eingreifen, man zeige ihnen wenigstens für später die Wege dazu. Die Schule wird in Zukunft in ihr Lernprogramm einen neuen Gegenstand aufnehmen müsse, für den ich keinen rechten Namen weiß; oder doch; man könnte ihn Lebenskunde nennen” (Lange 1885/2001, S. 121). 15 “Dem jungen Mädchen muß, soll es anders mit offenen Augen und helfender Hand durch das Leben gehen, ein Begriff beigebracht werden von den Lebensbedingungen und Verhältnissen der verschiedenen Gesellschaftsklassen, von ihren Bedürfnissen und Notständen, von der öffentlichen Krankenpflege, der Armenpflege und ihrer Organisation und den dahin einschlagenden praktischen Einrichtungen, vor allem aber ein Bewußtsein von der Solidarität der menschlichen Interessen, von der Haftpflicht des einen für den andren, besonders der Reicheren für den Ärmeren” (Lange 1885/2001, S. 123).

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for a richer middle-class, Lange wants them to experience the real absurdity of the world, fears, poverty and hardship—but also hopes and dreams. Not only are the girls supposed to become aware of their surroundings, they should also become active and engaged in them. The key to this is the idea of Selbsttätigkeit . Selbsttätigkeit means that they are active themselves as experiences of self-efficacy. The girls are asked to fulfil tasks, not only intellectual but also practical, physical tasks. Like Kerschensteiner, Lange suggests the Schulgarten, a garden in the school. Thereby, she implicitly refers to Emile by Rousseau: The children had something to do with the garden on the lower school level, with the growth and blooming of the plants; so they are led into the garden - a very small spot, to be procured for every school, can serve as such - they are taught to work the soil, to have it sown and planted, watered, weeded, picked and pruned themselves, all under methodical guidance, without this coming to their consciousness. (Lange 1885/2001, p. 124)16

Besides the school garden, another institution is crucial for a secondary school that suits the needs of girls: the kindergarten. Lange argues, that education—as already stated above—is one of the main tasks of women. To apply the concept of self-activity, the kindergarten is opened up as a place for social and informal learning: The nursery, the kindergarten, that is the area in which the young girls have to learn and practice self-activity. Here they have to have their hands and eyes everywhere, pay attention to the smallest detail and there is no time for idle dreaming. Here the young girls are practically prepared for their most real profession as mothers and educators. (Lange 1885/2001, p. 125)17

16 “Die Kinder haben auf der Unterstufe etwas vom Garten gehabt, vom Wachsen und Blühen der Pflanzen; man führe sie also in den Garten – ein sehr kleiner Fleck, für jede Schule zu beschaffen, kann als solcher dienen – man lehre sie den Boden bearbeiten, lasse sie selbst säen und pflanzen, begießen, jäten, pflücken und beschneiden, alles unter methodischer Leitung, ohne daß ihnen diese zum Bewußtsein kommt” (Lange 1885/2001, S. 124). 17 “Die Kinderstube, der Kindergarten, das ist das Gebiet, auf dem die jungen Mädchen Selbsthtätigkeit lernen und üben müssen. Hier heißt es zugreifen, aufpassen, Augen und Hände überall haben, auf das Kleinste achten und zu müßigen Träumereien bleibt keine Zeit. Hier werden die jungen Mädchen praktisch auf ihren eigentlichsten Beruf als Mütter und Erzieherinnen vorbereitet” (Lange 1885/2001, S. 125).

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To sum up: Helene Lange understands cultural development as a longterm project that is carried forward by education and self-activity. Instead of limiting this project to male participants, she calls the women to take and active leading role in this project. They are asked to extend their sphere of influence, because during the late nineteenth century they were not present in schools. Lange—who always fought for female teachers and higher education for girls and women—points out that the system of schooling is not only run by males, but it also applies a male mode of thought. Instead of positive knowledge and memorization, Lange asks for a turn to subjectand practice-oriented instruction in schools. She wants to shift the focus from knowledge to practice induced by experience. Her whole concept of schooling is based on her understanding of womanhood. She vividly argues for an understanding of women’s capability as equivalent to that of man; however, she also raises awareness for the specific needs of girls and women. This is the cornerstone of her theoretical foundation for secondary education for girls.

4.4

Historical Context

To better understand this argument, a closer look at the historical and cultural context of Lange’s work might be helpful. As already mentioned above, Helene Lange was an important actor in the women’s movement in Germany—a diverse amount of people that fought—and still fight— for the emancipation of women. Lange herself was part of the moderate middle-class women’s movement. So, one might even say that feminists all around the world are connected to Helene Lange in one way or the other. Additionally, Lange’s struggle for women’s higher education must be contextualized in the general development of higher education in Prussia that led to a slow increase in girls and women gaining access to various forms of higher education. The women’s movement in Germany wasn’t a coherent movement (Offen 2000; Notz 2018). Neither was it in France, England or Portugal. Notwithstanding that the different actors of the movement shared the general goal to emancipate women from patriarchal structures, the assumptions about the nature of women, the characteristics of e.g. womanhood and various political points of view differed from each other. Firstly, Helene Lange was representative of a line of thought that might nowadays be subsumed under the umbrella term difference feminism. Difference feminism

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argues that there might be differences between women and men. However, those difference do not constitute different moral positions; neither the man nor the women is inherently better. As already pointed out in the previous subchapter, Lange assumed that women and girls have different needs and a different influence on society. She argued that women are “for others” (Lange 1885/2001, p. 118). This means that women can develop a specific influence on society that man cannot develop. She tried to empower this specific womanly influence by changing not only schooling but also the political order; on behalf of the cultural project women ought to participate in all aspects of society. Secondly, Helene Lange was a very patriotic person. In the previous subchapters we sometimes mentioned the idea of cultural development; Lange always thinks emancipation connected to the idea of increasing benefits for the nation state—as long as the nation state does not suppress the citizens. She was close to Friedrich Naumann, the first president of the Deutsche Demokratische Partei, a liberal party in Germany, which was founded in 1918—Lange was part of the founding generation. Participation in society and politics was—at least officially—almost not possible for women during the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Women in Germany were not allowed to vote until November 1918; a long fight for this right was necessary. This exclusion from participation was also grounded in the exclusion from secondary education for girls and women, denying the women the chance to prove that they were able to participate in politics. Attending secondary education was also not possible for girls for a very long time; therefore, teaching in higher education for girls was also impossible. The patriarchy stabilized its own construct of women inferiority by denying access to knowledge and political influence. For example, to access university—the highest educational institution in Germany up until today—you not only had to complete classes at the Gymnasium, but you also had to be a young man. The first institutions for female higher education—as mentioned above—were not for higher education itself. They were Janus-faced institutions that were on the one hand a way to gain more knowledge. On the other hand, they were a mark of distinction in a stratified society. Later on, private institutions were founded where girls were allowed to take classes, mostly led by men. The women’s movement fought for opening secondary education up for girls. In her famous yellow brochure—which is still named as a famous milestone in the process for a publicly-funded education for girls—Helene Lange herself states that the system has to be reformed in a fundamental way. This,

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however, did not happen in Prussia nationwide until in the early nineteenth century. Until this point, locally established schools for girls worked with preparatory classes, the girls were allowed to take their exams at the schools for boys. The whole development of establishing secondary education for women helped to increase the influence of women on political issues. Women slowly gained access to universities, even though they were not accepted widely. The opening of higher education for girls must also be considered one step on the way to coeducation. Nevertheless, one must keep in mind that there are still schools in Germany, that work under the label of Lyzeum, a school only for girls.

4.5

Contemporary Relevance

The contemporary relevance of Helene Lange’s work must not be underestimated. Reading the selected texts by Lange published in 2001 and 2003 by Hopf and Matthes offers insights into the thought of a highly contoured and highly political position on education. Unfortunately, the texts of Helene Lange were not translated to English yet—even though her understanding of politics and education as a crucial part of progress (in all its ambiguity) might form a pragmatic foundation for an international discussion. Helene Lange’s position cannot be considered radical or utopic. Instead of that, Lange offers a pragmatic analysis of a rapidly changing historical context. Even though her ideas are situated in a specific time and a specific cultural context, they are still fruitful for today’s discussion, especially regarding the inherent politics of education. Two things are especially interesting for today’s discussion: Lange’s idea of a democratization of knowledge and her understanding of education as a cultural project. Democratization of knowledge seems to be one of the main interests expressed in Lange’s work. In her work, Lange calls for opening education for one specifically excluded category of people: women. She argues that women have specific needs and need a different style of learning and even teaching. Even if we do not agree with Lange’s essentialist understanding of the identity of women, she makes a strong claim when she points out that education is the key to a just world—therefore, all people must be able to get access to proper education. Grasping the notion already present in the work of Comenius, Lange tries to integrate everybody into the cultural project of shared learning experiences. Lange sensitizes modern readers for the processes of exclusion that still take place in schools nowadays—she

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must be considered as one of the founding figures of more radical concepts of education for women’s liberation, empowerment and the critical analysis of sexist institutional settings and biased politics. Postcolonial thinking— even though Lange must be considered a part of the white establishment— offers a lot of similarities to Lange’s thought, albeit postcolonial thought refrains from Lange’s irritating understanding of women’s nature. Nevertheless, Lange might be an ally to side with for the ongoing emancipation of women from suppression by fighting for access to education. Taking Lange’s general strive for emancipation into account, her understanding of education as a critical cultural project is in line with the thought of educators Kirylo presented as a Critical Pedagogy of Resistance (cf. Kirylo 2013a). Even though Paulo Freire is often named as the “Father” of Critical Pedagogy (cf. Kirylo 2013b), Lange must be considered as a person, who also “challenge[d] individuals and institutional structures that perpetuated the status quo” (Kirylo 2013b, p. 49). In his Pedagogy of the Oppressed Freire pointed out that for agency, knowledge about the individual and societal circumstances is needed. Emancipation is a process of learning that leads to a clear consciousness about the individuals own position in society. Helene Lange was one of the first political thinkers of the women’s rights movement that considered the process of emancipation intricately entwined with (a) higher education and (b) institutional representation. Her ideas for fostering a shared culture of mutual dependency and her severe criticism of biased institutions are still highly relevant for today’s discussion about justice in the educational system and the position of women in the market higher education has become today. Additionally, Lange develops a line of thought which strictly ties education to cultural development. On the one hand, this might be problematic. Education is not able to save the world or make human beings “better” in a technological sense. On the other hand, the influence of education must not be underestimated. Education is a crucial factor when it comes to the allocation of positions in a still stratified society. Long before sociologists of education such as Bowles and Gintis elaborated on the connection of schooling and labour market (1976/2011) and quite some time before James Coleman wrote his book Asymmetric Society (1982), Helene Lange stated that institutions are tied to economy and this economic principle shapes the relation of people towards each other. Even this short glimpse into the comprehensive work of Lange offers fruitful insights for thinking educational reality anew—both in schools and social work. However, there is still a lot of work to do. In

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the English-speaking world, Lange’s work is not present at all; that’s a pity and it should not stay this way.

References Bowles, S., & Gintis, H. (1976/2011). Schooling in Capitalist America: Educational Reform and the Contradictions of Economic Life. Chicago: Haymarket Books. Coleman, J. S. (1982). The Asymmetric Society. Syracuse: University Press. Dollard, C. L. (2009). The Surplus Woman: Unmarried in Imperial Germany, 1871–1918. New York: Berghahn. Engelmann, S., & Stiebritz, A. (2016). Clara Zetkin - Eine vergessene Pädagogin? In B. Paul, M. Winkler, & R. Pfützner (Eds.), Sozialistische Pädagogik: Eine kommentierte Anthologie (pp. 219–236). Baltmannsweiler: Schneider. Engelmann, S. (2017). Die Pädagogin Minna Specht - Erziehung für den Frieden. Wissenschaft Und Frieden, 1, 29–31. Glaser, E. (2008). Was ist eine pädagogische Klassikerin? Helene Lange und die Stilisierung der “Gelben Broschüre”. Ariadne, 53–54, 18–29. Hopf, C., & Matthes, E. (Eds.). (2001). Helene Lange und Gertrud Bäumer Ihr Engagement für die Frauen- und Mädchenbildung. Kommentierte Texte. Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt. Kirylo, J. D. (Ed.). (2013a). A Critical Pedagogy of Resistance: 34 Pedagogues We Need to Know. Rotterdam: Sense. Kirylo, J. D. (2013b). Paulo Freire ‘Father’ of Critical Pedagogy. In J. D. Kirylo (Ed.), A Critical Pedagogy of Resistance: 34 Pedagogues We Need to Know (pp. 49–52). Rotterdam: Sense. Koerrenz, R., Blichmann, A., & Engelmann, S. (2017). Alternative Schooling and New Education: European Concepts and Models. London: Palgrave. Lange, H. (1885/2001). Das Wissen der Frau. In C. Hopf & E. Matthes (Eds.), Helene Lange und Gertrud Bäumer. Ihr Engangement für die Frauen- und Mädchenbildung. Kommentierte Texte (pp. 118–133). Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt. Lange, H. (1888/2003). Das Erziehungsziel unserer Zeit. In E. Matthes & C. Hopf (Eds.), Helene Lange und Getrud Bäumer. Ihr Beitrag zum Erziehungsund Bildungsdiskurs vom Wilhelminischen Kaiserreich bis in die NS-Zeit. Kommentierte Texte (pp. 28–32). Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt. Lange, H. (1908/1909/2003). Die Zukunft unserer Kultur. In E. Matthes & C. Hopf (Eds.), Helene Lange und Getrud Bäumer. Ihr Beitrag zum Erziehungsund Bildungsdiskurs vom Wilhelminischen Kaiserreich bis in die NS-Zeit. Kommentierte Texte (pp. 33–35). Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt. Matthes, E., & Hopf, C. (Eds.). (2003). Helene Lange und Getrud Bäumer. Ihr Beitrag zum Erziehungs- und Bildungsdiskurs vom Wilhelminischen Kaiserreich bis in die NS-Zeit. Kommentierte Texte. Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt.

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Notz, G. (2018). Feminismus. Köln: Papyrossa. Offen, K. (2000). European Feminismus, 1700–1950: A Political History. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Rieger-Ladich, M. (2010). “Sanfte Eliminierung” und “Cooling Out”. Organisationstheoretische Überlegungen zur Schulkultur. Vierteljahrsschrift für wissenschaftliche Pädagogik, 86(4), 440–450. Rieger-Ladich, M. (2018). Cooling out. Warum Schule mehr ausgrenzt als inkludiert. Kursbuch, 193, 100–114. Schaser, A. (2000). Helene Lange und Gertrud Bäumer: Eine politische Lebensgemeinschaft. Köln: Böhlau.

CHAPTER 5

Heinrich Scharrelmann and the Art of Storytelling

Abstract This chapter introduces the ideas of the German headmaster, educator and author Heinrich Scharrelmann. His thinking is characterized by the conviction that the church in modernity has lost its function as a point of orientation for the individual and society. Scharrelmann understands religion primarily as an individual experience, whereby every approach to religion is characterized as free and equal. This, however, confronts the individual with the challenge of finding meaning for his or her own life. Scharrelmann provides readers with one promising way to solve this problem—or at least to deal with it in a proper way. Keywords Heinrich Scharrelmann · Modernity · Church · Modernity · Religion

5.1

Heinrich Scharrelmann---A Biographical Summary

Heinrich Scharrelmann (1871–1940) belongs to the context of the German Alternative Education (Koerrenz 2014, p. 111ff.; Koerrenz, Blichmann and Engelmann 2017, pp. 1–15). He was interested in a practice and theory of education that could take modern individualism into account. The motif of “life” was at the centre of his considerations, which were closely linked © The Author(s) 2019 R. Koerrenz and S. Engelmann, Forgotten Pedagogues of German Education, Palgrave Studies in Alternative Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29570-7_5

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to pedagogical practice. The motif of “vividness” was at the focal point of his thoughts on the teaching of teachers and the learning of pupils. Heinrich Scharrelmann was born in 1871 in Bremen, a large city in northern Germany. There he attended the Volksschule, an elementary school, from 1878 to 1886. To be able to work as a teacher in the Volksschule itself, it was not necessary to study at a university at that time. The training as a primary school teacher took place through practical training in a teacher seminar. From 1886 to 1891, Scharrelmann attended such a teacher training seminar in Bremen. Following this training, he then became a teacher at a Volksschule in Bremen in 1891. His reflections focused mainly on the function teaching plays in the development of children and young people. He referred to motifs from the field of the Kunsterziehungsbewegung, the Movement for Art Education. He saw the goal of school in the aesthetic sensitization of the individual for the meaning of life. This was about the individual and his individual interpretation of the world. It was no longer primarily a matter of conveying a certain religious-Christian morality. At this time, these moral concepts were conveyed in schools above all through the ecclesiastically determined religious instruction. We must remember that at that time the churches were still in charge of the Elementary school. This usually took place formally via the local pastor as school supervisor and, in terms of content, primarily by means of denominational religious instruction. Scharrelmann’s examination of religion at school was thus always also an examination of the power structures that regulated the institution and the persons working within it (pupils, teachers). Scharrelmann left the Bremen school service in 1909 after being sentenced to a heavy fine in disciplinary proceedings for his very free and church-critical way of teaching. He then worked at various private schools (including employments in Hamburg, Ludwigshafen and Mainz). The social structure of the empire ended in 1919 with the defeat of the German Reich in the First World War. The form of imperial rule was essentially determined by the principle of throne and altar. This is understood above all as mutual legitimation of religion and state—i.e. the legitimation of state power by the church and at the same time the legitimation of church power and the state. This principle also ended with the empire. After the end of the empire, Scharrelmann returned to the school service of the city of Bremen in 1919 with the beginning of the Weimar Republic. From 1920 on, he was headmaster of the experimental school SchleswigerStraße in Bremen, a free-lance socialist school where he applied ideas of

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experiential education. The basic idea of experiential education was that learning is essentially influenced by experiences. Thus, it is important to make such experiences possible for children. Didactically, the arrangement of such experiences is the central challenge. Even though Scharrelmann now had a responsible position, he remained very stubborn and unwilling to compromise. This led to difficulties at his school. After conflicts with the teaching staff, he retired from his office in 1921. In 1927, he finally retired. The problematic ambivalence of Scharrelmann’s personality and work became apparent in his relationship to National Socialism at the beginning of the 1930s. So, after 1931 he believed he could realize his ideas in the National Socialist Teachers’ Association and in the National-Socialist Party of Germany. From March to May 1933, during the early days of the Nazi dictatorship, he was a short-term expert advisor to the elementary school system in Bremen. He never completely distanced himself from the system and in 1937 published an even larger school-theoretical paper. In 1939, however, he resigned from the party. His pedagogical work must therefore also be critically analysed as a whole. The question to be discussed is whether a strong emphasis on experience and irrationalism, as with Scharrelmann, is inevitably susceptible to adaptation to such a totalitarian and inhuman regime. Scharrelmann died in 1940 and was buried in Ludwigshafen on Lake Constance. Scharrelmann achieved a high degree of popularity in the context of educational circles of “alternative education” primarily through his writings. Some of his writings had several editions and were sold in larger quantities. His main didactic work dates from 1919 and deals with the “technique of describing and narrating”. With a view to learning through experience, the question of how teaching is determined above all by the type of narrative is discussed here. In his literary work, descriptions of his own pedagogical practice and general theoretical considerations were mixed from the very beginning. This tension already permeated his first work Herzhafter Unterricht. Gedanken und Proben aus einer unmodernen Pädagogik the first edition of which appeared in 1902. The second volume was published in 1904 under the title Weg zur Kraft. Des ‘herzlichhaften Unterrichts’ second part. His didactic conception of visual instruction and his interest in local history are reflected in the two books Goldene Heimat (1908) and Aus meiner Werkstatt (1909). His own teaching practice also forms the background for the collection of essays Erlebte Pädagogik, roughly translated to Experienced Pedagogy. In all his writings he positioned himself directly

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or indirectly against religious instruction by the church and denomination and demanded a different understanding of religion based on a general human disposition, also for religious instruction in schools. In the 1920s, this led him to increasingly try to justify mystical ideas of general human religiousness as the basis of pedagogy. In his books Die große Umkehr (1924) and Vom strahlenden Leben. Versuch einer neuen pädagogischen Teleologie (1927), there is a strongly irrational trait that also determined his last major publication Von der Lernschule über die Arbeitsschule zur Charakterschule (1937). All these titles were never translated to English—maybe because of Scharrelmanns involvement with German national socialists or their irrational lines of argumentation.

