Family – Page 2 – Froebel Decade

Großhettstedt

The Romanesque stone arch bridge and paved ford south of this village were part of the ancient trade route along the Ilm valley.

Großhettstedt was the center of a ducal and later royal estate named after Hedan, the ruling Frankish Duke of Thuringia. The evangelization of Thuringia by Boniface began during the reign of Heden, who ruled from Würzburg and built a Palatinate Church at Fulda. On his death in 719, the duchy reverted to the Merovingian kings.

This estate included Kleinhettstedt and Barchfeld, first recorded during the 9th century by the Imperial Abbey of Fulda. Barchfeld means pig pasture from barg, a castrated boar. Domesticated male pigs, called boars, were castrated to reduce aggression and improve meat quality.

A crouching crane was the old seal of Barchfeld, which before 1919 was part of the Duchy of Sachsen-Meiningen.

Arms of the Kranichfeld from 1650 based on the oldest known seal of a crane under a hand with a palm branch.

Hedan (oder Heden) II. (auch Hetan, Haetan oder Ętan urkundlich benannt; † zwischen 717 bis 719) war am Anfang des 8. Jahrhunderts Herzog des erneuerten thüringischen Stammesherzogtums bis zu seinem Tod um 719. Er war ein Sohn von Herzog Gosbert, unter dem der Heilige Kilian starb.

Hedan war Franke und hatte seinen Sitz in Würzburg. Er herrschte frühestens ab 689, offenbar anfangs nur im Mainfränkischen, verdrängte er später die Dynastie Radulfs, um das Würzburger Herzogtum mit dem altthüringischen zu vereinigen. Um 700 erbaute er eine Herzogspfalz mit Kirche in Fulda.[2]

Von Bedeutung ist Hedan vor allem, da unter seiner Herrschaft die Missionierung der Thüringer durch Bonifatius begann, der auch 742 das Bistum Erfurt gründete.

The last Prior of the Abbey at Stadtilm, Volckmar Frobenius became the first Lutheran pastor at Großhettstedt. He married Christin, a god daughter of Martin Luther. Two of their sons became Lutheran pastors and adopted Froebel as the written form of the family name.

Johannes Barop

Portrait of Johannes Arnold Barop, 1846-1848 by August Lieber

Barop married Emilie Dorothea Froebel, daughter of Johann Christian Ludwig Froebel on 11 Jul 1831 at Keilhau. Emilie Dorothea Froebel was born on 11 Jul 1804 at Osterode and died on 18 Aug 1860 at Keilhau

Barop was a nephew of William Middendorf.

Source: Portrait of Johannes Arnold Barop, Director of the Kindergarten in Keilhau

Perseverance

fox-grapes-aesop

Driven by hunger, a fox tried to reach some grapes hanging high on the vine but was unable to, although he leaped with all his strength. As he went away, the fox remarked ‘Oh, you aren’t even ripe yet! I don’t need any sour grapes.’

People who speak disparagingly of things that they cannot attain would do well to apply this story to themselves.

The Fox and the Grapes is one of the Aesop’s fables. The expression “sour grapes” originated from this fable.

Cognitive dissonance is the uncomfortable tension, which comes from holding two conflicting thoughts in the mind at the same time.

Friedrich Froebel encouraged each child to persevere in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.

Self Awareness

There are many ways to use the Johari model in learning and development.

Johari is a very elegant and potent model, and as with other powerful ideas, simply helping people to understand is the most effective way to optimise the value to people. When people really understand it in their own terms, it empowers them to use the thinking in their own way, and to incorporate the underlying principles into their future thinking and behaviour.

A Johari window is a psychological tool created by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham in 1955. It’s a simple and useful tool for understanding and training:

self-awareness
personal development
improving communications
interpersonal relationships
group dynamics
team development; and
inter group relationships

It is one of the few tools out there that has an emphasis on “soft skills” such as behaviour, empathy, co-operation, inter group development and interpersonal development. It’s a great model to use because of its simplicity and also because it can be applied in a variety of situations and environments. read more

three key ideas

individuals can build trust between themselves by disclosing information about themselves – self-disclosure and exposure,
they can learn about themselves and come to terms with personal issues with the help of feedback from others – this is feedback solicitation,
teams collectively are unaware of feelings, latent abilities, aptitudes and experiences and through collective or mutual discovery, can help people to fulfil more of their potential, achieve more, and contribute to organisational performance.

The Johari Window model also known as the “Johari Window” demonstrates the process of giving and receiving feedback, improving self-awareness, personal development, group development and understanding relationships between individuals within a group.

The Johari Window model is especially relevant today as a communication model that can be used to improve understanding between individuals within a team or in a group setting where emphasis is increasingly placed on, and influence of soft’ skills, behaviour, empathy, cooperation, and inter-group development.

This article describes the use of Johari windows in Conflict Resolution, Negotiation and Team Building

Landscape Architecture

Theodor Froebel (1810–93) and his son Otto (1844–1906) were two of the most significant artistic and commercial gardeners of nineteenth century Switzerland. The work of these key figures paved the way for the profession of landscape architecture.

After having been trained in his native Thuringia, Theodor Froebel came to Zurich in 1834. There, as the first university gardener, he played an influential role in the planning and construction of the new Botanical Garden. By 1835 he had started his own business, and he left his position at the university in 1841. The rest of his professional career was determined by two complementary practices: on the one hand public and private clients engaged him for the planning and construction of parks and gardens, and on the other hand he ran his own business including a tree nursery and greenhouses. His son Otto completed his training at his father’s business, as well as at renowned firms in other European countries. After Otto had entered into the family business in 1865 the plant collection grew, as did the number of the gardens planned and realized.

