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Fellenberg, Philippe-Emanuel de

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1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
• Philipp Emanuel von Fellenberg
McClintock and Strong's Bible Encyclopedia
• Fellenberg, Philippe-Emanuel de

a philanthropist and earnest laborer in the cause of education, was born at Berne, Switzerland, June 27, 1771. His father, who was a member of the government of Berne, laid the foundation of his intellectual culture, but he received his moral bent and self-sacrificing spirit from -his mother, a great granddaughter of the Dutch admiral Van Tromp. After some time spent at the University of Tubingen in the study of civil law, he devoted himself especially to politics and philosophy. "In order to acquaint himself with the moral state of his countrymen, he spent much of his time in travelling through Switzerland. France, and Germany, usually on foot, with his knapsack on his back, residing in the villages and farm-houses, mingling in the labors and occupations, and partaking of the rude lodging and fare of the peasants and mechanics, and often extending his journey to the adjacent countries." On his return to Berne in 1798 he rendered important service as " commandant of the quarter" in the revolutionary troubles. In 1799 he purchased the estate called Hofwyl, two leagues from Berne, and founded there, successively;, a school of agriculture, a manufactory of agricultural implements, schools for the poor, for the better classes, and a normal school. He devoted the remainder of his life to education with great success, but not without opposition. He died Nov. 21, 1844. See Vericourt, Rapport sur les Instituts de Hofwyl; Haam, Fellenberg's Leben und Wirken (Berne, 1845); Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, 17:307.