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A celebrated German pedagogue; born in Hamburg, Sept. 11, 1723; died in Magdeburg, July 25, 1790. He became one of the most acute thinkers of his day, the problem of education enlisting his intellectual powers particularly; and in the famous "Elementary Treatise" (1774), he inaugurated a pedagogical revolution, the work being analogous to that of Comenius in the "Pictured (or Painted) World". The German, however, was strictly scientific and modern, the numerous works he subsequently prepared being elaborations of the original treatise, and all of vital importance in the history of education.