The Life of Frederick Froebel: Founder of Kindergarten by Denton Jacques Snider (1900): Edited and Annotated with Illustrations by J (Johannes) Froebel-Parker, as a Companion to the First Kindergarten: Friedrich Wilhelm August Froebel & Baroness Bertha Marie Von Marenholtz-Buelow

By Johannes Froebel-Parker

In 1900 Denton Jacques Snider wrote about Friedrich (Frederick) Froebel and his life experiences which led to the founding of the first kindergarten. Over a century later, a Froebel family member and author of two children's books about Froebel and kindergarten, expands the publication designed for readers in the Victorian age to make it a timeless reference and tribute to his "Oheim," an ancient German term for maternal uncle. Educators, kindergarten teachers, parents of kindergarten age children and readers interested in German history, will enjoy its notes, explanations and illustrations, never seen by Denton's readership.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Nov 15, 2013
• ISBN: 9781491834350

Johannes Froebel-Parker

As a young boy the J (Johannes) Froebel-Parker, author, here editor, sat upon the lap of his great grandmother Lina Froebel, née Maeder (Liebstedt near Weimar/Apolda) who sang to him in German and recounted stories from her native Thuringia. Her oral tradition was continued by her son, Carl Friedrich Froebel, the author's grandfather, as well as his Froebel great aunts. During Froebel-Parker's study at the Julius Maximilians Universitaet in Wuerzburg, then West Germany, the author began to visit Froebel sites in the German Democratic Republic (GDR/"DDR"). Friends and Froebel Family members still there began to acquaint him with the ancient Thuringian "Heimat" (homeland), to which he and other Froebel family members return at every opportunity. Later, when the author taught English as a Foreign Language at Marie Curie Oberschule in West Berlin, he was again able to make frequent visits across the "Iron Curtain" to the region where Froebel and the Kindergarten were considered elements of World Cultural Heritage. As the Froebel Decade began in 2013, the author and his mother, born a Froebel, traveled to the Froebel birthplace of Oberweissbach and the home of the first kindergarten in Bad Blankenburg. There he made a presentation of his children's book, The First Kindergarten: Friedrich Wilhelm August Froebel & Baroness Bertha von Marenholtz-Buelow to Blankenburg mayor, Frank Persike. The 1900 work by Denton Jacques Snider offered insight into Froebel's life and the creation of Kindergarten for its Victorian audience. Froebel-Parker has expanded this with notes, some elucidation of antiquated vocabulary, illustrations, and information gleaned from myriad visits to Thuringia, genealogical research, and data collected and presented on The Froebel Web. The latter is the world's largest online English language source of information on the educator and kindergarten, begun by Froebel relatives in Australia. This new edition of Snider's book is part of Froebel-Parker's "Ahnentafel Series" which includes The First Kindergarten, Friedrich and the First Kindergarten, and Grandma Harrington and the Queen's Wardrobe, about maternal and paternal ancestors from the Tudor Court.

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Published by AuthorHouse 11/07/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4918-3289-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-3288-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-3435-0 (e)

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CONTENTS

Editor’s Introduction

Mary McConnell Blaisdell, Denton Snider and his Circle of Readers

The Life of Frederick Froebel, Founder of the Kindergarden

Introductory

I. The Youth Froebel.

II. The Schoolmaster Froebel.

III. The Kindergardner Froebel

BOOK FIRST

The Youth Froebel (1782-1805)

Chapter First: EARLY SCHOOLING

I. The Child at Home.

II. The Boy at Uncle Hoffmann’s

III. What Shall be Done with the Boy?

Chapter Second: FROEBEL AT JENA

I. Arrival at Jena.

II. Philosophy at Jena

III. The Romantic School at Jena

IV. Jena and Weimar

V. Finale at Jena

Chapter Third: IN PURSUIT OF A VOCATION

I. Wanderings

II. Be a Teacher

III. Transition

BOOK SECOND

The Schoolmaster Froebel (1805-1835)

