UDK: 37(497.

5)’’18’’
Review article
Received: September 5, 2023
Accepted: October 13, 2023
https://doi.org/10.22586/rch.v19i1.28480

CROATIAN PEDAGOGY IN THE 19TH CENTURY

– THE TRANSFER OF EUROPEAN
PEDAGOGICAL IDEAS *

Štefka BATINIĆ **

The transfer of European pedagogical ideas and practices to Croatia dur-

ing the 19th century, when the Croatian pedagogy was being established,
could be observed at three basic levels: at the level of formal pedagogical
education of teachers, at the level of scholarly texts on pedagogy and the
level of studying and professional development abroad.
Teachers had a pivotal role in the development of the practice and theory
of pedagogy, which was important to them for the improvement of their
teaching, as well as for their professional identity. For that reason, they
were initiating publication of subject-specific journals, writing textbooks
on pedagogy and translating European pedagogy classics to Croatian. The
publishing activity of the Croatian Pedagogical-Literary Assembly had a
major influence on the appearance of scholarly texts on pedagogy. Im-
mediately upon its establishment in 1871, it initiated an editorial series
Knjižnica za učitelje (Library for Teachers), within which 54 volumes were
published by 1917, including the translations of the works by major peda-
gogy authors, such as Comenius (Didaktika, 1871, Informatorijum za školu
materinsku, 1886, Velika didaktika, 1900), Spencer (Nauk ob uzgoju, 1883),
Rousseau (Emil ili ob uzgoju, 1887-1889), Pestalozzi (Miroslav i Bogoljuba,
1891) and Rabelais (Misli o uzgoju, 1894).
The Croatian Pedagogical-Literary Assembly also published a compila-
tion of pedagogical textbooks by Stjepan Basariček – Uzgojoslovje (1880),
Povijest pedagogije (1881), Obće obukoslovje (1882) i Posebno obukoslovje

∗
This paper is a result of research conducted within the framework of the project European
Origins of Modern Croatia: Transfer of Ideas in Political and Cultural Fields in the 18th and
19th Centuries, IP-2018-01-2539, funded by the Croatian Science Foundation.
∗∗
Štefka Batinić, Ph. D., Croatian School Museum, Zagreb, Croatia; [email protected].

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Š. BATINIĆ, Croatian Pedagogy in the 19th Century – the Transfer of European Pedagogical Ideas

(1884). His textbooks were theoretically based on the works of the German
pedagogue Johann Friedrich Herbart (1776-1841) and were used in teacher
education schools, with some revisions and new editions, until the 1920s.
Keywords: Pedagogy; Croatia; Croatian Pedagogical-Literary Assembly;
19th Century; Transfer of Ideas

Introduction

In its beginnings, the pedagogy in Croatia was developed as a practical

school discipline. From the very start of organized teacher training, regulated
in the Habsburg monarchy within the framework of the enlightenment reform
of schooling in the 1770s, pedagogical education was an important component
of teacher training for their subsequent work in the schools and classrooms.
The first printed textbooks on pedagogy in the Croatian language appeared
in 1849, with the formation of the first public school for teachers, known as
“Učiteljna učiona zagrebačka” (The teacher education school of Zagreb).
Brezinka’s1 claim that the interest for scholarly pedagogy in Austria was
greater among the primary school teachers, whose professional self-image was
based on pedagogy, than among the secondary school ones, whose profes-
sional self-image was based on academic disciplines they had studies, applies
to Croatia as well. Teachers played an important role in the development of
the practice and theory of pedagogy, which was important to them for the
improvement of their teaching, as well as for their professional identity.
This text provides an overview of the transfer of pedagogical ideas and
practices in the teaching community of the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia
from the beginnings of organised teacher education, with a particular focus
on the second half of the 19th century as the period when foundations were
laid for the development of the modern Croatian education and pedagogy.
Influences from the works by European pedagogues will be traced in the area
of formal pedagogical education (textbooks on pedagogy), of scholarly ped-
agogical literature (translations of the works by European pedagogues) and
in instances of Croatian teachers pursuing professional development abroad
(studying and traveling for professional development).

1
Wolfgang Brezinka, “Uspon i kriza znanstvene pedagogije,” Anali za povijest odgoja 7
(2007): 12.

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Pedagogical education of Croatian teachers before first textbooks on

pedagogy in Croatian

The 1774 General School Ordinance established actual requirements in

terms of the education and responsibilities of the primary school teachers,
who were expected to know the subjects they taught, maintain the school dis-
cipline, manage school administration and receive school inspections. Johann
Ignaz Felbiger (1724-1788) was the key figure in the creation and implemen-
tation of Maria Theresa’s reform of the school system, both in primary educa-
tion and in teacher education.
Felbiger maintained that teachers were the strongest link in the process
of internal school reform. Therefore, a network of normal schools2 was soon
established, within which teacher education courses were organised. In the
courses, teacher education students learned about the so-called Sagan3 method
of teaching, which included a combination of five methods – common teach-
ing, common reading, catechism, alphabetical and literary method. For the
purpose of achieving an effective school reform, Felbiger published a meth-
odology manual4 (Methodenbuch) in 1775, where he collated all of his earlier
manuscripts on schooling, relying in particular on the work Eigenschaften,
Wissenschaften und Bezeigen rechtschaffener Schulleute. Methodenbuch be-
came a canonical work for everyone involved in the implementation of the
reform on any level. This document, typical of its time, comprised everything

