Carl Otto Reventlow

Carl Otto Reventlow (actually Karl [Carl] Christian Otto; born 1817 in Store Heddinge (Denmark), died in 1873) became notable as the developer of a mnemonic system. The type of relationship (if any) he had with the Reventlow family of old Holstein-Mecklenburg nobility is not known.

Otto took up studies in philology at the University of Copenhagen but soon focused on the art of memory enhancement. After publishing a textbook on his mnemonic system in 1843[1], he travelled widely in Germany to popularize it. His most notable lectures were given in Leipzig, but also in Prague. A dictionary that substituted mnemonic terms for numbers[2] and a guideline for the use of mnemotechnics in schools[3] which listed some 3,000 mnemotechnically annotated facts from history and geography courses followed in 1844 and 1846, respectively.

The novelty of Otto's "substitution method" was disputed almost immediately[4][5], his opponents stating it to be just one more derivative of the method proposed by Aimé Paris. However, it received highly favorable reviews as well[6].

Otto subsequently involved himself in the revolutionary events of 1848, and came under police investigation in 1849[7]. Apparently he was the Carl Otto-Reventlow who took over a Cincinnati radical, anti-monarchist periodical for German-speaking exiles, the Hochwächter, in 1857[8]. He appears to have had some contact with Karl Marx, who referred to him in extremely derogatory terms in at least one of his letters[9].

References

  1. ^ Otto, Carl Christian (Pseudonym: Carl Otto Reventlow): Lehrbuch der Mnemotechnik nach einem durchaus neuen auf das Positive aller Disciplinen anwendbaren Systeme. Ed.: J.G. Cotta, Stuttgart und Tübingen 1843; 240 p.
  2. ^ Reventlow, K. O. Wörterbuch der Mnemotechnik nach eignem Systeme. Ed.: J.G. Cotta, Stuttgart und Tübingen 1844
  3. ^ Otto, C. Leitfaden der Mnemotechnik für Schulen. Ed.: J.G. Cotta, Stuttgart und Tübingen, 1846
  4. ^ Rauk C.W. Reventlov und die Mnemonik, und die Mnemonik und die Schule. Cottbus 1844
  5. ^ Pick E. Mnemonik und ihre Anwendung auf das Studium der Geschichte. Ed.: Steiner'sche Buchhandlung. Wintherthur 1848
  6. ^ E. M. Öttinger, Karl Otto genannt Reventlow oder die Mnemonik in ihrer höchsten Ausbildung. Leipzig 1845
  7. ^ Pierer's Universal-Lexikon. 4th ed., 1857-1865
  8. ^ Eine Geschichte der Entwickelung Cincinnati's und seines Deutschthums, mit biographischen Skizzen und Illustrationen. Cincinnati: Queen City Pub. Co., 1901. p. 81) Harvard University online edition
  9. ^ Marx to Conrad Schramm, 8 December 1857. Cited in: Marx K., Engels F. Collected works (transl. by P. Ross). Ed.: Lawrence & Wishart, 1983. ISBN 0853154619 p. 217