Chapter First: FROEBEL AS TEACHER AND PUPIL

I. In Gruner’s School

II. Tutoring

III. Castle Yverdon

IV. Froebel and Pestalozzi

V. Gottingen and Berlin

VI. Froebel as Soldier

VII. Froebel as Crystallographer

VIII. Retrospect

Chapter Second: FROEBEL AS PRINCIPAL

I. Griesheim

II. Early Keilhau

III. Froebel’s Marriage

IV. The Froebel Boys and their Mother

V. The Froebel Girls and Their Father.

VI. The Rise of Keilhau

VII. The Negative Element

VIII. The Flowering of Keilhau

IX. Literary Keilhau

Chapter Third: THE PRINCIPAL DETHRONED

I. The Fall of Keilhau

II. Hope and Disappointment

III. The Philosopher Krause

IV. Froebel the Fate-compeller

V. Froebel’s Visit to Krause

VI. Helba the New Hope

Chapter Fourth: EXPATRIATION

I. Wartensee

II. Willisau

III. Burgdorf

BOOK THIRD

The Kindergarten Froebel (1835-1852)

Chapter First: THE KINDERGARDEN CONCEIVED

I. The Child’s First Play-Gift

II. Life’s Renewal—The Play-song

III. What Shall I Do With It?

IV. Return to Germany

Chapter Second: THE KINDERGARTEN REALIZED

I. First Years at Blankenburg

II. The Blankenburg Festival

III. The Blankenburg Bubble

IV. The Book of Mother Play-Songs

V. The System Completed

Chapter Third: THE KINDERGARTEN PROPAGATED

I. The Wandering Propagandist

II. Liebenstein—Luise Levin

III. Liebenstein—The Baroness

IV. Froebel at Hamburg

V. Marienthal

VI. The Happy Year

VII. The Final Blow

VIII. Last Days of Froebel

IX. Middendorf, The Baroness, Madam Froebel

NOTES

EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION

T he villages and hills so well known to Froebel are still fresh in my mind, having just returned from a visit to the Thuringian homeland of the family of perhaps the world’s best known early childhood educator. After my return from the Heimat, I again opened Denton Jacques Snider’s 1900 classic, The Life of Frederick Froebel. I began to read it with much more profound appreciation. 2013 is the opening year of the Froebel Decade ( Froebeldekade ) in Thuringia; for ten consecutive years there will be dedicated attention paid to a specific theme associated with an aspect of Friedrich (Frederick) Froebel’s life. Mother (born Janis Lorraine Froebel, at the right in photo ) and I had just finished a semi-official visit to Bad Blankenburg (home of the very first kindergarten), where an interview with Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR) reporter, Mr. Marian Riedel, had just been completed. We had fondly remembered an earlier visit with Mother’s sister, my aunt and godmother, Barbara Froebel ( at the left in photo ) and her husband, Ralph.

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After a Thuringian meal of Bratwurst and red cabbage (Rotkohl) with Thüringer Klöße (potato dumplings as uniquely prepared in Thuringia), we had gazed into the verdant valley in which Bad Blankenburg is swaddled. It was here, near the medieval Greifenstein Castle, home to the Counts of Blankenburg who were so integral to myriad kin, that Froebel had uttered, The valley looks like a garden, perfect for the education of children as one tends flowers. Hence, the term "Kindergarten" (which Snider prefers to Anglicize to kindergarden) had its nativity in this fair city nestled in the Thuringian Forest. It is no coincidence that Bad Blankenburg has a perfect environment for the cultivation of lavender. Outside of Provence in France, the cozy village is a European center of that aromatic herb.

Snider begins his narrative in a very chronological order, with Froebel’s birth in Oberweissbach where his father had been the pastor of the largest village church in the principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt. Later the reader finds a short reference to an entry in the memoirs of Friedrich’s nephew, Karl Julius Froebel, married to Countess Caroline von Armansperg, to the family’s origin in Holland.

At first glance, it seems an odd comment as the family later known as Froebel could trace its roots in Thuringia at least to the 15th century if not to the 8th. Julius, who had been pardoned from a death sentence for his participation in the Revolution of 1848 by Alfred Candidus Ferdinand, Prince of Windisch-Grätz, was referring to his family’s origins among the Salian Franks. That group, with the Ripuarian Franks, had been members of a Visigothic alliance with the Roman general, Flavius Aëtius, which stopped the Huns in 451 AD at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains.

The Salian Franks, with their origin between the Scheldt and Meuse Rivers, could easily be deemed, in a type of cultural shorthand, to have come from Holland. Indeed, they had become the dominant Frankish tribe, led by legendary ruler King Merowech/Merowig (hence the term Merovingian). The latter with his knights, his brothers, close and distant cousins including Ritter (Knight) Frowin, had founded one of, if not the most ancient, non-Roman cities in what is today Germany: the city of Arnstadt at the northern edge of the Thuringian Forest. It is a forest in which those who later referred to themselves as Froebel had been residing for over 1400 years when Julius recalled Holland.

