Basedow, JOHANN BERNHARD

Basedow, JOHANN BERNHARD, educationist, was born 11th September 1723, at Hamburg, where his father was a peruke-maker. In the year 1753 he was appointed a master in an academy at Soröe. In 1761 he was removed from the gymnasium at Altona on account of heterodox opinions. Rousseau's Emile awakened in him, in 1762, the thought of improving the method of education, and of reducing to practice Rousseau's maxims and those of Comenius. Contributions from princes and private persons, amounting to 15,000 thalers (about £2200), covered the cost of his Elementarwerk, which was illustrated with 100 copperplates, and was intended to bring the minds of children into contact with realities, and not mere words. As a model school on this method, he established in 1774 the Philanthropin at Dessau; but his restlessness of disposition, and his quarrels with his colleagues, led to his withdrawal, and it was finally shut up in 1793. Basedow died at Magdeburg, July 25, 1790. His influence on the public mind of his age, particularly in Germany, was very great, and his numerous works powerfully awakened attention and interest in the much-neglected subject of education. See his Life by Meyer (2 vols. Hamburg, 1792).