2
Normal schools – schools established in regional centres as per the General School Or-
dinance (1774), which were considered to be reputable schools. Courses in methodology and
school administration were organised in those schools for student teachers.
3
Felbiger was a canon in Sagan in Silesia, and in 1774 he published the book Die wahre
saganische Lehrart in den niedrigen Schulen [The true Sagan style of teaching for lower schools],
where he described the basic teaching methods (common teaching, common reading, alpha-
betical and tabular method and catechism). It is thus possible to find in literary sources the
term Sagan method or Felbiger’s method, as well as the term literary method. The book is kept
in the library of the Croatian School Museum in Zagreb.
4
The full title: Methodenbuch für Lehrer der deutschen Schulen in den deutschen kaiser-
lich-königlichen Erbländern, darin ausführlich gewiesen wird, wie die in der Schulordnung be-
stimmte Lehrart nicht allein überhaupt sondern auch insbesondere, bei jedem Gegenstande, der
zu lehren befohlen ist, soll beschaffen sein. Nebst der genauen Bestimmung, wie sich die Lehrer
der Schulen in allen Theilen ihres Amtes, ingleichen die Direktoren, Aufseher und Oberaufseher
zu bezeigen haben, um der Schulordnung das gehörige Genügen zu leisten. [Methodology man-
ual for teachers in German schools in Imperial and Royal countries with thorough instructions
on the style of teaching regulated by the School Ordinance, not only in general, but also in par-
ticular for every subject taught. With precise provisions on how the school teachers should work
in all segments of their service, as well as directors, inspectors and head inspectors, in order to
fulfil the School Ordinance].

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Š. BATINIĆ, Croatian Pedagogy in the 19th Century – the Transfer of European Pedagogical Ideas

related to the school reform, both in the organisational and didactical sense.5
The first part of the book deals with general rules of teaching (didactics) and
ways of teaching particular subjects (teaching methods). The second part
deals with the questions of teacher education, while the third is concerned
with legislative framework and instructions for the running of schools.
The training of future teachers in didactics and methodology was to be
the basis of the internal school reform. Strictly regulated and described way of
teaching did not leave room for improvisation or teacher creativity. According
to Engelbrecht (1984: 108), Felbiger was, like other school system reformists of
his time, a victim of the rationalistic worldview, which maintained that edu-
cational processes can be planned in great detail and consequently bring the
expected success. Felbinger soon realised that the comprehensive Methoden-
buch was impractical and confusing for teachers and teaching candidates who
often failed to distinguish the basic and key points, so in 1777, he published
several shortened versions of the manual. The first version contained the “es-
sence” of the contents required for the teacher exam – Kern des Methodenbu-
ches, besonders für die Landschulmeister in den kaiserlich-königlichen Staaten,
while the second, an even shorter version, included minimum requirements
for the teachers in trivium schools – Forderungen an Schulmeister und Lehrer
der Trivialschulen (…). The third shortened version of Methodenbuch – a short
guide for the prescribed way of teaching – was published in Pest in 1796 un-
der the title of Kurzer Leitfaden zur vorgeschriebenen Lehrart besonders für
Lehrer auf dem Lande in dem Königreiche Hungarn und dessen Kronländern.
The Hungarian edition was thus published 15 years after Felbiger’s dismissal
from Vienna in 1781.
The influence of Felbiger’s reformist model, in particular his ideas and
suggestions regarding the primary education, have encountered fertile
ground in many European countries, especially in Slav-inhabited regions of
the Habsburg monarchy – for instance in Czech Republic, through the efforts
of the Prague University professor Karl Heinrich Seibt, or with South Slavs in
the Banat region, through the activities of Teodor Janković Mirjevski (Engel-
brecht, 1984). Janković Mirjevski completed Felbiger’s pedagogy course in
Vienna in 1776 and was appointed headmaster of all Serbian and Romanian
schools in Banat. He was an erudite man and highly appreciated in Viennese
circles. He translated Notwendiges Handbuch für Schulmeister der illyrischen
nicht unierten Trivial-schulen in den königlichen Erblanden = Ručna knjiga
potrebna magistrom illiričeskih neunitskih malih škola into Church Slavonic
and edited it in a bilingual format. It was Felbiger’s manual, a predecessor

5
Rudolf Gönner, Die österreichische Lehrerbildung von der Normalschule bis zur Pädago-
gischen Akademie (Wien: Österreichischer Bundesverlag für Unterricht, Wissenschaft und
Kunst, 1967), 38.

