German educator who adapted Johann Friedrich Herbart's (Herbart, Johann Friedrich) ideas to elementary school use and emphasized the social aspects of traditional school subjects.

After attending the Mörs teachers' seminary, Dörpfeld joined the faculty of a school in Barmen. He remained there for 30 years, also serving as principal. He was the father of Wilhelm Dörpfield.

Though a Herbartian educator, Dörpfeld placed much greater emphasis than Herbart on the social side of education. He viewed sociology as a subject not so much to be taught for itself but rather to affect the teaching of history, geography, and other subjects. Schools, Dörpfeld believed, should be self-governing communities, free from control of both church and state in internal affairs.

Dörpfeld retired in 1880 and spent his final years writing. His most significant work was The Connection Between Thought and Memory (1886).