KELLNER, LORENZ. - The greatest Catholic pedagogue in Germany in the last century. Born on 29 January 1811 at Kalteneber near Heiligenstadt (Prussian Saxony), died at Trier on 18 August 1892. After his grammar-school studies at Heiligenstadt and Hildesheim, he attended the pedagogical seminary of Magdeburg. From 1831 to 1836 he was a teacher at Erfurt, where he reorganized the Catholic schools. As his father's assistant in the pedagogical seminary of Heiligenstadt (1856-48) he made a name for himself with the reform of the teaching of the mother tongue, introducing a method based on literary models rather than on abstract exercises. In 1848 he was transferred, with the title and office of "Regierungs- u. Schulrat" (superintendent of schools), to Marienwerder (West Prussia) and was thus the first Catholic to hold that office in that region. In 1855 he moved with the same office to Trier, where he died, after having retired from the office in 1886. He was greatly honored by the government and by the entire teaching profession, especially the Catholic one. Various associations of teachers took their name from him (Trier, Vienna).
A man of profound religiosity, a Catholic by conviction, K. made the basis of every educational action, in himself and in others, on the one hand a firm Catholic religious conviction, on the other a solid awareness of his own duty as a teacher, instilling in teachers above all the conviction of the importance of their mission before the Church and the State. The teacher must act, teach and educate "sub specie aeternitatis". K. was called "Gemütspädagog", that is, a pedagogue who builds in the teacher and in the pupil upon the values of the heart and of feeling. The ultimate goal of all education for him is the perfect and Catholic personality. To achieve this goal, the teacher must first of all have a complete personality, founded on a solid religious conviction.
In addition to a very extensive activity as inspector and instructor, K. also carried on a broad literary activity. It suffices to mention the most important works: the most widely circulated are: Aphorismen zur Pädagogik (Essen 1850, which went through many editions) and his memoirs, Lebensblätter, Erinnerungen an die Schulwelt (Freiburg 1891). Fundamental for the teaching of the mother tongue is his Praktischer Lehrgang für den gesamten deutschen Sprachunterricht (4 vols., Erfurt 1837-40; it went through 18 editions).
From 1845 he was also a contributor, and later editor-in-chief, of the Catholic magazine for teachers Der Schulfreund.