Eleonore Heerwart (24 February 1835 – 19 December 1911) was a German kindergarten teacher, educator and writer.

Biography

Eleonore Heerwart was born on 24 February 1835 in

Eisenach Eisenach () is a Town#Germany, town in Thuringia, Germany with 42,000 inhabitants, west of Erfurt, southeast of Kassel and northeast of Frankfurt. It is the main urban centre of western Thuringia, and bordering northeastern Hesse, Hessian re ...

, Germany. Her family moved to Mechterstädt after the early death of her father. She studied at the secondary school for girls in Mechterstädt. In 1852, following the death of her mother, she moved to Keilhau, located in the

Thuringia Thuringia (; officially the Free State of Thuringia, ) is one of Germany, Germany's 16 States of Germany, states. With 2.1 million people, it is 12th-largest by population, and with 16,171 square kilometers, it is 11th-largest in area. Er ...

region, where she took training as a kindergarten teacher from

Friedrich Fröbel Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel or Froebel (; 21 April 1782 – 21 June 1852) was a German pedagogue, a student of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, who laid the foundation for modern education based on the recognition that children have unique nee ...

, Louise Fröbel and Wilhelm Middendorf. After completing the training, she worked as a private tutor for few years. She later moved to Manchester in 1861, and started kindergarten teacher training. She subsequently initiated similar activities in Dublin and London. She spent nearly two decades, and played important role in advancing kindergarten system in these places. Importantly she was the first to introduce kindergarten activities in Ireland. In London she was associated with the ''British and Foreign School Society'', where she opened kindergarten training department. In 1883 she returned to Germany. She published number of essays and monographs to advance the idea of kindergarten and Fröbelian pedagogy.She founded Froebel Museum at Eisenach. She also enlisted American support to advance kindergarten system in Germany through different projects. She was the president of ''International Kindergarten Union''. She died in

on 19 December 1911.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heerwart, Eleonore 1835 births 1911 deaths Kindergarten Early childhood education 19th-century German women