Arnstadt is first mentioned as a city in 704 AD, but there is archaeological evidence of a settlement there already in the Stone Age. Merowech is credited with its Frankish origins, however, and is immortalized as such in the 1878 poem by H. Adelberg Die Gründung Arnstadts (The Founding of Arnstadt).

It is no wonder that Froebel ancestors were residing near, administering large manors (called a Gut) around, and distinguishing themselves in Arnstadt and environs for centuries. As Frankish settlers in Thuringia, with ties to Merowech, they were considered edelfrei or Edelinge. These free knightly families were the progenitors of the higher nobility (Hohe Adel) throughout the 12th century in the Holy Roman Empire. It was a unique and favored group of individuals who were not subject to any other baronial or princely family, indeed only to a king or emperor. With this in mind, one reads Snider’s entry about Friedrich Froebel’s not cutting his hair as ordered by the Prince of Schwarzburg, who was probably quite fond of him, in a different light.

Over time the descendants of Knight (Ritter) Frowin began to use their illustrious ancestor’s name as a family name, a rather new innovation beginning about the same time as the establishment of the higher nobility in the 12th century. Frowin, sometimes Frowein, finally Froben were used almost simultaneously among brothers and cousins of the same family. Johannes Frobenius (note the Latinization denoting a university education which had been conducted in Latin), the friend of Disiderius Erasmus in Basel, Switzerland, was a Frank from Hammelburg, not far from what is today Thuringia. His younger brother, as posited by some genealogists, though Froebel Ahnentafel research also allows that he may have been a younger cousin, Volckmar Froben (Volgmarus Frobenius) had roots near Arnstadt at the family’s manor in Gross Hettstedt.

The edelfreie ancestors of educator Friedrich Froebel had always been in positions of trust and responsibility to the Counts of Schwarzburg. This was not different with Volckmar. Trained as a Catholic priest with a higher ecclesiastical position as Provost (Probst) in the Cistercian Convent of Sts. George and Mary, connected to the Princes of Jülich-Cleves-Berg in Ichtershausen, (formerly in possession of the Schwarzburgs) Volgmarus is an example of the traditional placement of the youngest son of a noble family’s being placed in a comfortable position in service of the Church.

It was there in Ichtershausen, a short 5 km walk from Arnstadt, that the edelfreie sense of natural rights as they would later be called much later in the Enlightenment (Aufklärung), was heightened at the Reformation. Volckmar (Volgmarus) was one of those theologians who did not yearn for a break with Rome. His brother, or cousin perhaps, Johannes, was an established printer in Switzerland at whose home the great humanist, Erasmus, had found permanent and welcome lodging. Erasmus even writes of the generous hospitality of Ioannes Frobenius and family in Switzerland.

This Johannes (Ioannes) published the pivotal work of Erasmus, the Latin translation of the New Testament (Novum Testamentum, 1516), later used by Martin Luther to translate the Bible into German. Froben was also actively involved in the publication of works of Judaica in Basel and had deep connections to his Jewish authors and clients. Although no correspondence between Johannes and Volkmar seems to exist for us to read today, one must assume with confidence that they were in meaningful contact and were aware of each other’s lives and thoughts on theology.

Erasmus, though advocating reform, did not favor some of the leanings of Luther and Melancthon. Surely Volckmar knew this from Johannes or Erasmus himself. There is correspondence between Volckmar and Luther, however, and the latter would have known that the former’s kin was responsible for printing Erasmus’ Novum Testamentum, now in Luther’s possession. Perhaps Volckmar himself had delivered Erasmus’ work, published by Ioannes Frobenius, into the hands of the Thuringian reformer.

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The connection among Johannes Froben-Erasmus-Volckmar Froben-Luther is visible. What of the Jewish connections? Would Johannes’ ties with that community play a part in Volckmar’s life? One need only visit the ancient church (1150 AD) of Sts. George and Mary in Ichtershausen, Thuringia, Germany. When Mother and I visited in August 2013 we were on our way to Arnstadt when I espied ICHTERSHAUSEN on a road sign. Froebel family friend, Elli Roenick of Saalfeld, was driving and gladly made a stop. Where shall we go? she asked. Look for the church spires! came the reply.

