Bust of Friedrich Froebel, educator, founder of Kindergarten, bust reproduction from 1901, and portrait 1963 titled “HIH Anastasia Nicholaevna Romanov, Grand Duchess of Russia” by the late Richard Banks, in the collection of author (J Froebel-Parker).
On Monday 19 August 2019, WGXC (www.wgxc.org) 90.7 FM in the New York Hudson Valley, invited J (Johannes) Froebel-Parker, descendant of the Froebel Family of Thuringia and author of books about Friedrich Froebel (educator) and Anastasia Romanov, along with Romanov enthusiast, Victoria Signorelli, and Waldorf School educator, Patrice Maynard, on The Morning Show to discuss Froebel’s Kindergarten, the influence on Rudolph Steiner’s Waldorf School, and the Romanov connection.
The lively discussion included at that time the latest about the assertion that Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov survived, the role of various earlier Romanov Grand Duchesses in promoting Froebel educational practices, as well as the similar goals of Froebelian and Waldorfian education.
Not only did Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia, later Grand Duchess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, assist Froebel financially, but a later Romanov, Grand Duke Alexei, was also very fond of Froebel’s wooden blocks, part of the Froebel system which had been given to him by a German relative. These are the same blocks which architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, credited with giving him his “first impulse to architecture” when his “little fingers touched the wooden blocks of Froebel.”
In April of 2024 Histria Books published Froebel-Parker’s GRAND DUCHESS ANASTASIA: STILL A MYSTERY? available at all online book sellers, select bookstores nationally and internationally, or directly at https://histriabooks.com/product/grand-duchess-anastasia/
The German educator, Friedrich Wilhelm August Froebel, 1782 (Oberweissbach, Principality Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, Thuringia, Germany-1852, Marienthal Hunting Castle, Duchy Saxe-Meiningen, Thuringia, Germany) was an innovator in the field of early childhood education. Known as the Father of Kindergarten, his best-known publication which laid the foundation for his educational theory was titled The Education of Man (Die Menschenerziehung).
One of Froebel’s innovations was various levels of wooden building blocks which encouraged innate creativity in children. In fact, architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, famously attributed his early interest in architecture to the moment that his “little fingers” touched the blocks which he had received as a gift.
“The material for building in the beginning should consist of a number of wooden blocks whose base is always one inch square and whose length varies from one to twelve inches. If, then, we take twelve pieces of each length, two sets e.g., the pieces one and eleven, the pieces two and ten inches long, etc.- will always make up a layer an inch thick and covering one foot of square surface; so that all the pieces, together with a few larger pieces, occupy a space of somewhat more than half a cubic foot. It is best to keep these in a box that has exactly these dimensions; such a box may be used in many ways in instruction, as will appear in the progress of a child’s development.”
Anchor Stone Building Blocks are an example of toymakers responding to Froebel’s idea of simple blocks with mathematical or geometric logic. In the late ninteenth century they were manufactured in Rudolstadt, Thuringia and made famous all over the world by Friedrich Adolf Richter.
“It is true that people have always fancied making miniature models of the world around them, but it was the great pedagogue Friedrich Fröbel, the father of the kindergarten concept, who developed the first building block system for children. His blocks were made of wood, and the basic form was a cube.”
Architects and inventors Gustav and Otto Lilienthal took Fröbel’s ideas and looked for possible ways to produce artificial stone blocks. Using quartz sand, chalk, suitable dyes and a varnish made from linseed oil they produced blocks resembling the building materials, brick, sandstone and slate.
Anchor Stone Block Sets became a synonym for creative and pedagogically valuable toys.
As the great grandchildren of Queen Victoria and Prince Consort Albert von Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha, the Romanov children of Tsar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, nee von Hessen und bei Rhein, were surely well aware of their Thuringian roots. Well before the birth of the Romanov children, Kindergartens had been established in the Russian Empire:
The introduction of the Froebel Method into Russia had meantime also begun. In the year 1865 the first foundation was laid by the kind hearted Grand Duchess Helene, who, at my aunt’s request had sent three young Russian girls to Berlin to be trained. The Grand Duchess Helene, a princess memorable for her intellectual gifts and who did such an immense amount for the cause of education in Russia, graciously bestowed her friendship on my aunt. This was expressed in several clever letters, and the Grand Duchess never stayed in Berlin without immediately sending to my aunt, Baroness von Rahden, her lady in waiting for many years, as charming and clever as she was noble minded. Even when the Grand Duchess was passing occasionally through Berlin, my aunt had to go to the station, in order that the Grand Duchess might at least see her and speak with her for a few minutes.
