Friedrich Wilhelm Hagen (pedagogue)

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Friedrich Wilhelm Hagen (31 March 1767 in Mistelbach, near Bayreuth – 27 April 1837 in Windsheim) was a German author, parson, dean and school district inspector. Hagen was jointly responsible for the introduction of school reform according to Pestalozzi's ideas in Franconia.

Biography

Hagen attended the Bayreuth Gymnasium from 1785 to 1791. He discovered his inclination for pedagogy already during his years of study in Erlangen (1791–1795). After receiving his Magister degree and habilitation, he taught as an associate professor until 1799 and published a number of theological and philological writings.

From 1799, he worked in Bayreuth as a professor at the grammar school and as a castle preacher. In Selb, where he had taken over a pastorate in 1802 for health reasons, he gained his first practical experience with school reforms.

Hagen was an avowed opponent of Napoleon. In 1809, after a stay in prison and a death sentence averted by influential friends, he was transferred to Dietersheim for this reason. In September 1816 he moved to Windsheim as dean, first city pastor and school district inspector.

Hagen's great role model was Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, whose educational principles he was the first to strive to implement in Franconia. With the help of the schoolteacher Müller, he introduced child-oriented pedagogy. Dietersheim became a small center of reform pedagogy. Hagen supplemented the curriculum with practical subjects such as Arboriculture and Geodesy. The lessons were intended to prepare for a newly introduced class that provided "instruction in agricultural industry." Hagen also tried to win over other teachers to his ideas. To this end, he ran the Fortbildungs-Anstalt für Schullehrer at Dietersheim, which was also reported on by the Ansbach's reform-minded District School Board member Heinrich Stephani in his journal Der baierische Schulfreund.

Friedrich Wilhelm Hagen was married to Maria Christina Elisabeth Schmauß (1771–1858) and had four sons and two daughters. His son Carl Heinrich Wilhelm Hagen (1810–1868) became a historian and was a member of the Frankfurt National Assembly, his son Friedrich Wilhelm Hagen (1814–1888) became a psychiatrist and was one of those responsible for the incapacitation of King Ludwig II of Bavaria. His grandson was the classical philologist Hermann Hagen (1844–1898).

Works

  • Commentar über Ciceros vermischte Briefe vorzüglich in Hinsicht auf Aesthetik und den Mechanismus der Sprache für Gymnasien und Schulen (1798/99)
  • Über das Wesentliche der von Pestalozzi aufgestellten Menschenbildungsweise und die Einführung des Elementarunterrichts derselben in der Schule zu Dottenheim (1810)

External links