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 Review of Croatian History 19/2023, no. 1, 161 - 177

to Methodenbuch, that every teacher had to have and apply in teaching ac-
cording to The Constitution of the Illyrian Deputation for the Little Illyr-
ian Schools6 (1776). Due to Janković’s efforts, the Austrian schooling model
had also spread to Russia, where he worked, highly recommended by Vienna,
not only on the organisation of the school system, but also on spreading the
“fruits of European didactics”.7
The “fruits of European didactics” were first brought to Croatia by the
teacher education students from the Croatian Military Frontier, who became
familiar with Felbiger’s teaching method as early as 1774 at St Ann’s Seminary
in Vienna, and then transferred their knowledge to local young men – the fu-
ture teachers of the Military Frontier.8 The primary means of transferring Fel-
binger’s internal school reform, which meant the application of prescribed di-
dactic-methodological requirements, was the said manual (Methodenbuch), or
its shorter versions (Kern des Methodenbuches, Froderungen an Schulmeister
und Lehrer i Kurzer Leitfaden zur vorgeschriebenen Lehrart). These texts were
not translated to Croatian and their Viennese and Pest editions are kept in
the library of the Croatian School Museum. They were undoubtedly used for
the pedagogical education of new teachers in Croatian regions at the end of
the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, which is confirmed by the three
preserved manuscripts kept in the Archives collection of the Croatian School
Museum, including: Methodus by Josip Herović from 1797 and Vpelivanje od
podvuchanya decze vu školi by Ivan Jurišević and Czeli navuchanija nachin
iliti Methodus razelujesze na 3 strane by Vjekoslav Premzl, both from 1835.
The year of Herović’s manuscript corresponds to the year of his com-
pleting the teacher preparation course in Zagreb. This is a translation of the
Kern des Methodenbuches manual, but it is not certain whether the seven-
teen-year-old teacher education student translated it all by himself or perhaps
with the assistance of the course leader Tomo Košćak. Cuvaj (vol. II, 1910:
282-283) claims that Herović’s manuscript was a translation of the Kurzer
Leitfaden manual dating from 1796, corroborating it with information that its
translation was thought necessary in 1808, which was supported by Košćak
himself, who was also using it in the training of new teachers. Although the
two manuals are rather similar, a careful comparison indicates that Herović
was translating Kern des Methodenbuches dating from 1777 or 1782.9

6
That was the first law for Serbian primary schools.
7
Antun Cuvaj, Građa za povijest školstva kraljevinâ Hrvatske i Slavonije, vol. I, (Zagreb:
Naklada Kr. hrv.-slav.-dalm. zem. vlade, 1910), 558.
8
Idem, vol. I, (1910), 525.
9
More in the article by Sonja Gaćina Škalamera “Methodus: autograf Josipa Herovića iz
1797. Godine,” Anali za povijest odgoja 14 (2015): 137-153. A transcript of Herović’s manu-
script was published alongside the article.

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Š. BATINIĆ, Croatian Pedagogy in the 19th Century – the Transfer of European Pedagogical Ideas

The manuscripts by Vjekoslav Premzl and Ivan Jurišević were based on

the Kurzer Leitfaden manual. They have been compared to the 1796 edition.
Cuvaj’s claim (vol. II, 1910: 284) that these two manuscripts are almost iden-
tical to Herović’s is understandable, since the two manuals used as their pre-
texts were just shortened versions of Felbiger’s Methodenbuch. All three man-
uscripts leave out the parts that refer to alphabetical and tabular method.10
The mentioned manuscripts were probably used by teaching candidates in
teacher training courses until the appearance of the first printed textbooks on
pedagogy in Croatian language in 1849, when the first public teacher educa-
tion school was established in Zagreb.

First textbooks on pedagogy in Croatian

Three textbooks in Croatian language were printed in Buda in 1849 for the
purpose of pedagogical education of teaching candidates in the newly estab-
lished teacher education school in Zagreb: Znanost odhranjivanja, Obćenita
znanost podučavanja (Didactica generalis) and Posebna znanost podučavanja
ili naputak k uspěšnom predavanju pojedinih naukah (Didactica specialis).
These works were anonymous and most probably compilations and transla-
tions. Sources suggest that they were translations from Latin11, which proba-
bly comes from Stjepan Novotny, who mentions in the foreword to his book
Gojitba i obća učba (1867) that the “teaching book” used up to date, printed
in Buda in 1849, was translated from Latin. However, that information has
not been confirmed, while it is known that the third book – Posebna znanost
podučavanja – is a translation of the “Specielle Methodik” chapter from a
methodology manual by Joseph Peitl.12 Josip Škavić, on the other hand, states
that the books were translations from Hungarian.13

10
Felbiger had taken those methods from the Berlin-based pedagogue Johann Friedrich
Hähn (1710-1789). They implied a concise, hierarchically broken-down presentation of the
subject matter in such a way that only the first letters of spoken words or sentences were writ-
ten on the blackboard, with the intention of alluding to the full content. This working method
was not accepted by the teachers in Croatian regions.
11
Dragutin Franković, ed. Povijest školstva i pedagogije u Hrvatskoj (Zagreb: Pedagoš-
ko-književni zbor, 1958), 99.
12
Joseph Peitl’s manual Methodenbuch oder Anleitung zur zweckmäßigen Führung des Lehr-
amtes für Lehrer in Trivial- und Hauptschulen (Wien, 1820) was used in the first half of the
19th century in teacher preparation courses in Croatia, Slavonia and Croatian Military Fron-
tier and in Italian translation (Metodica di Giuseppe Peitl) in teacher education courses in
Dalmatia (Štefka Batinić, Sonja Gaćina Škalamera, Učiteljice i učitelji u Hrvatskoj 1849. – 2009.
(Zagreb: Hrvatski školski muzej, 2009), 20.
13
Josip Škavić, “Stjepan Basariček, osnivač naše pedagoške knjige,” in Pedesetogodišnjica Hr-
vatskoga pedagoško-književnog zbora, (Zagreb: Hrvatski pedagoško-književni zbor, 1923), 78.