5.2

Religion, Education and Narrative

Who must determine what should be taught at school? What role should creativity, imagination and the personality of teachers and learners play in school? What kind of religion is appropriate for a modern school? And what does this mean for the understanding of education? This spectrum of questions can be described that stand in the background of Heinrich Scharrelmann’s pedagogy. The starting point of his reflections was the observation of a fundamental change of church and religion around 1900 regarding society and the individual life course. This change in the modern age above all concerns the function of the school for the task that all people must build up an image of themselves and life. Ultimately, the change concerns the meaning and function of the area determined through aspects of religion and morality. Regarding modern society, Scharrelmann above all refers to the loss of the function of the churches. In his work as a teacjer he experienced the church religion above all as legitimation of the state power relations. This ecclesiastical legitimation of the state power relations in the German Empire demanded a subjugation of the subjects under the prevailing political conditions. But for Scharrelmann, this is outmoded, old-fashioned. For the churches had long since lost the authority to determine something like a collective morality. The churches have also lost their personal significance regarding the life paths of individuals. Scharrelmann analyses his time with the words: “We modern people have a strange experience with the churches. We can’t find a proper position for them anymore. What they should be to us, they are no longer to us, and with their pronounced, peculiar character churches do not want to be suitable for anything else properly. … And

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what significance did the church once have for the congregation? Yes, yes, times change” (Scharrelmann 1912/1922, pp. 163–164).1 The Church as an institution had lost that vitality which, in its origin, had given it a decisive significance for humanity. The churches can no longer give orientation to society if they define themselves above all through agreement with certain doctrines and the legitimation of a certain political order of emperorship. For the social order is changing and accordingly requires a different understanding of religion. That is why a different, modern understanding of religion and the creation of a sense of values is needed. Religion is primarily bound to the individual experience and therefore not exclusively rationally communicable to Scharrelmann. Yet religion has an important social function. Scharrelmann sees this social function of religion in the freedom and equality of all people through their attachment to a universal principle of the divine. In the background is the view that religion is to be understood anthropologically. It is about people becoming aware of their own inner core. Suggestions of medieval mysticism are evident in Scharrelmann’s approach. In the mysticism, for example, of Meister Eckhart or Johannes Tauler, it is about man’s path into the innermost self. There, in the innermost, man finds something like a divine soul-steering core in the end. Related to Scharrelmann, this meant that Religion is understood as a self-reflexive view of human nature and not from any revelations. From there all religion has a common foundation in the essence of being human. “The religion was the same at all times, the form was only different, depending on whether the one truth was revealed in India or Persia, in China or Galilee”2 (Scharrelmann 1912/1922, p. 165). Conversely, however, this also means that all forms of religious experience are of equal value. This provides a justification of human dignity and equality for all human beings. The value neutrality of the religious experience of all human beings always associated with it is only countered by a historical evaluation criterion in this respect. Thus, it must be taken into account 1 “Uns modernen Menschen ergeht es sonderbar mit den Kirchen. Wir finden keine richtige Stellung mehr zu ihnen. Was sie uns sein sollten, sind sie uns nicht mehr, und bei ihrem ausgeprägten, absonderlichen Charakter wollen Kirchen zu nichts anderem richtig taugen. … Und was hat die Kirche einst für die Gemeinde für eine Bedeutung gehabt! Ja, ja, die Zeiten ändern sich” (Scharrelmann 1912/1922, S. 163–164). 2 “Die Religion war zu allen Zeiten dieselbe, die Form nur war verschieden, je nachdem die eine Wahrheit in Indien oder in Persien, in China oder in Galiläa offenbart wurde” (Scharrelmann 1912/1922, S. 165).

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that “in the course of the development of mankind an ever increasing purity of revelation can be observed among the various founders of religions”3 (Scharrelmann 1912/1922, p. 165). Why is Scharrelmann, despite all criticism of the church, intensively concerned with the Bible? It is this historical process of development of the increasingly clear purity of the experience of God that guides his thinking. Thus, despite the anthropological justification of religion in the experience, Scharrelmann arrives at the statement: “In Jesus Christ we have so far reached the culmination point of religious life” (Scharrelmann 1912/1922, p. 166). “Ultimately, however, the reference to Jesus Christ also remains an interchangeable cipher, for Jesus Christ is marked neither by certain teachings from him nor about him, but only by the path to conscious, personal intercourse with the deity”4 (Scharrelmann 1912/1922, p. 166). The social meaning of religion consists in the fact that it identifies people not only as free, but also as equal—equal in the need of each person to find his own access to “God” and thus also to his own innermost core of man. The loss of social orientation through ecclesiastical religion in modernity accordingly corresponds to such a loss in the individual sphere. Scharrlemann’s thesis is that it is the inner experience that constitutes the content and value of religion. But the churches can no longer make a helpful contribution precisely to this inner experience. Scharrelmann’s view that human experience is the core of religion leads him to the thesis that “every external form of religion, even if it is the most glorious, must age and freeze among us humans in the course of time”5 (Scharrelmann 1912/1922, p. 165). Around 1900 this became particularly visible. Modernity has shown that people are free and thrown back on themselves as individuals. The state only has the task of providing a free framework for the coexistence of people. The task of the state is precisely not to bring people into line with one another and thus regulate them by means of religious offers of meaning. In 3 “im Laufe der Menschheitsentwicklung eine immer wachsende Offenbarungsreinheit bei den verschiedenen Religionsstiftern zu konstatieren” (Scharrelmann 1912/1922, S. 165). 4 “In Jesus Christus haben wir bis jetzt den Kulminationspunkt des religiösen Lebens erreicht” (Scharrelmann 1912/1922, S. 166). Letztlich bleibt jedoch auch der Verweis auf Jesus Christus eine austauschbare Chiffre, denn Jesus Christus ist weder durch bestimmte Lehren von ihm noch über ihn, sondern einzig durch den “Weg zum bewussten, persönlichen Verkehr mit der Gottheit” (Scharrelmann 1912/1922, S. 166). 5 Scharrelmanns Ansicht, dass das menschliche Erleben Kern der Religion sei, führt ihn zu der These, dass “jede äußere Religionsform, und sei sie die herrlichste, im Laufe der Zeit hier unter uns Menschen altern und erstarren muss” (Scharrelmann 1912/1922, S. 165).

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contrast to the mutual legitimation of state and religion, in anthropological terms—according to Scharrelmann—the demand for individual freedom is to be raised especially in religious terms. The perception of the world and the shaping of one’s own life could no longer be determined by given authorities such as the church or the state—for Scharrelmann’s description of the human situation at the Fien de Siecle this is time analysis, demand and program at the same time. Scharrelmann is concerned—at least until the 1920s—with emphasizing individual freedom as a characteristic of humanity in modernity. But this freedom is ambivalent. The ambivalence of freedom is reflected in the fact that, according to Scharrelmann, man is both liberated and condemned to freedom. Freedom is both an opportunity and a danger. Freedom is liberation and burden. On the one hand, “modernity” does not allow people to be relieved of the burden of the responsible creation of meaning for their own lives by church and state. On the other hand, at the same time “modernity” refers to the possibilities of individualization as the basis for the formation of an independent personality. This is the background for the fact that Scharrelmann rejects the control of religion by the state and at the same time the control of the state by a certain, denominational view of religion. Both suppress the freedom of the individual and are therefore out of fashion. Modern understanding sees the function of religion in the fact that everyone builds up a stable and meaningful perception of the world at the same time. Thus, the individual religious orientation of the human being moves into the foreground as something that must be learned. The fact that all people are enabled to determine something like a meaning for their own lives is again a general, public task. It is therefore also important that there is teaching in school which gives people the opportunity to become clear about their own individual religion and sense orientation. It is not ruled out that people, based on individual decisions, may concern themselves with the Bible as a traditional Christian good and choose it as the normative framework for their lives. The decisive factor, however, is the choice and the individual decision—in contrast to state or church paternalism. In normative terms, the following applies: Religion must start from man, not from a given authority—behind this freedom modern man—according to Scharrelmann—cannot go back, he is challenged by it and he must cope with it. This irreversibility of freedom cannot remain without consequences even for the reflection on pedagogical topics. His pedagogy has two main focuses. On the one hand it is about a new, contemporary conception of

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religious instruction. On the other hand, it is about a modern theory of narration that considers the subjectivity of both the narrator and the listener. 5.2.1

Religion and School in the Modern Age

Scharrelmann does not consider the old, traditional religious education around 1900 under the responsibility of the Christian churches to be beyond reform. The religious instruction with the connection of throne and altar and the emphasis on keeping certain sentences true is, according to his understanding, almost hostile to religion. The punch line is: That is why religious education should be abolished for the sake of religion. The old form of religious education was characterized by two things: the awakening of a false expectation and a misguided claim. Thus, the establishment of a separate subject “religious education” in church-confessional responsibility according to Scharrelmann pretends that religion is one field of knowledge beside others. But this is exactly what Scharrelmann does not want. Religion does not cognitively aim at the acquisition of certain contents of knowledge. The alternative for Scharrelmann is: Religion aims quite individually and emotionally at the preparation of a certain attitude of world perception. In this respect, the alternative to a separate religious education is to initiate a religious attitude to experience in all subjects. A separate subject ‘religious education’ is dispensable, “if the teacher is only concerned to treat religious questions with full seriousness and in every subject with the children in the manner indicated here”6 (Scharrelman 1912/1922, p. 162). Only with the realization of this alternative is the religiosity of man taken seriously in the educational events of the school. Religion is connected on the one hand to the seriousness of the teacher’s personality and on the other hand to a certain way of perception of all subject areas. For Scharrelmann, this also has consequences for the self-image of the teacher. His conclusion is: “The teacher who is always prepared and best prepared is the one who himself has a rich inner life, who likes to face eternity and infinity and tries to recognize the goodness and wisdom and love

6 Ein gesondertes Fach “Religionsunterricht” ist entbehrlich, “wenn es sich der Lehrer nur angelegen sein lässt, mit vollem Ernste und in jedem Fache religiöse Fragen mit den Kindern in der hier angedeuteten Art zu behandeln” (Scharrelmann 1912/1922, S. 162).

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hidden around us”7 (Scharrelmann 1912/1922, p. 169f.). Scharrelmann emphasized the attachment of all teaching to the subjective charisma of the teacher. Religion could never be measured by the standard of “objectivity”, because religion is never an “objective” thing, but always a “subjective” thing. For this reason, also the different demand for an “objective”, only factually informative religious education would make no sense. The subjectivity of the teachers cannot be deceived, especially with regard to religion, so Scharrelmann comes to the conclusion: “No teacher gives an objective biblical history lesson, no teacher can give it in ‘Volksschule’; for everyone becomes, even if involuntarily, influenced by his religious ideas and the children soon notice on which side of the religious view their teacher is standing”8 (Scharrelmann 1906, p. 147). Because religion is very much connected with the attitude of the teachers on one side, but also with a fundamental dimension of all reality on the side of possible teaching contents, Scharrelmann concludes: “I have everywhere the opportunity to come to the last and deepest questions, and thus also the opportunity to initiate religious experience in the child”9 (Scharrelmann 1912/1922, p. 169). In this respect it can be said that Scharrelmann’s educational programme aimed at a religious school in the comprehensive sense. The abolition of the traditional religious education demanded by him does not contradict this—rather its abolition forms the prerequisite for a religiosity in the sense of Scharrelmann. This closes the circle because the yardstick for a modern school and its contribution to the pupils’ finding of meaning is ultimately no other instance than the personality of the teacher and the understanding of teaching as an intuitive process of communication. In this communication process, however, the ability to tell stories plays a decisive role. This involves the selection and modern preparation of the content as well as the training of a lively form 7 “Derjenige Lehrer ist stets präpariert und am besten präpariert, der selbst über ein reiches Innenleben verfügt, der selbst gern der Ewigkeit und Unendlichkeit ins Auge schaut und die um uns herum verborgene Güte und Weisheit und Liebe zu erkennen versucht” (Scharrelmann 1912/1922, S. 169f.). 8 “Einen objektiven biblischen Geschichtsunterricht erteilt kein Lehrer, kann kein Lehrer in der Volksschule erteilen; denn jeder wird, wenn auch unwillkürlich, beeinflusst durch seine religiösen Vorstellungen und die Kinder merken ja bald, auf welcher Seite der religiösen Auffassung ihr Lehrer steht” (Scharrelmann 1906, S. 147). 9 “Gelegenheit auf die letzten und tiefsten Fragen zu kommen, habe ich überall, und damit auch Gelegenheit, religiöses Erleben im Kinde anzubahnen” (Scharrelmann 1912/1922, S. 169).

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of presentation. Everything is subordinated to successful communication, the stimulation of inner images, the generation of resonance and attention. The things themselves are not unimportant, but they are subordinated in the non-scientific field. Therefore, in modern pedagogy it is very important to communicate about the possibility of narration. 5.2.2

Pedagogy as Narrative Didactics

The starting points for Scharrelmann’s didactic interest are the following questions: How should teachers teach if they teach? and: What is the core of this teaching activity? For Scharrelmann, these manifold questions lead to the one and only decisive question: What is the central method of teaching? His answer is simple: the teachers should tell stories, they should tell the world the way it presents itself, they should create ideas in the minds of the crowd of pupils through vividness, they should turn the lessons into a great narrated world of experience. The pupils are to immerse themselves in the worlds of experience which the teacher presents to them in his or her stories. In this sense, the personality of the learner can and should grow with the personality of the teacher. The position of teachers in school and teaching is characterised by two main factors: freedom to create narratives and responsibility for the creation of narratives. It is in the freedom of the teachers to let the lessons become a narrative experience for the pupils. According to Scharrelmann, this freedom requires triple competence: language competence, professional competence and social competence (Scharrelmann 1919/1923). Firstly, teachers must have a narrative language—a narrative language appropriate to the comprehension of their audience. Secondly, teachers need to know about the subject of their stories. There is no telling without content. Because: telling stories at school is not a meaningless entertainment programme. Narrating should enable learning in the sense of Scharrelmann. It is about getting to know and interpreting the world through the narratives of the teachers. But this world is presented by the teachers and for this they need professional competence. Thirdly, the teachers must know into which situation they can or should present which narrative. Of course, Scharrelmann also knows teaching situations that are not to be designed in narrative form. That 2 and 2 ultimately result in 4 (or at least should result in 4) can perhaps be conclusively illustrated by narratives, but not introduced. Even though Scharrelmann considers narration to be the core of living teaching, this does not mean that in Volksschule there is always narration and in all

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places. Arithmetic is arithmetic, gymnastics is gymnastics—even if narration is the methodical rule: the teachers must know when it is time to tell and when not. Nevertheless, Scharrelmann believes that the basic principle is that narration is the core of all teaching. Didactics should be primarily and generally narrative didactics, considering language competence, professional competence and social competence. What does Scharrelmann set himself apart from with these accents of his narrative didactics? What characterizes the peculiarity and thus the strength of the narrative to him? Obviously, the front position compared to other didactics of his time is not that the teachers should “be able” to do something, that they should have manual dexterity. The question is what teachers should be able to do. It is about the staging of experiences through narratives. Scharrelmann is about learning through experience. The peculiarity of Scharrelmann’s narrative didactics becomes clear in what is otherwise at the centre of didactic models. For example, other ideas of teaching in schools are characterised by the fact that concrete results can be verified at the end. Results are verifiable because teachers have guided learners’ step by step towards verifiable results. At the end of a teaching sequence, the teachers reach a certain end. This end consists in verifying whether or not the goal of the hour, the expected results, has been achieved. It’s about goals, results, and their verification. Scharrelmann turns precisely against this point, of the determination of results or performance, with his high estimation of narration. His narrative didactics are directed precisely against this orientation towards results. So, he says with the emphasis of a narrator: “Results, results! The whole world wants to see results. That’s why everything must be examined. The latent, the uncontrollable, is frowned upon, laughed at, despised”10 (Scharrelmann 1902, p. 14). With his narrative didactics, Scharrelmann tries to correspond to the priority of communication over the verification of contents of knowledge. The decisive factor is the process and not the result. What is decisive is the subjective design of experience content on the part of the teachers. What is decisive is the subjective reception and processing of the experience content presented on the part of the learners.

10 “Resultate, Resultate! Alle Welt will Resultate sehen. Darum muss alles examiniert werden. Verpönt, verlacht, verachtet wird das Latente, das Unkontrollierbare” (Scharrelmann 1902, S. 14).

