Samuel Heinicke: Naturschutz, Germany

Samuel Heinicke was born on April 10, 1727, in Naturschutz, Germany. He is best known around the world as the “Father of pure oralism” for his work with deaf children in Germany. When he was young, he enrolled in the army and his passion for education and language flourished. However, being a soldier did not allow him to pursue his passion. Samuel faced many struggles during his time in the army. One of these hardships included being captured during the Six Years’ of War in 1769. According to Britannica, “he managed to escape and eventually became secretary to the Danish ambassador in Hamburg. In 1769 the ambassador helped Heinicke secure a teaching position in nearby Eppendorf, where he found his real calling in the instruction of deaf children.” He focused all of his time to teaching deaf children because he enjoyed the challenge.

His dreams became reality in 1778 when he opened the doors of his school for the deaf. The school was called, Electoral Saxon Institute for the Mutes and Other Persons Afflicted with Speech Defects. His form of teaching his deaf students to communicate goes against the way most deaf children are taught in this day and age. Samuel believed that the only way his students could learn was by using oralism. Dictionarry.com defines oralism as, “the theory, practice, or advocacy of education for the deaf chiefly or exclusively through lipreading, training in speech production, and training of residual hearing”. He was a firm believer that the only way deaf students could survive in a hearing world was by speaking and lipreading to communicate. Samuel went against the form of teaching established by Abbé de l’Epée who taught deaf students by a system of hand gestures. Heinicke was convinced his method was superior and the only method he used to teach at his