Adolph Diesterweg

Friedrich Adolph Wilhelm Diesterweg (29 October 1790 – 7 July 1866) was a
German educator and thinker who, also a progressive liberal politician, campaigned
for the secularization of schools, and is said to be precursory to the reform of
pedagogy.

Contents
Biography
Philosophy
Works
References

Biography Adolph Diesterweg

Educated at Herborn and Tübingen universities 1808-1811, Diesterweg began

teaching in 1811. He taught at Mannheim and at Worms for about two years, and
then moved to the model school in Frankfurt am Main. Later he became rector of the
Latin school of Elberfeld.[1] In 1820, he was appointed director of the new teacher's
seminary at Mörs where he put in practice the methods of Pestalozzi. In 1832, he
was summoned to Berlin to direct the new state-schools seminary in that city. Here
he proved himself a strong supporter of nonsectarian religious teaching. In 1846, he
established the Pestalozzi institution at Pankow, and the Pestalozzi societies for the
support of teachers’ widows and orphans.[2] Because of his disagreement with the
authorities regarding important phases of higher education he was in constant
friction and resigned from the seminary in 1847. In 1850, he received a government
pension. Thereafter, he continued to vigorously advocate his educational ideas
through the medium of periodicals. In 1858, he was elected to the chamber of Tomb at Alter St.-Matthäus-Kirchhof
deputies as member for the city of Berlin, and voted with the Liberal in Berlin-Schöneberg
opposition.[1][2]

Philosophy
Diesterweg thought criticalness and responsibility were important in teaching, and sought to reform social, economic and moral
aspects of education publishing the influential Pädagogisch Wollen und Sollen. He based his program on what was named the "basic
principles of the struggle for life" that he saw in the Catholicism/Protestantism conflict. He thought there were several 'oppositions'
(distinct choices) that were available in the conflict which could be reduced to a single "authority or freedom, Catholicism or
Protestantism".[3]

In his effort to reform schooling Diesterweg wanted to remove political and religious influence in the teaching itself and instead
involve more of a social factor. He believed in the availability of education: "First educate men, before worrying about their
professional training or class, [because] the proletarian and the peasant should both be educated to become human beings"; he also
believed that through education the poor could be helped. He wanted professionalization of state teachers and fought for the relative
autonomy of schools; he also had an influence on the teachers of that time through his newspaper
Rheinisch Blätter.
Works
Diesterweg was a voluminous writer on educational subjects, and was the author of
various school text-books.[2] He authored 50 books and published about 400 papers;
he has been credited with originated the phrase 'learn to do by doing' by one
source.[4][5] In 1851, he founded the Pädagogisches Jahrbuch (Yearbook of
pedagogy) in Berlin. Among his publications were:

Wegweiser zur Bildung für deutsche Lehrer(Guide for the instruction of

German teachers; 2 vols., 1834; 6th ed., 1 vol., 1890)
Statue to Diesterweg
Das pädagogische Deutschland(German pedagogy; 1836)
Streitfragen auf dem Gebiete der Pädagogik(Controversial questions in
the field of pedagogy; 1837)
Leitfaden für den Unterricht in der Formlehre(1845)
Lehrbuch der mathematischen Geographie(1840; 18th ed., as Populäre Himmelskunde, 1891)
Unterricht in der Kleinkinderschule(5th ed., 1852)

References
1. Rines, George Edwin, ed. (1920)."Diesterweg, Friedrich Adolf Wilhelm" (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Ency
clopedia_Americana_(1920)/Diesterweg,_Friedrich_Adolf_Wilhelm) . Encyclopedia Americana.
2. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm,
Hugh, ed. (1911). "Diesterweg, Friedrich Adolf Wilhelm" (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_
Britannica/Diesterweg,_Friedrich_Adolf_Wilhelm) . Encyclopædia Britannica(11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
3. Gross, Michael B. (2004).The War Against Catholicism (https://books.google.com/?id=fnCzk2fI9Z4C&pg=P A102&dq
=adolf+diesterweg) (illustrated ed.). University of Michigan Press. p. 32.ISBN 978-0-472-11383-5. Retrieved
2009-03-13.
4. Smith, M. K. (2009) 'Social pedagogy' in the encyclopaedia of informal education
(http://www.infed.org/biblio/b-socpe
d.htm).
5. Kliebard, Herbert M. (2004).The struggle for the American curriculum, 1893-1958(https://books.google.com/?id=hE
KFaR0S1-EC&pg=PA32&dq=%22learn+to+do+by+doing%22+diesterweg)(illustrated ed.). New York, [USA]:
RoutledgeFalmer. p. 32. ISBN 978-0-415-94891-3. Retrieved 2009-03-13.

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