Deaf People Around the World: Educational and Social Perspectives

Trends and Developments in Deaf Education in Germany

Trends and Developments in Deaf Education in Germany Klaus B. Günther, Johannes Hennies, and Manfred Hintermair TH E E D U C AT I O N of deaf people in Germany is widely associated with the oral, or so-called “German method,” which focuses primarily on the use of spoken language, excluding the use of sign language and marginalizing written language as means of communication in education . The term German method came into use during the 19th century in reference to the views of Samuel Heinicke (1727–1790), who founded the first German institute for deafmute children in Leipzig in 1778,1 which was the first government-funded school of its kind worldwide. Heinicke and the founder of the institute for deaf students in Paris, Abbé CharlesMichel de l’Epée (1712–1789), became engaged in a historical controversy about the right method of teaching deaf-mute students, which they debated through a series of letters (Schumann & Schumann, 1912). Epée claimed that deaf education should use all means of communication such as (methodical) sign language, spoken language, and written language. Heinicke dismissed written language and sign language and argued that education should be built on spoken language.2 The perception of this controversy has led to the misleading impression that from these early days on, only the oral method was practiced at German institutions for deaf-mute students. However, probably not even Heinicke himself taught his students purely orally (Schumann & Schumann, 1912); especially his successors in the first half of the 19th century did not solely apply oral teaching methods but, rather, what was later called a “combined method.” Most important, for methodical ideas and conceptions, the founder of the influential Royal Deaf-Mute Institute at Berlin, Ernst Adolf Eschke (1766–1811), turned to the works of Epée’s successor Abbé Roch-Ambroise Sicard (1742–1822) rather than to the approach of his own father-in-law Heinicke. As a result of this tendency, there were a considerable number of deaf-mute teachers at German schools for the deaf-mute who realized and justified the use of sign language in the classroom.3 Two of the best-known deaf teachers were Otto Friedrich Kruse (1801–1880) and Karl Heinrich Wilke (1800–1876), who for more than 178 1. Deaf-mute (Taubstumm) was the usual term used in German-speaking countries up to the 1960s. Therefore, it will be used throughout this paper in that historical context. 2. Both Heinicke and Epée saw their achievement in aspects of their work that did not become their historical legacy: Epée considered his main contribution to be the establishment of “methodical signs,” but became known for accepting and integrating deaf people and their language. Heinicke is seen as one of the founders of the oral method, but considered himself as having invented a method that would teach deaf-mute children the sounds of language using different flavors, as put down in his post-mortem published “Arcanum” (Schumann & Schumann, 1912). 3. Based on Vogel (1999) and Kruse (1832), 12 deaf teachers worked in German schools in the 19th century. 50 years not only taught deaf students in various northern German institutions but also contributed fundamentally to the educational and methodical foundation of deaf-mute teaching concepts (Dröge, 1999; Vogel, 1999). The list of deaf-mute teachers in the 19th century also includes a female teacher, Margaretha Hüttmann (1789–1854), and a deaf-mute school founder and director, Hugo von Schütz (1780–1847). During the 19th century, voices advocating a purely oral method became increasingly influential not only in German states but also internationally—resulting at least partly from the rise of nationalism in Europe, which was founded on the idea of cultural and linguistic unity. Friedrich Moritz Hill (1805–1874), who became internationally recognized, claimed that “everything should include language instruction,” meaning that all educational efforts for deaf-mute children should be linked to the use of spoken language (Schumann, 1940, p. 315). There was a series of conferences with teachers for deaf-mute students, which led to the Milan Congress in 1880 where the purely oral method was finalized, excluding sign language or signing. One of the few German teachers who argued strongly against this development was the deaf Otto Friedrich Kruse, who 10 years before the Milan Congress had pointed to the necessity of an education including sign language and had presented his ideas in a little book, also translated into English4 and French, titled...