Cornel Schmitt
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Cornel Schmitt (4 January 1874 – 13 January 1958) was a German pedagogue, musician, naturalist, and writer. He considered the natural world as a key to teaching and learning. He was a pioneer of bird acoustics and worked along with Hans Stadler to produce phonograph recordings and apply ideas from music to their description.


Life and work

Schmitt was born in
Marktheidenfeld Marktheidenfeld () is a town in the Main-Spessart district in the ''Regierungsbezirk'' of Lower Franconia (''Unterfranken'') in Bavaria, Germany, and the seat (but not a member) of the ''Verwaltungsgemeinschaft'' (municipal association) of Markth ...
, thirty kilometres west of
Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is, after Nuremberg and Fürth, the Franconia#Towns and cities, third-largest city in Franconia located in the north of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. It sp ...
in the musically talented family of organist and teacher Karl Stephan and Anna née Schmitt. He learned to play the violin at five, the piano at nine and the organ at the age of ten. He also became a keen observer of nature. He studied at a preparatory school in Lohr am Main from 1886 to 1891. He then went to the Würzburg teacher training school and became a teacher at various places including
Freising Freising () is a university town in Bavaria, Germany, and the capital of the Freising (district), with a population of about 50,000. Location Freising is the oldest town between Regensburg and Bolzano, and is located on the Isar river in ...
and
Landsberg am Lech Landsberg am Lech (Landsberg at the Lech (river), Lech) is a Town#Germany, town in southwest Bavaria, Germany, about 65 kilometers west of Munich and 35 kilometers south of Augsburg. It is the capital of the district of Landsberg (district), Lands ...
. He then moved to Würzburg where he married Mathilde née Sommer. In 1909 he moved back to the Lohr Preparatory school as a director and began to deal with natural history and music teaching. Here he met Hans Stadler (1875–1962), the engineer Pleikart Stumpf (1888–1946) and Adam Guckenberger (1886–1964). The three were involved in recording bird songs and producing phonographs before
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
. In 1919 Schmitt and Stadler wrote on bird vocalization. The introduced modifications to musical notation to allow animal and non-musical sounds. They also introduced syllabic elements for timbre and removed the musical bar. In 1923 Schmitt moved to the Teacher Training Institute in Würzburg and began to work on photography along with A. Leon and he began to use photographs to illustrate his books. He was influenced by the philosophy of Berthold Otto and his approach to education was the concept of wholeness or holistic perception. He also began to deliver radio talks on biology. Schmitt saw nature as a part of his teaching method and conducted excursions for teaching. He published several books including "Wege zur Naturliebe" (Pathways to Nature Appreciation); "Lebenskampf und Anpassung der Pflanze – 300 Versuche und Beobachtungen" (Struggle for Life and Adaptation of Plants - 300 Experiments and Observations); and "Lebensgemeinschaften der deutschen Heimat" (Life Communities of the German Homeland). Schmitt did not embrace the Nazi ideology and retired in 1936. He returned to teaching in 1944. Two of his sons died in the war and his home was destroyed in 1945. He continued to write books dealing with education in nature such as "Biologie in der Arbeitsschule – Ausschnitte aus der Lebensarbeit eines alten Schulmeisters" (Biology in the Work School - Excerpts from the Life's Work of an Old Schoolmaster) and "Der Teich und sein Leben" (The Pond and Its Life).


References


External links


Die Vogelsprache
(1919, with Hans Stadler) {{DEFAULTSORT:Schmitt, Cornel 1874 births 1958 deaths