Julie Schwabe

Julie Schwabe (or Julie Salis-Schwabe; 31 January 1818 – 20 May 1896) was a British philanthropist, educationalist and school founder. She founded schools in Italy and in the UK she established the influential Froebel Education Institute now known as Froebel College, now part of the University of Roehampton.

Life Schwabe was born in Bremen in 1818 and when she was 20 she married her cousin Salis (born Salomon ben Elias) Schwabe, a successful cotton printer in Manchester, of Westphalian Jewish origin but a convert to the Unitarian church. She was known as Julie by the time of their marriage on 14 October 1837. Her husband had become a British citizen two years before. He worked closely with his workers, although he abhorred socialism. This view was not shared by Julie who could see benefits if it fed those in need. Marsden and Doudet had introduced restraints and punishments to try and cure the girls. Schwabe appeared at her trial as a character witness and when Doudet was found guilty of causing the death (reduced on appeal to cruelty) Schwabe tried unsuccessfully to get the novelist Charles Dickens to intercede.

The Schwabes toured Europe with Richard Cobden and his wife as they campaigned for free trade. They arranged for Frederic Chopin to visit to raise funds for an infirmary in Manchester. He stayed with them at Crumpsall House, and if he had stayed a few days more he would have met Jenny Lind, who was the next celebrity to be a house guest.

In the 1890s she brought her ideas back to England where she helped fund the Froebel Education Institute. Schwabe was said to have raised £2,000 by being more frugal with her lifestyle. She persuaded Claude Montefiore and Sir William Mather to assist and Leopold and Maria de Rothschild gave their support. The project also enjoyed the support of Empress Frederick. The 1894 meeting was at the Rothschild's house in Picadilly when the leading people spoke. George William Kekewich, Secretary of the government education department, gave his support with Montefiore as treasurer and Mather as chair.

Schwabe died in Naples in 1896 at the former Collegio Medico.