Wesselényi Miklós kisdedóvó-alapításai

One of the lesser known segments of Miklós Wesselényi’s wide range of activities was his work regarding kindergartens. Like several other public figures of the Reform Era, he was a member of the Association for Establishing Kindergartens in Hungary. He intended to found a kindergarten in every settlement on his lands and took part in establishing and sponsoring several kindergartens in Transylvania. The baron, who was away from Zsibó to recover in Gräfenberg from 1839, was aided in these tasks by his steward, Benjámin Kelemen, and his lawyer, Károly Kiss. Present study uses the baron’s letters and journal, as well as literature concerning the history of pedagogy to collect data about Wesselényi’s founding of kindergartens, and use this data to present the process of the successful establishment and operation of such an institution, or in other cases the failure of this endeavour