Berthold Otto

Otto was born to Richard and Franziska née Wegener in Bienowitz (Silesia) and grew up in Rendsburg and Schleswig. He went to the University of Kiel in 1880 and studied philosophy, pedagogy, politics, and economics completing his studies at Berlin in 1883. He sought to study liberalism under Friedrich Paulsen for a doctorate but Paulsen did not accept the topic so he left studies in 1883. He worked as a private tutor and worked as an editor for the Hamburger Correspondenten and in 1890 became an editor at the Brockhaus-Verlag in Leipzig. He married Friederike Mann (1864–1921) in 1887 and he refused to put his children into the state school leading to conflict with the authorities. He started a private school and moved to Berlin-Lichterfelde in 1902 on the invitation of the Prussian Ministry of Culture. At his private school he believed in the use of natural teaching methods based on conversation, care and play and avoided authoritarian approaches. He believed in intellectual intercourse and the right of the child to ask questions. He promoted the idea of holistic living relationships with people. He considered education as a means to observe the world and one's own thinking.^[1] He however supported concepts of nationalism and wanted children to uphold communal traditions.^[2] He received a Kerschensteiner Medal in 1929 for his work on education. His approach influenced Cor Bruijn (1883–1978) in the Netherlands and the members of the commission under Konstantin Ventsel (1903) who were involved in Russian education for children.^[3][4]

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