Wer war Comenius? - Fünf kurze Texte

1. The Oxford Companion to Philosophy (1995)
2. Andreas Fritsch (2003)
3. Werner Korthaase (2002)
4. Paul Nash (1983)
5. Umberto Eco (1995)

Komenský (Comenius), Jan Amos (1592-1670). Czech philosopher and pedagogue. Bishop and theologian of the Unitas Fratrum (Moravian Brethren), exiled in the period of Counter-Reformation. He found refuge in various parts of Europe, including London, where he wrote the mystically coloured Via lucis (1641). His principal philosophical treatise De rerum Humanarum Emendatione Consultatio Catholica is based on the traditional Neoplatonic scheme of emanations specifically modified and enriched by the humanistic idea of restoration of humans to the divine universal harmony by the way of universal reform (panorthosia) and universal education (pampaedia). So conceived, his philosophy aimed at a grandiose reform of pedagogy in the spirit of modern didactic realism. In place of scholastic verbalism it turned to demonstrative teaching, conceiving school as play (schola ludus) and as a workshop of humanity (officina humanitatis). The same principles gave birth to his philosophy of non-violence, peace, and ecumenicity. ‘Omnia sponte fluant, absit violentia rebus’ became his device.
(The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, 1995).

Ioannes Amos Comenius (1590-1670), princeps facile omnium paedagogorum saeculi septimi decimi ac fortasse omnium temporum, natione erat Moravus, lingua Bohemus, professione theologus, propter evangelii fidem profugus et exul, fato autem et sua sponte scholarum reformator pansophicus. Tamen homines, qui hodie sunt, pauca admodum opera eius noverunt. Adhuc notissima esse videtur illa „Didactica Magna“, quam Comenius anno 1657 primum Amstelodami in lucem edidit in prima parte eorum voluminum, quibus titulus est „Opera Didactica Omnia“. Sed Comenius etiam multa alia opera confecit, primum Bohemice, tum maxime Latine conscripta; nec solum paedagogus erat, sed imprimis theologus atque etiam philosophus. Potissimum autem opus eius non auctore vivo in lucem prodiit. Maior pars huius operis compluribus demum saeculis post mortem Comenii Halae ad Salam inventa est. Quod opus ingens inscribitur „De rerum humanarum emendatione consultatio catholica“ et divisum est in partes septem, quarum duae partes priores (Panegersia et Panaugia) iam antea in lucem prodierant, pars autem tertia (Pansophia), quarta (Pampaedia), quinta (Panglottia), sexta (Panorthosia) anno 1935 demum, pars septima (Pannuthesia) anno 1939 reperta est. Huius operis editio princeps omnes septem partes complectens anno 1966 demum facta est ab Academia Scientiarum Pragensi.

Germanica Societas Comeniana (fundata anno 1992) studet opera Comenii in lucem proferre et quasdam partes maioris momenti lectoribus ita ante oculos ponere, ut hodie quoque quam plurimi homines magnum ingenium et auctoritatem huius viri cognoscant. Neque enim inmerito G. W. Leibnitius (1646-1716), magnus ille philosophus, in honorem Comenii die 15 mensis Novembris anno 1670 emortui versibus praedixit:

„Tempus erit, quo te, Comeni, turba bonorum

Factaque spesque tuas, vota quoque ipsa colet.“

Comenius temporibus belli tricennalis patria expulsus in compluribus terris Europae versabatur ibique rogatu virorum nobilissimorum scholas reformandas curavit et multos libros ad artem didacticam pertinentes scripsit. Quam ob rem optimo iure „praeceptor gentium“ appellatus est. „Scholas“ dicere solebat „esse humanitatis officinas“. Primo non fuit Comenio consilium Latine aliquid scribendi, sed suae solummodo genti libris vernaculo sermone scriptis prodesse voluit. Sed quibusdam occasionibus delatus plura in annos opera Latine conscripsit et edidit, ut ab omnibus Europae populis intellegi posset. Lingua Latina a Comenio ipso iudicata est „veluti commercii inter gentes vinculum communisque quidam Mercurius seu interpres“.  In hac re sequebatur sententiam Ludovici Vivis (1492-1540), sapientis illius Hispanici, qui centum annis ante eum natus erat et linguam Latinam ut „instrumentum societatis hominum“ commendaverat, quo quam plurimae gentes ac nationes Europae communiter uterentur. Itaque hoc loco etiam complures loci e libris Comenii excerpti exponantur, qui ad ipsam linguam Latinam docendam pertinent. Magnam enim partem vitae suae consumpsit in novis methodis investigandis, quibus lingua Latina facilius, citius, iucundius doceri et disci posset.
(Hunc textum scripsit Andreas Fritsch Berolinensis, 2002).

