FELLENBERG, PHILIP EArAxtrEL vox, the founder of the institution for the improve ment of education and agriculture at Hofwyl in the canton of Bern, in Switzerland, was b. at Bern in 1771. His father was a man of patrician rank, and in consequence, a member of the government. From him F. received a very careful education; but it was his 'mother, a great-granddaughter of the famous Dutch admiral, Van Tromp, who inspired him with the ardent desire of being useful to his fellow-creatures. In 1789; he went to the university at Tubingen; for the purpose of studying law, and sub sequently traveled in various parts of Europe, taking up his quarters not in the hotels of the large towns, but in the cottages of the peasantry, that he might know at first hand the real condition and the manners of the poor, as well as the kind of education received by those whose life was to be spent in agricultural pursuits. When the revo lution of 1798 broke out in Switzerland, F. took part in it for some time; but the faith lessness and want of public spirit on the part of the Bernese government induced him to withdraw from political life altogether, and to devote himself solely to philan thropic schemes. He now purchased the estate of Hofwyl, near Bern, and soon after entered into an alliance with Pestalozzi, the educationist. Their different char
acters, however, rendered such a union impracticable, and they found it necessary to separate. F. now proceeded with redoubled zeal to increase the produce of his estate by new improvements, to influence the neighborhood by his example, and to make his experiments known to the world by his agricultural treatises. At the same time, he founded an asylum for forsaken children. He also opened a school of theoretical and practical agriculture, and connected with it an institution for, the education of the chil dren of the higher classes. The establishment at Hofwyl acquired for its founder a very great reputation, and pupils hastened to it from all quarters. Many foreign princes visited it, and on their return to their own countries, founded similar institutions. In the year 1830, F. founded a school of art, and some years later, an infant school. He died 21st Nov., 1844. The institutions at Hofwyl were continued for some years by his son Wilhelm, and then entirely given up. Compare Hamm, F.'s Leben and Wirken (Bern, 1845).