Gustav Langenscheidt

Together with Charles Toussaint Langenscheidt developed a self-learning method, which he published in 1856 under the title Unterrichtsbriefe zur Erlernung der französischen Sprache ("Teaching letters for learning the French language"). Langenscheidt had copied the idea of such a teaching method and especially the sales strategy of William Cobbett. Since no publisher was interested in this teaching work, Langenscheidt himself established a publishing house on October 1, 1856. These correspondence lessons became very popular and were widely read, so today Langenscheidt can be considered the "father of distance education".

In 1857 Langenscheidt was appointed chief writer of the 11th Infantry Brigade in Berlin. In 1861, together with Carl Dalen and Henry Lloyd, Langenscheidt published "English lessons letters" (similar in structure to the French). From 1867 Langenscheidt Publishing Group had its printing press.

From 1869 Langenscheidt worked with Karl Sachs and Césaire Villatte on the Encyklopädisches französisch-deutsches und deutsch-französisches Wörterbuch ("Encyclopedic French–German and German–French dictionary") and was finally able to publish it in 1880. In 1874, Langenscheidt was awarded the title of professor.

In 1891, in close collaboration with Eduard Muret and Daniel Sanders, he started working on the English equivalent, the Encyklopädisches englisch-deutsches und deutsch-englisches Wörterbuch ("Encyclopedic English–German and German–English dictionary"). Langenscheidt did not live to see its publication; his son Carl, his successor, published it in 1901.

The Toussaint–Langenscheidt method is based on the language teaching methodology of James Hamilton and Jean Joseph Jacotot. The revolutionary aspect of this method was that the focus was no longer on grammar, but on reading and communication. Langenscheidt and Toussaint created a new phonetic alphabet for the representation of pronunciation in order to facilitate learning. This was used until the Second World War, after which it was replaced by the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).