Albert Bitzius‘ Engagement für die Volksschule

Albert Bitzius, alias Jeremias Gotthelf (1797-1854), was a clergyman, school inspector, writer and journalist who campaigned with great commitment for the improvement of primary schools in the canton of Berne. This source-based study analyses his positions in the educational policy conflicts of the time and examines the strategies he pursued in order to achieve his goals.
The historian and Germanist Markus Hofer demonstrates that Bitzius had a much more significant influence on the development of the school system at local, regional and cantonal level than previously assumed. At the same time, Hofer shows how Bitzius incorporates his positions on school policy into the novel "Leiden und Freuden eines Schulmeisters" (1838/1839), which was enthusiastically received by the pedagogical thinkers of the time.