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Scharrelmann’s “Volksschule”, the public school, is meant to be a place of learning. But instead of verifiable performance, the ideal of communication is set. The syllabus and the content of the lessons required in it take a back seat to the emphasis on lessons as communicative activities. The idea of narration as the centre of all teaching refers to the subjective freedom and responsibility of the teachers. In their subjectively designed narratives, the teachers should show the pupils the world before their eyes. But what is the world? Does the world consist of available and thus communicable contents of knowledge, as suggested by the formal level conception of the Herbartians as well as the work school conception? Is it about available and at the same time verifiable knowledge in world appropriation? Scharrelmann’s answer is obvious: The world consists in its core, its essence not of available knowledge. These knowledge contents undoubtedly also exist. But the decisive thing is not the acquisition of such knowledge contents, but the insight into the limits of knowledge. In this sense, the world is first and foremost a mystery. And in the lessons of the elementary school the teachers have the task of conveying the insight into the secrecy of the world. The mysteriousness of the world, the world as creation, leads Scharrelmann to an ultimately religious interpretation of all being. And according to Scharrelmann, this basic religious figure of the world can only be experienced, but not conveyed through knowledge. But how can lessons lead to experience?—through the convincing, overwhelming narratives of the teachers. 5.2.3

Religion, Narrative and a Child-Centred School

The aspect of school that is to be strengthened by narration above all is that of religion in a modern sense. Religion in a modern sense aims to enable students to understand themselves and the world. The religion propagated by Scharrelmann is at first not bound to any external specification and can be determined from this. A radically conceived inwardness of religious experience denies the possibility of rational communication. “Religious experience is not bound to any object, to any substance, to anything external. You can experience religion at any time of the day or night and at any opportunity. Because religion is behind everything and everyone”11 (Scharrelmann 1912/1922, p. 167f.). If religion, as everywhere in the 11 “Religiöses Erleben ist an keinen Gegenstand, an keinen Stoff, an nichts Äußerliches gebunden. Zum religiösen Erleben kann man in jeder Tages- oder Nachtzeit und bei allen

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world, blows through all the cracks of the school building, if all teaching, above all narrative teaching, is to testify to the secrecy of the world—then from the methodological point of view the already discussed question arises once again anew: Which form of religious instruction, of religious instruction in a narrower sense is appropriate to this view? Answer: formlessness. The decisive keyword for the thematization of religion in schools is “casual teaching”. Religion in this sense is a basic dimension of all subjects and the central mediation task of the school. It is important to show religion on all occasions as the supporting dimension of reality. What can or should be the content of occasional religious education? Answer: Anything and everything, depending on the occasion, but not a clearly defined curriculum of certain contents such as biblical stories, anthropological problems and knowledge about church history or Christian denominations. Scharrelmann’s narrative didactics are above all expressed in the fact that the religious secrecy of the world is told at the appropriate opportunity. At the same time, the narrative didactics of religion leads to a very peculiar way of dealing with biblical stories. The teachers as the narrators are challenged to develop something like a personal authenticity with their narrative competence at the same time. Teachers have the power to do with the text what they have discovered as a structure of meaning in reality and in the text. And: they are to use the power to do with the text what they must do to provoke experiences with their audience. As Scharrelmann puts it: “The fullest detailing, the most sufficient motivation and the most childlike modernization - these are the three great aspects that guide me through the cultural-historically foreign, morally so contestable, oriental wonder world of biblical narratives. Where’s the literal, biblical account? Where’s the memorizing? Where is the knowledge? Where, above all, is the historical fidelity? Where is the historical truth? ----- Yes! Yes! It will not work without abandoning these ideals”12 (Scharrelmann 1904/1910, p. 32). It is clear: all power to the teacher, all power to the narrator. The self-expression of the texts must take Gelegenheiten kommen. Denn Religion steckt hinter allem und jedem” (Scharrelmann 1912/1922, S. 167f.). 12 “Satteste Detaillierung, ausreichendste Motivierung und kindlichste Modernisierung -

das sind die drei großen Gesichtspunkte, die mich durch die kulturgeschichtlich fremde, sittlich so anfechtbare, orientalische Wunderwelt der biblischen Erzählungen leiten. Wo bleibt da die wörtliche, bibeltreue Darstellung? Wo bleibt das Memorieren? Wo bleibt der Wissensstoff? Wo bleibt vor allem die historische Treue? Wo bleibt die geschichtliche Wahrheit? ----- Ja! Ja! Ohne ein Aufgeben dieser Ideale wird es nicht gehen” (Scharrelmann 1904/1910, S. 32).

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a back seat to the narrative intention of the biblical text, which must be subjectively formed and answered for. The meaning of the biblical texts is secondary because it depends on the religious effect in the teaching. The contents—also the contents of the biblical stories—are to be subordinated to the effect, to the marketing of the experience. It is obvious that against this background the general understanding of education must inevitably receive a religious colouring. “All true education, that is, all true spiritual growth, is the effect of God in the heart of man”13 (Scharrelmann 1912/1922, p. 273). The external influence in the upbringing by the pedagogues is subject to the reservation that the actual inner core of the child can at most be guessed, but not rationally grasped. The term “education” thus becomes the cipher of an irrational development that essentially takes place within the child. Ultimately, the process described is self-reflexive, i.e. a person can only educate himself. “Education has no other task than the development of this Godpower in man. That is, the development of that power which rises from the mysterious depths of our inner being and comes to life and expresses itself as enlightenment, intuition, magical power, health, beauty, happiness, in short as anything beyond the ordinary”14 (Scharrelmann 1912/1922, p. 275f.). The goal of all education as self-education is to overcome the tribulation of the material world. “The goal can only be the victory of the spirit over matter. When man overcomes the world, he has reached his goal in life”15 (Scharrelmann 1927, p. 91). Here, at the latest, the Platonic basic constellation of Scharrelmann’s religious figures of thought is clear. As in Plato’s “State”, the material, visible world is opposed by the invisible world of ideas. The task of man is to participate as much as possible in the spiritual world, in which man can participate through his reincarnated soul. With such an understanding of narrative didactics, however, a very specific image of school is now being developed. School is a complement to the

13 “Alle wirkliche Erziehung, das heißt, alles echte, geistige Wachstum, ist die Wirkung Gottes im Herzen des Menschen” (Scharrelmann 1912/1922, S. 273). 14 “Die Erziehung hat keine andere Aufgabe als die Entwicklung dieser Gotteskraft im Menschen. Das heißt die Entwicklung jener Kraft, die aus der geheimnisvollen Tiefe unseres Inneren aufsteigt und lebendig wird und sich äußert als Erleuchtung, Intuition, magische Macht, Gesundheit, Schönheit, Glück, kurz als alles über gewöhnliches Maß Hinausgehende” (Scharrelmann 1912/1922, S. 275f.). 15 “Das Ziel kann doch nur der Sieg des Geistes über die Materie sein. Wenn der Mensch die Welt überwindet, hat er sein Lebensziel erreicht” (Scharrelmann 1927, S. 91).

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general learning of people in their childhood and adolescence. The function of the school is to be determined by the contribution to the individual finding of meaning of the individual. In this sense, the understanding of school must above all be oriented to the learning of children and young people. School gains its significance in the modern age in the ability of learners to perceive the world in a meaningful, religious way. This is ultimately the religious foundation of a “pedagogy from the child”, which results from a certain view of man. Scharrelmann’s depiction of the “world as school” (Scharrelmann 1904/1910, 267ff.) unfolds an argumentation figure for the “pedagogy of the child”, which on a religious background justifies the necessity of reverence and respect for the child as an adolescent personality. The basis of his argumentation is the idea of the transmigration of souls, which almost reverses the relationship between parents and children. “It is not because we are the children of our carnal parents that we have become like them, but vice versa: because at the moment when our parents united in love for our procreation, we were like them (as a result of the course of our previous lives), because of all the souls who wanted to incarnate anew we were most elective to our parents, we were born as their children. Parents only create the physical body”16 (Scharrelmann 1904/1910, p. 275). This means that the child is not seen as the beginning of a development, but as the intermediate stage of a constantly reincarnating soul. Now Scharrelmann in no way denies the different levels of development of children and adults and asks, especially regarding the telling of stories, about what is appropriate for children. The consequence that he draws from this thought, also regarding the actions of teachers at school, concerns rather the attitude of adults towards children: “Therefore: respect for the child. We should make a serious effort to treat every child with respect. … We must take this kid seriously. He also wants to be taken seriously”17 (Scharrelmann 1904/1910, p. 275). If one considers the soul as the essence of man in the sense of Scharrelmann, then one can assume equal 16 “Nicht weil wir die Kinder unserer fleischlichen Eltern sind, sind wir ihnen ähnlich geworden, sondern umgekehrt: weil wir in dem Augenblicke, als unsere Eltern sich in Liebe zu unserer Zeugung vereinigten, ihnen ähnlich waren (infolge des Verlaufs unserer voraufgegangenen Lebensläufe), weil wir von allen Seelen, die sich neu inkarnieren wollten, unsern Eltern am wahlverwandtesten waren, wurden wir als ihre Kinder geboren. Die Eltern schaffen nur den physischen Körper” (Scharrelmann 1904/1910, S. 275). 17 “Darum: Achtung vor dem Kinde. Wir sollten uns ernstlich Mühe geben, ein jedes Kind vornehm zu behandeln. … Wir müssen das Kind ernst nehmen. Es will auch ernstgenommen werden” (Scharrelmann 1904/1910, S. 275).

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rights for children and adults, because the decisive time factor of development does not refer to earthly existence but to the eternal metaphysical transmigration of souls. This, however, ultimately annuls the visible difference between children and adults as well as their “personality”, because the decisive difference is seen in the invisible soul status and not in the worldly-bodily state of development. In this sense, Scharrelmann’s narrative didactics lead to the concept of a child-centred school.

5.3

Historical Context

The historical context for Heinrich Scharrelmann’s pedagogy is the German variant of “progressive education”, the so-called “alternative education”. In this German tradition, the confrontation with anthropology and religion played a central role, especially regarding the determination of school and teaching (see Koerrenz et al. 2017). In the German context before the end of the First World War, it was the already mentioned constellation of throne and altar that stood in the background of many pedagogical reform concepts. The debate on the question of how individual learning can be considered through school in modern times was central. Scharrelmann’s contribution also belongs to this discussion. The interweaving of throne and altar as mutual support of church influence and state legitimation of power manifested itself around 1900 as spiritual school supervision in the system of German elementary schools. This ominous connection of religion with the legitimation of inner-worldly processes of domination and control was often the reason to critically question the function and peculiarity of pedagogical action in schools. An example of the controversy surrounding the ideological framing of pedagogy and school is the public debate documented in 1906 for the environment of Bremen’s elementary school pedagogy. In February 1905, the Vereinigung für Schulreform, Association for School Reform, was founded in Bremen with the aim of “working hard to remedy the publicly recognised shortcomings of our school system and to ensure its healthy development”18 (Gansberg 1906, p. V). This goal—in the shadow of the spiritual school supervision—should be promoted by a critical examination of the school religious 18 “Im Februar 1905 war in Bremen die ‘Vereinigung für Schulreform’ mit dem Ziel gegründet worden: ‘an der Beseitigung der öffentlich erkannten Mängel unseres Schulwesens und an einer gesunden Entwicklung desselben kräftigst mitzuarbeiten’” (Gansberg 1906, S. V).

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education in a first step. The development within the Bremen teaching staff—essentially motivated by the conflict with a disliked school inspector—led beyond the originally moderate demand for a change in religious instruction in the school context. At a general teachers’ meeting in Bremen in May 1905 “the radicals in the second phase of negotiations succeeded in winning over the overwhelming majority now also for the second proposal, to at the same time assign to the elected commission the elaboration of a memorandum on the abolition of religious instruction”19 (Wulff 1950, p. 415). At another meeting of the Bremen teachers, a draft submitted by Wilhelm Holzmeier was finally adopted, which was published under the title “Religious education or not?—Memorandum of the teachers of Bremen”. The school reformer Fritz Gansberg, colleague of Heinrich Scharrelmann, had carried out a survey on behalf of the Association for School Reform to find out how the German-speaking public perceives the criticism of religious instruction and thus also of the state-guaranteed school supervision by the churches. This triggered a much-noticed debate in educational circles on how the function and performance of religion in the school system can be redefined (Koerrenz and Collmar 1994). The pedagogical discourse documents fundamental patterns of argumentation for determining the relationship between anthropology and religion and the resulting consequences for teaching. Some figures of this argument that have similarities with today’s contributions to debates about religious or ideological education in schools are remarkable. The Marburg philosopher and pedagogue Paul Natorp marked a rather reserved position by starting from the fundamental reformability of established religious education with the help of improved methodologies. All other contributions had a far more critical thrust in common aimed at a far-reaching change in religious education in schools and partly in the last consequence at an abolition of religious education. Three basic patterns can be roughly distinguished here. The first approach emphasizes the general importance of religion for human beings but concludes from this that precisely for this reason the

19 Auf einer allgemeinen Lehrerversammlung in Bremen im Mai 1905 “gelang es den Radikalen in der zweiten Verhandlungsphase, die übergroße Mehrheit nunmehr auch für den zweiten Antrag zu gewinnen, der gewählten Kommission zugleich die Ausarbeitung einer Denkschrift über die Abschaffung des Religionsunterrichts zu übertragen” (Wulff 1950, S. 415).

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corresponding schooling—for the sake of religion and religious development—must be abolished. “The school wants to awaken devotion according to plan, according to curriculum, to create mood - that it awakens discontent and disgust just as often, that is beyond doubt”20 (Gansberg 1906, p. X). So religion is not teachable and is virtually prevented by the school. Ultimately, it is not a matter, but only the personality of the teacher, that can initiate and promote a religious feeling in the children. For anthropological reasons the school instruction in religion in the traditional form was therefore to be abandoned. This is opposed by such figures of argumentation who both stand by and at the same time interpret religion—at least in the traditional JudeoChristian form—as a relic of the past which must now be finally overcome. Religion is unfit and even detrimental to the development of the presently required morality. The scientific objection that any traces of metaphysics with the modern world view belong to an overcome stage of development of the human mind corresponds to the ethical one. Both argumentation figures demand the abolition of religious education for reasons of intellectual honesty. Finally, the argumentation that after the Enlightenment there was a pluralism of religious ideas, which was opposed to the influence of the church on religious education in schools, was oriented towards social policy. A conflict between the parental home and the school would be provoked by this claim to church influence. Religious instruction must be separated from the school according to the free choice of the parents, since the school is entirely committed to the public. The teaching of religion should be placed entirely in the hands of clergymen. The patterns outlined here of pedagogically readjusting the relationship between school and ideological framing represent a discourse in which the persons assigned to “alternative education” were strongly engaged. In this discourse, positions were formulated in which the function in the school system was discussed on the one hand in a culturally critical way and on the other hand in a way that was oriented towards the addressees (“from the learners”). Heinrich Scharrelmann, with his concept of narrative didactics, marked a position that attached great importance to the thematization of religion as a basic dimension of life. At the same time, Scharrelmann stressed 20 “Die Schule will planmäßig, lehrplanmäßig Andacht erwecken, Stimmung erzeugen – dass sie da genau ebenso oft Mißstimmung und Abscheu erweckt, das unterliegt gar keinem Zweifel” (Gansberg 1906, S. X).

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the need for child-centered education and critical scrutiny of those authorities who guided the orientation of schools through content selection and insistence on purely result-oriented and measurable learning. Scharrelmann’s pedagogy is thus a specific contribution to the discussion on Alternative Education (Koerrenz et al. 2017).

5.4

Contemporary Relevance

The current significance of Heinrich Scharrelmann‘s pedagogy can be discerned at various points. More important are the questions that he has raised with his writings than the concrete answers he has given. The meaning will be briefly outlined using various keywords: child-centered school, relationship between individuality and community, teacher personality and fake news. Scharrelmann’s contributions to the debates on pedagogical reforms in modernity had some original justifications for alternative schooling and child-centered education. His scepticism towards a purely result-oriented teaching as the core of school is initially striking. He contrasts the idea that school is primarily about measurable results and corresponding final qualifications with the idea that it should be about the development of children and young people into free individuals. The fixation on results blocks the view that the teacher in school and lessons is dealing with individuals who all have a right to develop their individual personality. This reference to the individuality of the learners acquires a deeper meaning to Scharrelmann through the reference to a special interpretation of religion. If religion is essentially invested in every human being as a capability to build up a relationship with the divine, then an equality of all human beings is postulated, because all human beings have such a capability. But then it is a question of respecting this fact and accompanying the children and young people to build their own path of religiosity. From today’s point of view the question naturally arises whether really all forms of religiosity are to be regarded as equal—thus also those which intolerantly and aggressively demand the contempt and annihilation of other religious views. Scharrelmann did not address this problem with his one-sided plea for freedom. Nevertheless, in his figure of thought, school and teaching, to think of such an understanding of religion, there is indirectly an interesting determination of the relationship between individuality and community. Community and thus also equality is founded by the inherent property of all

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human beings and the right to an individual, free conception of religion. At the same time, however, freedom, individuality and thus also the difference between people are emphasised and schools and teaching have to take this into account. Regarding the teachers’ actions, this can help them to become aware of their own personal standards of life above all. This personality of the teacher should be incorporated into a form of teaching that is directed towards vision and liveliness, in which it is a matter of initiating experiences on the part of the pupils. Living narration then becomes the basic form of teaching. Teaching only makes sense when it reaches the students. But for this the awakening of interest, curiosity and attention as an impulse for individual experience is decisive. The appropriateness of the content is still important but is relegated to the background when it comes to resonance conditions. It is precisely here that the question arises as to how the emphasis on vividness and liveliness relates to appropriateness in relation to the teaching content. Is there “the” appropriateness at all or does the occupation with teaching contents always—at least in a broad spectrum—remain “subjective”? Scharrelmann’s emphasis on the subjective and authentic harbours the risks of structured fake news. But where the borders to fake begin, there is an open problem especially in questions of religion and morality. With its narrative didactics, Scharrelmann’s pedagogy points out that schools and teaching must constantly reconsider this problem as a characteristic of modernity. With the reference to the measurement of certain test results, the function and significance of school in the modern age are at any rate not adequately understood.

References Selected Sources Aus meiner Werkstatt. Präparationen für Anschauungsunterricht und Heimatkunde (1909/1920). Braunschweig. Die große Umkehr. 1924. Die Technik des Schilderns und Erzählens (1923). Braunschweig. Diskussionsbeitrag in: Gansberg, Fritz (Ed.), Religionsunterricht? Achtzig Gutachten. Leipzig 1906, pp. 144–148. Erlebte Pädagogik. Gesammelte Aufsätze und Unterrichtsproben (1912/1922). Braunschweig. Goldene Heimat. Für den Anschauungsunterricht und die Heimatkunde (1908/1920). Hamburg.

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Herzhafter Unterricht. Gedanken und Proben aus einer unmodernen Pädagogik (1902). Hamburg. Vom strahlenden Leben. Versuch einer neuen pädagogischen Teleologie. Braunschweig 1927. Von der Lernschule über die Arbeitsschule zur Charakterschule. Braunschweig 1937. Weg zur Kraft. Des “herzhaften Unterrichts” zweiter Teil (1904/1910). Hamburg.

