SCHMID, CHRISTOPH von. – Educationalist, born 15 August 1768 in Dinkelsbühl, died 3 September 1854 in Augusta. Sailer’s favorite pupil at Dillingen, he was ordained a priest in 1791.
He was involved in the organization of schooling in Bavaria; he was school inspector of the Mindel district and displayed great activity in that field. His principal merit lies in the fact that he was the first to apply Sailer’s pedagogical ideas (v.) in practice through his extensive and sustained activity as a writer of fables and stories, aimed at the Catholic education of the young.
His stories, beginning with the earliest, written in epistolary form and published in 1806 under the title Das Glück der guten Erziehung, through the Erzählungen für Kinder und Kinderfreunde (Landshut 1823–29, in 4 vols.), not only achieved and continue to enjoy great success in Germany, but were translated into almost all European languages and many non-European ones (e.g., Arabic, Japanese, Chinese).
S. himself prepared a complete edition of them in 24 vols. from 1840 onward. Alongside this activity as a writer for the young, S. sought to free the teaching of sacred history from all the abstractions that made it exceedingly difficult for children’s simple minds to understand: in 1801 he therefore published a biblical history suited to them, Biblische Geschichte. The textbooks he composed for Bavarian schools and published around 1840 were also highly esteemed.