{{short description|German education activist}} '''Bertha Ronge''' (born Meyer; 25 April 1818 – 18 April 1863) was a German education activist. She was involved in the causes of childhood education, women's education and religious freedom. She established the kindergarten movement in [[England]], where she founded the first three kindergartens in [[London]] (1851, with the assistance of her sister [[Margarethe Schurz]]<ref name=schurzMS>[[Carl Schurz]], "Margarethe Meyer Schurz," an unpublished manuscript in the Carl Schurz papers deposited in the [[Library of Congress]]. Available on microfilm.</ref>), [[Manchester]] (1859) and [[Leeds]] (1860).<ref name=fw/> She followed the precepts of [[Friedrich Fröbel]], who advocated the use of structured play activities to promote learning. Bertha Ronge was largely responsible for Fröbel's kindergarten concept gaining a foothold in England.<ref name=bbkl>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bbkl.de/r/ronge_b.shtml|title=Biographisches-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexicon: Bertha Ronge|accessdate=15 April 2011|language=de}}</ref>
==Biography== Bertha was born on 25 April 1818 in [[Hamburg]]. She was the second child of Heinrich Christian Meyer, a wealthy [[Cane (walking stick)|cane]] manufacturer, and his wife Agatha Margaretha (Beusch). Her mother died giving birth to her 11th child, Margarethe.<ref name="bbkl"/> Bertha married Christian Traun, 14 years her senior, in 1834. He was the private secretary of the Duchess of Cambridge. They had six children; one child died at the age of 11 years.
Bertha became an active founding member of the “Association of German Women”, the "Social Club of Hamburg Women for Equalizing Denominational Differences" (''Socialen Verein Hamburger Frauen zur Ausgleichung konfessioneller Unterschiede''; founded in 1848 to reduce religious discrimination against Jews<ref name=bbkl/>), and the "Association of Women and Girls in Support of German Catholics" (''Verein der Frauen und Jungfrauen zur Unterstützung der Deutschkatholiken''; founded in 1846 to support the [[German Catholic]]s specifically and to generally promote freedom of worship of independent congregations — freireligiösen Gemeinde — in a situation where marriages and baptisms outside religions recognized by the civil authorities were not recognized under civil law<ref name=bbkl/>). In 1849, Bertha visited Friedrich Fröbel in [[Bad Liebenstein]] where she met Baroness [[Bertha von Marenholtz-Bülow]] and [[Johannes Ronge]].
Bertha Traun, [[Johannes Ronge]] and others founded a "School for Women" (''Hochschule für das weibliche Geschlecht'') in 1850 in Hamburg for the general education of women with special attention to kindergarten work. However there were controversies between the women who staffed the school's board of directors and the president of the school. In this context, Bertha and Johannes fell in love, and the controversy increased.<ref name=bbkl/> Because of the scandal, the School for Women was closed down in 1852.
The couple went to England via Holland,<ref name=bbkl/> the latter stopping point being chosen so Christian Traun could divorce Bertha due to “desertion.”<ref name=schurzMS/> Bertha and Johannes moved to [[London]] where they married in 1851 and had a daughter Marie. By September 1851 they had opened a first kindergarten in Hampstead and the children included those of the reformer [[Frederic Hill (prison inspector)|Frederic Hill]]. Their second Kindergarten opened in 1853 in Tavistock Place in St Pancras where the family now lived. Berthe began to train teachers at the kindergarten. The pupils at the school included<ref>Jane Read, ‘Ronge, Bertha (1818–1863)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/47128, accessed 1 August 2015]</ref> [[Caroline Bishop (kindergarten)|Caroline Bishop]] who was to champion their views in England.<ref name="Wollons2000">{{cite book|author=Roberta Lyn Wollons|title=Kindergartens and Cultures: The Global Diffusion of an Idea|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vz5ahBwk2J8C&pg=PA63|year=2000|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-07788-9|page=63}}</ref>
[[File:Grave Traun Bruhn (Cordes) FriedhofOhlsdorf (11).jpg|thumb|Bertha's grave (Friedhof Ohlsdorf (Hamburg)]] Bertha held several lectures on the principle of the kindergarten at the home of von Marenholtz-Bülow. The Ronges moved back to Germany 10 years later, after founding kindergartens in London (1851), Manchester (1859) and Leeds (1860), and the Fröbel Society for the promotion of the Kindergarten System.
In 1861, the Ronge family moved back to [[Germany]] to [[Wrocław]] (now in [[Poland]]) and to [[Frankfurt]] in 1863 where Bertha died.<ref name=bbkl/>
==Family== Her sister Margarethe married [[Carl Schurz]] and founded the first kindergarten in the United States in [[Watertown, Wisconsin]] (1856).<ref name=fw>{{Cite web|url=http://www.froebelweb.org/images/ronge.html|title=Froebel Web: Bertha Meyer Ronge|accessdate=15 April 2011}}</ref>
==Works== * ''A Practical Guide to the English Kindergarten'', with Johannes Ronge (London, 1855)<ref name=fw/>
==References== {{reflist}}
==Sources== *{{Cite NIE|wstitle=Ronge, Johannes|year=1905}}
==External links== *[http://www.froebel.org.uk/ Fröbel Educational Institute] *[http://www.rossettiarchive.org/docs/56-1849.raw.html Manuscript for "Johannes Ronge"] poem by [[Dante Gabriel Rossetti]] *{{Cite web|url=http://www.ucl.ac.uk/bloomsbury-project/institutions/humanistic_schools.htm|title=UCL Bloomsbury Project: Froebelian Kindergarten and Association School|publisher=ucl.ac.uk|accessdate=26 April 2011}} *{{Cite web|url=http://www.ucl.ac.uk/bloomsbury-project/articles/individuals/ronges.htm|title=UCL Bloomsbury Project: Johannes and Bertha Ronge|publisher=ucl.ac.uk|accessdate=26 April 2011}} *{{Cite web|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/101047128/|title=Ronge, Bertha|publisher=Dictionary of National Biography Online}} (subscription required)
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ronge, Bertha}} [[Category:1818 births]] [[Category:1863 deaths]] [[Category:Activists from Hamburg]] [[Category:Heads of schools in Germany]] [[Category:Heads of schools in England]] [[Category:German Christian religious leaders]] [[Category:German emigrants to England]]