Anna Pestalozzi-Schulthess

Anna Pestalozzi-Schulthess (9 August 1738 – 11 December 1815) was a Swiss educator and philanthropist, wife of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, and financial administrator of the Pestalozzi-Institute. She funded the orphanages and schools of her husband, often being the only financial supporter of his projects.

Family Anna Pestalozzi-Schulthess was born into the Schulthess family, a wealthy and renowned merchant family which ran a bakery and Konditorei (confectioners) at the Rüdenplatz in Zürich.

Life

Early life and courtship Anna Schulthess was born on 9 August 1738, to Hans Jakob Schulthess and Anna Holzhalb.

In 1774 Neuhof was converted to an industrial school for about 37 impoverished children and 13 impoverished adults. Pestalozzi-Schulthess was responsible for managing the housekeeping and the finances of the facility, the latter of which she greatly supported with her own family wealth. Her experience as a merchant in the family baking and confectionary business aided the financial work. In addition, she taught the girls at Neuhof household skills and spinning. Although it was clear to her that the institution would never see financial success (through the farm or the work of the children), Pestalozzi-Schulthess continued to use her own wealth to support Neuhof until its eventual bankruptcy.

Later life Pestalozzi-Schulthess participated in her husband's later educational endeavours, including the orphanage in Stans and the school at Burgdorf. In 1807, she joined Pestalozzi's longest-lasting project, the institute at Yverdon, where she died in 1815. In 1813, two years before her death, she used her inheritance to rescue the institute financially, allowing it to continue teaching for another twelve years until its 1825 closure.

Descendants Anna Schulthess-Pestalozzi and Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi had one child, Hans Jakob Pestalozzi, nicknamed "Jean Jacques" or "Jacqui" after Jean-Jacques Rousseau. They had at least one grandchild, Gottlieb Pestalozzi, who was able to complete the construction of the manor house at Neuhof after the deaths of his grandparents.