Christoph Semler

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Christoph Semler (born October 2, 1669 in Halle (Saale) ; † March 8, 1740 there) was a theologian , astronomer and educator who founded the first German secondary school .

Life

Christoph Semler studied in Leipzig , Jena and Halle. Around 1700 he was a preacher at the Moritzkirche and in 1708 he became chief deacon at the St. Ulrich Church in Halle. He founded the alms office and the widow's fund of the Halle preachers. He was the overseer of the schools in Halle. In his work “Useful Suggestions for Establishing a Mathematical Handicraft School in the City of Halle…” (1705) he developed a plan for a school that was initially aimed at the children of the artisan class, but in which the beginnings of a general understanding of education were already in place.

In 1708 this school was opened in Semler's private house as a mathematical and mechanical secondary school . The institute, which was closed again in 1710, tried to revive Semler again in 1738 as a mathematical, mechanical and economic secondary school . With his death in 1740 this also went out, but the ideal of a secondary school was created by him and continued to have an effect on his contemporaries such as Johann Julius Hecker . In 1731 Semler was accepted as a foreign member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences .

In 1701 he married Dorothea Küchmeister, with whom he had 22 children.

Semler made models for teaching purposes, some of which are still preserved in the Francke Foundation . He had less success with his 30-year effort to build a perpetual motion machine .
Of Semler's work in astronomy, his star atlas Coelum Stellatum , published in Halle in 1731, is known in which the stars and constellations are depicted for the first time on a black background.

The high prize money for the solution of the length problem , which the British Parliament had announced in 1714, prompted Semler to submit a proposal to the Board of Longitude . His method was to combine magnetic inclination , coupling and accurate clocks. The geographer Christoph Eberhard , who was living in Halle at the time, was supposed to present Semler's proposal in London, but as a precaution he did not give him all the details. Eberhard submitted the method to Tsar Peter the Great in Amsterdam in 1717 and in London in 1718 to the Board. Isaac Newton did not comment and so the Board did not meet for discussion. One member, William Whiston , turned to Eberhard with the suggestion that the proceedings should be disclosed to him, since as an Englishman he was more likely to succeed. After a trial at sea, if successful, he wanted to share the reward with him. Whiston tested them on a sea voyage, but to no avail. It is not known whether it was submitted to the board again afterwards.

Works

  • Christoph Semler: Meditatio philosophica de primo juris naturae principio scilicet amore Felicitatis suae ordinato… Praeside Johanne Francisco Buddeo . Hallae Magdeburgicae, Henckelius 1697, Master's thesis, Halle, 1697
  • Christoph Semler: Useful suggestions for setting up a mathematical craft school in the city of Halle, in which all those boys should learn what craftsmen a year in advance before they get to the craft of mathematics and mechanical arts, all kinds of materials ... are shown ... . Hall 1705
  • M. Christoph Semlers Ober-Diaconi at St. Ulrich in Halle Antiques of the Holy Scriptures, Or Biblical Questions, From Paradise, Archa Noä, Stiffts huts, temples, high priests, light and law, sacrifices, bans, festivals, synagogues , Idols, weight, Müntzen, Maassen Frey cities, burials of their Jews, and the like, which the youth for teaching, and those scholars for repetition from the best and most proven Autoribus brought together . Hall in Magdeburg, 1715
  • Christoph Semler: The Temple of Solomon, after all his courts, Moors, gates, halls, sacred vessels, along with ... beygefügten copper pieces ... . Hall: Waysenhaus, 1718
  • Christoph Semler: Palestine, or the promised land and its famous city, pictures, deserts, seas ...: presented in an actual model . Orphanage, Hall 1722
  • M. Christophoro Semlero, Hallensi, Diacono Ulriciano: Supremo Magnae Britanniae Senatu Illustrissimo Parlamento Consecrata Humillimeque Submissa Methodus Inveniendae Longitudinis Maritimae Per Acus Verticales Magneticas, Evidentissimis Superstructa Experimentis Terra Marique Factis . Orphanotropheum, Halae Magdeburgicae (Halle Saale) 1723, 8 °. [2] Bl., 90 pp. with frontispiece (city view of Halle, copperplate).

annotation

Even in many catalogs of state libraries around the world, the publications of Christoph Semler are often confused with those of his son Christian Gottlieb Semler (November 26, 1715–1782), probably because of the same initials.

literature

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personal data
SURNAME Semler, Christoph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Founder of the first German secondary school
DATE OF BIRTH October 2, 1669
PLACE OF BIRTH Halle (Saale)
DATE OF DEATH March 8, 1740
Place of death Halle (Saale)