The planning of public parks and private gardens undertaken by Theodor and Otto Froebel provides information about the role of these two men as garden designers. The business model was transformed from a modest commercial operation to a prestigious business enterprise active across Europe.

This provides a context for the creative work of Theodor and Otto Froebel and helps clarify their significance.

Source: Theodor and Otto Froebel, ETH Zurich, Professor Girot, Chair of Landscape Architecture. | Christophe Girot | Chair of landscape architecture | Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich | ETHZ

Theodor Froebel was one of the five nephews for whom Friedrich Froebel founded his first school in 1816 at Griesheim in the Principality of Schwarzburg Rudolstadt.

Families

At the end of 1835, Fröbel wrote a publication entitled The Year 1836 Demands the Renewal of Life, which begins with these words:

It is the announcement and proclamation of a new spring of life and mankind which rings so loudly in my ears in and through all the manifestations of my own life, and the lives of others. It is you, the renewal and rejuvenation of all life, who speak out, through everything and in everything within and around me, so actively and clearly to my spirit. This time has been so long awaited by mankind and for so long promised to it as its golden age (Lange, 1863, p. 499)

This ‘golden age’ sees the family become ‘sacred’. The family heals the relations between parents and children and between siblings through an improved atmosphere, through shared play.

Fröbel now set his sights on the family and developed play materials to improve the atmosphere in families.

He wished to help found associations of parents, who might exercise a stimulus on others through their experiences of play.

Fröbel’s play, which was originally to take place within the family, became the basis for Kindergarten, which was launched on 28 June 1840, in the town hall at Blankenburg within the framework of the Gutenberg memorial celebrations.

In Fröbel’s day the kindergarten, including his own establishment at Bad Blankenburg, involved three activities.

It centered on play with the ‘gifts’ and ‘occupations’.
Alongside these, ‘movement games’ were played involving running, dancing, games played in the round and acting. The children’s play group developed forms of movement without game material.
The third area was ‘garden care’. Here the kindergarten pupil was to learn about the development of plants, their growth and blossoming, and to see how careful tending can influence their development. Here the young child could see a mirror image in nature of his/her own growth.

source: PROSPECTS: the quarterly review of comparative education (Paris, UNESCO: International Bureau of Education), vol. XXIII, no. 3 / 4, 1993, p. 473–91. ©UNESCO: International Bureau of Education, 1999. This document may be reproduced free of charge as long as acknowledgement is made of the source.

Rudolstädter Elle

Before the introduction in 1872 of the metric system in the German Empire, almost every town had its own definitions of the units of measurement.

Often towns posted the local definitions on a wall of the city hall. The smallest known Elle is 402.8 mm (15.86 in), the longest 811 mm (31.9 in).

The front wall of the old city hall, built in in 1524 in late Gothic style, shows the “Rudolstädter Elle”. It was a standard length for cloth and canvas merchants.

Charlemagne (800 – 814 AD) brought a consistent system of measures across the entire empire, which were derived from ancient Roman measures. After his death many rulers within the empire introduced their own variants of the units of measure.

Charlemagne had been also been faced with a variety of currencies at the start of his reign. He standardized a system based on a pound of silver. The denarius was minted with a value of 240 to a pound of silver. A second value, the solidus, was also created as an accounting device with a value of one twentieth of a pound of silver.

Grace in action

The defining date of the Reformation is considered to be when Luther nailed the theses to the church door on 31 October 1517. It initiated a process of modernisation the effects of which are still reflected today.

Germany will be the focal point for Christians from all over the world during the 500th anniversary of this event in 2017.

Luther’s preference for Erfurt rather than Leipzig to study law was due to the fine international reputation of the University of Erfurt, which was founded in 1392.

Source: Luther 2017 – 500 Years Reformation

Sculpture

The pulpit, with pictures of Jesus and the evangelists, in the church of St. Eckard at Stedten was given in 1711 by Schultheiß Fröbel, who was a carpenter and glazier.

This village church stood before the Reformation, which was introduced to Stedten in 1529. The Gothic construction is from the 15th century, and may be as early as the 12th century.

The baptismal font of 1575 is decorated with lilies, which are a symbol of purity of heart.

Ancient arms of Hammelburg with the cross of the Abbey of Fulda and three lilies, called the crest of Simplicius

Baptismal fonts were symbolically placed prominently at the entry of a church. It is through the gift of this sacrament that God miraculously washes away our sins, works faith in our hearts and brings us into the family of believers. The baptismal font is a symbol of God’s love, and a comfort and assurance.

The use of natural light has been a critical design element in Lutheran churches, because natural light spilling in from clear glass or stained windows is used to symbolize God’s presence and enhance the natural, earthy qualities of places of worship.

The church St. Eckard in the village of Stedten an der Ilm is one of the oldest in the district.

Caspar Froebel

The ancestry of Friedrich Froebel, the inventor of Kindergarten, has been traced to Caspar Froebel, who died on 14 June 1640 at Großgölitz.

Caspar was appointed to the office of Schultheiß (a village magistrate or sherrif). A Schultheiß (Middle High German: Schultheize, Latinised: Scultetus or Sculteus; also: Schulthies, Schulte or Schulze ) was the head of an administrative district, an executive official of the ruler. It was his duty to order his assigned village or county to pay the taxes and perform the services due to the ruler. The name “Schultheiß” originates from this function: “Schuld” (debt) and “heißen” (to order).

Source: Caspar Froebel

Caspar Fröbel was a farmer and Schultheiß in Großgölitz. His great grandson, Nicolaus Fröbel was born in 1684 in Leutnitz. Nicolaus was Schultheiß in Leutnitz, where he died in 1755.