Schiffler's father was an elementary school teacher and his grandfather was a toy manufacturer. Schiffler was born in Gotha, Thuringia, where he grew up as well. He had just completed the local gymnasium (high-school) in 1914, when he was drafted as a soldier in World War I. After the war Schiffler studied first at the Freiberg University of Mining and Technology and later at the University of Stuttgart, which awarded him an engineering degree. Then he worked as an engineer for a machine factory in Esslingen.[1]
building block with cogs invented by Schiffler
In 1925 he founded his own company called Dusyma, which produced educational toys and musical instrument made of wood. The instruments that Dusyma produced comprised an improved version of the Stoessel lute and the Mandolute. In 1937 Schiffler invented a special building block with cogs as a basic element for construction kits of wood pieces allowing to construct various toy buildings and structures. Dusyma produced not only toys but also children's furniture and other supplies needed in kindergartens. Many of the educational toys Dusyma produced were inspired by the Froebel gifts. Schiffler collaborated with Erika Hoffman, a professor of pedagogics and expert on Friedrich Froebel, and the Kindergarten teacher Christine Uhl, who designed one of the construction kits produced by Dusyma.[1]
During World War II Schiffler was again drafted as a soldier and his company was reorganized to produce material needed for the war effort. After the war Dusyma went back to manufacture educational toys and various kindergarten supplies. In addition to wood now plastic was used as construction material as well.[1]
In 1971 Schiffler was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. In 1978 he asked his daughter Lulu Schiffler-Betz to join Dusyma to prepare her for leading the company later on. 1981 Schiffler retired and passed on Dusyma's management to his daughter.[1]
Triangle ABC is partitioned into triangles ABI,BCI, ACI and the Euler lines e0,e1,e2,e3 coincide in the Schiffler point S
Schiffler had in interest in geometry and discovered that if you partition a triangle into 3 subtriangle with the incenter as a common point, then the Euler lines of those subtriangles and the original triangle intersect in a common point. This property became later known as Schiffler's theorem and that common point as Schiffler point. Schiffler published his discovery in 1985 in the form of a problem in the Canadian journal Crux Mathematicorum.[2][3]
Schiffler was married twice. From his first marriage he had one daughter and from his second marriage four daughters and one son.[1]
Lore Thier-Schröter und Hellmut Thier: Kurt Schiffler zum 100. Geburtstag. Gründer der Dusyma-Werkstätten. L. Schiffler-Betz, Schorndorf-Miedelsbach 1996 (German)
1 2 3 4 5 Lore Thier-Schröter und Hellmut Thier: Kurt Schiffler zum 100. Geburtstag. Gründer der Dusyma-Werkstätten. L. Schiffler-Betz, Schorndorf-Miedelsbach 1996, pp. 8-9,15-17, 23-24, 29-33(German)
↑ Joe Goggins: The Converse of Schiffler's theorem. Crux Mathematicorum with Mathematical Mayhem, Canadian Mathematical Society, 2007, volume 33, no 6, p. 354 (online copy)
↑ Kurt Schiffler: Problem 1018. In: Crux Mathematicorum, volume 11, no 2, February 1985, p. 51 (online copy); G. R. Veldkamp, W. A. van der Spek: Solutions to Problem 1018. Crux Mathematicorum, volume 12, no 6, June 1986, p. 151 (online copy)
Milton Bradley Company or simply Milton Bradley (MB) was an American board game manufacturer established by Milton Bradley in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1860. In 1920, it absorbed the game production of McLoughlin Brothers, formerly the largest game manufacturer in the United States. Since 1984, it has been a division of Hasbro.
Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel or Froebel was a German pedagogue, a student of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, who laid the foundation for modern education based on the recognition that children have unique needs and capabilities. He created the concept of the kindergarten and coined the word, which soon entered the English language as well. He also developed the educational toys known as Froebel gifts.
Paul Pietsch was a racing driver, journalist and publisher from Germany, who founded the magazine Das Auto. He was the first German ever to take part in a Formula One Grand Prix.
The Froebel gifts are educational play materials for young children, originally designed by Friedrich Fröbel for the first kindergarten at Bad Blankenburg. Playing with Froebel gifts, singing, dancing, and growing plants were each important aspects of this child-centered approach to education. The series was later extended from the original six to at least ten sets of Gifts.
Susan Elizabeth Blow was an American educator who opened the first successful public kindergarten in the United States. She was known as the "Mother of the Kindergarten."
Bruno Paul was a German architect, illustrator, interior designer, and furniture designer.
Kurt Mahler FRS was a mathematician who worked in the fields of transcendental number theory, diophantine approximation, p-adic analysis, and the geometry of numbers.
Milton Bradley was an American business magnate, game pioneer and publisher, credited by many with launching the board game industry, with the Milton Bradley Company, which was purchased by Hasbro in 1984.
Georg August Nöbeling was a German mathematician.
Carl Christian Vogel von Vogelstein, born Vogel, was a German painter.
Walter Becher was a German Bohemian politician, representative of the All-German Bloc/League of Expellees and Deprived of Rights (GB/BHE), All German Party (GDP) and the Christian Social Union of Bavaria.
Bertha Ronge was an activist in the causes of childhood education, women's education and religious freedom. She established the kindergarten movement in England, where she founded the first three kindergartens in London, Manchester (1859) and Leeds (1860). She followed the precepts of Friedrich Fröbel, who advocated the use of structured play activities to promote learning. Bertha Ronge was largely responsible for Fröbel's kindergarten concept gaining a foothold in England.
The First Kindergarten in Watertown, Wisconsin is the building that housed the first kindergarten in the United States, opened in 1856. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 for its significance to the history of education.
Anton Burger was a German painter, draftsman and etcher.
Ernst Hellmut Vits was a German lawyer who headed the rayon manufacturer Vereinigte Glanzstoff-Fabriken (VGF) from 1940 to 1969.
Egon Voss is a German musicologist, who is particularly known for his contributions to Richard Wagner research.
Joseph Maria Müller-Blattau was a German musicologist and National Socialist cultural official. He is regarded as a "nestor of Saarbrücken musicology" but also as a "singer of a musical seizure of power" because of his activities in National Socialism.
Georg von Dadelsen was a German musicologist, who taught at the University of Hamburg and the University of Tübingen. He focused on Johann Sebastian Bach, his family and his environment, and the chronology of his works. As director of the Johann Sebastian Bach Institute in Göttingen, he influenced the Neue Bach-Ausgabe (NBA), the second complete edition of Bach's works.
Hans Joachim Marx is a German music historian. He has been professor for European music history at the University of Hamburg.
Otto Gschwantler was an Austrian philologist who was Head of the Institute for Germanic Studies at the University of Vienna. He specialized in the study of early Germanic literature.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
