Thekla von Gumpert was born in Kalisch as the third of five children of Henriette née von Eckartsberg und Weißtrupp and the district physician Christian Gottlieb von Gumpert. In 1815, her father was transferred to Posen as a government medical officer, where he came into closer contact with Prussian government circles, in particular the Duke-Governor of the Grand Duchy of Posen, Antoni Henryk Radziwiłł. Thekla formed a close friendship with his daughter, Princess Wanda Czartoryski née Radziwiłł (1813–1846). The ending Napoleonic wars had spread immense misery across Europe. Thekla grew up in a healthy enclaveon, shaped by Prussian thinking and being a member of a professional society, which was to shape her and her future.
Her father died when she was 22 years old. She lived on the family estate until it had to be sold. Afterwards she found accommodation with a relative, Baron von Seydlitz und Kurtzbach. Here Thekla von Gumpert dedicated herself to the upbringing of the children and recognized her inner vocation as a child educator. After the death of her former friend Princess Wanda, she took over the upbringing of her children and moved to Dresden.[1] Six years followed, until her activity ended when Prince Adam Konstanty Czartoryski remarried with Countess Elzbieta Działyńska from Poznań. Then she moved to live with her mother in Berlin.
Through the Weimar Legation Counselor and poet Franz von Schober, her later husband, whom she married at the age of 46 and from whom she separated again in 1860, she found the courage to combine her educational and literary skills and to follow the path of a young adult writer. Her first work, The little father and the grandchild, brought the desired success. Over the next few decades, she became one of the most widely read and well-known youth and children's writers of the time.
She traveled to England and through Germany to get to know educational institutions. However, the idea of founding his own educational institution never came to fruition. She kept in touch with the "father" of the kindergarten idea, Friedrich Fröbel, and propagated his method in her book Für Deutsche Frauen. However, when Froebel fell out of favor with the Prussian government – allegedly the kindergartens spread socialist, liberal and atheistic sentiments – they distanced themselves from him, refused to collaborate in his magazine and only described herself as his admirer and not a student.
Her social commitment was unmistakable. The income from various books went to several charities, including the children's institution in Berlin, the Gesellenherbergsverein, the Invalids of the Saxon Army, the Invalids of the Prussian Army and the Victoria National Invalids Foundation.
She died on 1 April 1897, at the age of 86 in Dresden and was buried in the old Annenfriedhof.[2] According to Death certificate StA Dresden II No. 792, she died on 2 April 1897.
Prussian ideals pervade her entire work and educated several generations of children and young people. Her best-known work is certainly her Daughter Album, which appeared annually as a periodical from 1855 with the subtitle: Conversations in domestic circles for the education of the mind and spirit of growing female youth. From 1856 another periodical Herzblästles pastime followed. Entertainment for little boys and girls to develop hearts and concepts.
Thekla von Gumpert describes her motives in a letter to Heinrich Schwerdt :
The purpose of my writing has always remained the same, valuing young people's literature only when it is used not for idle entertainment but as an educational tool, in such a way as to educate mind and heart and stimulate willpower and to seeks to guide. That's why I direct the eyes of the children, and especially the girls, to different circumstances in life to show them that a person can be and become happy in all situations, but that only conscientious faithfulness to duty in small and large matters can ensure this happiness. Such devotion to duty thrives on the soil of pious faith.
In her autobiography she writes:
Grave of Thekla von Gumpert in the old Annenfriedhof in Dresden
My parents and ancestors were Prussians, and my father and mother put the consciousness into my heart that the King of Prussia was my King; "in the heart," I said, not just in the mind.
Heinrich Schwerdt: Thekla von Gumpert. A biographical-critical memorial to the twenty-fifth anniversary of her writing . Flemming, Glogau 1868. ( digital copy )
Hyacinth Holland : Gumpert, Thekla von . In: General German Biography (ADB). Volume 49, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1904, pp. 628–630.
Regina Neisser : In memory of Thekla von Gumpert . In: From the Posen country. Lisa. Vol. 5 (1910), issue 6, pages 277–280.
M. Dahrendorf: Gumpert, Thekla von . In: K. Doderer (ed.): Lexicon of children's and youth literature. Volume I: A-H. Weinheim 1977
Roswitha Budeus-Budde: The daughters album by Thekla von Gumpert. Coining an edifying ideal of woman, program of a nineteenth-century girls' magazine . dipa-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1986 (= youth and media; 12), ISBN3-7638-0125-1
Helmut König (ed.): My dear Mr. Fröbel. Letters from Women and Maidens to the Friend of Children and Humanity . People and knowledge, Berlin 1990, ISBN3-06-262694-1
Manfred Berger : On the 100th anniversary of the death of Thekla von Gumpert . In: Contributions to youth literature and the media . Weinheim, 49 (1997) 1, pp. 41–43
Norbert Weiss, Jens Wonneberger: poets, thinkers, writers from six centuries in Dresden. Verlag The barn, Dresden 1997, ISBN3-931684-10-5
Till Gerrit Waidelich: "Torupson" and Franz von Schober – the life and work of the Schubert and Schwind friend who was courted by women, friends and biographers . In: Schubert: Perspectives 6 (2006), issues 1 and 2 – special issue, pp. 1–237
