Lorenz Kellner (born at Kalteneber in the district of

Eichsfeld The Eichsfeld ( or ; English: ''Oak-field'') is a historical region in the southeast of the state of Lower Saxony (which is called "Untereichsfeld" = lower Eichsfeld) and northwest of the state of Thuringia ("Obereichsfeld" = upper Eichsfeld) in th ...

, 29 January 1811; died at

Trier Trier ( , ; lb, Tréier ), formerly known in English as Trèves ( ;) and Triers (see also names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle in Germany. It lies in a valley between low vine-covered hills of red sandstone in the ...

, 18 August 1892) was a German educator.

Life

He was the son of Heinrich Kellner, who had been a pupil of

Pestalozzi Pestalozzi is the surname of an Italian family originally based in Gravedona and Chiavenna who settled in Switzerland during the Counter-Reformation. Members of this family include: * Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746–1827), Swiss pedagogue an ...

Yverdon Yverdon-les-Bains () (called Eburodunum and Ebredunum during the Roman era) is a municipality in the district of Jura-Nord vaudois of the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It is the seat of the district. The population of Yverdon-les-Bains, , was ...

and had introduced Pestalozzi's methods at the normal school he conducted, the first of its kind in the Catholic district of Eichsfeld. Out of these private courses for the training of elementary school-teachers developed a seminary for teachers at Heiligenstadt. Lorenz Kellner graduated at the Gymnasium Josephinum at

Hildesheim Hildesheim (; nds, Hilmessen, Hilmssen; la, Hildesia) is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany with 101,693 inhabitants. It is in the district of Hildesheim, about southeast of Hanover on the banks of the Innerste River, a small tributary of the Lei ...

, and then studied at the evangelical seminary for teachers at

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river. Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebur ...

. After being a teacher at the Catholic elementary school at

Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...

for two years, he was made rector of the school. In 1836, his father's normal school was enlarged into a seminary for teachers, of which the elder Kellner remained the head while Lorenz was made his only assistant. In 1848

von Eichhorn (13 February 1848 – 30 July 1918) was a Prussian officer, later during World War I. He was a recipient of with Oak Leaves, one of the highest orders of merit in the Kingdom of Prussia and, subsequently, Imperial Germany. Biography was born ...

, the Prussian minister of worship and education, called Lorenz to

Marienwerder Kwidzyn (pronounced ; german: Marienwerder; Latin: ''Quedin''; Old Prussian: ''Kwēdina'') is a town in northern Poland on the Liwa River, with 38,553 inhabitants (2018). It is the capital of Kwidzyn County in the Pomeranian Voivodeship. Geogra ...

West Prussia The Province of West Prussia (german: Provinz Westpreußen; csb, Zôpadné Prësë; pl, Prusy Zachodnie) was a province of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and 1878 to 1920. West Prussia was established as a province of the Kingdom of Prussia in 177 ...

as member of the government district council and of the school-board. After seven years at Marienwerder, Kellner was summoned to fill the same offices at

. Since there were at this date no institutions for the training of teachers in Trier, Kellner founded several seminaries both for male and female teachers during the twenty-nine years of his official activity here. In 1863 the Academy of Münster in Westphalia made Kellner Doctor of Philosophy honoris causa, in recognition of his services on behalf of the German language and of pedagogics.

Works

In his major work, "Praktischer Lehrgang für den deutschen Unterricht" (1837–40), the teaching of grammar was systematically connected with the reading-book. This was, for that period, an important advance when contrasted with the current methods of grammatical instruction. In 1850 appeared his best-known work, "Zur Pädagogik der Schule und des Hauses. Aphorismen", which was translated into several languages. It contains altogether 178 essays which cover the entire field of training and teaching. His "Skizzen und Bilder aus der Erziehungsgeschichte" (3 vols., 1862) was the first treatment of the history of

pedagogics Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken as ...

by a Catholic author. Kellner's "Kurze Geschichte der Erziehung und des Unterrichts" (1877) is a book of practical suggestions for teachers; his "Volksschulkunde" was a theoretical and practical guide for Catholic teachers of both sexes, school inspectors, and seminaries. Other works were "Lebensblätter, Erinnerungen aus der Schulwelt" (1891) and the posthumous "Lose Blätter, Pädagog. Zeitbetrachtungen und Ratschläge von Kellner" (1897).

References

;Attribution * The entry cites: **BECK, Lorenz Kellner: Ein Blatt zur Erinnerung (Trier, 1893); **OPPERMANN in REIN, Encyclop d. Handbuch der Pädagogic (2nd ed., Langensalza, 1903-), s.v. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kellner, Lorenz 1811 births 1892 deaths People from Heilbad Heiligenstadt German Roman Catholics Heads of schools in Germany