Wickersdorf Free School Community

The Wickersdorf Free School Community (German: Freie Schulgemeinde Wickersdorf) was a progressive school in Germany, founded by Gustav Wyneken and Paul Geheeb in 1906.

The defunct school, pictured in 2014

In particular, the concept of "movement play" on the school stage can be understood as the original contribution of the Freie Schulgemeinde to a school culture of movement and physical culture, which continues to have an impact on the subject of performing play today. This concept, which goes back to Martin Luserke, was both theoretically elaborated and practically tested by him over decades.[1]

Pedagogy edit

German pedagogues Gustav Wyneken and Paul Geheeb founded the German: Freie Schulgemeinde in Wickersdorf in September 1906.[2] Wyneken, who had previously taught at a Hermann Lietz school, modelled Wickersdorf on his experimental, neo-Idealist ideas: to treat children as distinct from adults, to pique natural curiosity, to let the child's natural abilities appear gradually, to teach through experience rather than academics. Unlike other experimental schools, Wickersdorf focused on humanities, centring the school on finding the "objective spirit" in philosophy, literature, and music.[3]

Legacy edit

Music theorist Ernst Kurth's year as Wickersdorf's head music instructor was a pivotal moment in his life, with the influence of August Halm and Wyneken.[4]

Wickersdorf co-founder Martin Luserke continued on to found Schule am Meer in 1925, and Wickersdorf teacher Bernhard Uffrecht [de] continued to found another school in 1919, both with music pedagogy they had learned from August Halm at Wickersdorf.[5]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Alexander Priebe: Vom Schulturnen zum Schulsport – Die Reform der körperlichen Ausbildung in den Deutschen Landerziehungsheimen und der Freien Schulgemeinde Wickersdorf von 1898 bis 1933. Julius Klinkhardt, Bad Heilbrunn 2007, ISBN 978-3-7815-1561-1, S. 124.
  2. ^ Rothfarb 1991, p. 13.
  3. ^ Rothfarb 1991, pp. 12–13.
  4. ^ Rothfarb 1991, p. 12.
  5. ^ Rothfarb, Lee Allen (2009). August Halm: A Critical and Creative Life in Music. University Rochester Press. ISBN 978-1-58046-329-4.

Bibliography edit

  • Rothfarb, Lee A., ed. (1991). Ernst Kurth: Selected Writings. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-35522-3.

Further reading edit

  • Dudek, Peter (2009). 'Versuchsacker für eine neue Jugend': die Freie Schulgemeinde Wickersdorf 1906-1945 (in German). Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt. ISBN 978-3-7815-1681-6. OCLC 636710490.
  • Hilker, Franz (1924). Deutsche Schulversuche (in German). Berlin: Schwetschke. pp. 77–90. OCLC 44571230.