Friedrich Gedike

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Friedrich Gedike, painting perhaps by Ferdinand Collmann , 1791, Gleimhaus Halberstadt

Friedrich Gedike (born January 15, 1754 in Boberow near Karstädt , Mark Brandenburg ; † May 2, 1803 in Berlin ) was a German theologian and educator in the late Enlightenment period and, as an enlightened educational politician, pioneered the Prussian educational reform .

origin

Gedike came from an old family of theologians, including grandfather Lambert Gedicke , the first field provost in the Prussian army, and Simon Gedi (c) ke, court preacher to Elector Joachim II. His parents were pastor Friedrich Gedicke (1718–1762) and his Wife Catharina Eleonore Seger . The later director of the Leipzig Citizens' School , Ludwig Gedike , was Friedrich Gedike's younger brother.

Life

Gedike, orphaned at an early age, attended the city school in Seehausen (Altmark) for one year from 1762 . In 1763 he was accepted into the orphanage in Züllichau and the director, Gotthelf Samuel Steinbart , encouraged him as much as he could. On April 16, 1771, Gedike left the orphanage's school and in the same year began to study theology and ancient languages at the Brandenburg University in Frankfurt .

Through the mediation of his former teacher Steinbart, Gedike got a job in Berlin in 1775 as a tutor for the family of the provost Johann Joachim Spalding . Just one year later, Gedike was appointed sub-principal at the Friedrich-Werdersche Gymnasium . In 1779 Gedike became director there at the age of 25.

Friedrich Gedike, copper engraving by Benedict Heinrich Bendix after a portrait by Anton Graff

Gedike was accepted into the Masonic lodge " Zur Eintracht " in Berlin on September 1st, 1778 and belonged to it until his death.

In 1784 Gedike was appointed senior consistorial councilor of the regional church on the recommendation of the Minister von Zedlitz . However, Prussia showed less ideological tolerance under the successor to the throne Friedrich Wilhelm II than under Frederick the Great . So Gedike soon came under fire: In 1785 Johann Christoph von Woellner denounced him that he was teaching “young people publicly that Christ was nothing more than an honest man; so they do not want to believe in him and go to St. Go to the sacrament, because he did not go to the sacrament himself ”. Von Wöllner was not yet a minister, Gedike was still unrestrained. The establishment of the seminar for learned schools that he later led himself (1787), which later became the model for teacher training at the study seminar , and the introduction of the secondary school leaving examination ( Abitur ) (1788) are primarily his work. In 1787 he was appointed to the high school college that he had suggested , and in 1790 he was accepted as a full member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences , and the Academy of Arts in Berlin soon registered him as a member. Gedike became a member of the Berlin Wednesday Society and the Monday Club . In 1791 he received an honorary doctorate from the theological faculty of the University of Halle and in 1793 he took over the management of the Berlin-Köllnisches Gymnasium . In 1794, however, there was a strict reprimand from the highest authority: The monarch declared that Gedike was one of the church councils that were "well-known neologists and so-called enlighteners " that he would only tolerate for a short time.

Together with Johann Erich Biester , Gedike published the Berlin monthly magazine (1783–1811), which he initiated , the mouthpiece of the Berlin Enlightenment , of which he was one of the leading representatives. He translated several classics, published numerous publications on pedagogy and is today considered an important representative of Prussian neo-humanism .

On May 2, 1803, Friedrich Gedike died of exhaustion in Berlin and was buried on May 5, 1803 in the Nikolai church cemetery. The Berlin publisher Johann Friedrich Unger , for whom Gedike had read the corrections to Goethe's Wilhelm Meister , wrote to Goethe when he heard of Gedike's death: “I am losing a very honest and loyal friend whom I will never forget. For the Prussian state it is almost irreplaceable. ” BH Bendix made a copper engraving portrait based on an oil portrait by Anton Graff , the copies of which are in several collections of copper engravings.

Since September 2008 the state high school in Perleberg has been called "Friedrich-Gedike-Oberschule".

family

From her marriage to Wilhelmine Thym (brother: Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Thym ), who came from an old family of notables in Berlin, there were three sons and five daughters, a. a. a lawyer and the physician Carl Emil Gedike ; the daughter Laura, whom Goethe wrote, was married to the historian, writer and Kunstkammer director Friedrich Christoph Förster , the daughter Sophie was married to the lexical medic Heinrich Meyer , and the youngest daughter Rosalie married the writer and literary historian Franz Christoph Horn .

Fonts

  • Aristotle and Basedow. 1779.
  • School writings. 2 volumes. 1789 and 1795.
  • Children's book for the first exercise in reading without ABC and spelling 1st edition 1791. 2nd edition 1798
  • Mixed fonts. 1801.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Karlheinz Gerlach: The members of the Berlin Masonic Lodge 'Zur Eintracht' 1754-1815 in 260 years of Johannisloge zur Eintracht p. 36. Johanniskoge zur Eintracht eV, 2014, accessed on May 3, 2015 . pdf 4.5 MB
personal data
SURNAME Gedike, Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German educator and educator of the Enlightenment
DATE OF BIRTH January 15, 1754
PLACE OF BIRTH Boberow near Karstädt , Mark Brandenburg
DATE OF DEATH May 2, 1803
Place of death Berlin