References Gansberg, F. (Ed.). (1906). Religionsunterricht? Achtzig Gutachten. Leipzig: Voigtländer. Koerrenz, R., & Collmar, N. (Eds.). (1994). Die Religion der Reformpädagogen. Weinheim: Deutscher Studienverlag. Koerrenz, R. (2014). Reformpädagogik. Eine Einführung. Paderborn: Schöningh. Koerrenz, R., Blichmann, A., & Engelmann, S. (2017). Alternative Schooling and New Education: European Concepts and Models. London: Palgrave. Wulff, H. (1950). Geschichte und Gesicht der bremischen Lehrerschaft. Gestalten und Generationen aus hundert Jahren (1848–1948). In Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der deutschen Volksschule. 1. Band. Bremen: Hans Krohn Verlag.

CHAPTER 6

Bernhard Hell and the Protestant School Community

Abstract This chapter discusses the ideas of the German educator, school founder and author Bernhard Hell. His educational thinking is guided by the concept of a “Protestant school community”. A school shaped according to this idea has its origin in a community whose structures were formed by the Gospel. Hell thus takes a critical view of school concepts that are primarily marked by the philosophical currents of Positivism and Idealism. Keywords Bernhard Hell · School community · Positivism · Idealism · Gospel

6.1

Bernhard Hell---A Biographical Summary

How can we understand the everyday life of school from the point of view of the Gospels? How can we organize the practice of the school of the Gospels and in harmony with the festivals of the church year? These were the questions that led Bernhard Hell to found his own alternative school. Hell was a German representative of Alternative Education, founded a school and appeared as an author. He comes from the environment of the German

© The Author(s) 2019 R. Koerrenz and S. Engelmann, Forgotten Pedagogues of German Education, Palgrave Studies in Alternative Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29570-7_6

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“Landerziehungsheim”1 movement, which goes back to Hermann Lietz (see Koerrenz, Blichmann and Engelmann 2017). Bernhard Hell was the son of the chemist Carl Magnus von Hell (1849–1926) on May 2, 1877 in Degerloch near Stuttgart. His father, Carl v. Hell (1849–1926), came from the family of the middle court official Friedrich Magnus Hell. Carl v. Hell was Professor of General Experimental Chemistry and Theoretical Chemistry at the Technische Hochschule Stuttgart, Technical University of Stuttgart, where he was director from 1896 to 1899. His mother was the daughter of the brewery owner Carl Friedrich Storz from Ludwigsburg. After graduating from secondary school in 1897, Bernhard Hell studied mathematics and chemistry at the Technical University of Stuttgart at his father’s request. After his examinations in chemistry (1901), he went to Göttingen for a year to study chemistry and physics. But his actual interests were now in a completely different direction. In 1903 he moved to Freiburg i.Br. and began studying philosophy and psychology there. This change to the humanities even meant a temporary dispute with his father but was decisive for Bernhard Hell’s view of reality. He never completely turned away from the natural sciences. On the contrary, he combined both areas of human knowledge in his research and essays. He studied under Jonas Cohn (1869–1947) and Heinrich Rickert (1863–1926). In their philosophy, Jonas Cohn and Heinrich Rickert mainly referred to the work of Immanuel Kant. They belonged to the so-called Neo-Kantians, who were primarily concerned with the conditions of the possibility of knowledge. Hell received his doctorate from the latter in 1907 on Ernst Mach’s Philosophy: An Epistemological Study of Reality and Value. In 1907 he went to the Freie Schulgemeinde Wickersdorf, a country boarding school in Thuringia, founded one year before by Paul Geheeb and Gustav Wyneken, which he also led in the place of Martin Luserke between 1914 and 1916. Here in Wickersdorf, Hell completely turned to pedagogy and questions of education. He remained active in the school community until 1919. Afterwards Hell started teaching at the Landschulheim am Solling, founded in 1909, another school in the context of the country boarding school movement. There—among other subjects—he taught mathematics, philosophy and religion. At the same time, he was “leader” of a comradeship 1 The German term “Landerziehungsheim” can be translated into English as “Country Boarding School”. The German term “Landerziehungsheim” is retained in the text.

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of “Magisters”, i.e. older students in the higher classes of the school. On the former site of a Benedictine monastery he founded the Urspringschule near Schelklingen in 1930 in order to run it as a non-profit, Protestant and reformed boarding school. Hell described the program of his school in the small book Die evangelische Schulgemeinde.2 In this book he devoted himself to the above-mentioned questions of how school and the Christian gospel can be thought together in modern times. On April 2, 1930 the Urspringschule was founded, and on May 2, 1930 the school opened its gates. In 1941, Hell retired as headmaster of the Urspringschule after conflicts with the National Socialist school authorities arose due to Hell’s Christian stance and corresponding publications. Hell died at the age of 77 on 24 March 1955 in Freudenstadt/Black Forest.

6.2

Education and Gospel

Hell’s work is particularly interesting on the question on which standards of pedagogical action a concept such as “school as a (Christian) community” can be based. The answer was self-evident for Bernhard Hell: The land, the education, the home—pedagogically relevant structural characteristics of a Landerziehungsheim (see Hell 1908b, 1913b). He did not have to particularly comment on these. When writing the founding program of the Urspingschule, he was able to concentrate on developing his idea of the Protestant school congregation. Evangelische Schul-Gemeinde—Protestant School-Community, three motives relate to each in Hell’s conceptual framework. What “school” should be seems to be clear at first glance. The reference to the motif of the “Protestant” and the inclusion of the “community” idea, on the other hand, seem more alien, even if religious figures of legitimation of pedagogical action can be reconstructed in different variations, especially in the environment of the Landerziehungsheime (see Baader 2005, p. 235ff.). But it was precisely this combination that was important to Hell: the combination of the Protestant with the community. The Gospel and the community should mutually determine each other. The Gospel shapes the community,

2 The German title “Evangelische Schulgemeinde” combines the religious motif of the Protestant with the institutional term “School” and the sociological idea of the community. Translated according to its meaning, Bernhard Hell is concerned with a Protestant school community.

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the community makes the school—this conclusion was the starting point of the Urspringschule. The term “community” only refers to an organizational structure. A qualification in terms of content is therefore not yet given. It can be a community of Beatles fans, the community of a daily soap opera, the municipal community of the city of Washington, or even a religious community. When Hell speaks of a Protestant school community, the decisive criterion for the content of his community should be the Protestant to be concretized in whatever way. In the background there is a pedagogical triad: Firstly, there is the assumption that the Gospel can shape structures. Secondly, the school community is such a structure which needs to be qualified in terms of content.—Thirdly, it is assumed that the Gospel should shape the structure of the school community. Tying in with this pedagogical triad, five topics emerge from an analysis of Hell’s founding program, namely the critique of culture, the perception of the world, the knowledge of man, the function of religion and the shaping of time. 6.2.1

The Critique of Culture

“Our educational system is intertwined in the crisis of our entire culture”3 (Hell 1930/2011, p. 3).—it was with this diagnosis of the times that Bernhard Hell opened his program from 1930. The present was a time of crisis for him. The first and most critical aspect of crisis was that tradition became fundamentally questionable. Something new was not able to assert itself completely up until this point. For Bernhard Hell, people in his presence had “come to the end of the Renaissance”4 (Hell 1930/2011, p. 11). For him, the Renaissance was characterized by an emphasis on earthly life and an absolutization of the individual. In the aftermath of the Renaissance, two developments had taken place for Hell. In concrete terms, both of which, considered separately, represented an aberration to Hell: Positivism and Idealism. Positivism—Absolution of all earthly, material things. Idealism—for Hell in the tradition of Kant and Fichte (Hell 1908a, 1913a, 1914a) characterized by the absolutization of the individual, the subjective. Hell thus deliberately turned 3 “In die Krisis unserer gesamten Kultur ist auch unser Bildungswesen mit verflochten” (Hell 1930/2011, S. 3). 4 Für Bernhard Hell waren die Menschen in seiner Gegenwart “an das Ende der Renaissance gekommen” (Hell 1930/2011, S. 11).

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against his earlier functional descriptions in which he had formulated an explicit idealistic image of the school community. Thus, Hell wrote in his early years in Wickersdorf: “The most important task of the school of the future will be to place genuine, true ideas of unconditional validity in the focal point of its entire teaching operation, in order not to merely release its pupils from all possible fields, provided with an aggregate of pieces of knowledge, but to push them into the roots of their being with a correct conception of life and its meaning. The German Idealism, as founded by Kant and Fichte, seems suitable to fulfil this task”5 (Hell 1908b, p. 519). Hell classifies the Protestant school community into a three-phase model: positivism—idealism—Christianity. The first two developments must be overcome without completely negating the positive aspects of these directions. Hell’s thesis is that only Christianity can achieve this. It is interesting that Christianity does not mark the starting point to be overcome, but the end point of a development to be reached. According to Hell, one does not have to detach oneself from Christianity and overcome it, but quite the opposite: one must first discover it (anew) and try to reach it. According to this analysis of the cultural development sense and function of the school had to be newly discussed “Compared to the school, which was and wanted to be merely a preparatory institute, the autonomous school meant a great progress, and compared to all the flattening by positivism the idealistic train, as it went through the founding of the school communities of Lietz and Wyneken, was an essential gain. (…) The next step (…) is the overcoming of idealism by the Christian religion, especially in its strong Protestant form, also in education”6 (Hell 1930/2011, p. 3). According to Hell, two aspects must be overcome in the new school shaped

5 “Die wichtigste Aufgabe der Schule der Zukunft wird es sein, echte, wahre Ideen von bedingungsloser Gültigkeit in den Brennpunkt ihres ganzen Unterrichtsbetriebes zu setzen, um ihre Zöglinge nicht bloß versehen mit einem Aggregat von Wissensbrocken aus allen möglichen Gebieten zu entlassen, sondern sie bis in die Wurzeln ihres Wesens hinein zu durchdrängen mit einer richtigen Auffassung vom Leben und seinem Sinn. Der deutsche Idealismus, wie ihn Kant und Fichte begründet haben, erscheint geeignet, diese Aufgabe zu erfüllen” (Hell 1908b, S. 519). 6 “Gegenüber der Schule, die bloß Vorbereitungsanstalt war und sein wollte, bedeutete

die autonome Schule einen großen Fortschritt, und gegenüber all der Verflachung durch den Positivismus war der idealistische Zug, wie er durch die Schulgemeinde-Gründungen von Lietz und Wyneken ging, ein wesentlicher Gewinn. (…) Der weitere Schritt (…) ist die Überwindung des Idealismus durch die christliche Religion, besonders in ihrer kräftigen protestantischen Form, auch in der Erziehung” (Hell 1930/2011, S. 3).

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by Christianity: The earthly, either the material (positivism) nor, the individual, the subjective (idealism) are suitable to work as a foundation for this new type of school. And in this sense according to Hell every school must be “a world filled with meaning and giving meaning in the small, it must therefore also have a world view, i.e. it must consciously integrate itself. To consciously integrate itself into the great context of spiritual life in general and be able to answer the question of how it seeks to fulfil the meaning of human life precisely in its place and with its means, be it also that it confesses to be even more seeking than having found, that it does not want to be church, but school, which, despite all respect for the inherited cultural heritage, is able to sift critically and not to cease.”7 (Hell 1924, p. 5f.). According to Hell’s typological analysis, earlier school concepts had always one-sidedly emphasized human needs and abilities against the background of positivistic and idealistic philosophies. They either focused solely on the formation of the human mind, the formation of aesthetic sensation or the training of vocational skills. Hell certainly recognises the value of these objectives for schooling. However, the value of these certain aims should not be set absolute. Therefore, another understanding of schooling is derived from the emphasis on the Protestant element of schooling: The Christian school recognizes by the high importance which is due to the education of the intellect. (…) But it is careful not to want to completely understand the creation of a living God by human means. (…) It gratefully accepts the high gift of art and feels the essence in the parable. But it does not close itself to the misery of the world and the sighing of the creature. (…) It recognizes the importance of the profession in the world, of the deeds and works in it. But she does not detach the profession and the work from the supporting reason and knows that one owes him responsibility. (Hell 1930/2011, p. 15)8 7 Und in diesem Sinne muss für Hell jede Schule “eine sinnerfüllte und sinngebende Welt im Kleinen sein, sie muss darum auch eine Weltanschauung haben, d.h. sich bewusst eingliedern in den großen Zusammenhang des geistigen Lebens überhaupt und Antwort geben können auf die Frage, wie sie gerade an ihrer Stelle und mit ihren Mitteln den Sinn menschlichen Lebens zu erfüllen sucht, sei es auch, daß sie bekennt, noch mehr suchend zu sein als gefunden habend, daß sie eben nicht Kirche, sondern Schule sein will, die bei aller Achtung vor dem überkommenen Kulturgut kritisch zu sichten und zu sondern nicht aufzuhören vermag” (Hell 1924, S. 5f.). 8 “Die christliche Schule erkennt an die hohe Bedeutung, die der Ausbildung des Verstandes zukommt. (…) Aber sie hütet sich, die Schöpfung eines lebendigen Gottes mit menschlichen Mitteln restlos verstehen zu wollen. (…) Dankbar nimmt sie das hohe Geschenk der Kunst

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The background of Hell’s school program proves to be critical of culture in a certain religiously—guided way. Hell argues that the cultural development stages of positivism and idealism had to be overcome by Christianity. But what does Christianity concretely achieve? Hell offers a complex answer in his program for schooling: On the one hand, Christianity offers a certain perception of the world, on the other hand, Christianity in a pedagogical sense enables a new determination of the essence of man. 6.2.2

The Perception of the World

What, according to Hell, characterizes the perception of the world in the late 19th and early 20th century? According to Hell, the world is torn apart, frayed into countless individual aspects, without a recognizable connection. This is tragic for the individual. The individual seeks orientation in the world and for this he at least needs an ideal certainty of the connection of all things. The question arises, how the individual orientates itself when the world presents itself as conflictual and torn? With its emphasis on the material, positivism offers no solution for Hell. If one turns one’s gaze to the material, one can only reach the realization of diversity. But even idealism—in the interpretation of light—does not represent a solution. With the absolutisation of the individual itself the problematic structure of world-perception is even increased: Now not only the unity of the material, but the unity of humans is no longer recognizable. Therefore, Hell tries to answer two basic questions: What is the unity of the world? How can the unity of the world be recognized? His solution was clear: “All humanism and all autonomy get their meaning only from a theism, from a power that is greater than the human”9 (Hell 1930/2011, p. 25). What becomes recognizable is what can be called the secret intention of the school program—beyond all Christian vocabulary: the determination of a unifying principle in the midst of an increasingly differentiated reality. A rebellion against the pluralism of modernity becomes clear here. Amid

hin und spürt im Gleichnis das Wesen. Aber sie verschließt sich auch nicht der Not der Welt und dem Seufzen der Kreatur. (…) Sie erkennt durchaus die Wichtigkeit des Berufes in der Welt, der Taten und Werke in ihr. Aber sie löst Beruf und Werk nicht ab von dem tragenden Grund und weiß, daß man Ihm Verantwortung schuldet” (Hell 1930/2011, S. 15). 9 “Aller Humanismus und alle Autonomie erhalten ihren Sinn erst aus einem Theismus, von einer Macht, die größer ist als die menschliche” (Hell 1930/2011, S. 25).

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this diversity, Hell emphatically asks what is common to all, what is the unifying whole. Hell’s community ideology, which is yet to be analysed, takes its starting point here. Ultimately for Hell, it is the community, the Protestant school community, which gives an answer to pluralism and at the same time tries to overcome it. If one follows the intellectual development of Bernhard Hell, something else becomes clear at this point: From the point of view of world perception, his position has hardly changed over the years (see Hell 1911, 1914c, 1919). Even if he stylizes his own biography as a way from idealism to Christianity—from the point of view of world perception it makes no difference what this unifying principle is called. In substance, Bernhard Hell remained true to his entire development—only the designations change: the designations for the unifying principle of the world that is indispensable for Hell. The Christianity that he develops in his school program ultimately remains an idealistically shaped Christianity (as a comparison for the continuity thesis, e.g. 1913c). What pedagogical relevance does this unity thinking have? It is Bernhard Hell’s concern that children and young people receive an overall view of the world, a world view. And: “It is now the deep wisdom of Christianity that it gives such a view and that it is able to bring fulfilment to the longing for a leader above man also to the school”10 (Hell 1930/2011, p. 9). If one were to remain attached to the inner-worldly view, according to Hell, one would remain “in tension and in tragic conflict. Only in devotion to a supra-worldly God, for whom each of the two directions striving apart and against each other restrict each other, can the tragic antagonism become the eternally necessary and otherwise eternally impossible unity”11 (Hell 1930/2011, p. 11). In the background of all this is the thought that God must above all be regarded as the creator of the world and of the unity of the world. “Christianity sees in the world the creation of a wise and loving

10 “Die tiefe Weisheit des Christentums ist es nun, daß sie solche Schau gibt und daß sie der Sehnsucht nach einem über den Menschen stehenden Führer auch der Schule Erfüllung zu bringen vermag” (Hell 1930/2011, S. 9). 11 Bliebe man hingegen der innerweltlichen Betrachtungsweise verhaftet, so bliebe man nach Hell “in der Spannung und im tragischen Zwiespalt. Erst in der Hingabe an einen überweltlichen Gott, für den jede der beiden auseinander und gegeneinander strebenden Richtungen sich einschränken, kann aus dem tragischen Widereinander die ewig erforderliche und sonst ewig unmögliche Einheit werden” (Hell 1930/2011, S. 11).

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God superior to the world”12 (Hell 1930/2011, p. 10). In this sense, in the Christian faith there is ultimately a liberating knowledge towards the world: “Origin and purpose of all that exists is now no longer sought in this world”13 (Hell 1930/2011, p. 13). Exactly this perception of the world should be conveyed in and through the school as a model. For Hell, however, this is far less an act of teaching knowledge than an act of contemplation. This can be understood as a central school pedagogical consequence in the broadest sense, because school should also be designed as a space of contemplation. Space and time had to be created “for the inner collection, the silence before God, the listening to the voice of conscience, for opportunities to see oneself and everything in the light of eternity and thus to restore the balance of life”14 (Hell 1930/2011, p. 22). For Hell, rest, silence and contemplation are among the most didactically significant characteristics of his Protestant school community. Christianity has the most plausible concept of unity for Hell. From there Christianity is also the best world view. The peculiarity of Christianity special lies in the fact that it emphasizes the unity of the world, but at the same time does not deny the individuality of the single human being “Unity is for him (note: Christianity) the first, and the individuals the second. But it can also never fall into collectivism which misjudges the dignity of man as a child of God”15 (Hell 1930/2011, p. 33). This raises the question of Hell’s anthropology. 6.2.3

The Nature of Man

Hell sees the decisive question of all human existence as: What does man live for? His answer is unambiguously formulated in his school program: 12 “Das Christentum sieht in der Welt die Schöpfung eines weisen und liebenden, der Welt überlegenen Gottes” (Hell 1930/2011, S. 10). 13 In diesem Sinne gebe es im christlichen Glauben letztlich eine befreiende Erkenntnis gegenüber der Welt: “Ursprung und Zweck alles Seienden wird nun nicht mehr im Diesseits gesucht” (Hell 1930/2011, S. 13). 14 Es müsse Raum und Zeit geschaffen werden “für die innere Sammlung, die Stille vor Gott, das Lauschen auf die Stimme des Gewissens, für Gelegenheiten, sich selbst und Alles im Licht der Ewigkeit zu sehen und so das Gleichgewicht des Lebens wieder herzustellen” (Hell 1930/2011, S. 22). 15 “Die Einheit ist ihm (dem Christentum, R.K. & S.E.) das Erste, und die Individuen das zweite. Es kann aber auch nie in den die Würde des Menschen als eines Gotteskindes verkennenden Kollektivismus verfallen” (Hell 1930/2011, S. 33).

