100 years of the Fröbelhaus kindergarten

The Fröbelhaus was built 100 years ago and opened its doors to children for the first time in the fall of 1921. Since then, the Fröbelhaus, initially as a "Kinderbewahranstalt" and later as a kindergarten with integrated after-school care, has been a permanent and constant fixture in Jena's childcare and education landscape.

"As educators at one of Jena's oldest kindergartens, we are proud to say that our Fröbelhaus has always remained a house for children, despite all the social upheavals. The close connection to the Schiller School, where Fröbel nursery nurses were trained between 1930 and 1945, had a significant influence on the educational orientation of our facility from an early stage. Our anniversary this year is not only a celebration of the house itself, but also a celebration in honor of the Fröbel pedagogy to which we are committed," says director Nadine Seehars.

Taking this as an opportunity, the Froebelhaus team organized a week of celebrations for its kindergarten children over the past few days, which was all about the founding period of the house and Froebel education. From Monday to Friday, the children were taken on a short journey through time, reviving old Froebel techniques. "Even though we weren't able to celebrate our special anniversary to the extent befitting such an occasion due to the uncertain and challenging times, we wanted to offer our children in particular a week with lots of highlights," emphasizes Nadine Seehars.

On Monday, "Mr. Froebel" came to visit and told the children about the time when the kindergarten was founded. At the same time, there was an exhibition in the gym with exhibits from the last 100 years, which was expanded over the course of the week to include our weekly highlights.

In the garden, the children were able to try out old circle and outdoor games during the celebration week. From Tuesday to Thursday, each day was dedicated to a different Froebel technique (folding, building, cutting). The teachers prepared several activities for the children to take part in. The festive week ended with a kindergarten birthday party on Friday morning with lots of surprises for the children. Mr. Fröbel came to visit again and let the children tell him about the highlights of the week. There were a few surprises, such as music, the cutting of the birthday cake, a bouncy castle, face painting and a pigeon flight for the children.

"I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our supporters once again. I would like to mention the hard-working seamstresses from among our parents, who painstakingly made our nursery school teachers' aprons, which we wore during the festive week so that the children could get an idea of the working clothes worn by nursery school teachers in the past. We would also like to thank the Benning-Kalisch family for sponsoring a new Fröbel flag. We would also like to thank the JOS company for providing the birthday cake and the vitamin-rich treats. A special thank you goes to our old janitor Sigurd Horn, who provided the cultural framework for our festive week with his musical and acting talent as Mr. Froebel," emphasizes the director.

"Finally, I would like to thank my colleagues most sincerely for their commitment to the success of the festival and their daily work. Their wealth of ideas, dedication and commitment help to give every child at our facility a new day in a structured, reliable and safe environment every day," adds Nadine Seehars.