There, as though sent by an angel to open the church door, was Herr Dieter Schroepfer, the director of the little Ichtershausen Museum across the street. Had he ever heard of the Jewess Christine Mandel? The name did not seem known, but, YES, the story of the Jewish maiden at the convent was known to him. Herr Schroepfer did know that she had been baptized by Pastor Heinrich Gnesius, the first Lutheran pastor of Ichtershausen after its transition to the Protestant faith. He knew that Christine, as she was called at her baptism, had asked to be baptized of her own volition, which was later carried out by Gnesius according to the instructions stipulated by her godfather, Martin Luther. Herr Schroepfer photocopied entries in the church archive in which is stated that the Jewish maiden had married a young theologian and moved to Hettstedt (editor’s note: where his Edelinge parents had a manor).

The young theologian was none other than Volckmar Froben (aka Volgmarus Frobenius) whom she would have heard saying mass daily during the refuge given to her by the very good nuns of Ichtershausen. How had she found refuge in Ichtershausen, whose provost was closely associated with Johannes in Basel and who was coincidentally producing works of Judaica? Researchers will determine that, but the pathway is clear; somebody who was informed of Christine’s need had known that Johannes was related to Volckmar, who happened to be attached to the convent at Ichtershausen. The door was now open for her to reside in safety among the nuns under Volckmar’s care.

Even if Volckmar was not an enthusiastic reformer, Lutheranism did bring the freedom to marry. Luther, with whom he corresponded, seems to imply that conversion was not necessary for the two to marry, and that Christian faith was voluntary. Luther continues stating that baptism is only valid when sought by one’s free will. We know that Volckmar and Christine were, indeed, married sometime after her baptism in 1530.

In Hettstedt, not far from Arnstadt, Volckmar, with his Christian bride of Jewish descent, became the first Lutheran pastor. He is credited with helping to transition the Principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt to Lutheranism. It is not a coincidence that Friedrich Froebel’s father, Pastor Johann Jacob Froebel, over two centuries later, is dubbed an old Orthodox Lutheran pastor. It was this orthodox Lutheranism which was full of respect for the miracle of the Eucharist, reverence for the Mother of God, whom Luther called semper virgine (always virgin), and a strong belief in the apostolic statement from the Nicene Creed, We believe in that which is seen, and that which is unseen, which includes the Communion of Saints (the mystical union of Christian believers in Heaven and Earth who are joined eternally and all quite alive).

A note to the Communion of Saints: Denton speaks quite insightfully of Froebel’s canonization of his own biological mother, Jacobine Eleonore Friederike Froebel, née Hoffmann (1744-1783). Nonetheless, his own old Lutheran upbringing, close to Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, led him to proclaim that the best mother was Mary, Mother of Our Lord (Die beste Mutter war Maria, Mutter unseres Herrn). Later in the editor’s introduction, the reader will find Froebel’s assertion that his real mother had mystically given him a kiss. It is unclear whether Friedrich meant the deceased Jacobine Eleonore Friedericke or the Theotokos. It is the pious belief of many in the Froebel family familiar with this story, that he really meant the latter, the Mother of God, Mary semper virgine, (eternally virgin) especially given his later statement that the Virgin Mary was the best mother.

To this day the Lord’s mother and grandparents, Anna and Joachim, are held in high regard by the editor and other Froebel family members. Christian tradition also illustrates the importance of learning in the family of Jesus of Nazareth. Mary could read and was well versed in Scripture, given her father Joachim’s role in the Temple. One only need regard myriad paintings of the Annunciation in which Mary is often depicted reading in a garden when the angel, Gabriel, announces that she will conceive a son. She would have been taught by her scholarly father who had waited so long for a child and was overjoyed when Anna had finally conceived Mary. Jesus’ extreme literacy can be partially attributed to his own mother’s instruction beginning in his most tender years. This intergenerational co-learning was surely understood well by Froebel when he wrote his Mutter und Koselieder (Mother and Cradle Songs, sometimes called Play-songs).

This union between Volckmar and Christine is perhaps the beginning of what could be coined here as the Pre-Enlightenment in Germany. There is no doubt that this marriage is a pivotal moment in Frankish-Thuringian, German, albeit European history: a former Catholic priest, who hitherto would not have been able to marry, marries a woman, born in the Jewish faith, who would never have married a Christian, and more improbably an edelfreier man of Frankish descent.

