(née Meyer, then Traun)

Educationalist.

25 April 1818 – 18 April 1863

A Tribute to Bertha Ronge by Patricia Fara

In 1857, the English Women’s Journal warned its readers against ‘flinging themselves recklessly into the arena of public speaking, even if public opinion were to give way so far as to enable them to do so.’ Bertha Jonge was an exceptionally energetic and enterprising woman who paid no attention to such conventional advice. By then, she had already been lecturing regularly for many years as part of her life-long campaigns for female equality, religious toleration, and education for small children.

By Victorian standards, her behaviour was shockingly unorthodox. Originally from Hamburg, she abandoned her far older husband and the first three of her six children to join her lover, Johannes Ronge, in England when he fled from Germany to escape political persecution; already pregnant, she married him only two months before their baby girl was born. After spending a couple of years in Hampstead, in 1853 Jonge moved to Bloomsbury, where – despite her scandalous background – she became nationally renowned for running a new type of school: England’s first kindergarten, or Infant Garden. Ill-health forced her back to Germany in 1859, but as her English obituarist reminisced admiringly in 1863, she ‘was a lady of extraordinary gifts, both of character and intellect.’

Before eloping and emigrating, Ronge had been a keen supporter of the German educator Friedrich Froebel, who maintained that infants would flourish like young plants if they were allowed to play creatively rather than being subjected to the rigours of rote learning. In Britain, the principle of nursery education had become well established by mid-century as part of the philanthropic drive to keep children out of industrial factories, and Ronge played a crucial role in introducing Froebel’s progressive system. With its dramatic re-evaluation of childhood learning, Froebel’s philosophy had a lasting effect on education in the English-speaking world. Ronge did, however, antagonise Froebel by introducing a significant modification: she insisted that women be more actively involved in the movement and properly trained to teach. 

An accomplished self-publicist, Ronge gained a glowing reputation as an educational innovator, the German system’s ‘most practical and intellectual exponent in England’. Her first pupils in Hampstead came from the local community of fellow radical exiles, but before long English parents began enrolling their children as well. As her success grew, Ronge moved her Infant School to larger, more central premises at 32 Tavistock Place in Bloomsbury. While her educational initiative flourished, her husband’s bid to run a weekly Humanistic Society meeting on Sunday evenings was less popular, although the decorative solar system that he painted on a blue ceiling came in useful for encouraging children to dance like the planets. After a couple of years in Bloomsbury, Bertha expanded her venture by co-opting Johannes to set up an Association School for children over seven, which most unusually encouraged parents to become involved in its organisation. 

The novelty of Ronge’s initiative secured articles in The Times, the Daily News and other national newspapers. One particularly influential supporter was Charles Dickens, who lived nearby in Tavistock house and was a regular visitor. The father of ten children, he promised her that ‘Mrs Dickens shall be duly instructed about the Child-Garden, and will see it, I am sure, with pleasure and interest.’ Dickens also advertised Ronge’s school in his periodical Household Words, where he published a colleague’s informative but sentimental article about Froebel’s new system: ‘The first sproutings of the human mind need thoughtful culture; there is no period of life, indeed, in which culture is so essential. And yet, in nine out of ten cases, it is precisely while the little blades of thought and buds of love are frail and tender, that no heed is taken to maintain the soil about them wholesome, and the air about them free of blight. There must be INFANT GARDENS, Froebel said…[anyone] may see an Infant Garden in full work by calling on a Tuesday morning between the hours of ten and one’ at Mrs Ronge’s school in Bloomsbury. In contrast, another famous novelist visiting from Germany, Theodor Fontane, was less impressed, remarking sceptically that ‘there is a lot of cartwheeling and little learning. Standing upside down is the only headwork.’

On top of looking after her school and her family, Ronge promoted Ronge’s ideas throughout Britain. Her first publishing venture was to translate a 12-page pamphlet from German into English. Then in the following year, in 1855, she and Johannes co-authored a substantial manual they had been previously planning. Aimed at mothers as well as teachers, it tackled both the theoretical and the practical aspects of the new pedagogical approach, including numerous illustrations of balls, cubes and other objects accompanied by full instructions for games and songs designed to educate children through constructive play. Although it got off to a slow start, their book was still being produced in its 19^th edition forty years later.

Their book built on her extensive experience of training teachers and delivering public lectures in England as well as in Germany. In 1854, Ronge participated in a three-month Educational Exhibition organised by the Society of Arts in Covent Garden, ending with a talk and a children’s performance of the songs and games they had learnt at her school. One school inspector singled her out for praise in his official report, recommending to sponsors that ‘the bulk of the education and happiness of the younger classes will be materially enhanced, if grants of pictures and toys were made.’ She was also invited three times to give talks in Manchester, although there does seem to have been an undercurrent of resentment that she made insufficient effort to integrate herself within British life, despite having been granted citizenship.

Ater Ronge returned to Germany, her school in Tavistock Place was continued by two German sisters, Minna and Rosalie Pretorius, before being expanded under English management and absorbed into larger institutions. Ronge lived in London for less than ten years, but she made a permanent impact on British education.

 Patricia Fara’s article draws extensively on Jane Read’s entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and we would like to thank Jane for permission to include data from her research.

Further reading

Rosemary Ashton, Victorian Bloomsbury (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2012)

Jane Read, ‘Ronge, Bertha’ in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Jane Read (2003) Froebelian women: networking to promote professional status and educational change in the nineteenth century,

MINI BIOGRAPHY

Some Key Achievements and Interests

1850 Founded a ‘School for Women’ in Hamburg.

1851 Established the first kindergarten (for children 3-7 years old) in Britain, The England Infant Garden, which moved to 32 Tavistock Place in 1853. Influenced by the work of Friedrich Froebel, the Ronges developed an educational system that incorporated non-didactic play for children. The garden allowed children to learn through observation and involvement. This sharply contrasted traditional Victorian education.

1854 Contributed to an Educational Exhibition organised by the Society of Arts in St Martin’s Hall, Covent Garden and lectured on her system of education using a class to demonstrate the songs and games used to teach. Her approach gained a lot of public support.

Toured the country lecturing on the kindergarten movement, addressing audiences interested in adopting the approach to learning. Visitors were encouraged to come to Tavistock Place to see for themselves how the children learnt.

Not only did she offer a new system of education for young children but also opportunities for women to be trained, employed, and actively involved in the movement.

Created an Association School for children over the age of seven. The Kindergarten and Association School were together known as the Humanistic Schools, first located in Tavistock Place.

1857-1860 Created Infant Garden schools in Manchester and in Leeds.

Issues

Bertha and her husband Johannes were religious and political refugees from Germany so were cut off from their backgrounds.
Johannes’ New Catholicism alienated many, as did his personality.
Bertha married when pregnant with her first child, which was not looked on kindly by those with traditional views of marriage.  The marriage was also not a joyful one, with Bertha an unhappy mother of six. 

Connection to Bloomsbury

Lived and worked in Bloomsbury from 1853 to 1860.

Published Work

1855 A Practical Guide to the English Kindergarten, co-written with Johannes Ronge. This book was in its 19^th edition by 1896.

Further reading:

Froebelian Kindergarten and Association School, also known as the Humanistic Schools; UCL Bloomsbury Project; 13 April 2011;

Bertha Meyer Ronge; Froebel Web; https://www.froebelweb.org/images/ronge.html

Bertha Ronge; Wikipedia;

Victorian Bloomsbury, Ashton Rosemary; London 2012

UCL Leverhulme-funded Bloomsbury Project website: UCL Bloomsbury Project