Philipp Emanuel von Fellenberg
Encyclopedia
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
ist and agronomist.
Biography
He was born at Bern. His father was of patrician family, and a man of importance in his canton, and his mother was a granddaughter of the Dutch admiralAdmiral
Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet . It is usually abbreviated to "Adm" or "ADM"...
Van Tromp
Cornelis Tromp
Sir Cornelis Maartenszoon Tromp, 1st Baronet was a Dutch naval officer. He was the son of Lieutenant Admiral Maarten Tromp. He became Lieutenant Admiral General in the Dutch Navy and briefly Admiral General in the Danish Navy...
. From his mother and from Gottlieb Konrad Pfeffel
Gottlieb Konrad Pfeffel
Gottlieb Konrad Pfeffel was a French-German writer and translator, whose texts were put to music by Ludwig van Beethoven, Joseph Haydn and Franz Schubert. He is sometimes also known as Amédée or Théophile Conrad Pfeffel, which is the French translation of Gottlieb .-Biography:Gottlieb Konrad...
, the blind poet of Colmar
Colmar
Colmar is a commune in the Haut-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France.It is the capital of the department. Colmar is also the seat of the highest jurisdiction in Alsace, the appellate court....
, he received a better education than falls to the lot of most boys, while the intimacy of his father with Pestalozzi
Pestalozzi
Pestalozzi may refer to:* Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi * Hans A. Pestalozzi Schools with that name:* Colegio Pestalozzi, Argentina* Pestalozzi-Gymnasium Biberach, Germany* Kinderdorf Pestalozzi, Switzerland...
gave to his mind that bent which it afterwards followed. In 1790 he entered the University of Tübingen, where he distinguished himself by his rapid progress in legal studies.
On account of his health he afterwards undertook a walking tour in Switzerland and the adjoining portions of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Swabia
Swabia
Swabia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany.-Geography:Like many cultural regions of Europe, Swabia's borders are not clearly defined...
and Tirol
German Tyrol
German Tyrol is a historical region in the Alps now divided between Austria and Italy. It includes largely ethnic German areas of historical County of Tyrol: the Austrian state of Tyrol and the province of South Tyrol but not the largely Italian-speaking province of Trentino .-History:German...
, visiting the hamlets and farmhouses, mingling in the labors and occupations of the peasants and mechanics, and partaking of their rude fare and lodging. After the downfall of Robespierre, he went to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and remained there long enough to be assured of the storm impending over his native country. This he did his best to avert, but his warnings were disregarded, and Switzerland was lost before any efficient means could be taken for its safety. Fellenberg, who had hastily raised a levy en masse, was proscribed; a price was set upon his head, and he was compelled to fly into Germany.
Shortly afterwards, however, he was recalled by his countrymen, and sent on a mission to Paris to remonstrate against the rapacity and cruelty of the agents of the French republic. But in this and other diplomatic offices which he held for a short time, he was witness to so much corruption and intrigue that his mind revolted from the idea of a political life, and he returned home with the intention of devoting himself wholly to the education of the young.
With this resolution he purchased in 1799 the estate of Hofwyl, near Bern, intending to make agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
the basis of a new system which he had projected, for elevating the lower and rightly training the higher orders of the state, and welding them together in a closer union than had hitherto been deemed attainable. For some time he carried on his labors in conjunction with Pestalozzi, but incompatibility of disposition soon induced them to separate. The scheme of Fellenberg at first excited a large amount of ridicule, but gradually it began to attract the notice of foreign countries; and pupils, some of them of the highest rank, began to flock to him from every country in Europe, both for the purpose of studying agriculture and to profit by the high moral training which he associated with his educational system. For forty-five years Fellenberg, assisted by his wife, continued his educational labors, and finally raised his institution to the highest point of prosperity and usefulness. He died in 1844.
Works
- 1808: Landwirthschaftliche Blätter von Hofwyl. 5 Hefte. Aarau: Maurhofer & Dellenbach, 1808-1817
- 1813: Darstellung der Armen-Erziehungsanstalt in Hofwyl. Von ihrem Stifter E. v. F. Aus dem vierten Hefte der landwirthschaftlichen Blätter von Hofwyl besonders abgedruckt. Aarau
- 1813: Observations extraites des feuilles d’Hofwyl, sur les semoirs à grains de toute espèce et leur emploi. [Bern?]
- 1808: Vues relatives à l'agriculture de la Suisse et aux moyens de la perfectionner; traduit de l'Allemand par C. Pictet. Genève
- 1811: Vorläufige Nachricht über die Erziehungsanstalt für die höheren Stände zu Hofwyl. [Berne]
- 1830: Beleuchtung einer weltgerichtlichen Frage an unsern Zeitgeist. Bern: bei C. A. Jenni (Reissued by Thoemmes Press, Bristol, 1994 ISBN 1855062798)
- 1831: Sendschreiben an den Verfassungsrath des Kantons Bern, ... April 1831. Bern: Gedruckt bei Carl Rätzer
- 1833: Der dreimonatliche Bildungskurs, Bern
Further reading
- H. Gilomen: Die Kinderkolonie Meikirch. Ein pädagogisches Experiment vor hundert Jahren. Beyer & Söhne, Langensalza 1929. (= Friedrich Mann's Pädagogisches Magazin. Heft 1245).
- Kurt Guggisberg: Philipp Emanuel von Fellenberg und sein Erziehungsstaat. Lang, Bern 1953.
- Rudolf Wepfer: "Ich bin auch das Werk meiner selbst". Philipp Emanuel von Fellenberg. Biographische Skizze eines Pioniers der Pädagogik und Kämpfers für ein freies Erziehungswesen. Verl. am Goetheanum, Dornach 2000. ISBN 3-7235-1086-8
- Denise Wittwer Hesse: Die Familie von Fellenberg und die Schulen von Hofwyl. Erziehungsideale, "Häusliches Glück" und Unternehmertum einer Bernischen Patrizierfamilie in der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts. Historischer Verein, Bern 2002. (= Archiv des Historischen Vereins des Kantons Bern; 82) ISBN 3-85731-022-7