The children of Volckmar and Christine, born in Stadt Ilm (Principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt) were all successful in their own right. Bonafatius, born 1537, moved to ancestral Franconia (Franken) to the village of Iphofen, so known for its delicious sort of Frankenwein (Franconian wine). There he becomes mayor (Bürgermeister) and retains the form of the last name which connotes university study, Frobenius. His older brother, Johannes, 1535, becomes the first Lutheran pastor in Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt born and baptized as a Lutheran.

He prefers to use the form Froebel (Fröbel), which joins two of the family name morphemes in honor of both of his parents. To them he owes his life. He maintains the edelfrei FROB form and the suffix EL from the Jewish Mandel. The O in FROB+EL may have been umlauted (oe/ö) to denote plural (there would be any number of ancestors in subsequent generations), although we also see other cases of O to OE (Umlautierung) in the manor Vrouwicz/Frowitz/Froewitz/Froebitz in the Principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt. Froebitz was near other Froben manors and close to the residences of various Froben relatives in the principality.

One of the more extensive, though not fully complete, Froebel family trees (Stammtafel) was completed on March 1, 1935. It begins with Volckmar and Christine’s grandson, Caspar Froebel, Johannes’ son. If one looks at the year and the German socio-political reality of 1935, we conjecture that our brave and groundbreaking ancestress was known, but purposely neglected, even while earlier records were extant and accessible at the time.

We read that Friedrich Froebel went to Moehra, the ancestral home of Martin Luther, to offer a free education to Luther descendants, Ernst and Hans. At first glance, this seems an altruistic offer in honor of the reformer of whom so many in Thuringia were and are still proud. Deeper analysis, however, reveals that Luther’s great contribution to German, the translation of the Bible from Erasmus’ Novum Testamentum, was made possible by a great grand uncle of the educator. Luther later facilitated the baptism of Froebel’s ancestress, Christine, an event which is part of his life story too. Her husband, Volckmar, also Friedrich’s direct ancestor, ushered the Lutheran Reformation into the Principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt. Johannes, the next generation, is the first Lutheran pastor in the principality born Lutheran.

The Froben/Froebel-Luther connections are inextricably intertwined, a fact known to Friedrich, Ernst and Hans. It was Ernst, based on a designed by Middendorf, who executed his benefactor’s gravestone, based on Froebel’s cube, cylinder and sphere. Part of the Reformation story is then the original relationship between the two families, with the Froben Family giving Disiderius Erasmus all the comfort and support they could, fully in the context of a genuine and nurturing friendship. Quite literally, Disiderius Erasmus had become a cherished member of the Froben Family,

Snider, who was writing largely for a progressive, well-heeled audience of American women (which included Susan Blow, who founded the first kindergarten in the USA integrated in a public school, and Mary Blaisdell, née McConnell who corresponded with Snider), mentions mysticism in passing. He does not delve into the topic, though the mere mention of it was sure to pique the interest of women born in the Victorian Age. However, Snider misses a great opportunity to reveal a story known to those in Oberweissbach and certain of Froebel descendants around the world. Froebel was once locked in the cellar by his stepmother, Friedericke Sophie Marie Froebel, née Otto (1752-1836) who promptly forgot that he was there. Horrified, she remembered in the morning and unlocked the door to find little Friedrich with seemingly fresh clothes, washed, and hair neatly combed. When she asked how that could be, Froebel answered her, In the night my real mother came to me and stayed with me till morning. Before she left, she tidied me up, combed my hair, and said goodbye by giving me a kiss. Snider reports that Froebel left Oberweissbach to go to a brother of his own mother, but it was only after his stepmother had been startled by this supernatural event in her own house, which surely led her to believe that she was not to stifle his best interests even to favor her own children with Pastor Froebel. Again, this story does not seem out of the norm to Froebel descendants who are aware of this and many other similar family events over centuries up to the present.

Snider also mentions Froebel’s visiting Professor Karl Christian Friedrich Krause at the University of Jena. It is worth mentioning that Krause was a German philosopher from Eisenberg in Thuringia, who studied under a series of professors who also influenced Froebel, namely Friedrich W. Schelling, G.W.F. Hegel, and Johann Gottlieb Fichte. Somewhat like Froebel in that he was an idealist, Krause was a member of Freemasonry (Freimauererei). He believed that the world and humans were each part of the other. Froebel and Krause were in rather frequent contact, and, without struggling to unravel how one influenced the other, it should be pointed out that a key concept of Froebel’s is universaler Einklang (universal harmony). Snider does well for the history of education in mentioning the relationship between the two in the company of the Frankenberg family and Krause’s son-in-law and student, Hermann von Leonhardi about whom Snider also writes.

