The treasures from Froebel's legacy

The Friedrich Froebel Museum's archival treasures include a tremendous portion of the handwritten legacy of Friedrich Froebel and his allies, especially those documents dating back to the time of the founding of the very first kindergarten in 1840 up until Froebel's death in 1852. The so-called "Blankenburg legacy" ("Blankenburger Nachlass (BLM)") belongs to the three main archives for research dedicated to Froebel.

Some of Froebel's letters, archived by the Friedrich Froebel Museum, have been digitalized and are now accessible via the homepage of Berlin's library for research dedicated to educational history ("Bibliothek für Bildungsgeschichtliche Forschung") under www.bbf.dipf.de/digitale-bbf/editionen/froebel.

Berlin also holds some additional (physically) archived letters. The so-called "Keilhau legacy" ("Keilhauer Nachlass (KN)") consists of letters, chronologically filed, dating from Froebel's time in Switzerland. It is catalogued under the shelf mark "Nachlass 186 (Friedrich Froebel)" in Berlin's state library. The "Berlin legacy" ("Berliner Nachlass (BN)"), being the most substantial one, is located at Berlin's library for research dedicated to educational history ("Bibliothek für Bildungsgeschichtliche Forschung").
 

Kontakte

Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (State library Berlin)
Handschriftenabteilung (Department for handwriting)
Potsdamer Str. 33
Germany - 10785 Berlin (Tiergarten)
Fon: +49 30 2 66 – 28 41
E-Mail: handschriftenabt@sbb.spk-berlin.de

Bibliothek für Bildungsgeschichtliche Forschung des Deutschen Instituts für Internationale Pädagogische Forschung (library for research dedicated to educational history at the German institute for international educational science)
Warschauer Str. 34–38
Germany - 10243 Berlin
Fon: +49 30 29 33 60 – 12
E-Mail: ausleihe@bbf.dipf.de

Stock

Probably in 1927, Helene L. Klostermann (1858-1935) established the archive's current structure. She set up a method of archiving files resulting in an organizing principle which, in turn, has determined the catalogue layout up until today. Froebel's handwritten legacy, but in part printed publications as well, are stored in 34 folders.

Bad Blankenburg's archive stock contains:

• app. 325 of Froebel's letters
• app. 40 letter drafts composed by him.
• app. 370 of Froebel's notepads
• collection of letters addressed to Froebel, ca. 1000 copies
• Froebel's letters to Professor Weiss in Berlin dating from his time as a soldier in Lützow (Folder II)
• Correspondence between Froebel and Friederike Schmidt, called Aunt Schmidt ("Muhme Schmidt"), dating from 1840-1851 (Folder XIV)
• The majority of the correspondence between Froebel and his second wife Louise Froebel (XXIII and XXIV)
• Files documenting the process in which Froebel's work "Mother's Pet Songs" ("Mutter- und Koselieder"), published in 1844, was created
• Print edition of Froebel's work ("A Hundred songs for ball games" ("Hundert Lieder für das Spiel mit dem Ball", dating from 1844 (Folder XII)

Terms of use

The library inside the Friedrich Froebel Museum is a reference library. Copying library magazines is not possible.

Your registration and application for usage provided, you can access the archive's and the library's stock for research purposes.