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 Review of Croatian History 19/2023, no. 1, 161 - 177

Obuka malenih ili Katechetika (1850), a manual by Stjepan Ilijašević in-

tended for the pedagogical and methodological education of catechism teach-
ers, also deals with the general issues in education. Apart from extensive
catechist bibliography to which Ilijašević refers or which he recommends, he
instructs the teachers of children to look for educational insights in the works
of Weiller14, Hergenröther15, Niemayer, Schwarz16 and Milde.
The first authored pedagogical textbook in Croatian, Stjepan Novotny’s
Gojitba i obća učba, intended for the students of teacher education schools,
was written in the spirit of Christian upbringing and teaching. In the fore-
word, the author notes that the sources he had “at hand” included Schmidt17,
Niemayer, Sailer, Stapf, Münch, Škoda and Ilijašević and, in particular, Her-
mann’s18 work Erziehungs und Unterrichtslehre, and he also notes that he
added some considerations coming from his own experience, so some of the
paragraphs were his own.19 For the chapters on psychology, Novotny used a
comprehensive work on psychology written by a Kantian follower Wilhelm
Esser (1798-1854), a philosophy professor in Münster.
Ilijašević and Novotny relied for theory mostly on pedagogues-theologi-
ans, among whom the most famous were the German protestant theologian
August Hermann Niemeyer (1754-1828) and Austrian catholic bishop Vin-
cenz Eduard Milde (1777-1853), the first professor of pedagogy at the Univer-
sity of Vienna and the most significant Austrian pedagogue at the beginning
of the 19th century. In his two-volume textbook on pedagogy (Lehrbuch der
allgemeinen Erziehungskunde, 1811-1813), which was required reading in all
departments of pedagogy at Austrian universities, one can find ideas of in-
terconfessionality and tolerance. It was translated into Italian, and a Latin
translation was planned for Hungarian students. Milde influenced a num-
ber of contemporaries, including Josef Peitl and Joseph Ambros Stapf. He is

14
Kajetan Weiller, Versuch einer Jugendkunde (München: Joseph Lindauer, 1800).
15
Johann Baptist Hergenröther, Erziehungslehre im Geiste des Christenthums (Schulzbach,
1930).
16
Karl Schwarz (1828-1891), a bishop and a catechism teacher at the German Institute for
Teacher Education and the Faculty of Theology in Prague
17
Karl Schmidt (1819-1864), a German pedagogue, advocated a thesis that pedagogy is ap-
plied anthropology.
18
This refers to Franz Hermann and his textbook Allgemeine Unterrichts- und Erziehungs­
lehre, nach dem bestehenden Metchodenbuch bearbeitet, published in Prague in 1861, based on
Joseph Peitl’s manual Methodenbuch (Gönner, Die österreichische Lehrerbildung, 93).
19
Stjepan Novotny, Gojitba i obća učba : učevna knjiga za kralj. Učiteljišta u našoj domovini
(Beč: C. kr. Naklada školskih knjiga, 1867), 3-4.

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Š. BATINIĆ, Croatian Pedagogy in the 19th Century – the Transfer of European Pedagogical Ideas

considered to be one of the most significant Austrian pedagogues, who was

ahead of his time and who laid the foundations for Austrian pedagogy.20
Novotny’s textbook was used for the pedagogical education of new teach-
ers until the publication of textbooks by Basariček. Stjepan Basariček was the
first secular pedagogy teacher when he arrived in the teacher education school
in Zagreb in 1875. Before him, pedagogy was taught by priests – Pavao Joža,
Eduardo Suhin, Stjepan Novotny, Šimun Balenović and Gjuro Simončić. Al-
ready in the following year, 1876, the publisher Knjižara Lavoslava Hartmana
published Basariček’s Teorija pedagogije ili nauk ob uzgoju. Like his predeces-
sors, Basariček in the foreword gives only partial information on his sources.
Of the authors Ilijašević and Novotny had listed, he only mentions Milde and
Schmidt, but he also includes, among others, Dittes21 and Diesterweg22, the
two pedagogues who were to have a significant influence on Croatian teachers
in the last three decades of the 19th century even though none of their works
would ever be published in Croatian. Basariček admits that he has not brought
anything new, but has collected and adapted to our needs the best ideas from
the rich pedagogical literature.23 His textbook Teorija pedagogije can be seen
as a certain compromise solution and an introduction into the process of the
secularization of pedagogy.
The first Croatian textbooks on psychology, Kratko izkustveno dušoslovje
by Stjepan Basariček and Nacrt psihologije by Josip Glaser, were also published
in 1877. The psychology of Basariček was based on Herbart’s rationalist system
and the function of conceptions that were used to explain everything in the
psychological life of man. Glaser became familiar with the pedagogical ideas
of a Berlin professor Friedrich Beneke while attending Dittes’ College of Edu-
cation in Vienna, so his textbook was based on Beneke’s empirical psychology.
In the early 1880s, Croatian Pedagogical-Literary Assembly, an active as-
sociation of teachers that supported modernisation in Croatian schooling and