The editor offers here a few more observations about the relationship between the Froebels and the Schwarzburgs, who, during Froebel’s time were living at the rather modest, yet beautifully baroque Heidecksburg Castle above the city of Rudolstadt in the Principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt. Froebel’s grandfather, Johannes (a name which repeats itself throughout many generations to this day in the Froebel line) was the forester (fuerstlicher Foerster) for the Prince of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt. He would have been responsible for the economic activity generated by the forest: lumber, game, etc. It was a job entrusted to someone who was a skilled hunter, manager, and trustworthy. A visit today to the area which would have served as the kitchen at Heidecksburg Castle will reveal that Prince Friedrich Anton von Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt was very fond of the game (Wildbret) provided by his Froebel forester. Johannes served the prince in this capacity for 30 years until his death in 1738, and surely brought him copious amounts of rabbits (Hasen), wild boar (Wildschwein), and venison (Reh). The Froebels who immigrated to Potter County, Pennsylvania, USA, bought this sharpened ability to hunt with them. Any Froebel Family reunion is filled with stories of the Potter County forest, a kind of Thuringian Forest in its own right, whose villages are filled with many German and Swedish immigrants and their descendants.

In the next generation Johannes’ son, Johann Jacob, was pastor in Oberweissbach, a prosperous village in the principality known for its centuries’ long tradition of Rucksack pharmacists (Buckelapotheker). Each family had its own area in the forest where it would harvest forest herbs, flowers, and roots to make all kinds of medicines, salves, syrups, homeopathic remedies and perfumes. After the production of these Olitäten (herbal tinctures), fathers and sons would travel their individual and inherited routes all over Europe, bringing back beautiful art and adornments for the church. The current church in Oberweissbach was built under the supervision of Pastor Johann Jacob Froebel, as the former one, on the same side of the street as the parsonage in which Friedrich was born, had been burned to the ground during the Thirty Years’ War. The Church in Oberweissbach, then one of the richest villages in the Thuringian Forest, is grand for a village church. Hence is it dubbed Dom des Thüringer Walds (Cathedral of the Thuringian Forest), and boasts the largest pulpit (Kanzel) in Europe. Thirteen men, as only men were pastors and deacons in that day, could stand together in it as a symbol of Biblical authority. This largest European pulpit was in the Principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, and in it stood Pastor Johann Jacob Froebel, whose relative had befriended and published Erasmus, whose ancestress’ baptism was overseen by Luther, and whose ancestor had introduced Lutheranism in the principality.

One might wonder if this Schwarzburg influence and contact would continue to include Friedrich Froebel. It was in Keilhau, a village in the principality where Froebel began an educational institute in 1817 where his nephews, including the aforementioned Julius, were the students. The then current regent of the principality was Princess Karoline Louise von Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, née von Hessen-Homburg. We know that she gave a grant of money, of which she did not require repayment, to Froebel to support the institute. Later one reads that she laid her protective hands over the institute. (die Haende schuetzend ueber das Unternehmen) [DIE FUERSTEN VON SCHWARZBURG-RUDOLSTADT, 1710-1918, published 2001 by the Thueringer Landesmuseum Heidecksburg Rudolstadt: (page/Seite 120)]. Princess Karoline Luise must have openly supported Froebel, as her son, the young prince Friedrich Guenther, for whom she was regent, wrote to her from Yverdon, Switzerland, where educator Pestalozzi was active, that he had seen Herr Froebel.

One cannot express enough gratitude to Baroness Bertha Marie von Marenholtz-Buelow (1810-1893) for her contributions to the promulgation of Froebel’s work, even in light of the Prussian King’s Kindergartenverbot (Kindergarten Ban) which lasted from 1850 to 1860. We know from the baroness’ memoirs that she too was taken by surprise by the Verbot. She learned about it after a dinner party at Castle Altenstein near Bad Liebenstein, Thuringia. When the Duke of Saxe-Meiningen came in with a copy of the Vossische Zeitung (Voss Newspaper) and declared to her that kindergarten was banned in Prussia, she laughed and stated, You are joking, Highness, how could that be possible? Nonetheless, she persevered until her death in the promotion of Froebel’s ideas. In London, historians tell us that Charles Dickens was favorably impressed with her lectures and that Madame von Marenholtz-Buelow had published essays in Dicken’s journal, Household Words.

