ABSTRACT
Oberlin, Johann Friedrich (1740-1826). Alsatian philanthropist and educator. Born in Strasburg where he attended the University and where his father was a teacher at the Gymnasium, he was educated for a military life but turned to the church. In 1767 he became Protestant pastor of the Ban de la Roche, a large and sterile district some 30 miles to the southwest of Strasburg, a charge which he held until his death. The inhabitants were ignorant and poor and the district had suffered much from the ravages of war. Oberlin introduced improved methods of cultivation and manufacture. Roads, bridges and houses were built, and attention was paid to education. Although the experiment involved him in great personal exertions and sacrifice, and attracted considerable attention, he met with much hostility from the local people, as for example in his attempts to eliminate the use of the local patois, and more than one attempt was made on his life. Five schools were erected in his scattered parish, teachers secured, and a broad curriculum provided. Reading, writing, arithmetic and singing formed the core, and additional subjects included physics, astronomy, geometry, geography, history, citizenship, business methods and art. A lending library was established and a collection of plants assembled for observation purposes. Oberlin also paid particular attention to the education of very young children and has been credited as the founder of infant schools. These were conducted in spacious rooms where basic instruction was mixed with play and the use of pictures, and supplemented by outdoor activities. Oberlin’s instruction of adult members of his congregation in agricultural improvements - planting, new seeds, manuring, irrigation, drainage and land reclamation - led to his being awarded a gold medal by the Royal Agricultural Society of Paris in 1818. His name is commemorated in the Oberlinhaus in Germany which provides for deaf, mute and blind children, and in the town of Oberlin and Oberlin College, in the United States of America. See Beard, A.F., Story of John Frederick Oberlin (1909); Scheuermann, W., Ein Mann mit Gott (1937); Kurtz, J.W.John Frederick Oberlin (1976); Psczolla, E., Johann Friedrich Oberlin, 1740-1826 (1919).