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“Not for worldly goods, but for spiritual growth towards a kingdom which is not of this world but is coming in the midst of us”16 (Hell 1930/2011, p. 26f.). To achieve this orientation, a constant struggle must take place. “A struggle must be waged against the thoughtless wasting life as against the self-divining humanity”17 (see Hell 1930/2011, p. 25). It had been emphasized that Hell had remained true to his idealistic approach of earlier years regarding the problem of unity. This does not apply to the essence of man, to anthropology. Hell’s earlier positions were characterized by the fact that man should be understood exclusively as an active person, as a striving person, and ultimately as a self-redeemer (see Hell 1907). According to Hell, man had the goal of developing into an ideal man, into a superhuman. Hell broke with this optimistic view of man in his program of 1930. What characterizes the essence of man? In 1930, the Reformation principle is clearly behind Hell’s work that man cannot give or award himself his ultimate value and goal in life. “All cultural bliss and all veneration of human greatness and power reveals itself not only as one-sidedness, but as conscious detachment from God, as guilt”18 (Hell 1930/2011, p. 12). Hell is concerned with a dialectical anthropology that overcomes the onesidedness of idealism, of the ideal man who redeems himself. Christianity is almost characterized by the fact that it “avoids the cramping that occurs when idealistic demands are made which the individual is not able to bear and which he nevertheless wants to take upon himself in heroic zeal”19 (Hell 1930/2011, p. 3). According to Hell, a realistic anthropology can only be won with Christianity: Here there is a “knowledge about the greatness, as about the smallness of man, about his high dignity and possibility

16 “Nicht für weltliches Gut, sondern für geistiges Wachsen einem Reiche zu, das nicht von dieser Welt ist, aber im Kommen ist mitten unter uns” (Hell 1930/2011, S. 26f.). 17 Einen Kampf gilt es gegen das “gedankenlose sich vergeudende Leben wie gegen das sich selbst vergottende Menschentum” zu führen (Hell 1930/2011, S. 25). 18 “Alle Kulturseligkeit und alle Verehrung von Menschengröße und Menschenmacht enthüllt sich nicht nur als Einseitigkeit, sondern als bewusste Loslösung von Gott, als Schuld” (Hell 1930/2011, S. 12). 19 Das Christentum sei geradezu dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass es die “Verkrampfung [vermeidet], die auftritt, wenn idealistische Forderungen gestellt werden, die das Individuum nicht zu tragen vermag und die es doch in heldischem Eifer auf sich nehmen will” (Hell 1930/2011, S. 3).

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as a child of God as about his guilt and helplessness”20 (Hell 1930/2011, p. 3). It is a matter of recognizing this ultimately religious precondition of being human: Man has a certain dignity, but at the same time he is always in danger of failure. To Hell this aspect relates to the thought that man on this earth in all its provisionalness always remains only a seeker who cannot reach a final goal of ideal humanity. In reference to Augustine and Comenius, Bernhard Hell formulates: “This world has become our seemingly familiar home. But one senses that the peace of the heart has not been achieved. The longing goes beyond this world”21 (Hell 1930/2011, p. 11). This is not least of all extremely important from the pedagogical point of view, because for man and thus also for children and young people it is decisive: “In the knowledge of one’s own powerlessness and imperfection lies the possibility for a new power: the power of faith”22 (Hell 1930/2011, p. 13). Hell’s thoughts on anthropology are all about the recognition of man’s limits, about insight into limitation and the need for redemption. According to Hell, this in no way leads to a passive attitude that is indifferent to the world. On the contrary, insight into the limits of human possibilities frees us to act in an appropriate and pedagogically appropriate manner. According to Hell—and this is already a transition to the next point—the appropriate pedagogical action does not primarily include the imparting of knowledge, but a certain form of living together, a certain arrangement of the Protestant school community. Thus, an educational effect is expected above all by “living custom”. “As a living custom, not merely as an idea or demand, the feeling of being connected to common work and common hope should become and grow.”23 (Hell 1930/2011, p. 44). This is also decisive for

20 Eine realistische Anthropologie kann nach Hell nur mit dem Christentum gewonnen werden: Hier gebe es ein “Wissen um die Größe, wie um die Kleinheit des Menschen, um seine hohe Würde und Möglichkeit als Gotteskind wie um seine Schuld und Hilflosigkeit” (Hell 1930/2011, S. 3). 21 “Diese Welt ist uns zur scheinbar vertrauten Heimat geworden. Aber man spürt: der Frieden des Herzens ist nicht erreicht. Die Sehnsucht geht über diese Welt hinaus” (Hell 1930/2011, S. 11). 22 “Im Wissen um die eigene Ohnmacht und Unvollkommenheit liegt die Möglichkeit für eine neue Kraft: die Kraft des Glaubens” (Hell 1930/2011, S. 13). 23 “Als lebendig erlebte Sitte, nicht bloß als Idee oder Forderung, soll werden und wachsen das Gefühl, verbunden zu sein zu gemeinsamer Arbeit und gemeinsamer Hoffnung” (Hell 1930/2011, S. 44).

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the determination of the function which religion in the narrower sense should play in the school community. 6.2.4

The Function of Religion

What is decisive for Hell in his concept is not a separate subject of “religious education”. What is decisive for the Protestant school community are lived structures which draw their standards in the Gospel. “The ethos of a community, the spiritual forces which are active in it, can always only be passed on in the form of shaped life”24 (see Hell 1930/2011, p. 5)—this is both the benchmark and mission. According to Hell, the aim of the school is to educate the pious man— “pious” is “a man who relates all events in nature and fate to God and who wants to lead his life in a permanent decision of conscience”25 (see Hell 1930/2011, p. 16). The task of the Christian school is to “bring the deep dimension of the world quite clearly to consciousness”26 (Hell 1930/2011, p. 17) and to shape the “habitus and character” of the pupils (Hell 1930/2011, p. 41). The question is only: In what ways is this goal prepared? By what means is this goal achieved? In his explanation of why it is structures above all—pedagogically relevant structures—which make the development and growth in habitus and character of the pupils possible, Hell expressly refers to Martin Luther: “The Protestant school, which joins Luther, sees in every work possible worship. It is not the subject matter that decides, but the attitude, the direction of the whole person’s gaze, with which the work is done. The illusion that a certain knowledge or action as such decides on the value of man has been eliminated”27 (Hell 1930/2011, p. 38). Since the Protestant school community is concerned with clarifying the question of the meaning of human 24 “Das Ethos einer Gemeinschaft, die geistigen Kräfte, die in ihr wirksam sind, können immer nur in der Form gestalteten Lebens weiter gegeben werden” (Hell 1930/2011, S. 5). 25 “‘Fromm’ ist „ein Mensch, der alles Geschehen in Natur und Schicksal auf Gott bezieht und der sein Leben in dauernder Entscheidung des Gewissens führen will” (Hell 1930/2011, S. 16). 26 Aufgabe der christlichen Schule ist es, die “Tiefendimension der Welt ganz deutlich zum Bewusstsein zu bringen” (Hell 1930/2011, p. 17) und den “Habitus und Charakter” der Schüler_innen zu prägen (Hell 1930/2011, S. 41). 27 “Die evangelische Schule, die sich Luther anschließt, sieht in jeder Arbeit möglichen Gottesdienst. Nicht der Stoff entscheidet, sondern die Gesinnung, die Blickrichtung des ganzen Menschen, mit der die Arbeit getan wird. Beseitigt ist die Illusion, daß ein bestimmtes

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existence above all, teaching takes a back seat. The “actual essence of the school” is applied “where the teaching is embedded in an educational community, as the village or the monastery used to be and as the Protestant school community would like to live again”28 (Hell 1930/2011, p. 6). The Gospel has only indirect consequences for teaching, subject design and material selection. “The material treated in the class is by no means indifferent. But the Gospel can only call the responsibility to be conscientious in choice and treatment. It says nothing about the laws of how individual substances are to be treated”29 (Hell 1930/2011, p. 45). Hell sees the Evangelical of his school community guaranteed by a certain arrangement of living together. The question of a subject of religious instruction is—contrary to what one might expect—not discussed separately. In the situation of the year 1930 it depends for him on the organization of community life. From today’s point of view the interesting question arises to what extent “the Christian” of a Protestant school community must be especially emphasized at all or whether there is not rather a subliminal, latent mode of action according to it. To that which can be regarded as latent effect of the Christian belongs beside the social-spatial aspect of living together above all the structuring of time. 6.2.5

The Shaping of Time

A positive model to Hell was the peasant social order, in which man is shaped by the “rhythm of the year”. (Hell 1930/2011, p. 27) The year, the month, time in general—they have religious significance for Bernhard Hell. To put it bluntly: “The year is preaching”30 (Hell 1930/2011, p. 39). In the background is above all the structuring of the church year. The Wissen oder Tun als solches über den Wert des Menschen entscheide” (Hell 1930/2011, S. 38). 28 “Das ‘eigentliche Wesen der Schule’ kommt vielmehr da zur Geltung, ‘wo der Unterricht eingebettet ist in eine Erziehungsgemeinschaft, wie es früher das Dorf oder das Kloster gewesen ist und wie es die evangelische Schulgemeinde wieder leben möchte’” (Hell 1930/2011, S. 6). 29 “Der Stoff, der in der Klasse behandelt wird, ist keineswegs gleichgültig. Aber das Evangelium kann nur die Verantwortung aufrufen, in der Auswahl und Behandlung gewissenhaft zu sein. Über die Gesetzlichkeiten, wie die einzelnen Stoffe behandelt werden müssen, sagt es nichts” (Hell 1930/2011, S. 45). 30 Zugespitzt kann er geradezu formulieren: “Das Jahr ist Verkündigung” (Hell 1930/2011, S. 39).

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church year is divided into three major phases: “a time in which the life of Jesus is in the foreground of contemplation, then the church and finally the judging God.”31 (see Hell 1930/2011, p. 42f.) From this observation Hell comes to an educational analogy: “This rhythm of the year with the different moods and tasks is of decisive importance for the organization of school life. So, the school should distinguish between a time in which the focus is on individual growth and activity, a time in which it is focused on the formation of the community, and thirdly, a time of realization of the reality, which it must respond to with increased effort and greater self-conquest. All in all, this means that in one third of the school year particularly learning and training of personal strength is promoted. In a second part of the school year the community-life is emphasized an in a third period emphasis is put on work”32 (Hell 1930/2011, p. 43). In this way, the curriculum of the school is embedded in the structure of the seasons with its corresponding peculiarities. This procedure supports the perception of the world as an ordered cosmos. After all, according to Hell, time is also and perhaps precisely part of God’s creation to be venerated in the Protestant school community. A school program, however, only is a theoretical program for schooling. Therefore, a school program is not to be confused with the reality of school. However, Hell’s school program of 1930 already raises questions at the programmatic level: Questions about how he addressed certain issues and what he did not address.

6.3

Historical Context

The historical context of Bernhard Hell’s school foundation can be derived from two contexts. On the one hand, Hell pedagogically stands in the tradition of the Landerziehungsheime. On the other hand, Hell theologically

31 Das Kirchenjahr ist letztlich in drei große Phasen eingeteilt: “eine Zeit, in der das Leben Jesu im Vordergrund der Betrachtung steht, dann die Kirche und schließlich der richtende Gott” (Hell 1930/2011, S. 42f.). 32 So sollte die Schule unterscheiden zwischen “einer Zeit, in der das individuelle Wachsen und Wirken im Vordergrund steht, dann einer Zeit, in der es die Bildung der Gemeinschaft ist, und zum dritten einer Zeit der Erkenntnis der notvollen Wirklichkeit der sie mit gesteigerter Mühe und größerer Selbstüberwindung zu antworten hat. Das würde bedeuten, dass in einem Drittel des Schuljahrs das Lernen und die Ausbildung persönlicher Kraft besonders gefördert wird, dass in einem zweiten der Wille zur Gemeinschaft betont wird und im letzten Drittel die geistige Arbeit” (Hell 1930/2011, S. 43).

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stands in the context of the question of how the Protestant tradition can be the basis for a school in modern times. When Bernhard Hell founded the Urspringschule together with his wife Else in 1930, the first German Landerziehungsheim was founded more than thirty years ago. In 1898 Hermann Lietz (see Koerrenz et al. 2017, p. 17ff.) had founded the first German Landerziehungsheim in Ilsenburg. Bernhard Hell himself had worked from 1907 to 1919 in the Free School Community of Wickersdorf and from 1919 to 1930 at the Landschulheim am Solling as a teacher and educator. Both schools were created by the spin-off of Lietz’s concept of Landerziehungsheim had arisen from spinoffs from the Lietz’schen country boarding schools. Both of Hell’s fields of activity were—albeit with some independent accentuations—in the tradition of Lietz’s country boarding schools. What did the country boarding schools and the other types of schools that emerged from them have in common—despite all their differences? These are probably above all the three structural characteristics that are echoed in the term Landerziehungsheim (see Lietz 2005). Country—Education—Home: These three basic pedagogical decisions with their different nuances and weightings belong to the self-evident aspects that are peculiar to this tradition of alternative education. Bernhard Hell saw nature as the best environment for children and young people. His conclusion lay entirely in the line of argumentation given by Hermann Lietz: “Up to a certain age the child must be absolutely protected from the perishable influences of the big city, to which it should first face inwardly strengthened and consolidated, knowing and ready to help”33 (see Hell 1930/2011, p. 29). However, connected with these critical analyses of the structural educational influences—emanating from the unknown and threatening gesture of the city—were also romanticizing utopias and the longing for the pre-modern era, which the founders of Landerziehungsheim let glorify the country with varying intensity. Else and Bernhard Hell’s decision in favour of the old Urspring monastery, located in the countryside behind the mountain, is in keeping with this double tradition of cultural, i.e. city-critical and romanticizing pedagogy. Around 1930, this did not need to be justified separately, since it was possible to tie in with the tradition of other country boarding schools. 33 “Bis zu einem gewissen Alter muß das Kind vor den verderblichen Einflüssen der Großstadt unbedingt geschützt werden, denen es erst innerlich gestärkt und gefestigt, wissend und hilfsbereit gegenüber treten soll” (Hell 1930/2011, S. 29).

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For Bernhard Hell it was self-evident that in and through the Protestant school community education should also and above all take place. This was not intended to make the teaching indifferent, but the possible educational effect was regarded as decisive. In addition to the pedagogical dimension, it was above all theological aspects that guided Bernhard Hell’s reflection on school as a congregation. In this conception of school as church, Hell was able to tie in with very different conceptions of history. In a certain sense, for example, Martin Luther’s ideas about school organization in his writings on school are already oriented towards “congregation”. In his texts of 1524 “To the councillors of all cities of German countryside that they should establish and hold Christian schools” and of 1530 “A sermon that one should hold children to schools” he dealt with the relationship between the Christian church and the political public. “Community” in this case was the church community in the cities of the sixteenth century and the catechetical instruction grouped around the house father in rural regions. However, the historical context of Bernhard Hell’s school concept is primarily determined by a reference to Martin Luther. In Hell’s case, “Protestant” referred above all to a particular human doctrine inspired by the doctrine of justification. Against an idealistic ideology of the perfect human being, in 1930 Hell set the dialectic of talent and endangerment of man as God’s creature in motion. In his self-perception, man is always determined by difference to the unattainable otherness of God. In contrast to Luther, however, Hell did not see his school congregation primarily connected with a concrete local church. The denominational differentiation and above all the overall (above all church-critical) pluralization tendencies in the wake of the Enlightenment suggested a different reference group. A group like the ecumenically organized Michaelsbruderschaft (Hage 1981) offered him corresponding starting points. This community had been co-founded by Hell in 1931 and was a successor organization of the Berneuchener Kreis (Nickles 1981). This brotherhood was about a renewal of ecclesiastical, “congregational” piety. In the founding charter this is expressed as follows: “In an hour when the Church threatens to lose herself to the demands of the world, the Church can only speak the word of decision that she owes the world if she fulfils the priestly ministry of

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prayer”34 (Document 1931 in Hage 1981, p. 13). “Evangelical” was the program of this group by a conscious connection of pastors and laity in theological work as well as a principally ecumenical orientation. The document goes on to say: “We believe that all individual churches are members of the one Church of Christ and fulfil their vocation in receiving and serving one another”35 (Document 1931 in Hage 1981, p. 12). If one wants to understand Hell’s “community” idea in the context of his conception of the “Urspringschule”, then the tradition of integrating schools to a Christian community that goes back to Luther cannot be ignored. The educational concept of the “school congregation” following Friedrich Wilhelm Dörpfeld (1824–1893) was finally a unifying moment of the pedagogical and theological tradition. Characteristic of his conception of “school congregation” is the determination of the basis of school in the respective local congregation, in which the contours of the respective local school congregation should first emerge in consultation with the parenthood. The decisive guiding idea for Dörpfeld here is the “family principle” (Dörpfeld 1898, p. 71ff.). Thus the principle for the “constitution of the school community” is accordingly: “The families and individual members of the Protestant Church (in the Rhine Province) form the Protestant school community or Protestant educational cooperative for the sake of the care for the public instruction and the public education of their underage members”36 (Dörpfeld 1898, p. 109). In a transfer of the presbyterial principle of the organisation of rule and power from bottom to top, it was for Dörpfeld—with all its interdependence in the church school supervision—the head of the school board was a local pastor (Dörpfeld 1898, p. 110)—the autonomy of the individual school, which should make an independent profile of the school possible. The organisational basis of the school community consisted ultimately in the meeting of the persons involved in it. The historical context of Hell’s “Urspringschule” 34 “In einer Stunde, da die Kirche sich selbst an den Anspruch der Welt zu verlieren droht, kann die Kirche das Wort der Entscheidung, das sie der Welt schuldet, nur sprechen, wenn sie den priesterlichen Dienst des Gebets erfüllt” (Urkunde 1931 in Hage 1981, S. 13). 35 “Wir glauben daran, daß alle Einzelkirchen Glieder sind der einen Kirche Christi und ihren Beruf im gegenseitigen Empfangen und Dienen erfüllen” (Urkunde 1931 in Hage 1981, S. 12). 36 “Die Familien und Einzelangehörigen der evangelischen Kirche (in der Rheinprovinz) bilden behufs der Sorge für den öffentlichen Unterricht und die öffentliche Erziehung ihrer unmündigen Glieder die evangelische Schulgemeinde oder evangelische Erziehungsgenossenschaft” (Dörpfeld 1898, S. 109).