The implementation of kindergarten in America is a theme all of its own. One must mention female educator (educatress as Denton Snider would say) Susan Blow without fail, as she had gone to Germany to visit Baroness Bertha Marie in order to observe kindergarten methodology in practice. Her involvement in the Shelley Club, later Wednesday Club, its members, and author Denton Jaques Snider are all elements of a future book which deserves to be written to chronicle an important time in American educational history. A guest essay after this introduction will give a broad overview of the Wednesday Club, still in existence in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. In an act of universaler Einklang (Froebel’s concept of universal harmony), a number of letters from Susan Blow to a Wednesday Club member, Mary McConnell Blaisdell, and from that member to Susan Blow and later to Denton Jaques Snider, were found on an estate across the street from where this editor taught English as a Second Language in kindergarten classes for 27 years. The researcher, who found them, in a strange irony, had portrayed Baroness Bertha Marie von Marenholtz-Buelow in photos for The First Kindergarten: Friedrich Wilhelm August Froebel & Baroness Bertha Marie von Marenholtz-Buelow (Authorhouse, 2013. ISBN: ISBN-10: 148173783X)

Before closing, one misconception of Snider’s in The Life of Frederick Froebel needs to be pointed out for the rehabilitation of a value judgment offered in the book. Snider opines that Froebel was not good at spelling as he had once spelled Ziel (goal) as Zihl. My first reaction was bewilderment as I was sure that I had encountered Zihl in my reading of German over the years. A quick consultation of Grimms Woerterbuchnetz (Trier) shows that at times Ziel has been written as Zil, Zihl, or even by Luther as Zill. Snider may have tried to portray Friedrich Froebel as imperfect in orthography to later show that all students can overcome limitations to achieve great heights. That is certainly true, but this editor would posit that Froebel, in typical Romantic fashion which may have led him to wear the long hair associated with his Merovingian ancestors, was evoking an earlier time by using an old-fashioned spelling variation. His mystical bent would have allowed him to free himself from the constraints of what others in society thought was standard.

It is exactly this intellectual liberty, the exercise of his natural right to free thought and expression, which is palpable in a true Froebelian kindergarten; the children are respected and accepted at the level where they are. The belief is firm: they will flower with nurturing; they will learn by doing; they will never be locked away and forgotten as Froebel was in the cellar. They will rather be brought forth in care and attention so that they might unfold with their natural born talents. The goal in this universaler Einklang is that children become happy and creative humans in which the universe lives and from whom the universe, with God in its center, is enriched.

Snider has captured well many scenes from the life of our family’s ancestor, but his narrative deserves to be amended, expanded, and commented upon as the Froebeldekade commences. It is a particular honor, and, indeed Pflicht (duty) which falls to his clan (Sippe) to do.

14 September, 2013

Marathon, New York-USA

MARY MCCONNELL BLAISDELL,

DENTON SNIDER AND HIS CIRCLE OF READERS

Linda S. Bruno

Coeymans, New York-USA

D uring Mary’s time in St. Louis i t is evident from her writing and correspondence that she worked diligently on the Kindergarten Movement and education of teachers for such classes. She also helped with the formation of Mother’s Classes. She was concerned with children of the poor, as well as those that could well afford to provide early education to their children. The Isabelle Crowe Kindergarten, was one such philanthropic cause that involved Mary. She worked long and hard to address its needs. She worked on issues such as the selection and training of women that would fill the roles of teachers for kindergarten. Susan Blow, becoming the first teacher to offer kindergarten in the public school system, paved the way for other women to fill this role. Mary followed Blow’s teaching example and adhered to Froebelian methods of training.

Denton Snider’s name, as speaker for the Educational Section of the Wednesday Club, is listed on their schedule, 1899-1900. He was a known teacher and presenter at the club meetings. His particular topics were Homer’s Iliad and Homer’s Odyssey. Snider is mentioned later in relation to a book that Mary wrote, Our Odyssey Club, a parody. It caused a type of social slander with Mary’s use of character references some thought to be of her friends. The problem was the proximity of truth to the referenced characters.

One character, Professor Wolfgang, was the portrayal linked to Snider. A frivolous and flamboyant teacher, at the club gathering, depicted at a club member’s home, was thought by Snider to be a portrayal of himself. Paying close attention to this character were the club women he was addressing with his teaching on Homer’s Odyssey. The women were staged as groupies gathered around a man that kept their attention and plainly made them look like swooning young girls. But Wolfgang in what could have been true Snider spirit was not opposed to all the attention. Mary used this to build in satirical humor. Unfortunately, it was not welcomed by Snider, who appeared to have insisted it was he whom she was using.