20
Helmut Englebrecht, Geschichte des österreichisches Bildungswesens, Band 3: Von der
frühen Aufklärung bis zum Vormärz (Wien: Österreichischer Bundesverlag Gesellschaft,
1984), 215-217; Wolfgang Brezinka, Pädagogik in Österreich, Band 1 (Wien: Verlag der Öster-
reichischen Akademie, 2000), 233-248.
21
Friedrich Dittes (1829-1896), a German pedagogue who established himself as the head-
master of the College of Education (Lehrerpädagogium) in Vienna, a form of higher pedagogy
school for teachers, and as a reformer of Austrian education system and an advocate of its
separation from the Church.
22
Adolph Diesterweg (1790-1866), a German pedagogue, organizer of primary schooling
and teaching, author of numerous pedagogical documents published in collected works and
textbooks for primary schools.
23
Stjepan Basariček, Teorija pedagogije ili nauk ob uzgoju (Zagreb: Nakladom knjižare Lavo-
slava Hartmana, 1876), 4.

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pedagogy, published a pedagogy textbook by Stjepan Basariček in four vol-

umes as part of the Knjižnica za učitelje editorial series – Uzgojoslovje (1880),
Povijest pedagogije (1881), Obće obukoslovje (1882) and Posebno obukoslovje
(1884). Those first editions were not prescribed for school usage, but they soon
fulfilled the author’s expectations and were followed by reprinted and revised
editions that were used in teacher education schools until 1920s.
Basariček’s textbooks were based on Herbart’s system of pedagogy. Very
soon, they fulfilled their purpose, fully replacing theology-oriented textbooks
from teacher education schools for the benefit of Herbartianism, which be-
came a dominant approach in theory, and indirectly also dominated the ped-
agogical practice.24 It should be noted that pedagogical education of second-
ary school teachers was also mostly based on Herbart’s pedagogy, by means
of university lectures on pedagogy taught by Franjo Marković25 and Đuro
Arnold26 to the students studying to become secondary school teachers. As a
doctoral student in Vienna (1870-1871) and a pupil of the Herbartian Robert
Zimmermann, Marković brought Herbart’s ideas to Croatia.27
Explaining the domination of Basariček’s, or Herbart’s, pedagogy in Cro-
atia, Josip Škavić28 points out the systematic quality, intelligibility and clarity
of Herbart’s pedagogy on the one hand, and Basariček’s ability to clearly ar-
ticulate it on the other. Other textbooks on pedagogy from the end of the 19th
and the beginning of the 20th century never became a successful alternative
to Basariček. This includes the works by Martin Štiglić – Pedagogika ili uzgo-
joslovje (1889) and Povijest pedagogike (1893), Julij Golik – Nauk o uzgoju s
osobitim obzirom na psihologiju (1895) and Jure Turić – Metodika obrazovne
obuke u pučkim osnovnim školama (1902), Povijest uzgoja i nauke o uzgoju
(1904) and Nauka o gojencu i odgoji (1906).

24
Igor Radeka, “Pedagogija i ideologija u Hrvatskoj,” in Desničini susreti 2010.: zbornik ra-
dova, ed. Drago Roksandić, and Ivana Cvijović Javorina (Zagreb: Filozofski fakultet, Centar
za komparativnohistorijske i interkulturne studije; Plejada, 2011), 117.
25
Franjo Marković (1845-1914) gave the first lectures in pedagogy at the Faculty of Philos-
ophy in Zagreb in 1876. An unfinished manuscript held at the Croatian Academy of Sciences
and Arts (ARHIV JUGOSL. AKAD. XV 37/8-1) contains three larger units: Uvod u peda-
gogiku, Sustav općenite pedagogike i Gimnazijska pedagogika. The latter is further discussed
in Ante Bežen’s article “Gimnazijska pedagogika Franje Markovića – prvi tekst hrvatske
akademske metodike,” Napredak 149, no. 3 (2008): 339-369.
26
Đuro Arnold (1853-1941), a philosopher, pedagogue and poet, the first doctor of philoso-
phy inaugurated at the University of Zagreb and the first principal of the Pedagogical Seminar
(The Chair of Pedagogy) established at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb in 1896.
27
Ivan Čehok, “Filozofsko utemeljenje pedagogije: sporovi oko herbartizma,” in Fin de siè-
cle : Zagreb – Beč, ed. Damir Barbarić (Zagreb: Školska knjiga, 1997), 64.
28
Josip Škavić. “Stjepan Basariček,” Učitelj, 16 (50), nos. 3 and 4 (1935): 227.

