Translated from French by Doron Zeilberger (Dec. 29, 2005)
[This is a translation of the article "Adolphe Ferriere et Paul Geheeb: Une Amite Veritable" written, in French, by Yehuda Zeilberger, (Yehouda Heinz Zeilberger) that appeared in "Autour d'Adolphe Ferriere et de L'Education Nouvelle", Cahiers de la Section des Sciences de l'Education No. 25 (Daniel Hameline, ed.), 1981; 2nd edition: Jan. 1989, published by the University of Geneva.]
If A. Ferriere is, justly considered as one of the great theoreticians of the so-called "new" education, as well as the founder and promoter of the so-called "active" school, Paul Geheeb ("Paulos") may be considered one of the great practitioners and implementers of this education...
These two personalities have grown up and spent their youths in different cultural and intellectual environments. One belonged to the French civilization and is completely Francophone, while the other was purely German. Yet starting at a relatively young age- the former in his thirties and the latter in his twenties,- personal relations of great intimacy have developed and deepened throughout the years, turning into a true and beautiful friendship.
Ferriere is known as a French author, in any case in French-speaking Switzerland and in France. On the other hand, for the above-mentioned reason, it seems to us necessary and important to say some general words about Geheeb. We will try in this article to outline his role in the history of contemporary pedagogy, or more precisely in the history of the pedagogy of the first part of our century. The name of Paul Geheeb is probably forgotten even in post-WWII Germany, since he left Nazi Germany for ideological reasons, and the school that he founded, and that still exists today, does not carry his name. Furthermore, since his school moved to Switzerland, in the canton of Geneva, at Pont-Ceard near Versoix, he named it "School of Humanity", and this school continues to exist in the canton of Berne (at Hasliberg, near Goldern s/Meyringen). This fact is in tune with the cosmopolitan tendencies of his "scholarly community" (in German: Schulgemeinde, a term that he coined himself)... It is no doubt for that reason that he is well-known beyond the boundaries of Germany and Switzerland, and even beyond Europe: he was in close contact, for example, with the great Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore, who visited him in his school, as well as with the first president of (independent) India, Pandit Nehru, whose grand-children were educated by him. Their mother, Indira Gandhi - the daughter of Nehru and daughter-in-law of Mahatma Gandhi- chief of government (former and current) of India, was a close friend of Paulos Geheeb.
Another character trait of Geheeb (see below for more details) was the variety and diversity of his intellectual and spiritual interests on the one hand, and the serious and conscientious way in which he conducted his university studies, on the other hand.
From the other side, his future friend A. Ferriere - son of a French-Swiss family of old stock and young teacher and pedagogue- was interested in novel pedagogical experiments throughout Europe, and especially in Germany, where one could find the most die-hard and consequential ones. We have found by chance a copy of a letter of Ferriere (between the pages of his, still unedited, Great Diary) addressed to the director of Ecole Normal of Rouen and dated April 29, 1949. This letter contains, among other things, interesting information about Hermann Lietz, the founder of one of the most important experiments in the new education, that of Landerziehungsheime (which means: the Foyers of education in the country). But we also find, in a way, a key to a better understanding of the pedagogical work of Ferriere:
" ... This is indeed the psychology of the unconscious and
the philosophy in their reciprocal relations that became
the "center of interests" that dominated my life and
my pedagogical practice... and I was able to see
the magnificent results of such a conception of education.
The words of Pindar that Geheeb has adopted himself:
"Become whomever you are!" seem to me as true
as ever (...)".1
In an article about Geheeb2, published on the occasion
of the centenary of his birth, there is an autobiographical
note entitled "Lebenslauf" ("curriculum vitae") where Geheeb writes:
"After studying in Berlin and Jena, during twenty semesters,
occupying myself in the most diverse subjects, like theology,
philosophy, oriental languages (Hebrew and Armenian), as well
as the sciences and medicine (especially neuro- and psychopathology),
I realized that, in order to help others, one shouldn't become
a priest inside a church, but rather an educator of youths!
I was helped by the encouragement of Hermann Lietz whom I have
gotten to know at Jena, in 1892, and whose friend I became-
our friendship was deep and fruitful-just until our separation
in 1906... In working out the ideas of Fichte (a German philosopher,
a disciple of Kant), we developed together these ideas, and our
aim was to implement them and put them to practice in the
framework of Landerziehungsheime. The spiritual
point-of-departure was indeed the Human and Humanist ideal,
the idea of civilization developed by Goethe in his novel
Wilhelm Meister: Goethe and Ficthe were, in our eyes,
the spiritual sources of our pedagogical movement. Later on, we
worked together in the "pedagogical seminar" of Prof. Rein, in
Jena... When Lietz spent a year collaborating with Doctor Cecil
Reddie in his New School in Abbotsholme, I occupied
myself editing his book Emlotshobba where Lietz
narrates his experiences in this new school... In the spring
of 1898, Lietz himself opened the gates of his first
Landerziehungsheim, the first in Germany, near the
small town of Ilensburg, at the foothills of the Hartz mountains
of Northern Germany... After directing a similar establishment
on the Island of Foehr in the North Sea, I have ceded to Lietz's
call, in Spring 1902, and I have collaborated with him
on founding Haubinda, his second Landerziehungsheim.
In 1904 I accepted to direct this school by myself.
