Pestalozzi’s Charisma, a Guarantee of Success and a Problem

Abstract

Due to political unrest Pestalozzi moved his institute from Burgdorf to Yverdon in the French part of Switzerland. The European interest grew on the part of neighboring countries and on the part of families that wanted to give their children the best possible education and saw promise in Pestalozzi’s institute. The success of the first years of the institute in Yverdon is illustrated clearly by the numbers: in 1805 there were only about 20 pupils at the school. But in 1806-1807 there were already 80, by 1808 there were 134, and in 1809 enrollment peaked at 165. Internal conflicts—especially organizational problems—in the institute were suppressed by Pestalozzi’s charisma, but they were not solved. When the German philosopher Fichte praised Pestalozzi’s method as starting point of a new age in his Addresses to the German Nation delivered in 1808, all the internal problems were forgotten for a while.