Gustav Langenscheidt
Gustav Langenscheidt ( born October 21, 1832 in Berlin, † November 11, 1895 ) was a German language teacher and a publisher.
Life
Langenscheidt was the son of the decorator Johann Ludwig Langenscheidt and his wife Sophie Caroline Schwartze. After successful completion of his schooling in 1850 Langenscheidt completed a commercial education he also successfully completed after two years.
Between 1851 and the spring of 1853 traveled Langenscheidt almost all of Germany's neighbors and put it - on foot and by stagecoach - around 7000 kilometers. After his return to Germany he joined the Army in the summer of 1853. During his time in the military Langenscheidt dealt extensively with the different ways of learning the French language.
Together with Charles Toussaint, he developed a self-learning method, which he published in 1856 under the title teaching letters to learn the French language. The idea of such a teaching method and especially the distribution Langenscheidt had cribbed from William Cobbett. Since no publisher was interested in this teaching work, Langenscheidt founded with effect from October 1, 1856 a publishing house. These lessons letters enjoyed great popularity and dissemination, so Langenscheidt today can be regarded as the "Father of distance education ".
1857 Langenscheidt was appointed principal writers of the 11th Infantry Brigade in Berlin and as such he married in Berlin Pauline Hartmann. With her he had two daughters and four sons; including the writer and publisher Paul Langenscheidt, as well as Carl Gustav Felix Langenscheidt, who later became his successor.
In 1861 published Langenscheidt, together with Carl von Dalen and Henry Lloyd " English lessons letters " ( constructed similarly to the French ). As of 1867, Langenscheidt Verlag had its own printing facilities.
From 1869 Langenscheidt worked with Karl Sachs and Césaire Villatte together on the encyclopaedic French-German and German - French dictionary and was finally able to publish it in 1880. 1874 Langenscheidt was awarded the title of Professor.
In 1891, the English counterpart, the encyclopaedic English - German and German - English dictionary was developed in close cooperation with Eduard Muret and Daniel Sanders. The publication did not live Langenscheidt, but his successor, his son Carl Georg, achieved this in 1901.
At the age of nearly 63 years, Gustav Langenscheidt died on 11 November 1895 and was initially buried in the old St. Matthew's Cemetery in Schöneberg, then received in 1935 in the family grave at the Southwest Stahnsdorf his final resting place. The family mausoleum is located in the Department D.
The method " Toussaint - Langenscheidt " based on the basis of language teaching by James Hamilton and Jean Joseph Jacotot. Revolutionary was that the focus was no longer the grammar, but the reading and communication. Langenscheidt and Toussaint created for ease of learning a new phonetic alphabet for the representation of the pronunciation. This had to be valid until the Second World War and was only afterwards by the international phonetic alphabet (IPA ) replaced.
Appreciation
After Langenscheidt Langenscheidt bridge is named in Berlin.