Wegbereiter der Astronomie in Volksschulen sowie der Astronomiemethodik in der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts

Summary
Astronomy is considered one of the oldest and, at the same time, one of the fastest growing
sciences of all. Probably due to this fact, its public interest has remained unbroken. Current
developments in astronomy and space flight such as the implementation of the James Webb
telescope, the establishment of the ELT in Chile as well as the launch of the first rocket sent to
the moon 50 years ago demonstrate that we live in a new golden age of astronomy. In this
sense, the importance of the advancement of tools, programs etc. which made their way into
science must not be forgotten. It is not for nothing that the value-added share of astronomy
and space travel is rising sharply.
Unfortunately, the great importance of astronomy and space flight is barely or not at all
reflected in schools. Astronomy as a school subject can be found, due to mostly historical
reasons, in only three of Germany’s 16 federal states. In the remaining 13 federal states,
relevant topics are in most cases taught within the context of other subjects. The history of
astronomy as it is taught in schools, and also as its own subject, in research usually only
begins after 1945. Discussions about astronomy lessons in the context as a subject or as a
subfield in other subjects have occurred before this time, though.
The paper at hand aims to show that already 100 years ago, at the beginning of the 19th
century, educationalists employed in Germany were able to elevate astronomy taught in
schools to a level of which research had previously known next to nothing. One representative
of these teachers, namely Johann Simon Schlimbach, as well as his works and his impact will
be the focus of the investigation. His work focused on the educational branch of the German
Volksschule. This school type presents the highest numbers of students in Germany. On the
basis of the models he himself developed, his text- and workbooks for Volksschule as well as
the astronomy courses designed and taught by him, the content of the subject matter is
analysed. At the same time the discovered documents, provided by extensive research, made
the assessment of his didactic-methodic guidelines possible. This in turn enabled the direct
comparison of the most modern didactic and methodological findings of the time. Taking into
account the didactic-methodic developments of our time, possibilities for the application of
his teaching models, exercises and textbooks are being investigated. Simultaneously the
methods and ways of the mediation of knowledge as described by Johann Simon Schlimbach
were compared with those used in today's astronomy lessons.
This work is an essential contribution to a better understanding of the historical and
methodological development of astronomy in schools. At the same time, a so far unknown
chapter in the history of science education is being researched and rehabilitated. Many of the
resources and methods developed and used in the 1st half of the 19th century are analysed and
their possible applications in current teaching are examined in a practical way.