From his mother and from Gottlieb Konrad Pfeffel, the blind poet of Colmar, he received a better education than falls to the lot of most boys, while the intimacy of his father with Pestalozzi gave to his mind that bent which it afterwards followed.

On account of his health he afterwards undertook a walking tour in Switzerland and the adjoining portions of France, Swabia and Tirol, visiting the hamlets and farmhouses, mingling in the labors and occupations of the peasants and mechanics, and partaking of their rude fare and lodging.

Fellenberg, who had hastily raised a levy en masse, was proscribed; a price was set upon his head, and he was compelled to flee into Germany.

But in this and other diplomatic offices which he held for a short time, he was witness to so much corruption and intrigue that his mind revolted from the idea of a political life, and he returned home with the intention of devoting himself wholly to the education of the young.

[1] He established a cooperative school at Hofwyl where students combined manual labour with studies of literature and science[2] inspired by educationalist Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi.

[5][6] In Australia in the 1840s, James Bonwick named his boarding school Hofwyl House, and was called "the de Fellenberg of Tasmania.

"[7] For forty-five years Fellenberg, assisted by his wife, who ran the side of the school devoted to girls, continued his educational labors, and finally raised his institution to the highest point of prosperity and usefulness.