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Š. BATINIĆ, Croatian Pedagogy in the 19th Century – the Transfer of European Pedagogical Ideas

Croatian translations of the European pedagogy classics

in the 19th century

Subject-specific journals had an important role in the transfer of pedagog-

ical concepts. Napredak, the oldest and the most famous Croatian pedagog-
ical journal, was established in 1859. Since 1873 it has been published by the
Croatian Pedagogical-Literary Assembly, which has been ensuring its stability
and continuity, appointing its editors and profiling the journal in accordance
with the modernization processes in the Croatian school system and peda-
gogy since the mid-1870s. Other pedagogical journals29 from the second half
of the 19th century never had such professional and organisational support,
so their influence on the teaching community was accordingly smaller.
This overview focuses on the translations of monographic editions of the
works by European classics of pedagogy, some of which are still the first and
only Croatian translations. Most were published within the Croatian Peda-
gogical-Literary Assembly’s editorial series Knjižnica za učitelje, whose first
editor was Ljudevit Modec, followed by Stjepan Basariček. As a professor of
pedagogy at the teacher education school in Zagreb, the author of textbooks
on pedagogy, the editor of Napredak (1896-1918), Pedagogijska enciklopedija
(1895-1916) and Knjižnica za učitelje, Basariček was the key figure of Croatian
pedagogy between the 19th and the 20th century.
Soon after its establishment in 1871, the Croatian Pedagogical-Literary As-
sembly, as the most important publisher of pedagogy-related texts, started a
new editorial series named Pedagogijska biblioteka (changed to Knjižnica za
učitelje after 1879). The very first book in the series Pedagogijska biblioteka, as
well as in the publishing history of the Croatian Pedagogical-Literary Assem-
bly, was the translation of Didaktika by the key pedagogy author John Amos
Comenius (1592-1670)30. The translation was based on the Czech edition from
1849, and the name of the translator was not mentioned. The Assembly pub-
lished another title by Comenius in 1886 – Informatorium za školu materin-
sku, based on the Czech edition from 1858 and translated by Vjenceslav Zaboj
Mařik. The third and so far the last Croatian translation, as well as the last edi-
tion of Comenius in Croatian – Velika didaktika – was published in 1900, also
by the Croatian Pedagogical-Literary Assembly, and translated by Julije Golik.

29
For instance: Školski prijatelj (1868-1876), Hrvatski učitelj (1877-1896), Zora (1884-1889),
and Škola (1890-1914)
30
On the reception of the works by John Amos Comenius in Croatia, see more in the article
by Štefka Batinić “Reflection of the Work of J. A. Comenius in Croatia,” Historia scholastica 6,
no. 1 (2020): 155-167.

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 Review of Croatian History 19/2023, no. 1, 161 - 177

Mijat Stojanović, a teacher, revised for the Croatian edition two book-
lets by the German philanthropist pedagogue Christian Gotthilf Salzmann
(1744-1811) – Zablude uzgoja, 1873. (title of the original: Krebsbüchlein, oder
Anweisung zu einer vernünftigen Erziehung der Kinder, 1819) and a pedagogic
short story Milan Dragojević, 1882 (title of the original: Conrad Kiefer oder
Anweisung zu einer vernünftigen Erziehung der Kinder, 1796.).
Nauk ob uzgoju by Herbert Spencer, translated by the teacher Ivan Širola,
was published in 1883 as the 13th title in the series Knjižnica za učitelje. Spen-
cer’s book was supposed to weaken the dominant influence of the German
pedagogy, as noted by the publisher in the introduction: “Mi visoko cienimo
pedagožku znanost, kako ju Niemci goje; nu mi bismo želili, da se ta znanost
kod nas ne kopira samo, nego da se popunjuje i engleskimi praktičkimi nazori
[We highly appreciate the way the Germans are developing the pedagogical
discipline; however, we wish that discipline is not only copied by us, but sup-
plemented by the English practical views from the English language]”.31
Emil ili ob uzgoju by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) – the first and so
far the only Croatian translation of the most famous pedagogical work from
the period of Enlightenment – was published in three volumes between 1887
and 1889. It was translated by Ivan Širola. A comprehensive guide was in-
cluded at the end of the third volume, with the purpose of helping the read-
ers, primarily teachers, to “correctly” interpret Rousseau’s thoughts and ideas
because “there are people who do not fully trust the reason and pedagogical
knowledge of our teachers, but think that Rousseau’s Emil could lead them
astray”. The publishing of Emil caused a surge of criticism from the clerical
circles, leading to disagreements in the Croatian Pedagogical-Literary Assem-
bly and the stepping down of its president Ivan Filipović and the vice presi-
dent Skender Fabković.32
Konstantin Milan Harambašić, a teacher, journalist and author, edited
the short story Linhard und Gerdtrud by a Swiss pedagogue Jahann Heinrich
Pestalozzi (1746-1827) “for our people”. It was published in 1891 under the
title of Miroslav i Bogoljuba and was the 23rd book in the Knjižnica za učitelje
series.
Croatian edition of Misli o uzgoju by François Rabelais (1484 or 1494-1553)
“with the author’s biography, evaluation and notes” and with excerpts from
the novel Gargantua i Pantagruel was also edited by Ivan Širola. The book was

31
Herbert Spencer, Nauk ob uzgoju – umnom, ćudorednom i tjelesnom (Zagreb: Hrvatski
pedagogijsko-književni sbor, 1883), VII.
32
More in: Janko Jurinjak, “Polemika oko Rousseauova ‘Emila’,” Pedagoški rad 8, nos. 7-8
(1953): 313-329.

