SPRANGER, (FRANZ ERNST) EDUARD

born June 27, 1882, Berlin died Sept. 17, 1963, Tbingen, W.Ger. German educator and philosopher. He served as professor of philosophy in Leipzig (191120), Berlin (192045), and Tbingen (from 1946), and in 193738 he lectured in Japan. He was briefly imprisoned in Berlin late in World War II (1944) but was released at the request of the Japanese ambassador. Spranger was a student of Wilhelm Dilthey and continued his teacher's research in the Geisteswissenschaften (human sciences), emphasizing in his most important works, Die Lebensformen (1914; Types of Men) and Psychologie des Jugendalters (1924; The Psychology of Youth), the effects of culture and history on human ethics and actions. His theories on education as both a reflection of and a possible solution to the moral and social problems of the adolescent were influential on German education in the 1920s.