Ulf Sauerbrey

Friedrich Froebel, the ‘father of kindergarten’, is one of the most influential pedagogues of the 19th century. However, relatively little is known about his life, his successes and failures, and his personal relationships. Based on many untranslated and unknown letters, this new biography presents Froebel as a brilliant but also flawed man. Beginning with his childhood and the early death of his mother, as well as his difficult relationship with his father and stepmother, we see the early seeds of Froebel’s interest in children and the training of early childhood practitioners. While Froebel lacked basic academic knowledge due to his poor early education, he was able to overcome these deficits and found an educational institute, and develop ground-breaking educational theories about play and pedagogy. He authored multiple books, including his most famous work The Education of Man. The focus of this book, though, is not on Froebel’s educational theories but on his complicated relationships with his family, the Keilhau community, and the mother of one of his pupils, Caroline von Holzhausen, whom he called the “rune of his life”. After many personal and professional disappointments, Froebel finally came up with the idea that made him famous until today: kindergarten. In the last decade of his life, he became a salesman of this new idea and worked tirelessly for the establishment of the kindergarten movement. However, when the Prussian government banned kindergarten shortly before his death, Froebel was broken – even if kindergarten lives until today.

Friedrich Froebel, the ‘father of kindergarten’, is one of the most influential pedagogues of the 19th century. However, relatively little is known about his life, his successes and failures, and his personal relationships. Based on many untranslated and unknown letters, this new biography presents Froebel as a brilliant but also flawed man. Beginning with his childhood and the early death of his mother, as well as his difficult relationship with his father and stepmother, we see the early seeds of Froebel’s interest in children and the training of early childhood practitioners. While Froebel lacked basic academic knowledge due to his poor early education, he was able to overcome these deficits and found an educational institute, and develop ground-breaking educational theories about play and pedagogy. He authored multiple books, including his most famous work The Education of Man. The focus of this book, though, is not on Froebel’s educational theories but on his complicated relationships with his family, the Keilhau community, and the mother of one of his pupils, Caroline von Holzhausen, whom he called the “rune of his life”. After many personal and professional disappointments, Froebel finally came up with the idea that made him famous until today: kindergarten. In the last decade of his life, he became a salesman of this new idea and worked tirelessly for the establishment of the kindergarten movement. However, when the Prussian government banned kindergarten shortly before his death, Froebel was broken – even if kindergarten lives until today.

Das Buch vermittelt grundlegendes Wissen uber das Spielen in der fruhen Kindheit fur Fachkrafte in der beruflichen padagogischen Praxis, aber auch fur Eltern, Studierende und fur die wissenschaftliche Fachoffentlichkeit. Durch interdisziplinare und padagogisch zugespitzte Perspektiven werden u.a. Spielformen und Spielorte kleiner Kinder thematisiert. Zudem wird auf die Bedeutung von Dingen und Medien im Kinderspiel aufmerksam gemacht. Durch das Buch zieht sich dabei eine Auseinandersetzung mit dem Grundproblem jeder spielpadagogischen Praxis, die sich immer im Spannungsfeld zwischen "angeleiteten" und "freien" Spielarrangements bewegt.

Friedrich Fr bel ist als Entdecker des ersten Kindergartens und Entwickler von Spielgaben zwar durchaus bekannt. Wie seine Spielp dagogik jedoch als System beschaffen ist, was in dieser die >Pflege des kindlichen Spiel- und Besch ftigungstriebes