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Š. BATINIĆ, Croatian Pedagogy in the 19th Century – the Transfer of European Pedagogical Ideas

published in 1894, and Širola noted in the foreword that after translating the
works of Montaigne, Locke and Rousseau, it was logical to prepare a Croatian
edition of the author who had been their progenitor. Among the translations
from the French in the Croatian Pedagogical-Literary Assembly’s series Knjiž-
nica za učitelje we should also mention Intelektualni i moralni razvitak djeteta
by Gabriel Jules Compayré (1814-1913) translated by Jelica Belović-Berna-
dzikowska and Pedagoška hrestomacija translated by Rista Ognjenović.
We can only speculate on the reasons for not publishing more of the Ger-
man pedagogical classics in Knjižnica za učitelje, for instance Herbart or Frö-
bel. Through Basariček’s textbooks, Herbart’s pedagogy became a theoreti-
cal foundation of the pedagogical practice in Croatian schooling. Likewise,
Frobel’s pedagogy became the basis for the educational practice in nursery
schools, through the methodology manual Rukovođ za zabavište (1895) by
Antonija Kassowitz Cvijić. Besides, most of Croatian teachers were able to
read German authors in their original editions, which was not the case with
French or English texts. Lastly, we should also not ignore attempts to weaken
the dominant position of the German pedagogy. It is hard to say what the
reason was for not publishing already translated works of the Austrian liberal
pedagogue from Vienna, Friedrich Dittes (1829-1896), who was the leader of
the Viennese College of Education and highly thought of among the teachers
in Croatian Pedagogical-Literary Assembly. The legacy of Mijat Stojanović,
kept in the Croatian School Museum in Zagreb, contains preserved manu-
scripts Praktično umoslovje (84 pages) and Jezgra nauke (325 pages), which
Stojanović prepared on the basis of Dittes’ works in 1872.
There are two more important translations that have not been published
by the Croatian Pedagogical-Literary Assembly – Misli ob uzgoju djece by
Michel de Montaigne (Bakar, 1883) and Nekoje misli ob uzgoju by John Locke
(Senj, 1890). Both were edited and probably printed at personal expense by the
teacher Ivan Širola (1855-1931), who held most merits for the availability of
French and English pedagogy classics in Croatian.

Croatian teachers traveling for professional development and

studying abroad in the second half of the 19th and the beginning of
the 20th century

The establishing of associations and organisations of Croatian teachers in

the second half of the 19th century was based on the model of teacher associa-
tions in Austrian and German countries. The Teachers’ Cooperative – the first
association of teachers – was established in Zagreb in 1865 with the purpose of
supporting orphaned teachers and teachers’ families in the manner of similar

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 Review of Croatian History 19/2023, no. 1, 161 - 177

German organisations (Pestalozzi-Verein) that had been founded in the mem-

ory of Heinrich Pestalozzi at the initiative of the pedagogue Adolf Diesterweg.
In 1870, one year before the founding of the Croatian Pedagogical-Literary
Assembly, Ivan Filipović took part in the General assembly of German teach-
ers in Vienna and in that same year he published Bečke pedagogijske slike, a
book in which he reported in detail about the activities of the assembly, the
exhibition of teaching aids held on that occasion and the equipment of schools
in Vienna, suggesting what should be done for the improvement of Croatian
primary education.33
Following the same model, the Croatian Pedagogical-Literary Assem-
bly organized the first general assembly of Croatian teachers and an exhi-
bition of teaching aids in 1871. The assembly was attended by around 1,000
teachers from all Croatian regions, with the Viennese pedagogue Friedrich
Dittes among the guests, who used the occasion to invite Marija Jambrišak34,
a teacher, to study at the College of Education in Vienna, where some Croatian
teachers had already been pursuing their professional development. At that
time, Jambrišak was the only female teacher to attend that higher education
institution in Vienna and the first female teacher in Austria-Hungary who
acquired higher qualifications in pedagogy there. In 1873, Dittes wrote:

Those five teachers from the Military Frontier, who had already completed
the course at the College of Education, have since been working in their
own country, some as school inspectors, and some as teachers at the School
of teacher education in Petrinja. (…) Also, there is one other teacher from
Zagreb studying at the College of Education, who is supported by the Ter-
ritorial Government of Croatia. There is no doubt that sending a certain
number of teaching class members from the southern border regions of
Austria to study at the College of Education will greatly contribute to the
spreading of culture and peace among the nations.35

The College of Education in Vienna was attended, among others, by

Josip Glaser, Ivan Martinović, Andrija Knežević and Vjekoslav Dominković.
Apart from Dittes’ College of Education in Vienna, the Institute for education
of teachers in Prague, Budeč, established and led by a notable Czech ped-
agogue, physician and philosopher Karel Slavoj Amerling (1807-1884), was

33
Ivan Filipović, Bečke pedagogijske slike (Zagreb: Tiskom Lav. Hartmana i družbe, 1870).
34
Marija Jambrišak (1847-1937), at the time a young teacher in Krapina, gave a noted speech
at the assembly. After graduating from the College of Education in Vienna in 1874, she re-
turned to Zagreb, where she worked as a teacher at the Higher school for girls from 1875, and
at the College for women from 1892.
35
Friedrich Dittes, Das Lehrer-Pädagoium der Stadt Wien (Wien: Verlag von A. Pichler’s
Witwe & Sohn, 1873), 53-54.