Johann Amos Comenius (Jan Amos Komenský) wurde am 28. März 1592 in einem mährischen Dorf geboren. Er studierte an der Hochschule in Herborn (Hessen) sowie an der Universität Heidelberg und hatte bedeutende Lehrer, die sein enzyklopädisches Interesse weckten und förderten, woraus sich später seine “Pansophie” (Allweisheit) entwickelte, die eine universale Wissenschafts-, Kirchen- und Politikreform zum Ziel hatte. Seine irenischen (ökumenischen) Bestrebungen galten der Überwindung der konfessionellen Zerrissenheit Europas, seine politischen richteten sich auf den europäischen und den Weltfrieden. Aus seiner Heimat während des Dreißigjährigen Krieges vertrieben, verbrachte er mehr als vierzig Jahre rastlos schriftstellerisch und für seine exilierte Kirche der böhmisch-mährischen Brüder-Unität organisatorisch arbeitend im Exil. Er lebte in Polen, Groß-Britannien, Schweden, Ungarn sowie in den Niederlanden. Wegen seiner Lehrbücher, die in viele europäische und sogar in asiatische Sprachen übersetzt wurden, ersuchten ihn Fürsten, Könige und städtische Magistrate um Rat in Fragen der Bildungsreform. Das englische Parlament berief ihn zur Gründung von wissenschaftlichen Kollegs nach London. Sein Hauptwerk De rerum humanarum emendatione consultatio catholica (Allgemeine Beratung über die Verbesserung der menschlichen Dinge) gehört zu den bedeutendsten Werken innerhalb der europäischen Wissenstradition. Er hinterließ mehr als 200 Schriften. Wilhelm Dilthey, der Kulturhistoriker, sagte von ihm, er sei “vielleicht der größte pädagogische Kopf, den Europa hervorgebracht” habe. Der französische Historiker Jules Michelet sprach von “le Galilée de l’education”; der amerikanische Pädagogikhistoriker Jerome K. Clauser bezeichnete ihn als “gigant among educators”, seine Reformvorschläge seien “timeless by any standards”, der deutsche Bildungshistoriker Karl von Raumer die Opera didactica omnia als “reichste Schatzkammer scharfsinniger und tiefer pädagogischer Gedanken”. Heute interessieren nicht zuletzt die Ansichten und Reformvorschläge des “praeceptor mundi”, des “großen Freundes der Menschheit und der Jugend”, zur “Verbesserung der menschlichen Dinge”. Comenius starb am 15. November 1670 in Amsterdam.
(W. Korthaase, DCG, 2002).

John Amos Comenius (1592-1670) was a member, and eventually Bishop, of the [Moravian] Brethren. His membership in this group was determining influence in his life, for after the outset of the Thirty Years’ War, which began when he was twenty-six, he became part of a persecuted and hounded minority. In the face of political and religious persecution, he was forced to become a refugee across Europe. But, to this challenge to his life and ideals, Comenius responded with energy and resourcefulness. His wanderings brought him into contact with some of the intellectual leaders of Europe, especially in Germany, Poland, Sweden, England, and Holland. From his wide friendships he obtained stimulation and support. From his experience of persecution, hardship, and divisiveness he forged a philosophy that emphasized political unity, religious reconciliation, educational cooperation, and intellectual harmony. He created a model of the educated person as a pansophist, one who seeks knowledge from all sources in order to become more like the God in whose image he is made—omniscient and universally compassionate. All of Comenius’ life and writings were marked by this striving for unity and brotherhood. Although a passionate lover of his own language, people, and religion, he transcended his parochial loyalties and gained a breadth of perspective that its still an inspiration to us as we face this perennial problem. He was the precursor of modern attempts at educational, scientific, and cultural cooperation, best epitomized today in UNESCO. It was all of humanity, rather than a part of it, that educed his concern: he sought educational opportunities for people of all classes, sexes, and levels of intelligence.
(Paul Nash: Models of Man, 1983).

Comenius was a severe critic of the defects of natural languages. In his Pansophiae Christianae liber III (1639-40), he advocated a reform that would eliminate the rhetorical and figurative use of words, which he regarded as a source of ambiguity. The meaning of words should be fixed, he demanded, with one name of each thing, thus restoring words to their original meanings. In 1668, in the Via lucis, Comenius offered prescriptions for the creation of an artificial universal language. By now, pansophy was more than an educational method; it was a utopian vision in which a world council was supposed to create the perfect state along with its perfect philosophical language, the Panglottia. It is interesting to concider that Comenius had in fact written this work before 1641, when, after wandering through the whole of Europe in the course of the Thirty Years War, he had taken refuge in London. Via lucis certainly circulated, in manuscript form, in the English milieu at that time (see, for example Cram 1989). Although Comenius was never to construct his new language in extenso, he had broached the idea of a universal tongue which had to overcome the political and structural limitations of Latin. [...] Comenius became the forerunner of that search for an a priori philosophical language that would later be implemented by English utopian thinkers whose inspiration was more scientific than theological or mystical.
(Umberto Eco: The Search for the Perfect Language, 1995).


Weiter zu J. A. Comenius: A biographical time chart