Klaus Werner Wedell
British educational psychologist
Klaus Wedell CBE was a British educational psychologist and innovator of national and international importance in educational psychology and in special educational needs (SEN), with respect to theoretical and conceptual developments, professional practice and policy.
Early life
Klaus Wedell was born in Dusseldorf, Germany in 1931 and came with his family to Britain as a refugee from Nazi Germany aged seven. He started school in England without speaking English and began a sojourn from place to place and school to school. The family, classed as ‘enemy aliens’, lived from hand to mouth with acute privations. Eventually in August 1943 circumstances became more stable as they moved to Wistow, a residential training college for Germans preparing to return to Germany to help rebuild the country after the war. Private funding enabled the teenage Klaus to continue his education at Bryanston School.
From Bryanston, Wedell went on to study Psychology and Philosophy at King's College University of Cambridge (1950–53). During his National Service (1953–55) he served in the British Army in Germany; he wasn’t much good as a tank unit leader due to his disinclination to give orders, but his bilingual skills were put to good use at brigade headquarters. He then undertook his PhD at the University of Bristol, supported by a Spastics Society Studentship, on the perceptuo-motor problems of children with cerebral palsy.
Klaus married Nina (nee Weaver) in 1956, when both were post-graduate students.
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