F. A. W. Fröbel 1782–1852

Abstract

Friedrich Fröbel (1782–1852) founded his kindergarten in 1840 for children between 3 and 6 years of age. His model had three components: play with his educational material, the ‘Spielgaben’ or play gifts together with occupations, song and dance games and gardening and outdoor activities. His intention was to build upon the child’s activity and to develop an understanding of the world in close interaction between child and adult in a process he called ‘Spielpflege’ or play care. The foundation of his work lay in Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi’s work, in crystallography, and in his own ‘spherical law’. Bertha von Marenholtz-Bülow transformed his model during the 1850s into a programme preparing poor children for work and spread his work to many countries. At the end of the nineteenth century, Henriette Schrader-Breymann established the Pestalozzi-Fröbel-Haus. She wanted to help children with working mothers by means of a programme of motherly care in homelike institutions. But in so doing Fröbel’s play theory based upon his educational materials and play care was lost. Aspects of his programme remained in a Fröbel tradition, which spread to many countries often by the bourgeois female movement. Today there is a revival of the interest in Fröbel with his original writings made available through the work of Helmut Heiland. The strong expansion of early childhood education worldwide means that there is a risk that the history of pioneers such as Fröbel will be forgotten. Fröbel’s focus on play care and the role of interaction in the child’s learning and development are still of interest.