Autobiography of Friedrich Froebel Part 11

[116] This young girl, the adopted daughter of the first Madame Froebel, was named Ernestine Chrispine, and afterwards married Langethal.

Froebel's first wife, Henrietta Wilhelmine Hoffmeister, was born at Berlin 20th September, 1780, and was therefore thirty-eight at the time of her marriage. She was a remarkable woman, highly cultured, a pupil of Schleiermacher and of Fichte. Before her marriage with Froebel she had been married to an official in the War Office, and had been separated from him on account of his misconduct. Middendorff and Langethal knew the family well, and had frequently spoken with Froebel about this lady, who was admired and respected by both of them. Froebel saw her once in the mineralogical museum at Berlin, and was wonderfully struck by her, especially because of the readiness in which she entered into his educational ideas. When afterwards he desired to marry, he wrote to the lady and invited her to give up her life to the furtherance of those ideas with which she had once shown herself to be so deeply penetrated, and to become his wife. She received his proposal favourably, but her father, an old War Office official, at first made objections. Eventually she left her comfortable home to plunge amidst the privations and hards.h.i.+ps of all kinds abundantly connected with educational struggles.

She soon rose to great honour with all the little circle, and was deeply loved and most tenderly treated by Froebel himself. In her willingness to make sacrifices and her cheerfulness under privations, she set them all an example. She died at Blankenburg in May 1839.

[117] The expected dowry was never forthcoming, which made matters harder.

[118] Christian had already a.s.sisted his brother at Griesheim, and before that, to the utmost of his power. The three daughters were (1) Albertine, born 29th December, 1801, afterwards married Middendorff; (2) Emilie, born 11th July, 1804, married Barop, died 18th August, 1860, at Keilhau; (3) Elise, born 5th January, 1814, married Dr. Siegfried Schaffner, one of the Keilhau colleagues, later on.

[119] Johannes Arnold Barop, Middendorff's nephew, was born at Dortmund, 29th November, 1802. He afterwards became proprietor and princ.i.p.al of Keilhau.

[120] March 1828.

[121] This excellent man was drowned in the Saale while bathing, soon after this letter was written.

[122] He always regarded himself as perfectly tolerant.

[123] Froebel moved from Griesheim to Keilhau in 1817.

[124] In 1820.

[125] It was in 1828 that Barop formally and definitely joined the Froebel community.

[126] The long turmoil of the Napoleonic wars, the outcome of the French Revolution, ceased in 1815; and the minds of the students and the other youths of the country, set free from this terrible struggle for liberty, turned towards the reformation of their own country. Many a.s.sociations were formed: perhaps here and there wild talk was indulged in. The Government grew alarmed, and though the students had invariably acted with perfect legality, all their a.s.sociations were dispersed and forbidden.

[127] Christian Froebel and his wife.

[128] This was 1827-29.

[129] This is the interesting plan of the Public Educational Inst.i.tution and Orphanage in Helba, with which admirers of Froebel are probably already well acquainted. It is given in full in Lange's "Froebel," vol.

i., p. 401.

[130] Say 100.

[131] In 1829.

[132] The Wartensee is a small lake in the canton Luzern, not far from Sempach.

[133] About 30s.

[134] Auf Schuster's Rappen,--_i.e._, on foot. (This was in 1832.)

[135] A small town not far away, still in the canton Luzern.

[136] This was a familiar name for the devil, till a few years back, in Germany; surprisingly recalling the term "Eumenides" for the Greek Furies, since it originated in a desire to speak of so powerful an enemy in respectful terms, lest he should take offence.

[137] A Swiss educational writer of great power and charm. His school books, "Sur la langue maternelle," are really valuable.

[138] The editors venture to call attention to these little facts as a sample of the extraordinary devotion and sacrifice which Froebel knew how to inspire in his colleagues. This exchange of Barop and Middendorff took place in 1833.

[139] In 1833.

[140] This regulation is still happily in force.

[141] In 1836.

[142] Blankenburg lies on the way from Schwarzburg to Rudolstadt, about two hours' walk away from Keilhau.

CHRONOLOGICAL ABSTRACT OF THE PRINc.i.p.aL EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF FROEBEL, AND THE FROEBEL COMMUNITY.

1770. June 24th.--Birth of Christian Ludwig Froebel.

1780. Sept. 17th.--Birth of Friedrich Froebel's first wife, Henriette Wilhelmine Hoffmeister, at Berlin.

Christian Froebel's wife, Johanna Caroline Mugge, was also born in 1780, on August 28th.

1782. April 21st.--_Birth of Friedrich Froebel_, at Oberweissbach, Thuringia.

1792. Froebel is sent to Superintendent Hoffman in Stadt Ilm.

Sept. 3rd.--Birth of Heinrich Langethal, at Erfurt.

1793. Sept. 20.--Birth of Wilhelm Middendorff, at Brechten, near Dortmund, in Westphalia.

1797. Froebel is sent to Neuhof in the Thuringian Forest to learn forestry.

1799. Froebel returns home; goes thence as student to Jena.

1801. He leaves Jena (having closed his career there with nine weeks'

imprisonment for debt), and soon afterwards begins to study farming with a relative of his father's at Hildburghausen.

Dec. 29th.--Birth of Albertine Froebel (Madame Middendorff), eldest daughter of Christian Froebel.

1802. Death of Froebel's father. Froebel becomes Actuary to the Forestry Department of the Episcopal State of Bamberg.

Nov. 29th.--Birth of Johannes Arnold Barop, at Dortmund, in Westphalia.

1803. Froebel goes to Bamberg, and takes part in the governmental land survey, necessary upon the change of government, Bamberg now pa.s.sing to Bavaria.

1804. He takes, one after the other, two situations as secretary and accountant of a large country estate, first, that of Herr von Voldersdorf in Baireuth, afterwards that of Herr von Dewitz in Gross Milchow, Mecklenburg.

July 11th.--Birth of Emilie Froebel (Madame Barop), second daughter of Christian Froebel.

1805. Death of Froebel's maternal uncle, Superintendent Hoffman.