In 1906, after I separated from Lietz (see above),
I have founded first myself-and later with the collaboration
of Gustav Wyneken- the Freie Schulgemeinde (the
Free scholarly community) of Wickersdorf. It is there that
we tried out, for the first time in Germany, the idea of
co-education... I parted ways with Wyneken for
personal as well as educational reasons, leaving him to
direct the school by himself. After a year of travel, I founded
the Odenwaldschule (the school of Odenwald,
situated in the forested mountain ranges of Western Germany...) "
Meanwhile, Adolphe Ferriere joined Lietz as a collaborator at Ilsenburg,
in August 1900;
it is there that he probably made the acquaintance
of Geheeb, that never
worked for Liets, but has certainly visited him for pedagogical and
administrative reasons...
In a letter to Ferriere, dated towards the end of July 1939, a little before
Ferriere's 60th birthday, Geheeb wrote3:
"... This is almost a "man's age" that we know. Although you are a Swiss,
you are, to a certain degree, a product of
of the Landerziehungsheim of Doctor Hermann Lietz, which is purely German.
It has been several decades since we became friends. Since a long time ago,
you have attracted me towards Switzerland, and I still find it hard to believe
that this exceptional country has become my second homeland..."
Paul Geheeb considered Adolphe Ferrriere as his best friend, a fact
that one can
deduce from the numerous letters in the above-mentioned book, a fact that has,
furthermore, was confirmed to me by Edith Geheeb, the spouse of Paulos,
who is now more than ninety-five years old, when I visited her
in September 1980.
Concerning this, or more exactly, his attitude to friendship
in general, and how to put it to practice, it is interesting to
quote the following passage from a letter to one Miss Hofer
(from the "School of Social Work" in Zurich):
"Concerning my attitude to matters of friendship, I am still
the way I was when I was a young student. Perhaps even the habit
to see in a friendship something sacred, gets amplified with age...
When I was still in Germany, the Prof. Adolphe Ferriere, that was
then a collaborator of Lietz, became my friend and colleague,
and he visited me in my Odenwald school several times, and so he
became my first true Swiss friend... Furthermore, as I visited
him often in Geneva during the vacation, I developed a close
relationship with the Jean-Jacques Rousseau, that was under the
direction of my friends A. Ferriere, Pierre Bovet, and E. Claparede.
I soon become a kind of collaborator, and they even asked me to replace
them in case of emergency... After several years, our dear friend
Claparede passed away (in 1940), Pierre Bovet returned to his
parental home in Neuchatel, while Ferriere had to retire because
of his complete deafness... One didn't simply change the name
of the Institute from "The Rousseau Institute" to "Institute of
of the Sciences of Education", but also the new director of that
Institute, Jean Piaget, was a complete stranger to me." 4
When the National-Socialist party rose to power (end of January 1933),
the Odenwald school was on the "black list". Because of his
international renown, they were willing to keep Geheeb as director,
but on the condition that all the administrative and teaching staff
be replaced by party members... In March 19, 1933, Paulos wrote to
Ferriere:
"The day-before-yesterday, I mailed a letter to your address. Have
you received it? The situation here is becoming more and more critical,
all I wish is that my nerves will stand the blow..."
"... I am wondering to whom may I address myself in Switzerland...
I have been thinking of Pierre Bovet, and Edouard Claparede,
who once briefly visited our school... I wish to ask you,
one more time, dear Mrs. and Mr. Ferriere, not to worry about
your son Claude5: he is doing very well, and in what
concerns the children in general, everything continues at before."
In April 11, 1933, Geheeb wrote to his Genevian friend:
During the last few weeks, I very much wanted to see you and to
discuss with you: this was probably the hardest time of my life.
All that tension, for weeks, of waiting to get arrested!
Can you imagine what is passing now in Germany? Thousands of
people thrown in prison! Four concentration camps, each for
three to five thousand prisoners! With such brutality.
The atmosphere is unbearable. Did you learn the truth?
The German newspapers are not only forbidden to print
the truth, but are forced to lie; For example, the Jewish
organizations are forced by the police to declare that the
Jews are doing well... One feels thrown back into the
Middle Ages, and even before..."
Ferriere did everything to help his friend in these difficult
times for him and for his school; It was only after considerable
effort and pain that it was possible to move the Odenwald school
to Switzerland, but even there it was hard to find a canton
favorable to the progressive spirit of the school...
We do not have the letters that Ferriere wrote to Geheeb,
and we can only imagine the response... But Ferriere
was preoccupied by the problem of the exile of Geheeb and
his pupils. He wrote a little book during the War
on Our refugee children and another entitled
Our children- the principal victims of the war,
that appeared in Germany (Paderborn) in 1949, with
the subtitle: A psychological, psychotherapeutic
and pedagogical study, as well as Our refugees,
that appeared as a special issue of the "Messager Social",
Geneva, in 1943 and 1944; a chapter deals with the "future
of refugee children"...
Paul Geheeb did not write any books. He only wrote a few
articles concerning his school and his educational
principles. The only "literary" document that he left
was his correspondence. The numerous letters to Adoplhe
Ferriere witness a long and true friendship of fifty years...
Geheeb, born in 1870, died in 1960, a little after his
ninetieth birthday, while Ferriere was able to celebrate
his eightieth birthday, on Aug. 30, 1959: they were
"extinguished" almost at the same time...
They both lived a full life, a life full of ideas and
action, for a better education of the children of
their country and of the whole world, and one can think of
them as "sub specie aeternitatis", according to the idea
of Spinoza, with whom Geheeb as well as Ferriere felt
a spiritual affinity.
Notes
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