Earlier Susan Blow, of whom Mary was a respected colleague, writes that she knew that Mary was not one to write in an unkind manner.

Sunday April 11, (no year appears, but other correspondence with Blow is dated between 1893-1910):

". . . . as to my feeling about the character in your book supposed to be myself and I want to say to you that I have no thought whatever that you intended it for me and besides this that I know you would never do, or say, or write anything ungenerous or unkind." Susan then extends an invitation to Mary to come and see her, and continues emphatically that she would never believe anything less than kind about Mary’s thoughts of her. This shows the mutual respect these women shared with each other.

Snider was not of this mindset. Mary’s letter to him is addressing his thoughts in a previous correspondence about her portrayal of him as Professor Wolfgang which does nothing to stroke his ego. She chides him for even thinking she had portrayed him and explains, apparently causing more harm than good, to their relationship. She writes,

"You have my defense against your unkind and unjust accusations . . . . I trust the time will come when you will be a more charitable Christian, a more also noble philosopher and a more kindly friend.—until then good-bye Mary McC Blaisdell

03%20mary1.jpg04%20mary2.jpg

THE LIFE OF FREDERICK FROEBEL,

FOUNDER OF THE KINDERGARDEN

BY DENTON J. SNIDER,

Co-founder of the Chicago Kindergarden College

SIGMA PUBLISHING CO., Chicago, 10 Van Buren St.

Copyright by D. J. Snider, 1900

NlXON-JONES PRINTING CO., 216 Pine Street, St. Louis, Missouri

To Miss Elizabeth Harrison and Mrs. J. N. Crouse, my associates in founding and carrying forward the Chicago Kindergarden College.

The Author

Chicago,

10 Van Buren St.

August 1900.

To my Creator for having given me an incarnation enabled for the task of

The Ahnentafel Series of books, with this annotated edition of Denton’s study dedicated to the Stamm of my maternal kith and kin.

The Editor

Marathon, New York

September 2013

With special thanks to Frank and Linda Bruno of Coeymans, New York-USA

&

Elli Roenick, Matthias Steltner, Albert Grega, Sr., JoAnn Wheeler Burbank, Ray Bono, Consuelo Serrano, Sandra Camacho, Manuel Briones, Lauren Young, Lisa Ehman, Janis Froebel Parker, Marlene Murphy Sharretts, + Pater Franz Maria Schwarz, Peck Memorial Library (Marathon, NY), the Zwack Family, Jonathon Bruno, and many friends and family in Thuringia

INTRODUCTORY

N ot long before the close of his days, Froebel expressed himself thus to his most intimate friend, Middendorf: I recognize my life to be a unity through and through; it has been long since any such life has appeared among men; only under unusual circumstances has it been able to work itself out to its completeness. One great whole he conceives it to be with each part joined to the other by a line of inner connection; thus his principle of education was the deep underlying principle of his life, which he drew out of himself and made real in his vocation.

Moreover, he holds strongly to the idea of development, the self-unfolding of the human spirit into or toward perfection. The doctrine which he applies to the child is to be applied to his own biography, for that doctrine is at bottom the true movement of his own soul, as it realizes itself in the events of his career. His life will not only illustrate his principle of the unfolding of the child but will be seen to be the very center and source of that principle; from beginning to end it shows a man’s own spiritual evolution projecting itself into his educational work. Inner unity, inner development, and inner connection—of Froebel’s spirit—will reveal themselves in his biography, which thereby becomes the best commentary on all that he has done.

For the purpose of keeping this fundamental fact before the reader’s mind, we shall throw his life into three grand sweeps or masses which indicate the chief stages of his own development as well as of his work.

I. The Youth Froebel.

This period lies between his birth and his first teaching at Frankfort on the Main (1782-1805). It is a time of elementary training, of seeking a vocation, of wandering from place to place, and of trying many things. Also it is a time of strong, often of harsh discipline; a time of inner fermentation and change; an epoch of all sorts of possibilities done; he is shaken off from the school-idea and made ready for the kindergarden.

II. The Schoolmaster Froebel.

This period embraces the years in which he is of the school, as instructor, tutor, principal (1805-1835). His vocation is now clear, he knows himself to be an educator. It is the middle period, preparing him