Philipp Emanuel von Fellenberg (27 June 1771 – 21 November 1844) was a
Swiss
Swiss may refer to:
* the adjectival form of Switzerland
* Swiss people
Places
* Swiss, Missouri
* Swiss, North Carolina
*Swiss, West Virginia
* Swiss, Wisconsin
Other uses
*Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports
*Swiss Internation ...
educationalist
Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Vari ...
and
agronomist
An agriculturist, agriculturalist, agrologist, or agronomist (abbreviated as agr.), is a professional in the science, practice, and management of agriculture and agribusiness. It is a regulated profession in Canada, India, the Philippines, the ...
.
Biography
He was born at
Bern
german: Berner(in)french: Bernois(e) it, bernese
, neighboring_municipalities = Bremgarten bei Bern, Frauenkappelen, Ittigen, Kirchlindach, Köniz, Mühleberg, Muri bei Bern, Neuenegg, Ostermundigen, Wohlen bei Bern, Zollikofen
, website ...
. His father was of patrician family, and a man of importance in his
canton, and his mother was a granddaughter of the Dutch
admiral
Admiral is one of the highest ranks in some navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet, ...
Van Tromp. From his mother and from
Gottlieb Konrad Pfeffel, the blind poet of
Colmar
Colmar (, ; Alsatian: ' ; German during 1871–1918 and 1940–1945: ') is a city and commune in the Haut-Rhin department and Grand Est region of north-eastern France. The third-largest commune in Alsace (after Strasbourg and Mulhouse), it is ...
, he received a better education than falls to the lot of most boys, while the intimacy of his father with
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 ...
gave to his mind that bent which it afterwards followed. In 1790 he entered the
University of Tübingen
The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (german: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen; la, Universitas Eberhardina Carolina), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Wü ...
, 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 (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
,
Swabia
Swabia ; german: Schwaben , colloquially ''Schwabenland'' or ''Ländle''; archaic English also Suabia or Svebia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany.
The name is ultimately derived from the medieval Duchy of ...
and
Tirol
Tyrol (; historically the Tyrole; de-AT, Tirol ; it, Tirolo) is a historical region in the Alps - in Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Emp ...
, 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
Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre (; 6 May 1758 – 28 July 1794) was a French lawyer and statesman who became one of the best-known, influential and controversial figures of the French Revolution. As a member of the Esta ...
, he went to
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
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 flee 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 or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...
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, who ran the side of the school devoted to girls,
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-rziehungsanstalt in Hofwyl. Von ihrem Stifter E. v. F. Aus dem vierten Hefte der landwirthschaftlichen Blätter von Hofwyl besonders abgedruckt''. Aarau
**1813: ''Observations extraites des feuilles d’Hofwyl, sur les semoirs à grains de toute espèce et leur emploi''.
ern?*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''.
erne*1830: ''Beleuchtung einer weltgerichtlichen Frage an unsern Zeitgeist''. Bern: bei C. A. Jenni (Reissued by Thoemmes Press, Bristol, 1994 )
*1831: ''Sendschreiben an den Verfassungsrath des Kantons Bern, ... April 1831''. Bern: Gedruckt bei Carl Rätzer
*1833: ''Der dreimonatliche Bildungskurs'', Bern
References
* This work in turn cites:
**Hamm, Wilhelm von ''Fellenberg's Leben und Wirken: zur Erinnerung für seime Freunde, Schüler und Verehrer'' (Bern, 1845)
**Schöni, Franz Robert ''Der Stifter von Hofwyl, Leben und Wirken Fellenberg's''. Bern, 1871 & Schaffhausen, 1874
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.
* 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)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fellenberg, Philipp Emanuel von
1771 births
1844 deaths
People from Bern
Swiss educators
Swiss nobility
Swiss people of Dutch descent