200th anniversary the first state school for the lack of hearing - Germany / German Democratic Republic 1978 - 20 Pfennig

200th anniversary of the founding of the first public educational institution for the deaf by Samuel Heinicke On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the founding of the first public educational institution for the deaf by Samuel Heinicke, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of the German Democratic Republic issues two multicolored special postage stamps. Special cancellation from 4 April to 3 June 1978 200th anniversary of the founding of the first state educational institution for the deaf by Samuel Heinicke 1978 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of deaf-mute teacher Samuel Heinicke, the first state-run institution for the deaf in the German-speaking world founded. Samuel Heinicke (1727 to 1790), farmer's son from Nautschütz near Naumburg, soldier of the Saxon army in Dresden, a student of mathematics, science and philosophy in Jena, taught in 1769 as a school in Hamburg with impressive success his first deaf-mute students. Through essays on the deaf and dumb and the first textbook for deaf and dumb he was known to the public. In 1777 Samuel Heinicke was appointed by the Elector Friedrich Augustus of Saxony as a teacher of deaf-mutes; On April 14, 1778, the Taubstummeninstitut in Leipzig was opened under his leadership. The founding of the institute, the later "Saxon State Deaf-Mute Institution" and today's general-education polytechnic deaf school "Samuel Heinicke", was a significant event in the history of deaf education. Heinicke's importance is based not only on the foundation of the school, but especially on the fact that for the first time he systematically applied the method of learning the spoken language to deaf children. Samuel Heinicke is therefore considered the founder of the "phonetic method". More and more his thoughts about the formation of deaf and dumb and determined the education of the deaf and dumb man in many parts of the world. In his writings "Observations on Dumb" (1778), "On the way of thinking of the deaf and dumb" (1781) and "Important discoveries and contributions to the doctrine of the soul and the human language" (1784) he fought against prejudice against the deaf and dumb. It is the historical merit of Samuel Heinicke and the following generations of bourgeois deaf and dumb-mute teachers to have developed the phonetic language (Heinicke spoke of "musical language") as the general means of educating and educating deaf people in conscious contrast to artificially trained deaf sign language. The starting point thus gained remained valid also for the socialist Deaf education. The task is still to teach the language to the deaf children, d. H. to consciously and systematically lead them to active language usage. The memory of Samuel Heinicke is honored in 1978 in the GDR through various events. As part of a festival week u. a. in Leipzig an international symposium of the Deaf and -Schwerhörigen-Verband of the GDR on the topic "language and personality development hearing-impaired" instead. The 20 Pfennig value shows the head of Samuel Heinicke and in the background the silhouette of Leipzig around the year 1800. Samuel Heinicke demanded 200 years ago: "It is not only glorious and laudable when a state for the teaching of the deaf and dumb and their progress It is duty, but it is duty: because - they are also people. "This duty to the hearing-impaired people is exemplary in our socialist society.