Ratich, WOLFGANG (sometimes called RATKE or Latinised as RATICHUS), educationist, was born at Holstein in 1571, based a new system of education on Bacon's philosophy, which he expounded to the German princes at Frankfort in 1612, and had an opportunity of putting into practice at Köthen in 1618, by favour of the prince of Anhalt. His principle was the realistic one of proceeding from things to names, and from the mother-tongue to the study of foreign ones. But he got into bad relations with the clergy and with his patron, and was actually imprisoned for eight months. A second chance given him at Magdeburg in 1620 ended also in failure, and after some years of ineffective wanderings he died at Erfurt in 1635.
There are monographs on him by Krause (1872), Störl (1876), and Schumann (1876); and see R. H. Quick, Essays on Educational Reformers (1868; new ed. 1890).