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Š. BATINIĆ, Croatian Pedagogy in the 19th Century – the Transfer of European Pedagogical Ideas

also important for the transfer of pedagogical ideas to Croatia by means of

teacher training. Budeč was attended by Czech teachers who had established
themselves in Croatia and were among the founders of the Croatian Pedagog-
ical-Literary Assembly: Sebald Cihlar, Vjenceslav Zaboj Mařik, Franjo Stje-
panek and Antun Truhelka. The Croatian teachers who acquired their peda-
gogical education in Prague included Ljudevit Modec and Skender Fabković,
who had met his future wife there, a Czech teacher Marija Frechova. Marija
Fabković was the only woman among the founders of the Assembly. She was
a qualified teacher in the higher primary education who left for France, and
then Switzerland, after retiring, to study French and work on translations.
Jure Turić, the first Croatian teacher with a doctoral degree, was further
educated in Jena between 1888 and 1891, where he attended the High School
of Agriculture, the Faculty of Philosophy and the Institute for children with
behavioural issues. At the Faculty of Philosophy in Jena, where he attended
lectures by the distinguished Herbartian Rein, among others, he obtained
his doctoral degree with the thesis Odluka u procesu volje (published in Ger-
man: Entschluss in dem Willensprozesse, 1892). Upon returning from Jena,
he worked in teacher education schools in Sarajevo and Petrinja and at the
College for women in Zagreb.36
Franjo Higy Mandić, a most distinguished Croatian representative of the
movement for education in nature, studied in Zürich from 1909, where he
received his Ph.D. in 1913 with the thesis Beitrag zur Kenntnis der geistigen
Entwicklung des Schulkindes (A supplement to understanding the mental de-
velopment of schoolchildren). In 1907, Mandić visited the United States of
America, together with the teacher Ivan Sedmak, in order to learn about the
American school system. They published their experiences the following year
in a booklet Školstvo Saveznih Država Sjeverne Amerike godine 1907.
By traveling abroad for professional development, teachers had an op-
portunity to gain insights into certain pedagogical practices. As a rule, they
were sent on such travels by the Royal Territorial Government, who would
give them a particular purpose. In this manner, Croatian teachers were sent
to Sweden in the early 1890s in order to learn about the Swedish handicraft
(slöjd) and the system of Swedish gymnastics. On the basis of that experi-
ence, Ivan Brixy wrote Rukovođ za obuku u slöjdu (1895), and Franjo Bučar,
upon returning from Sweden, organized a gymnastics course between 1894
and 1896, where primary school teachers were trained to run physical educa-
tion classes. This was only one segment of the reformist attempts in Croatian

36
Štefka Batinić, “Povijesni razvoj i recepcija reformne pedagogije u Hrvatskoj” (Ph. D.,
University of Zagreb, 2014), 149.

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school system by the then headmaster of the Department of Worship and

Teaching, Izidor Kršnjavi.
Teachers also travelled for professional development on their own initia-
tive like, for instance, Ivan Tomašić (1868-1956) at the beginning of the 20th
century, who travelled around European countries on several occasions (Aus-
tria, Czech Republic, Germany, and Switzerland) in order to become famil-
iarized with the ideas and practices of the reformist pedagogy and implement
them into his own pedagogical work.37

Conclusion

A thorough overview of the transfer of European pedagogical ideas to

Croatia in the 19th century would, in fact, in great part be a history of Croa-
tian pedagogy, or at least a history of its foundation as a practical, educational,
as well as an academic discipline. In this paper, I have tried to highlight the
basic models of such a transfer, indicate the key sources of the pedagogical
ideas and their reception in Croatia. Undoubtedly, Croatian pedagogy was
strongly influenced by the pedagogy from the German-speaking regions. On
the one hand, this was a consequence of the historical context and the fact that
regions of Croatia had been part of the Habsburg monarchy, or Austria-Hun-
gary, and on the other, it shows that German pedagogy of the 19th century had
a leading role in establishing pedagogy as an academic, scholarly discipline.
There were no textbooks on pedagogy in the first half of the 19th century,
nor other pedagogical works, in the Croatian language. Teacher training con-
sisted of a modest pedagogical education for practical work in schools, as ex-
tricated from German teaching manuals. It is thus not surprising that the first
textbooks on pedagogy in Croatian were translations and compilations of the
existing German textbooks.
Croatian Pedagogical-Literary Assembly, as the most important publisher
of pedagogic literature in the 19th century, published the first translations of
pedagogy classics from French and English languages. Whether that was a
result of intentional publishing policy or a merit of an extremely hardwork-
ing translator Ivan Širola, who was translating from French and English, it
is hard to say. The editorial series Knjižnica za učitelje contains a relatively
small number of translations from German, and it is still not clear why there
have been no translations of Johann Friedrich Herbart’s work to this day, even

37
See more in: Štefka Batinić, “Ivan Tomašić – europska iskustva u pučkoj školi zagrebačko-
ga predgrađa,” Anali za povijest odgoja 21 (45) (2023): 7-18.

175
Š. BATINIĆ, Croatian Pedagogy in the 19th Century – the Transfer of European Pedagogical Ideas

though he had significantly influenced the direction of the development of

Croatian pedagogy.

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