Claus Rixen

Claus Rixen (born February 14, 1764 in Bokel (near Rendsburg) in the parish of Nortorf ; † November 20, 1843 in Klausdorf in the parish of Dänischenhagen ) was a German teacher .

Live and act

Claus Rixen was a son of the teacher Henrich Rixen († April 4, 1806 in Mühbrook ) and his wife Liesbeth, née Krohn, or Elisabeth, née Trede. He grew up in village conditions and from 1779 worked as an assistant to a school teacher, possibly with his father. From around 1782 he went to a seminar for school teachers in Kiel . He learned from Heinrich Müller , who at the time offered a comparatively very good training. In the spring of 1785 he left the teachers' college and worked as a teacher and organist in Flintbek . Here he immediately tried to improve the school conditions. He offered lessons for the first time in the summer months and followed the ideas of his Kiel teacher Philipp Ernst Lüdersto teach farmers to grow fruit as a part-time source of income.

Rixen founded one of the first village reading societies in Schleswig-Holstein, which had to close again after he left. In 1787 he switched to a better paid apprenticeship in Klausdorf at Gut Knoop . Here he taught until the end of his life and only left the place for short trips. In Knoop, Heinrich Friedrich von Baudissin and his wife Caroline von Schimmelmann and their friends and relatives tried to improve the lives of the farmers. For this purpose, they founded, for example, a model farm and a new school in Klausdorf. Rixen had shown Flintbek to be a capable teacher who advocated reform. He was of the opinion that the village school should also serve as a "practical school of agriculture". Therefore he was pleased about the Count's call to Klausdorf. He constantly tried to grow higher-yielding crops and gave advice on various sideline opportunities.

In 1791 von Schimmelmann wrote the educational reader “Die Dorfgesellschaft”. In addition to the countess, one of the main characters represented a “schoolmaster” who was a helper and advisor who worked with her by mutual agreement. Parts of this book came from Rixen himself.

August Christian Niemann said that Rixen was one of the first people outside of his own circle of friends to promote Niemann's idea of ​​an educational newspaper. Rixen was one of the first employees of the "Schleswig-Holstein Provincial Reports". From 1787 to 1795 and 1811/12 he wrote many texts on practical questions of agriculture and the improvement of life in the country. Together with pastor Georg Hinrich Panitz from Dänischhagen he published the “Volksfreund” in 1792/93. It was a "reader for the citizen and farmer". However, Rixen's own texts cannot be found here.

Because of his publications, Rixen was a renowned specialist. This was particularly true for use in the mining of marl . He was often asked for advice in the search for rich marl pits . In 1806 he therefore traveled to Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania, in 1810 to Funen and Zealand. Rixen quickly got in touch with Albrecht Daniel Thaer . He paid a visit to Rixen in 1798 and later spoke extremely positively about the reform approaches at Gut Knoop. Rixen then wrote several articles that appeared in Thaer's agricultural journals. Presumably Thaer suggested in 1799 that Rixen join the Braunschweig-Lüneburg Agricultural Society in Celle.

Rixen was seen as a helpful and humble person who carefully observed for life. Albrecht Thaer judged in 1800 in the “Annalen der Niedersächsische Landwirtschaft”: “Whoever wants to work good for the peasants must, like everyone else, seek his own reward in the conviction that he does good for the good's sake do. And Mr. Rixen seems to be such a man ”. Until the end of his life he wrote essays on popular educational, practical approaches to reform. In the late 19th century he was particularly interested in historical local history.

In 1817 Rixen received the Medal of Merit from the Schleswig-Holstein Patriotic Society.

family

Rixen's first marriage was Charlotte Juliane Dahl (* 1750; † July 27, 1813 in Klausdorf). There were two children from this marriage. Then he married on December 24, 1813 in Dänischenhagen Christine Dorothea Meyer (born February 18, 1794 in Klausdorf; † December 28, 1858 ibid). Her father Wilhelm Meyer was a Klausdorfer Hufner. The second marriage had ten descendants. In 1835 six daughters and two sons lived from this. The son Joseph (born November 26, 1814, † March 1, 1850) worked from 1841 to 1843 as his father's assistant. He then became a teacher in Plugge .

literature

• Binder .:  Rixen, Claus . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 28, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1889, p. 713 f.    
• Dieter Lohmeier: Rixen, Claus . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 8. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1987, pp. 298-300.