| Hans Tietgens has died | | Print | |
| Peter Brandt | 05.06.2009 | National Affairs - News items [en] [de] | ||||
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Hans Tietgens, one of the most important figures in German adult education, died on 8 May at the age of 86 near Frankfurt am Main. From 1960 to 1991 Tietgens was Head of the Educational Working Centre of the German Adult Education Association (PAS), from which the German Institute for Adult Education (DIE) developed.
The name Tietgens is closely linked with the development of adult education into the fourth pillar of German education. In the period between 1960 and 1980 considerable efforts were made to create an adult education profession in Germany. This included developing adult education into an autonomous academic discipline, which led to the establishment of chairs of adult education at universities, and later to the development of basic courses of study and – crucially right from the start – the professionalisation of the existing educational personnel through continuing training. As the head of the PAS, Tietgens promoted educational innovations, which have had a lasting effect in adult education and beyond. He was the mastermind behind participant-oriented didactics, which saw adult education in practice as interaction, as an exchange of interpretations, and not merely as the passing on of knowledge. He was also particularly concerned that this should apply in continuing education courses for the many people changing careers who were active on a full-time basis in this field during the increased financial expansion of the adult education centres. With the development of the series of books based on high-quality research “Theory and practice of adult education”, Tietgens and the PAS set the bar very high for practical application. For many people Tietgens stands for the principle of countermeasures, for the primacy of historical continuity over poorly reasoned fashions and trends. CV * 17 May 1922 in Langenberg, Rhineland 1941–42/1945–49 Course of studies: German studies, history, psychology, philosophy 1949 Doctorate in modern literature 1949–54 Socioscientific studies 1952–55 Federal secretary of the Socialist German Student Union (SDS) 1954–55 Full time position at Hustedt Residential Adult Education College 1956–57 Head of Education in the Regional Association of Adult Education Centres in Lower Saxony 1957–63 Federal tutor of the youth advisory programme in the German Adult Education Association 1960–91 Head of the Educational Working Centre of the German Adult Education Association 1979–91 Honorary professor in Marburg + 8 May 2009 in Eschborn, Taunus |
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