The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Diesterweg, Friedrich Adolf Wilhelm

DIESTERWEG, dē'stėr-vāg, Friedrich Adolf Wilhelm, German educator: b. Siegen, Prussia, 1790; d. 1866. In 1808-11 he studied at Herborn and Tübingen. He taught at Mannheim and at Worms for about two years, when he removed to the model school at Frankfort. Later he became rector of the Latin school of Elberfeld, and in 1820 was appointed director of the new Teachers' Seminary at Mörs. His years in this position enhanced his reputation as a teacher and writer on education and in 1833 be was made director of the Seminary for City School Teachers in Berlin. Because of his disagreement with the authorities regarding important phases of higher education he was in constant friction and resigned in 1847. He received a government pension in 1850 and thereafter spread his educational ideas solely through the medium of periodicals. In 1858 be was elected to the Prussian Diet. He was a follower of Pestalozzi and aimed at making every subject a means of education. His greatest services to education were through his work as a trainer of teachers, but he exerted also a wide and far-reaching influence through his writings. In 1851 he founded in Berlin the Pädagogisches Jahrbuch and published ‘Wegweiser zur Bildung für deutsche Lehrer’ (2 vols., 1834; 6th ed., 1 vol., 1890); ‘Das pädagogische Deutschland’ (1836); ‘Streitfragen auf dem Gebiete der Pädagogik’ (1837); ‘Leitfaden für den Unterricht in der Formlehre’ (1845); ‘Lehrbuch der mathematischen Geographie’ (1840; 18th ed., as ‘Populäre Himmelskunde,’ 1891); ‘Unterricht in der Kleinkinderschule’ (5th ed., 1852). Consult Rebhuhn, Adolf, ‘Briefe Adolf Diesterwegs’ (Leipzig 1907) and Richter, Karl, ‘Adolf Diesterwegs Ansichten über pädagogische Zeit- und Streitfragen’ (Leipzig 1913).