My aunt writes in LABOUR, 1866: “There is a Kindergarten in Odessa; men of note support ‘The Cause.’…
Finally even in Finland, kindergartens were founded through the efforts of Pastor Zychnaeus.
footnote:
By 1877, there was a Kindergarten, Froebel Society and teacher training school in St Petersburg and kindergartens in Moscow, Kiev, Omsk, Riga and Dorpat.
There is mention of Tsarevich Alexei Romanov’s playing with his German building blocks, based on Froebel’s concept, in Grand Duchess Anastasia: Still a Mystery? (histriabooks.com/product/grand-duchess-anastasia). Uncle Ernst von Hessen und bei Rhein, brother of Empress Alexandra, was surely well acquainted with the life and legacy of Friedrich (Frederick) Froebel, especially as the latter had been promoted, encouraged, and welcomed by the nobility of the Wettin duchies in Thuringia, including Duke Bernhard von Saxe-Meiningen, the princely von Hohenlohe family, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach, nee Romanova, and Baroness Bertha Marie von Marenholtz-Buelow. The Froebel-Romanov connection was so heartfelt, that Grand Duchess Maria embroidered a rug to be auctioned off to help fund the teachers’ training institute in the ducal von Saxe-Meiningen Hunting Castle in Bad Liebenstein, which Duke Bernhard had given to Froebel as a home and training center.
When one is an imposter or an impostress, little is expected of them regarding philanthropy, altruism, or benevolence for humanity. Alias Anna Anderson Manahan also known as Franziska Schanzkowska, who purported to be Anastasia, is not known for any great legacy to benefit others. Interestingly, although Schanzkowska was acknowledged as “Anastasia” by some people with connections to the Romanovs, she was resoundingly dismissed by British tutor, Charles “Sydney” Gibbes. This begs consideration, because Gibbes also met privately a number of times with alias Evgenia alias Anastasia in London. Upon his death, his substantial “Romanov Collection,” then under the control of his son, George, was bequeathed to alias Evgenia aka Anastasia. At her death most of it was given to the Russian History Museum located on the grounds of Holy Trinity Monastery (ROCOR: Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia) in Herkimer County, town of Warren, Upstate New York. These precious objects are protected, exhibited, and the subjects of expert presentations in the museum which also benefits from Evgenia’s/Anastasia’s beneficence: in perpetuity her estate generates an annuity which helps to subsidize this gem of a museum, not far from Cooperstown, NY. A New York Times article by Eve Kahn mentions “Evgenia Smetisko” anglicized to Eugenia Smith, as the donator of Romanov objects at the museum. Although the monastery has buried her with the name “Evgenia Smetisko,” it must be noted that it decided NOT to use the date of birth of “Evgenia” as listed on immigration papers, rather has resorted to placing the date 18 June 1901, that of Her Imperial Highness, on the grave of this philanthropic lady.
Believers in the veracity of alias Evgenia Smetisko’s claim that she was the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, nee von Hessen und bei Rhein, decorate her grave each season. On Orthodox Holy Monday her grave was prepared for the upcoming Pascha Celebrations. The day before, Orthodox Palm Sunday, had seen more pilgrims than ever crowd the monastery associated with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR). Said one cleric, “We don’t know what to ascribe it to. All Great Lent we have seen visitors in greater number than even before Covid. We had so many on Holy Saturday we had to open the Seminarians’ Hall just to feed them all.”
Author J (Johannes) Froebel-Parker has published a new book about research affirming alias “Smetisko’s” claim to have been Grand Duchess Anastasia titled GRAND DUCHESS ANASTASIA: STILL A MYSTERY? It is available at histriabooks.com/product/grand-duchess-anastasia, all online book purveyors, and select bookstores in the USA and Europe.