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is thus equally determined by ideas of “alternative schooling”, an updating of Christian theology in the pedagogical field and a link to the concept of the “school community” according to Dörpfeld.

6.4

Contemporary Relevance

If we look at the significance of the school concept today, the attempt to think the Gospel and the school together in a reformist way is first of all impressive. It is not a question of a fundamentalist isolation from reality. Rather, it is about the attempt, in an open turn to the world to shape Christian life in school as an opportunity to prepare people for a critical participation in society. The figure of thought is simply that growing up in a Christian school community is a good preparation for responsible, respectful participation in society. Nevertheless, there are two points that need to be critically questioned. One concerns the relationship between democracy and subordination, the other the tension between charisma and professionalism. Hell’s cultural-critical perspective is undoubtedly directed against the pluralism of modernity and its consequences; democratic decision-making seems to be subdued by religious thought. Individuality and pluralism must be opposed by a unifying principle of reality: God. However, this programmatic basic assumption does not remain without consequences on the level of school organization. The dominant model of the school community is parallel to the perception of the world that of unity: The goal for Hell is the “living school community that listens to God together and is ready to bow to His will”37 (Hell 1930/2011, p. 10). But then the question arises: How can God’s will be recognized? Who interprets God’s will? A uniform faith is a prerequisite for all those involved in the school. “This faith unites all who are connected to the school community, the teacher as well as the pupil, the artist as well as the scientist, the labourer as well as the clergyman. It is the belief in an improvement of the world which does not come from man, but also not without him, a belief which gives everyone the holy enthusiasm to fill his place as well as possible, and which makes all members of a spiritual body”38 (Hell 1930/2011, p. 16). 37 Ziel ist für Hell die “lebendige, gemeinsam auf Gott hörende, sich seinem Willen zu beugen bereite Schulgemeinschaft” (Hell 1930/2011, S. 10). 38 “Dieser Glaube eint alle zu der Schulgemeinde Verbundenen, den Lehrer wie den Schüler, den Künstler wie den Wissenschaftler, den Werktätigen wie den Geistlichen. Es ist der

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A pluralism of interests and a balance of possible differences are not in Hell’s view. Now a unifying, identity-forming bond between all those involved in the school is undoubtedly necessary. But: school is above all a place of people with certain interests and their own power potential. An independent school seems to be characterized precisely by the fact that— because of the withdrawal of state power regulations—the balance of power must be negotiated to a special degree. Even a Protestant school community is not exempt from this—which Hell does not, however, sketch out in detail. This central question to the theory of the Protestant school community in historical retrospect, how the understanding about different interests in a school is regulated—Bernhard Hell ignores it by his idealistic basic trait and leaves the question unanswered who determines the rules of communication and behaviour of the school community. For the fact that a uniform recognition of God’s will and a voluntary subordination to it is achieved in everyone may be programmatically desirable, but in reality, it will not have been unproblematic at all. The sociologist Helmuth Plessner, for example, already criticized a community ideal, as Hell put it, in 1924. Plessner’s writing “Grenzen der Gemeinschaft. A Critique of Social Radicalism” (Plessner 1981/1924) can easily be related to the above-mentioned theoretical deficit of the founding program. Plessner’s criticism culminates in the observation: “The idol of this age is the community. As if to compensate for the hardness and staleness of our lives, the idea has condensed all sweetness into sweetness, all tenderness into powerlessness, all yieldingness into dignitylessness. (…) With the relinquishment of a right to distance between people in the ideal of communal ascension in overarching organic bonding, man himself is threatened”39 (Plessner 1981/1924, p. 28). Plessner emphasizes the human right to distance. In this context, distance can also be understood as freedom to otherness, as the right to plural coexistence.

Glaube an eine Besserung der Welt, die nicht vom Menschen kommt, aber auch nicht ohne ihn, ein Glaube, der Jedem die heilige Begeisterung verleiht, seinen Platz so gut wie möglich auszufüllen, und der alle zu Gliedern eines geistigen Leibes macht” (Hell 1930/2011, S. 16). 39 “Das Idol dieses Zeitalters ist die Gemeinschaft. Wie zum Ausgleich für die Härte und

Schalheit unseres Lebens hat die Idee alle Süße bis zur Süßlichkeit, alle Zartheit bis zur Kraftlosigkeit, alle Nachgiebigkeit bis zur Würdelosigkeit in sich verdichtet. (…) Mit der gesinnungsmäßigen Preisgabe eines Rechts auf Distanz zwischen Menschen im Ideal gemeinschaftlichen Aufgehens in übergreifender organischer Bindung ist der Mensch selbst bedroht” (Plessner 1981/1924, p. 28).

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Is it even possible for people to be connected in such a way as to form the basis of a community programme such as that of the Urspringschule? This is the question that Plessner’s analysis must ask of the founding program. Through the reception of the Lutheran motive of justification, Hell has introduced a kind of self-reservation into his theory. In the final analysis, people in their provisional state cannot justify their communion themselves either. Nevertheless: Hell places such a strong emphasis on the idea of community that it can at least be described as ambivalent. The second problem of Hell’s thought can be coined by the contrast of charismatic spontaneity on the one hand and professional didactics on the other hand. This is directly connected with the problems which are tied to the definition of the teacher or educator image in the Protestant school community. Hell assumes that “even all ‘education’ does not bring man closer to God”40 (Hell 1930/2011, p. 23). The approach to God, however, is the actual goal of Bernhard Hell’s programme. “The last education cannot and must not want it [note: the didactics]. This happens through God alone”41 (Hell 1930/2011, p. 47). From this it follows in the school program that instruction in the school community is in a certain sense a secondary phenomenon: The starting point and goal remains primarily the “living school community which listens to God together, which is prepared to bow to his will (…), which then with inner necessity must also come to instruction and teaching institution”42 (Hell 1930/2011, p. 10). “All technical measures in teaching and education (…) the Christian school will be gratefully given by the worldly science. (…) But here too it has the great advantage of knowing exactly what it needs through the certainty of its worldview”43 (Hell 1930/2011, p. 22). At this point critical questions are more than appropriate: Who defines or recognizes the world view? 40 Hell geht davon aus, “daß auch alle ‘Bildung’ den Menschen Gott nicht näher bringt” (Hell 1930/2011, S. 23). 41 “Die letzte Bildung kann und darf sie [Anm.: die Didaktik] nicht wollen. Die geschieht durch Gott allein” (Hell 1930/2011, S. 47). 42 Ausgangspunkt und Ziel bleibt eben primär die “lebendige, gemeinsam auf Gott hörende, sich seinem Willen zu beugen bereite Schulgemeinschaft (…), die dann mit innerer Notwendigkeit auch zu Unterricht und Unterrichtseinrichtung kommen muß” (Hell 1930/2011, S. 10). 43 “Alle technischen Maßnahmen in Unterricht und Erziehung (…) wird die christliche Schule sich dankbar von der weltlichen Wissenschaft geben lassen. (…) Aber auch hier hat sie den großen Vorzug, durch die Bestimmtheit ihrer Weltanschauung genau zu wissen, was sie braucht” (Hell 1930/2011, p. 22).

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Who, in turn, determines the didactic consequences of Weltanschauung ? Also, at this point the idealistic basic trait of Hell and the fading out of the question of power and interest associated with it become clear. Against the background of such provisions, the professional image of an employee in the Protestant school community becomes difficult to determine. The necessary rules for the negotiation of roles in the teacher-pupil relationship as well as for the teacher-teacher relationship are not included. What happens when students or teachers define the determinacy of the worldview differently? Then either a negotiation based on the democratic model of pluralism or a prophet-Baals-ancient-principle that changes from faith to authoritarianism are open as possible solutions. Bernhard Hell did not comment on this question in this programme. Rather, he assumed that in a Protestant school community, community itself must be assumed as necessary. At this point the founding document of the Urspringschule becomes recognizable in its historical conditionality. The appreciation of the communal, which has much good for itself in wellconsidered dosage, was set absolutely and thus necessary ways of conflict resolution were not discussed. Ultimately, the problems associated with this can be linked to today’s questions about the relationship between the individual and the community. The patterns of liberal or communitarian arguments collide. On the one hand, it is about how the rights of the individual are to be weighed against universally understood rights. On the other hand, the question arises as to how the universally understood rights should be related to the rights of certain traditional communities (see Benhabib 1999). The ethical questions arising from these constellations remain a current challenge for the reflection of the political—and also of pedagogy.

References Selected Sources Again Fichte und die Freie Schulgemeinde. In: Die Freie Schulgemeinde 4 (1914), pp. 119–129 [= 1914b]. Bildungsziele und Weltanschauung. In: Der Landschulheimer 1919, Issue 1, pp. 9–15 [= 1919] (auch in “Schule als Gemeinde”, pp. 156–162). Bildung und Schule. In: Der Landschulheimer 1920, Issue 3, pp. 1–9 (auch in “Schule als Gemeinde”, pp. 130–138).

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Das Johannesevangelium. Eine Wickersdorfer Morgenansprache. In: Die Freie Schulgemeinde 4 (1913), pp. 22–27 [= 1913c] (auch in “Schule als Gemeinde”, pp. 195–201). Das Landschulheim am Solling und sein Wille zur Gestalt. o.O. 1924 [unveröffentlichtes Manuskript] (auch in “Schule als Gemeinde”, pp. 87–98). Die Evangelische Schulgemeinde. Versuch zur Gestaltung eines evangelischen Landerziehungsheims (1930). Neu herausgegeben und kommentiert von Ralf Koerrenz. Jena 2011. Die freie Schulgemeinde Wickersdorf. In: Das Alumnat 2 (1913), pp. 214–220 [= 1913b] (auch in “Schule als Gemeinde”, pp. 76–86). Die Philosophie der Schule. In: Wickersdorfer Jahrbuch 1914. Abhandlungen zum Lehrplan der Freien Schulgemeinde. Jena 1914, pp. 8–22 [= 1914c] (auch in “Schule als Gemeinde”, pp. 163–177). Eine freie Schulgemeinde. In: Die Hilfe 14 (1908), p. 518f.; p. 536 [= 1908b] (auch in “Schule als Gemeinde”, pp. 69–75). Erziehungsfragen. In: Der Mensch 14 (1907), p. 67 u. p. 83 [= 1907] (auch in “Schule als Gemeinde”, pp. 40–44). Fichte. In: Die Hilfe 14 (1908), Beiblatt, pp. 309–311 [= 1908a]. Fichte und die freie Schulgemeinde. In: Die Tat (1913/14), pp. 1059–1062 [= 1914a]. Schule als Gemeinde. Bernhard Hells schulpädagogische Schriften. Herausgegeben von Ralf Koerrenz und Dieter Toder. Weinheim 1996. Schultypus und Weltanschauung. In: Die Freie Schulgemeinde. Organ des Bundes für Freie Schulgemeinden 2 (1911/12), pp. 48–64 [= 1911] (auch in “Schule als Gemeinde”, pp. 139–155). Über Fichtes Lehre von der Erziehung. In: Das Alumnat 2 (1913), pp. 140–151 [= 1913a] (auch in “Schule als Gemeinde”, pp. 45–57).

References Baader, M. S. (2005). Erziehung als Erlösung. Transformationen des Religiösen in der Reformpädagogik. Weinheim: Juventa. Benhabib, S. (1999). Kulturelle Vielfalt und demokratische Gleichheit. Politische Partizipation im Zeitalter der Globalisierung. Horkheimer Vorlesungen. Frankfurt: Fischer. Dörpfeld, F. W. (1898). Die freie Schulgemeinde und ihre Anstalten auf dem freien Boden der freien Kirche im freien Staate. Beiträge zur Theorie des Schulwesens. Gütersloh: Bertelsmann. Hage, G. (Ed.). (1981). Die Evangelische Michaelsbruderschaft. Fünfzig Jahre Dienst an der Kirche. Kassel: Johannes Stauda. Koerrenz, R., Blichmann, A., & Engelmann, S. (2017). Alternative Schooling and New Education: European Concepts and Models. London: Palgrave.

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Lietz, H. (2005). Reform der Schule durch Reformschulen. Kleine Schriften (R. Koerrenz, Ed.). Jena: IKS Garamond. Nickles, H. (Ed.). (1981). Der Berneuchener Dienst. Auftrag und Weg. Sulz: Self Published. Plessner, H. (1981/1924). Grenzen der Gemeinschaft. Eine Kritik des sozialen Radikalismus. In Gesammelte Schriften. Vol. V. Macht und menschliche Natur (pp. 7–133). Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. Wyneken, G. (2006). Freie Schulgemeinde Wickersdorf. Kleine Schriften (U. Herrmann, Ed.). Jena: Garamond.

CHAPTER 7

Gertrud Bäumer, Deconstructing Gender and Discussing Social Work

Abstract This chapter introduces the ideas of Gertrud Bäumer, an important protagonist of the women’s rights movement in Germany at the beginning of the twentieth century. The chapter elaborates on Bäumer’s understanding of identity and gender. Further, it elaborates on Bäumer’s position towards the fight of the youth movement and the professionalization of social pedagogy during that time. Keywords Gertrud Bäumer · Social pedagogy · Gender · Identity · Women’s movement

7.1

Gertrud Bäumer---A Biographical Summary

Gertrud Bäumer was born on the 12th of September at the end of the nineteenth century in the year 1873. Born and raised in the small town of Hohenlimburg in today’s North Rhine-Westphalia, Gertrud Bäumer was not sent to the characteristic Higher Girls School already mentioned in the chapter on Helene Lange. Instead of perpetuating the social hierarchy her father sent her to a public elementary school. His aim was to preserve his daughter from the problematic hierarchical structures of schooling in the nineteenth century. After her father died, the mother and the children moved to the eastern part of Germany. Here Bäumer attended an © The Author(s) 2019 R. Koerrenz and S. Engelmann, Forgotten Pedagogues of German Education, Palgrave Studies in Alternative Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29570-7_7

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elementary school and the formerly criticized secondary school for girls. Bäumer later attended the teacher’s seminar for women; the only way to rise in the ranks of the educated women. This biography of schooling was quite characteristic for girls and women from the middle class who aspired more education. Shortly after her time at the teacher’s seminar for women, Bäumer started working at a school. Without the chance to gain access to higher education at a university like boys and young men, Bäumer decided to attend further training as a teacher, an Oberlehrerinnenausbildung. This way, she would not directly become a schoolmaster, but rise in the ranks of the educated people. Additionally, the women studying for this position were allowed to attend classes at university—as guests. Bäumer listened to lectures about theology, German language and literature studies, social sciences and philosophy—all these influences were eminently present in her later work; one could even look for traces of Wilhelm Diltheys influence, because she also listened to his lectures. Notwithstanding the fact that Bäumer was a vivid and achieving individual, her work is often connected to the life of Helene Lange, her teacher and close friend. She met Helene Lange in 1896. According to her biography, she was introduced to Lange one year later in 1897. However, the relationship between the two politically influential women became even more intense. That is because Bäumer became a sort of close friend, backer and principal supporter of Helene Langes work during her time in Berlin. While Bäumer studied at the university, she helped the weakening Lange with her work and soaked in her knowledge and fire. From 1899 until 1930, Bäumer and Lange lived together and pushed the emancipative measures of the women’s liberation movement forward. Albeit the fact that Bäumer was a very important subsidiary of Lange’s work, her individual influence and her political and pedagogical engagement must not be underestimated. For example, Gertrud Bäumer was a lecturer at the Social School for Women in Berlin. The school in Berlin is nowadays known as the Alive Salomon Hochschule, were both men and woman can study various subjects related to social work. Social work, so to say, was always an integral part of Bäumer’s thought. Instead of merely focusing on schooling and teaching, Bäumer always took the societal influences that shape the subjectivity of students into account. This becomes clearly evident in her autobiographic writing: “I’ve become heretical about teacher training. The most important thing is to immediately start living with the children”

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(Bäumer 1933/2004, p. 29).1 So, instead of believing the teachings of scholars such as Johann Friedrich Herbart and simply relying on her studies, Bäumer always acted as a learning individual in both her pedagogical and political work. her experiences with the harsh reality of schools and the influence of social conditions in the individuals especially influenced her theoretical and political work: A completely unknown world opened up, for whose events one hardly knew the names. I have always found the difficulties of my task and responsibility in doing justice to the individual child - the teaching, the treatment of the ‘subject matter’ did not seem problematic to me at all. But this was certainly due to the fact that I had learned so little ‘methodology’. It seemed to me that above all the children, each one, were entrusted to me, more than the workload or the ‘teaching material’. (Bäumer 1933/2004, p. 30) 2

Notwithstanding Bäumer’s practical educational activities, she soon became involved in politics. Eva Hopf even argues that she must be considered one of the central figures of social world and school politics during the Weimar Republic (cf. Hopf 1997). Shortly after the political takeover of the National Socialists in Germany, the political career of Bäumer ended. However, Bäumer still wrote texts, gave lectures and was politically involved outside of established politics. Yet National Socialists—fearing a negative influence on the ideologization of the Germans—stopped her from doing so. Later, in the year of 1945, Bäumer was forced to flee the city she stayed in—notwithstanding the fact that a lot of her writings are influenced by Helene Lange and published in two volumes titled Kampfzeiten, Time to Fight, the texts of Lange she left at her home were burned. After the World War II, Bäumer was subject of an assault that she cooperated with the National Socialists, which was proclaimed as false shortly after. She died in 1954, leaving behind a large variety of texts, ideas and impulses

1 “Ich bin ketzerisch geworden in bezug auf ‘Lehrerbildung’. Das wichtigste ist doch, daß man sofort anfängt, mit den Kindern zu leben. Kann man das am Phantom lernen?” (Bäumer 1933/2004, S. 29). 2 “Eine vollkommen unbekannte Welt klaffte auf, für deren Geschehnisse man kaum die

Namen wußte. Ich habe die Schwierigkeiten meiner Aufgabe und Verantwprtung stets darin gefunden, dem einzelnen Kinde gerecht zu werden – der Unterricht, die Behandlung des ‘Lehrstoffs’ erschien mir gar nicht problematisch. Aber das lag gewiß daran, daß ich so wenig ‘Methodik’ gelernt hatte. Mir schien, als seien mir vor allem die Kinder, jedes einzelne, anvertraut, mehr als das Pensum oder das ‘Lehrgut’” (Bäumer 1933/2003, S. 30).

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for pedagogical thought. Besides the pedagogical ideas, her comments on the ongoing discussion of differences between men and women are worth consideration. They are the subject of the next subchapter, followed by Bäumer’s ideas on social work for a just society.

