August Zeune

Johann August Zeune ( born May 12, 1778 in Wittenberg, † November 14, 1853 in Berlin) was a German educator, geographer, German scholar and the founder of the Berlin institute for the blind.

Life

Johann August Zeune was born on 12 May 1778 in Wittenberg, the son of Johann Karl Zeune, professor of Greek at the University of Wittenberg. In his home he was raised by his father and tutor. 1798 could be Zeune matriculate at the University of Wittenberg. He received his Ph.D. with his work on the history of geography, and got for a short time the dignity of academic faculty, a quasi Professor of Geography, awarded. His novel " height layers card " of the earth, had made him well-known in academic circles.

In 1803 he moved to Berlin, where he became a teacher at the high school to the Grey Abbey. In Berlin, where he lived as a private scholar, he frequented friendly with Johann Gottlieb Fichte and the historian Johannes von Müller. Unsuccessful, he applied for an expedition into the interior of Africa and shortly afterwards went into the "inner world of the blind ." In the field of ophthalmology Zeune expanded his knowledge to the founder of the first European institute for the blind, Valentin Haiiy in Paris. King Friedrich Wilhelm III. decreed on August 11, 1806, the establishment of an institute for the blind in Berlin and gave the order to Zeune. On 13 October the same year he was able to start classes. It was the first school for the blind in Germany.

With money from friends and his own fortune he saved the school by the time of need. In 1810 became professor of geography Johann August Zeune in Berlin. From 1811 to 1821 he lectured at the University of Berlin also about German language and literature. Educational talent show his Handbook of Blind Education " Belisarius " (1808 ) and the work " Gea. Attempt at a scientific geography " (1808 ).

After the French occupation, he emerged as a political publicist of a decidedly patriotic coloring. As a specialist in German Zeune was under the spell of romantic notions, he fought against foreign words and made ​​himself particularly to the introduction of the Nibelungenlied earned, of which he published a prose translation (1813 ) and a paperback edition (1815 ). He scored 1828 Johann Jacob Baeyer et al to the patrons of the Geographical Society of Berlin.

Johann August Zeune died on November 14, 1853 in Berlin, after he had lost his eyesight in old age. He was buried at the Old George Cemetery in Greifswalderstraße 229/234.

After Zeune the Johann -August- Zeune School for the Blind and the Zeunepromenade were named in Berlin- Steglitz ( to both see Rothenburgstraße (Berlin) ).