Ferdinand Hasenclever

Ferdinand Hasenclever (born March 2, 1769 in Remscheid , † May 30, 1831 in Arnsberg ) was a Protestant pastor and consistorial councilor in the church and school department of the government in Arnsberg . He particularly distinguished himself as an educational reformer.

Ferdinand Hasenclever

Early years

He was the son of the doctor Johann Hasenclever and the mother Anna Magdalena (née Grund). He lost his father as a child. After he was brought up by his mother, he came into the family of Pastor Heinrich Natorp in Gahlen . He grew up there with Bernhard Christoph Ludwig Natorp and was tutored by a private teacher before he attended grammar school in Duisburg . From 1787 he studied theology at the University of Jena . He was spiritually influenced by Christian Gotthilf Salzmann and Carl Leonhard Reinhold .

After completing his studies, he first became assistant preacher in Remscheid in 1790 . From 1796 he was pastor in Gevelsberg . In 1798 he married Dorothea Schimmel (1778–1823), daughter of the pastor Johann Dietrich Andreas Schimmel. With this he had a total of 16 children, eight of whom died early. The son Friedrich Wilhelm Hasenclever became a well-known pharmacist in Burtscheid near Aachen and founder of the chemical factory Rhenania in neighboring Stolberg .

Ferdinand Hasenclever is not closely related to Wilhelm Hasenclever's family, who also immigrated to Arnsberg .

A school is named after him in Gevelsberg.

School reform in Märkisches

In 1804 he was appointed school commissioner for the Schwelm area by the Brandenburg War and Domain Chamber . He found significant shortcomings in the schools in County Mark and looked for solutions. School attendance was often irregular and the teachers poorly trained. To this end, he wrote detailed visitation reports. He was shaped by the education of the Enlightenment . His goal was: " Children should be educated in schools to understand and moral people and to be useful and happy citizens ". For this, “ the dormant powers and abilities of their soul (of the children) in school would have to be awakened by the teacher and strengthened more and more through appropriate exercises, the mind must be for attention and reflection, the memory for easy and faithful retention, the heart for a lively assistant to become accustomed to the good and the holy and the will to the constant doing of justice. "(...)" Knowledge of religion and virtue, health and the common good of nature, earth and country studies must be communicated for each stand . " (...) “ The skills that are important for getting ahead in the world, such as reading, writing and arithmetic, must be taught ”.

The creation of a qualified teaching staff was particularly important. A better salary also played a role for Hasenclever. So he pleaded in vain for a general school tax. He conducted regular examinations of the educational level of teachers in his district. He made suggestions in specialist magazines for a mandatory teacher test. For Schwelm, where several elementary and secondary schools existed side by side, he proposed a “comprehensive school” that should include the lower and higher middle school. The school was subordinated to a school board and no longer the local priest.

In addition, he was also active as an author. For the first time in 1796 a religious book by him with the title Instructions for True Christianity appeared for Christian children for use in teaching in Protestant children and schools. The work was reprinted many times and was used, among other things, for confirmation classes in many places in the county of Mark and in Siegerland until it was abolished in 1843 by the Westphalian Provincial Synod .

Consistorial Council

After the establishment of the administrative district of Arnsberg in 1816, Hasenclever was appointed to the government and consistorial council in the church and school department. He lived in Arnsberg first in the Dücker Hof and later in the Königsstrasse. In the Rheinisch-Westfälische Anzeiger it was in 1817 for office Hasenclever " As in many things, so Prussia will want to be seen as a model in the improvement of the school system; This is guaranteed by the extensive school knowledge of the men at the top, as well as by their views and their legality. "

Hasenclever worked closely with his Catholic colleague Friedrich Adolf Sauer . What both had in common was the desire for school reforms in the sense of the Enlightenment. They both had good personal relationships, and Sauer was even the godfather of a daughter of Hasenclever.

The reform of the lower school system was the most important task of Sauer and Hasenclever. Hasenclever was responsible for the county of Mark, the Siegerland and Wittgenstein . During his term of office, among other things, the delimitation of the school districts and the school inspection groups fell. Numerous new schools and teachers' apartments were built. He advocated better pay and the merging of schools that were too small. He made particular efforts in cooperation with Adolf Diesterweg to get rid of child labor in the emerging industry. However, this did not succeed, as a decree for the children working in the factories shows. This reminded of the general compulsory school attendance and warned that the children should not work too early and too long. However, this did not abolish child labor. With a view to improving the school system, he worked closely with the Lord President Ludwig von Vincke , Ludwig Natorp and Bernhard Overberg . There is a report on the development of the elementary school system between 1816 and 1826. Although the text is signed by the District President Karl von Flemming , it is likely that Hasenclever wrote it to a large extent. After that, 82 miniature schools were merged into more efficient facilities, and 81 new schools were built.

He was also responsible for overseeing the Protestant churches in the 11 church districts of his district. Ex officio he was a commissioner of the general synod of Brandenburg. He was skeptical of Prussian centralism and took the side of the synod, which defended its old rights.

Pastor in Arnsberg

At the same time he was pastor in the Protestant parish in Arnsberg. This was only created in 1804 with the transition of the Duchy of Westphalia to Hessen-Darmstadt and the arrival of Protestant officials and military. The pastor's position had been vacant since 1815.

Hasenclever rebuilt the community. He worked hard to build his own church. The Church of the Resurrection in the classical style was finally consecrated in 1825. He also paid great attention to the evangelical school in the city. This subsequently experienced a great boom. She was so respected that she sometimes taught Catholic students until they had to be turned away due to lack of capacity. But Hasenclever did not succeed in linking elementary school with a secondary branch.

He has contributed significantly to the fact that the church in Arnsberg in union was united so Lutheran and Reformed members. Hasenclever pushed for the congregation to join the Synod in Iserlohn . He also took care of the establishment of a church and school board. In a long dispute over the of King Friedrich Wilhelm III. He stood on the side of the opponents, even though he had designed himself. The agendas also led to conflict within the community.

literature

• Werner Philipps: History of the Evangelical Church Community Arnsberg. Arnsberg 1975.
• Werner Philipps: Wrongly forgotten: Ferdinand Hasenklever (1769 - 1831) school man and pastor. ” In: Heimatblätter. Journal of the Arnsberger Heimatbund, issue 9, 1988, p. 23 ff.
• Dorothea Stupperich: Ferdinand Hasenklever and the school reform in Schwelm (1804 - 1814). In: Yearbook of the Association for Westphalian Church History. Volume 63, 1970, p. 81 ff.
• Günter Cronau : Ferdinand Hasenclever, pastor in Arnsberg from 1817 to 1831. Online version (PDF; 174 kB)