7.2 The Social Construction of the Women---Deconstructing Norms and Hierarchies Nowadays, it almost seems “normal” to talk about women and men as both equally constructed social categories. Instead of relying on essentialist arguments that refer to the assumed nature of the sexes, educators informed by poststructuralist sciences argue that gender is the predominantly socially assigned marker for something that was mostly considered as the natural sex about 100 years ago. Educational practices nowadays do not try to differentiate between genders; they try to integrate individuality and want to be aware for the social dimension of all aspects of identity construction. Gender is understood as something constructed by individual practices of ascription; a highly complex social process far away from all essentialist arguments (cf. West and Zimmerman 1987; Gildenmeister 2004). All in all, educational sciences are aware of the problem of patriarchal structures and biased institutions. Nevertheless, this is not the case in all educational institutions. And it most definitely was not the case for schooling, cultural politics and education at the beginning of the twentieth century. The last chapter elaborated on Helene Lange’s understanding of “woman” in more detail. Summarizing Lange’s understanding of woman’s nature, women are essentially different from man; however, this difference does not serve as a foundation for a normative difference. Tying in with Lange’s ideas, this chapter introduces Gertrud Bäumer’s understanding of women’s “nature”, which is more reflected, diffracted and obscure than it might appear at first glance—our reading of Bäumer supports this impression. Bäumer’s texts oscillate between a more or less essentialist understanding of women and an approach that emphasizes the social influences on the construction of individual identities. First and foremost, one must note that Gertrud Bäumer reacts to social circumstances that are improving for all people at first glance. In 1907/1908 she published her paper Eine Metaphysik des Geschlechtergegensatzes, translated as Metaphysics of Gender-Opposition. Nevertheless, the

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term gender was not coined the way it is nowadays with regard to the writings of Judith Butler. However, Bäumer might be considered a theoretician of gender, because she discusses the social element of identity construction in detail. But why? When considering the differences between women and men, one must take into account that society is constructed in a patriarchal way. Especially women—since the differentiation of the public and the private sphere in the beginning of modernity—were mostly banished to the private sphere of society. Therefore, specific tasks were assigned to them to secure the smooth functioning of this sphere. As a consequence of these very specific tasks that are comprised as the various acts of reproduction, action and agency outside of this sphere were hard to achieve: “The demands that are constantly made of her from this sphere force her again and again to expend the forces in her purely personal life that she laboriously tries to store up for objective creation” (Bäumer 1908/2001, p. 98).3 Even though Bäumer states that the centralization of womanly forces in the private sphere is “natural” for women, her text does not provide any arguments that she considers this line of argumentation as the only valid one. Instead of deriving woman’s nature from a certain stage of cultural development, Bäumer points to the influence of society and cultural norms that shape the identity of women. These circumstances also restrain women from achieving everything that might be possible for them. She refers to the public sphere, especially art and sciences, to point out the mechanisms at work preventing women from becoming an integral part of this sphere. Firstly, both women and men need certain conditions to take part in this sphere. For men, the conditions are already present, which is not the case for women. Therefore, female artists and scientists were—and still are in the year 2020 to a certain degree—underrepresented in the academic field: “It [the fact] causes the female artist, the female scholar, always to be a relatively rare phenomenon, and thus not only exposes the female artist or scholar to external difficulties, but also makes her find it difficult to have confidence in her female nature” (Bäumer 1908/2001, p. 98). So, female artists or scholars are—according to Bäumer—in troubled to balance on the one hand side their assumed “natural” womanhood and on the other hand the societal demands of the public sphere. Bäumer’s understanding

3 “Die Ansprüche, die aus dieser Sphäre dauernd an sie gestellt werden, zwingen sie immer wieder, im rein persönlichen Leben die Kräfte zu verausgaben, die sie mühsam für objektives Schaffen aufzuspeichern versucht” (Bäumer 1908/2001, S. 98).

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of womanhood incorporates a natural side and a cultural side—with strong emphasis on the cultural dimension. Bäumer elaborates on the social circumstances that shape the idea of woman’s agency in society. A different society with different norms and ideas of women’s status and capabilities would produce a different social position for women and thereby a different understanding of women as a concept itself. Even though those social positions are not available at the beginning of the twentieth century, Bäumer clearly states that all social development must aim at positioning female artists, female scholars and females in general, right in the centre of cultural production. The restriction to the private sphere—for Bäumer—must be disestablished to free the potentials of all people—a highly emancipative project that is connected to education and societal change. This becomes even more evident when one considers more of Bäumer’s writings. In her text Psychologische Grundlegung, Psychological Foundation, which was published a few years after the Metaphysics in 1911, Bäumer integrates social sciences to an even higher degree. Instead of proclaiming something that is inherently female in its nature, Bäumer raises the question if there are things that can be called female in general. Without pointing out and defining the clear differentiations between man and women in a first step—which is almost impossible according to Bäumer—the clear attribution of tasks and the limitation of women to specific tasks is not possible. Offering the argument this way, Bäumer neglects the strict allocation of tasks based on an assumed nature of women in society as it was practiced at the beginning of the twentieth century and even is nowadays. Besides talking about the nature of women in a more philosophical-aesthetical way, Bäumer addresses the possibility to talk about this issue in a psychological way. Psychology—according to Bäumer—tries to elaborate the general aspects of an object by analysing single cases. However, both the psychological and the philosophical-aesthetical approach are searching for nature in reality. However, differences that are found in empirical cases are not qualitative: “The differences between the sexes are only quantitative, not qualitative” (Bäumer 1911/2003, p. 101).4 The basic building blocks of society are not sexed entities; instead of this, Bäumer understands individuals as composed of various capabilities that are—however—developed to certain degrees and influenced by the social circumstances: “As if there were 4 “Die Unterschiede der Geschlechter sind nur quantitative, keine qualitativen” (1911/2003, S. 101).

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qualities that only women and only men have, while in fact it can only be said that the same qualities occur in men and women in different strengths and in different mixtures” (1911/2003, p. 101).5 So, instead of assuming ontological constants, Bäumer refers to the idea of individual capabilities, that can be developed in different contexts. Therefore, everything that is called the “character” of an entity—be it the character of woman or man—is social in its core: “The generic character of women [is] not only biological, but undoubtedly of a sociological nature, i.e. […] not only natural, but also determined by the woman’s position in life as a whole” (Bäumer 1911/2003, p. 101).6 Elaborating on this idea, Bäumer anticipates the social construction of identities; she even argues that character traits might be the mere result of individuals adapting unconsciously to the demands of society: To what extent have the qualities which today are found in women on average come about through adaptation to the tasks assigned to them, through the manner in which they are brought up, through the influence of the prevailing opinion on them, and therefore are changeable and time-bound? (Bäumer 1911/2003, p. 101)7

Bäumer points out that every description of an assumed “nature” of entities is always related to its time and cultural background. Nature and culture are always entwined; the one does not supersede the other—Bäumer is not entirely sure which part dominates the other one because a sociological explanation might be as wrong as a psychological or philosophical one. She grasps nature and culture as a dialectical relation: Nature might be the foundation for culture; however, we are not able to see nature without cultural lenses. Finally, culture always leads to nature and nature is

5 “So als ob es Eigenschaften gäbe, die nur der Frau, und solche, die nur dem Mann zukämen, während in der Tat nur die Rede davon sein kann, daß die gleichen Eigenschaften bei Mann und Frau in verschiedener Stärke und verschiedener Misch auftreten” (1911/2003, S. 101). 6 “Der Gattungscharakter der Frau [ist] nicht nur biologischer, sonder zweifellos mit soziologischer Art, das heißt, […] nicht nur naturgegeben, sondern auch durch die jeweilige Lage der Frau im Gesamtleben bestimmt” (Bäumer 1911/2003, S. 101). 7 “[W]i.e. weit sind die Eigenschaften, die heute an den Frauen durchschnittlich festgestellt werden, durch Anpassung an die ihr zufallenden Aufgaben, durch die Art ihrer Erziehung, den Einfluß der herrschenden Meinung über sie entstanden und deshalb wandelbar und zeitgebunden?” (Bäumer 1911/2003, S. 101).

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always observed and mediated through culture. Bäumer further divides the mediation through cultural practices into three larger fields: the power of opinion, the power of education and the power of life tasks: “The customs and views into which she is born, the education she receives, the work she does, the practical living environment she finds” (Bäumer 1911/2003, p. 102).8 The power of opinions must be understood as the hegemonic ideas about being a women present throughout a specific time in a specific cultural context. These ideas shape the identity of women: Before we become an I, we already possess an unmissable stock of traditional views, of which perhaps, or even certainly, only a very small part ever comes into the light of criticism in the course of our lives and becomes the subject of a conscious acceptance or rejection. (Bäumer 1911/2003, p. 102)9

Opinions about the way one should live, behave, treat others are communicated and transported on a daily basis—they are not always intentionally transmitted. They are more or less merely carried out, presented and therefore they form the individuality and subjectivity of human beings. Bäumer was aware of this fact and concluded that pictures of how to be a woman are the results of this process too. Therefore, the processes of exclusion from the political or public sphere on a larger scale are not always the result of direct and intentional processes—they are more frequently the results of subliminal acts of exclusion on a smaller scale that is connected to the identity of girls and women. The second power shaping the identity of girls and women is education itself. Even though institutionalized education aims at establishing the same chances for boys and girls, the institutions still suffer from a long history of sexist oppression. Bäumer additionally points out that education at home— at least in the early twentieth century—was still very traditional. It aimed at preparing girls for the work in the private sphere that was reliant on the work of women to function in the intended way. Closely linked to the power of education is the power of life tasks. The material circumstances

8 “Sitten und Ansichten, in die sie hineingeboren wird, die Erziehung, die sie bekommt, die Arbeit, den praktischen Lebenskreis, die sie findet” (Bäumer 1911/2003, S. 102). 9 “Ehe wir ein ich werden, besitzen wir bereits einen unübersehbaren Bestand überkommener Anschauungen, von denen vielleicht, oder sogar sicher, im Laufe unseres Lebens nur ein ganz kleiner Teil überhaupt je in das Licht der Kritik tritt und Gegenstand einer bewußten Aufnahme oder Ablehnung wird” (Bäumer 1911/2003, S. 102).

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of daily life form the role of the women. The way she is addressed and integrated in daily life influences her mind-set and enriches or restricts her capabilities. To put it in a nutshell: On the one hand, Bäumer understands women as different and by “nature” different than man. On the other hand, she emphasizes the social influences that shape womanhood and the various pictures that are connected to it. She states that there is no clear line between the natural and the cultural aspects of being a woman. However, her texts show a high level of awareness for social and cultural influences that nowadays also dominate the discussion about gender and the position of woman in society. Bäumer thinks in individual differences. Even though she is talking about “the” woman, she is also talking about individuals: “The thousandfold fine shades and variations that this type shows in its individual formation cannot, by their very nature, be grasped by statistical psychology” (Bäumer 1911/2003, p. 106).10 For her, there does not seem to be a clear line between the social and the natural; individuals are shaped by their environment and they must be considered as individuals situated in a social context—therefore, Bäumer became one of the pioneer thinkers of social work, which is the topic of the next sub-chapter.

7.3

Social Pedagogy---Conceptual Ideas

Instead of narrowing the focus on schooling—which would be possible considering Bäumer’s extensive work on school politics and the interconnection of progress and schooling—this subchapter understands Gertud Bäumer as one of the early representatives of social pedagogy as an emancipative and critical discipline. Bäumer must be considered one of its founding figures, even though she is sometimes only introduced as a social politician (cf. Thole 2012). Despite the fact that most students of social pedagogy probably do not know the name of Gertrud Bäumer—though it is mentioned in texts that emphasize the historical background of social pedagogy (cf. Brumlik 2000)—, her conceptual foundation of social pedagogy is still influential today. Bäumer defines the realm of social pedagogy by defining the field it takes place in. Social pedagogy does not happen in the family or in schools; it is situated in all other fields of a society in which young people 10 “Die tausendfachen feinen Schattierungen und Abwandlungen, die dieser Typus in seiner individuellen Durchbildung zeigt, können schon der Natur der Sache nach von der statistisch verfahrenden Psychologie nicht erfasst werden” (Bäumer 1911/2003, S. 106).

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are learning and coping with problems (cf. Bäumer 1929). This understanding of social pedagogy enlarges the tasks of the educators working in this field; it almost dissolves all boundaries—this results in an urgent need for professionalization and theoretization. At the same time, it supersedes an older understanding of social pedagogy developed in Germany by Paul Natorp. Natorp tried to understand social pedagogy through the aims of education; social pedagogy was not a differentiated set of educational practices, but a descriptive marker for pedagogical thought and action focusing on the development of the community, not the individual. Therefore, the social pedagogy coined by Natorp was sharply contrasted by individual pedagogies that focused the individual. Even though this differentiation seems to be quite clear, most of the pedagogical theories—and most definitely pedagogical practice—often tie individual and community together. The individual prospers in a “good” community and the community flourishes by supporting the individuals. Anyway, the definition of Natorp was not aimed at the practical tasks of social pedagogy. Bäumer emphasized this part of education: “It does not denote a principle to which the entire pedagogy is subordinated both in its theory and its methods, its institutions and works - the school so to say, above all-, but an excerpt: everything that is education, but not school and not family” (Bäumer 1929/2003, p. 248).11 Thereby she also emphasized a close look at the social circumstances an individual is situated in. In place of individualizing the subjects of society, Bäumer’s understanding of social pedagogy—already evident in her analysis of the “nature” of social categories—takes the influence of society, processes of socialization, the hardships of life and the distress, and children and youth experience while growing up in a changing society into account. She connects social pedagogy directly to its history; social pedagogy itself is not a normative principle, but the result of developmental processes and the possible answer to an urgent need of society. It was developed as a response to processes of differentiation and modernization, due to which the family itself was not able to offer all the necessary acts of education that would be necessary to solve the problems: “This educational care was developed as ‘emergency aid’. This means that it is assumed that school and family were sufficient under normal and healthy conditions. What emerges 11 “Er bezeichnet nicht ein Prinzip, dem die gesamte Pädagogik, sowohl ihre Theorie wie ihre Methoden, wie ihre Anstalten und Werke – also vor allem die Schule – utnerstellt ist, sondern einen Ausschnitt: alles was Erziehung, aber nicht Schule und nicht Familie ist” (Bäumer 1929/2003, S. 248).

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next to them in terms of educational care fills gaps - gaps in the normal performance of the family” (Bäumer 1929/2003, p. 248).12 However, Bäumer also states that the idea of compulsory schooling was part of social pedagogy in the beginning. At the beginning of the public school system, this system reacted to the changing needs of the citizens in the society for literacy and further education. Social tasks previously performed by the family in former times, were now carried out by the state—or institutions connected to the state. The task of education was outsourced to highly differentiated institutions: In the differentiation of cultural areas, it [the family] no longer carried out this educational task itself but delegated it and paid for it. Only in the 18th century did the state appear with an independent and direct participation in the education of young people (not as the representative of the families) with compulsory schooling, the establishment of minimum requirements for a general education, provisions also for educational content and educational goals of the higher school. (Bäumer 1929/2003, p. 248)13

Therefore, social pedagogy must evidently be understood as a field of practice that changed its character throughout the time. In the beginning— according to Bäumer—it functioned as a surplus system that catered to the changing needs of families. It mediated and solved the functional problems of families that were forced to obey the changing social tides. Later, it became a source of influence on its own. Instead of only supporting the families, it established its own goals by changing from a supportive school system to a mandatory school system. Social pedagogy itself also became an essential function of the society. Where it in the beginning only served as a problem-solving mechanism, it nowadays is necessary for a functioning society, as it is fixed in law and contributes to the education of children and youth—Gertrud Bäumer offered the definite understanding of social 12 “Diese Erziehungsfürsorge entstand als ‘Nothilfe’. Das heißt, es wird angenommen, daß Schule und Familie unter normalen und gesunden Verhältnissen ausreichten. Was neben ihnen an Erziehungsfürsorge entsteht, füllt Lücken – Lücken in der normalen Leistung der Familie” (Bäumer 1929/2003, S. 248). 13 “In der Differenzierung der Kulturgebiete übte sie diese Bildungsaufgabe nicht mehr

selbst aus, sondern übertrug sie und bezahlte dafür. […] Erst im 18. Jahrhundert erscheint der Staat mit einer selbstständigen und unmittelbaren Anteilnahme an der Erziehung der Jugend (nicht als Beauftragter der Familien) mit Schulzwang, Aufstellung von Mindestforderungen einer Allgemeinbildung, Bestimmungen auch für Bildungsinhalt und Bildungsziele der höheren Schule” (Bäumer 1929/2003, S. 248).

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pedagogy up until the time after World War II. Even though her negative definition of the area of social pedagogy included various forms of practice, especially youth as a target audience were important for social pedagogy—during the beginning of the twentieth century youth became a prominent phase of the life-course, situated between childhood and adulthood. It seems almost logical that someone as proficient in social pedagogy as Bäumer also reflected on youth as a social phenomenon.

7.4

Reflections on Youth---Reflections on Societies Problems

In the beginning of the twentieth century a lot was changing—the future was veiled—even more than today—and the experiences of the two World Wars were not yet present. The middle-class youths organized themselves in the so-called Wandervogelbewegung, a movement in which young people experienced freedom, distance from social norms and the pressure of them and tried to establish a critical stance towards established culture. After the First World War in which a lot of the youths from the movement experienced the terror of war and the hardness of life for the first time, the movement expanded and integrated youths from the working class. Even though the youth movement turned to more conservative values after the World War and disbanded their abstinence from alcohol, nicotine and other drugs it shaped the development of social pedagogy in Germany to a large degree. The importance of life forms became evident, a lot of ideas that were also present in the alternative education movement were transported by the youth movement and youth organizations became more and more important for shaping the society. Bäumer’s attitude towards the youth movement is somewhat ambiguous. On the one hand, she was interested in the new methods and developments centred around the youth movement. On the other hand, she was aware of the problematic aspects such a normativity-laden concept might give birth to. Nevertheless, her understanding of youth becomes clearer when considering her ideas about the youth movement. First and foremost, Bäumer mentions the fact that youth movements always had a leader. This often-charismatic leader is older, mostly in his or her mid-twenties. However, the youth movement does not have this leader. None of the persons present in the youth-movement can be considered a leader—so Bäumer:

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None of them sets up a somehow comprehensive, certain ideal of life, represents a new world view, and insofar as they do, they themselves are only interpreters of some larger spirits, from which they extract more individual thoughts and impulses than a large unified program. (Bäumer 1914/2003, p. 205)14

So, Bäumer is quite sceptical of the term Jugendkultur, youth culture, present during that time in Germany. She is not sure what exactly is part of this idea. The youths call for the possibility to educate themselves and take their destiny into their own hands. However, this very high goal is neglected by certain parts of the youth movement—as it is always the case for every kind of movement. Bäumer is sceptical about the foundational concepts that guide the movement; especially their concept for work seems to be problematic: After all, life does not consist of hiking, dancing, singing and camaraderie. And of course, the youth movement doesn’t mean that either. But it remains strangely unproductive in its ideals of work. And this is due to the onesidedness of the programme. It stamps the world of purposes as the world of the old, with which one basically wants nothing to do with. (Bäumer 1914/2003, p. 208)15

Bäumer sees the most interesting part of the youth culture and the youth movement in general as its orientation towards the future. However, without specific goals and an idea of how to achieve this goal by putting in some work, the ambitions of the youth movement might simply burn out before they shine a light on a possible future. Nevertheless, Bäumer situates an individual capability in the subjects of the youth movement. She does not deny the youth movement it’s shares in social development and even argues that the youth movement works as a contamination meter for the unrest in society. Therefore, the problems that are voiced by the youth 14 “Keiner von ihnen stellt ein irgendwie umfassendes, bestimmtes Lebensideal auf, vertritt eine neue Weltauffassung, und sofern sie es tun, sind sie selbst nur Interpreten irgendwelcher größeren Geister, aus denen sie mehr einzelne Gedanken und Impulse, als ein großes einheitliches Programm entnehmen” (Bäumer 1914/2003, S. 205). 15 “Schließlich besteht das Leben nicht aus Wandern, Tanzen, Singen und Kameradschaft. Und die Jugendbewegung meint das natürlich auch nicht. Aber sie bleibt merkwürdig unergiebig in Arbeitsidealen. Und das liegt an der Einseitigkeit des Programms. Es stempelt die Welt der Zwecke zur Welt der Alten, mit der man grundsätzlich nichts zu tun haben will” (Bäumer 1914/2003, S. 208).

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movement are not only the problems of the youth. Instead of that, a more fundamental problem is at work: the general loss of a relation to the reality. Bäumer states that the youth movement is fuelled by a general agreement on a movement ‘back-to-nature’. The youth’s rebel against the negative impact of civilization: The questions and doubts that have been raised for decades in the cultural activities of leading minds as to whether the technical achievements have really benefited the shaping of life, the individual forms of life that want to bring healing to the most conspicuous modern mutilations of existence in housing, personal hygiene, nutrition, clothing, education and enjoyment, all this flows together in youth into a strong instinct against this metropolitan petrified and emptied existence. (Bäumer 1914/2003, p. 206)16

They want to experience life to the fullest, they want to reject the responsibilities forced upon them by the society. Bäumer definitely understands this feeling; she states that this tendency voiced by the youth movement is a general tendency of civilization. Thereby, she addresses a basic pedagogical question: What do people need to develop themselves and their individuality to the fullest? This, anyhow, is not only a task of youths; it is a general need of human beings. All in all, Gertrud Bäumer is interested in the dynamics which the youth movement developed throughout its time—she understands the youth movement as one place of social learning. However, she is not totally compliant with its ideas. Nevertheless, she is aware of its impact on society.

7.5

Historical Context

Especially for the consolidation of social pedagogy as an important element of a functioning society, the beginning of the twentieth century was a crucial phase in Germany and other countries (cf. Wendt 2017a, p. 440f.).

16 “Die Fragen und Zweifel, die schon seit Jahrzehnten in der Kulturktitik führender Geis-

ter auftauchten, ob die technischen Errungenschaften der Lebensgestaltung wirklich zugute gekommen seien, die einzelnen Lebensformen, die den augefälligsten modernen Daseinsverstümmelungen in Wohnung, Körperpflege, Ernährung, Kleidung, Bildung und Genüssen Heilung bringen wollen, das alles fließt in der Jugend zusammen zu einem starken Instinkt gegen dieses großstädtisch versteinerte und entleerte Dasein” (Bäumer 1914/2003, S. 206).

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Bäumer—who wrote an important and influential article on social pedagogy mentioned above—participated in the processes of institutional rearrangement during that time. After 1890, the history of social pedagogy in Germany was characterised by an increasing awareness for the social question, which practically meant that it was partly claimed by the state for its social work and politics in the face of the challenges posed by social democracy and partly brought itself into a modernised form in which education was able to fulfil its social task (Wendt 2017b, p. 35ff.). Bäumer’s approach to social pedagogy is mostly understood as oriented towards the state. During the process of social differentiation, society became more and more complex. Bäumer developed social pedagogy in the context of a time when the state was challenged by increasing poverty and hardships. In the context of upholding the whole of society, care services and their legal fixation became necessary so that individual people do not fall out of the community and threaten the state as a whole. The literature mostly describes the process inscribed to the core of social pedagogy with regard to Bäumer as a differentiation from charity to social policy (cf. Thole 2012). Instead of relying on voluntary work and charity—that was mostly dominated by Christian men during the nineteenth century—social pedagogy unraveled as a function of the state, distinct from financial support and a social security system. Due to this development of social pedagogy as an integral part of societies functions, the professionalization of social pedagogy was one of the main goals of the middle-class women’s movement at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century. The women’s movement understood the possibility for women to take part in societal development by learning social jobs as one—if not the—way to influence society. Two tendencies forced the actors of the movement to act this way. On the one hand, the women themselves aimed for integration into the society. As already elaborated in the chapter on Helene Lange, one way to achieve this was by participating in the public sphere. Social jobs were considered as womanlier—relying on the axiological assumption that women and men are generally equal but equipped with different skills, the profession of social pedagogy—or social work—developed as a female profession that strived for further and more complex processes of reflection and professionalization. Forming a profession of social pedagogy or social work was one of the main processes that took place during that time. On the other hand, social pedagogy was an almost necessary function of a changing mode of production. The development of economy in the

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nineteenth and twentieth century was rapid. The number of factory workers doubled from 1871 to 1900 to almost 12 million. Large parts of the population moved to the cities that also attracted the poor population. In 1910 more than half of the people in Germany lived in cities. In the course of industrialization and the increasing interest in scientific and technical successes, the worker was increasingly left behind. The capitalist mode of production eventually created a class society in which the differences between rich and poor became ever greater. In the early twentieth century, a large part of the population was devastated by the mode of production. Besides the struggle for their own position in society and a functional task the middle-class women’s movement fought for, industrialization was the main factor impacting pedagogical thought and action in Europe during that time. It must be considered as a response to the decoupling processes of production and socialization and the need to restore the capacity to work in people. Social aid, social pedagogy, therefore, became the main function of a state that wanted to keep its citizens (and all other beings able to work) in a proper condition. But the history of social pedagogy only took off at the beginning of the twentieth century—and it did so all over the world. Whereas Germany was dominated by Bäumer’s idea of social pedagogy and thereby narrowed down to one specific understanding, e.g. the progressive movement in the United States of America developed a manifold and complex bricolage of practices, that are connected to such rich-sounding names as Jane Addams, Robert Hunter or W. E. B De Bois. Even though these thinkers and educators are not always connected to each other, they share a certain spirit. In the early twentieth century, the world was ready for social pedagogy and social work—and nowadays it might need it even more.

7.6

Contemporary Relevance

The contemporary significance of Gertrud Bäumer’s work is easily underestimated. Especially in the German discussion, she is mostly referenced when one talks about the founding phase of social pedagogy in Germany. However, a critical re-reading of Bäumer’s work and the comparison of her ideas and e.g. contemporary ideas of human rights education to be very fruitful. Therefore, her contemporary significance is firstly unveiled by a critical re-reading of her texts on identity, sex and gender. Secondly, her work offers a great starting point for a comparison of different concepts

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for social pedagogy or social work all around the world. The critical reconsideration of her work—for example from an deconstructive perspective— might offer greater insights into her understanding of sexual identity. Even though her thought is ambiguous with regard to this topic, she is presented as a more or less coherent thinker of sexual identity. However, the discussion above already offered insights that her ideas might be queerer—in an emancipatory way—than considered up until now. A reflection and even a deconstructive reading of Bäumer’s texts might even support the argument that her thought is not about discussing the nature of women, but about deconstructing the differences between men, women and other entities. Kinnunen argues—applying sort of a critical tone towards Bäumer’s assumed “elitist” thinking—that Bäumer’s thought connected the sociological factors of identity construction to the assumed natural factors (cf. Kinnunen 2011)—this idea is supported by e.g. Schaser (2000); however, the social theoretical assumptions that form the foundation of Bäumer’s thought are yet to be unearthed. The hypothesis for further research on this topic is that there is a specific social theory “hidden” in Bäumer’s ideas needing to be explicated and discussed. Notwithstanding the fact that feminist scholars all around the world already started to dig deep into the feminist archive, the theoretical assumptions that often implicitly serve as the foundation of a theory still have to be elaborated on. Therefore, Bäumer’s ideas might be more than just a mere add-on to the history of feminist thought; they might even be a missing link in the history of feminist theory that needs further research. Notwithstanding the fact that Bäumer’s work is interesting when it is considered as a theoretical project, her ideas for practicing social pedagogy and social work might still serve as a normative point of reference for a professional discipline. Even though direct reference to Bäumer might be anachronistic, her argumentative structure of first raising a question and understanding a problem in its individual, social and economic situatedness might serve as a reminder for social workers that the reality is way more complex than it seems from time to time. However, the work of Gertrud Bäumer also serves as a critical milestone for considering the problems that may result from thinking that does not take its own theoretical assumptions into account. Even though Bäumer emphasizes the social relationships and the influence of society on the individual as being crucial for pedagogical action and thought, she always refers to individuals when it comes to changing the circumstances or developing a society. She calls for educators

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to follow a calling and fulfil a task produced by society. Instead of changing the society itself, Bäumer turned to individual action for fixing it. This relation between individual and society seems to be one of the most interesting relationships to further consider in following research—especially in the field of social work and social pedagogy. All in all, the contemporary significance of Gertrud Bäumer is not as evident as it may be for other educators and thinkers presented in this book. Even though she does not offer an extraordinary idea that revolutionized educational thought, her writings still offer great insights into the cultural, political and historical context of her time. Without considering Gertrud Bäumer as one of the central actors of the early twentieth century social education movement, one fails to paint the picture in a detailed way.

References Bäumer, G. (1908/2001). Eine Metaphysik des Geschlechtergegensatzes. In C. Hopf & E. Matthes (Eds.), Helene Lange und Gertrud Bäumer Ihr Engagement für die Frauen- und Mädchenbildung. Kommentierte Texte (pp. 98–99). Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt. Bäumer, G. (1911/2001). Psychologische Grundlegung. In C. Hopf & E. Matthes (Eds.), Helene Lange und Gertrud Bäumer Ihr Engagement für die Frauenund Mädchenbildung. Kommentierte Texte (pp. 100–106). Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt. Bäumer, G. (1914/2003). Gedanken zur Jugendbewegung. In E. Matthes & C. Hopf (Eds.), Helene Lange und Gertrud Bäumer. Ihr Beitrag zum Erziehungsund Bildungsdiskurs vom Wilhelminischen Kaiserreich bis in die NS-Zeit. Kommentierte Texte (pp. 205–210). Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt. Bäumer, G. (1929). Die historischen und sozialen Voraussetzungen der Sozialpädagogik und ihrer Theorie. In H. Nohl & L. Pallat (Eds.), Handbuch der Pädagogik (Vol. 5). Langensalza: Beltz. Bäumer, G. (1929/2003). Gertrud Bäumer: Wesen und Aufbau der öffentlichen Erziehungsvorsorge. In C. Hopf & E. Matthes (Eds.), Helene Lange und Gertrud Bäumer. Ihr Beitrag zum Erziehungs- und Bildungsdiskurs vom Wilhelminischen Kaiserreich bis in die NS-Zeit. Kommentierte Texte. Kommentierte Texte (pp. 248–249). Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt. Bäumer, G. (1933/2001). Getrud Bäumer: Lebensweg durch die Zeitenwende. In C. Hopf & E. Matthes (Eds.), Helene Lange und Gertrud Bäumer Ihr Engagement für die Frauen- und Mädchenbildung. Kommentierte Texte (pp. 27–35). Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt. Brumlik, M. (2000). Soziale Arbeit. Funktionale Erfordernisse, ideologische Selbstmißverständnisse und vergessene Traditionen. In D. Benner & H.-E. Tenorth (Eds.), Bildungsprozesse und Erziehungsverhältnisse im 20. Jahrhundert. Weinheim and Basel: Beltz.

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Gildenmeister, R. (2004). Doing Gender: Soziale Praktiken der Geschlechterunterscheidung. In R. Becker & B. Kortendiek (Eds.), Handbuch der Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung. Theorie, Methoden, Empirie (pp. 132–141). Wiesbaden: Springer VS. Hopf, C. (1997). Frauenbewegung und Pädagogik: Gertrud Bäumer zum Beispiel. Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt. Kinnunen, T. (2011). Debating Individualism and Altruism: Gertrud Bäumer, Ellen Key and the Ethical Foundations of Modern Life. Women’s History Review, 20(4), 497–507. Schaser, A. (2000). Helene Lange und Gertrud Bäumer: Eine politische Lebensgemeinschaft. Köln: Böhlau. Thole, W. (2012). Die Soziale Arbeit – Praxis, Theorie, Forschung und Ausbildung. Versuch einer Standortbestimmung. In W. Thole (Ed.), Grundriss Soziale Arbeit. Ein einführendes Handbuch (pp. 19–71). Wiesbaden: Springer VS. Wendt, W. R. (2017a). Geschichte der Sozialen Arbeit 1. Die Gesellschaft vor der sozialen Frage 1750 bis 1900. Wiesbaden: Springer VS. Wendt, W. R. (2017b). Geschichte der Sozialen Arbeit 2. Die Profession im Wandel ihrer Verhältnisse. Wiesbaden: Springer VS. West, C., & Zimmerman, D. H. (1987). Doing Gender. Gender & Society, 1, 125–151.

Index

A adults, 17, 20, 21, 23, 33, 93 alternative, 3, 4, 7, 10, 11, 29, 68, 81, 86, 94, 96, 97, 101, 115, 118, 136 Alternative Education, 3, 4, 10, 12, 70, 79 anthropology, 17, 18, 23–27, 33–35, 94, 95, 109–111 archive, 8, 9, 141

B Basedow, Johann Bernhard, 17, 33 Bäumer, Gertrud, 12, 125, 126, 128, 133, 135, 138, 140, 141 Bernfeld, Siegfried, 3 Bildung , 17, 42–45, 114, 120, 138 Blasche, Bernhard Heinrich, 11, 39, 40, 52 Blonksy, 3

C Campe, Joachim Heinrich, 11, 15, 16, 18, 19, 31, 33, 35, 39 children, 11, 15–20, 22–30, 33–35, 40, 42, 43, 45–50, 52, 55, 63–65, 71, 72, 80, 81, 86, 87, 93, 96, 97, 108, 111, 115, 116, 125–127, 134, 135 citizen, 49, 50, 53 Cohn, Jonas, 102 community, 2, 12, 33, 47, 54, 67, 68, 97, 102–105, 108, 109, 111–114, 116–121, 134, 139 community-based education, 2 curriculum, 42, 91, 96, 114 D Decroly, 3 democracy, 3, 118, 139 democratization, 67, 75 development, 2, 30, 34, 45, 46, 53, 54, 61, 64–69, 73–76, 80, 84, 92–94, 96, 97, 105, 107, 108, 112, 129, 130, 134, 136, 137, 139

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2019 R. Koerrenz and S. Engelmann, Forgotten Pedagogues of German Education, Palgrave Studies in Alternative Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29570-7

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INDEX

Dewey, John, 2, 6 didactics, 16, 32, 48, 52, 88, 89, 91, 92, 94, 96, 98, 120 Dörpfeld, Friedrich Wilhelm, 117

E economy, 7, 62, 76, 139 ecosystem, 50 educational thought, 2, 5, 10, 11, 40, 44, 46, 52, 54, 55, 59, 61, 142 Education Sciences, 6, 7, 9 Enlightenment, 11, 15–18, 24, 26, 30–34, 96, 116 equality, 16, 17, 22, 31, 33–35, 83, 97

F Ferriere, 3 Fleck, Ludwik, 6 freedom, 16, 17, 28, 31–34, 83, 85, 88, 90, 97, 98, 119, 136 Fröbel, Friedrich, 54

G Gadamer, Hans-Georg, 6 Geheeb, Paul, 102

H Haraway, Donna, 6, 55 Hell, Bernhard, 12, 101–104, 108, 111, 113–116, 119–121 history of education, 3, 4, 6, 9 Höhere Mädchenschule, 60 human, 17, 19–23, 26, 27, 31–33, 35, 44, 45, 48–51, 53, 54, 62, 63, 65, 66, 69, 71, 76, 82–85, 95–98, 102, 106, 107, 109–112, 116, 119, 132, 138, 140 Human Science Pedagogy, 2, 4, 6, 9

I individualism, 79 individuality, 97, 109, 128, 132, 138 K Kant, Immanuel, 31, 102, 104, 105 Karsten Kenklies, 11 Kuhn, Thomas, 7 L Laclau, Ernesto, 3 Lange, Helene, 11, 59–61, 67, 68, 70, 73–76, 125–128, 139 Lehrerinnenseminar, 60 M moral education, 17, 24 N narrative didactics, 89, 91 Natorp, Paul, 95, 134 nature, 9, 11, 21, 23, 27, 28, 33, 40, 42–47, 49–53, 55, 68, 73, 76, 83, 112, 115, 128–131, 133, 134, 138, 141 New Education, 2, 5, 101 P participation, 74 pedagogy, 9, 12, 16, 18, 30, 33–35, 44, 70, 82, 85, 88, 93, 94, 97, 98, 102, 115, 121, 133, 135, 136, 138–141 Philanthropinum, 17 philosophy, 16, 23, 40, 42, 53, 56, 61, 66, 102, 126 philosophy of education, 16, 61 politics, 9, 60, 62, 67, 74–76, 127, 128, 133, 139

INDEX

Progressive Education, 2 R reason, 11, 17, 19, 20, 25, 27, 31–34, 49, 53, 87, 94, 95, 106 religion, 9, 11, 12, 18, 23–28, 62, 66, 80, 82–87, 90, 94–98, 102, 104, 105, 112 Rickert, Heinrich, 102 Rieger-Ladich, Markus, 6 Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 17, 24, 33 S Salzmann, Christian Gotthilf, 33, 40 Scharrelmann, Heinrich, 12, 79, 80, 82, 94–97 Schelling, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph, 41, 54 Selbsttätigkeit, 72 social pedagogy, 133, 136, 139–142

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society, 3, 7, 10–12, 17, 24, 32–34, 49, 53, 56, 62–65, 67, 69–71, 74, 76, 82, 118, 128–130, 133, 135–138, 140, 141 state, 24, 42, 43, 48–50, 52, 62, 67, 74, 80, 82, 84, 85, 94, 95, 119, 120, 135, 139, 140 sustainable development, 40, 54 U UNESCO, 55 V von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang, 40, 53 von Humboldt, Wilhelm, 16, 63 W women’s rights movement, 12, 76 Wyneken, Gustav, 102