Georg von Jäger

Georg von Jäger

Georg Jäger , from 1850 Knight von Jäger , (born March 8, 1778 in Düsseldorf , † November 20, 1863 in Speyer ) was a Bavarian pedagogue , royal councilor and reorganizer of the school system in what was then the Rhine district , today's Palatinate .

Live and act

Georg Jäger was born as the third child of Düsseldorf citizens Joseph Jäger and Maria Sophia. Vanhoffs born. The father died in 1779 and the boy grew up as a half-orphan. He attended elementary school and grammar school in his hometown, then studied philosophy and entered the seminary of the diocese of Worms in Heidelberg as an alum in 1799 .

The Palatinate on the right bank of the Rhine got into the fighting zone of the Second Coalition War against France, as a result of which the diocese of Worms was also lost. Georg Jäger had to break off his training as a priest and never took it up again. He found employment as a court master with a noble family in Schwarzach (Odenwald) , where Carl Philipp von Wrede met him and saw to it that he was accepted into the Bavarian civil service.

Georg Jäger took up a position as a teacher at the Kempten grammar school in 1804 and became head of the institution in 1817. In the same year, District President Joseph von Stichaner brought him to Speyer to entrust him with the management of the grammar school . In 1824 he was awarded the rank of university professor, in 1830 Georg Jäger became a councilor and in 1832 a district scholarch , making him inspector of all schools in the Rhine district. In 1842, the philosophy faculty of Heidelberg University appointed Jäger an honorary doctorate , and he was awarded the Knight's Cross 1st Class of the Bavarian Order of Merit of St. Michael . On November 11th of the same year the city of Speyer became an honorary citizen for his services in the fight against child labor and his commitment to compulsory schooling with a school leaving certificate.

Gravestone, Speyer old cemetery

The revolutionary government of 1849 deposed Jäger as headmaster because of his allegiance to the king. After the collapse of the uprising, he was able to resume work. On April 28, 1850, King Maximilian II of Bavaria awarded him the Order of Civil Merit of the Bavarian Crown , thus elevating him to the personal nobility.

On October 12, 1862, Georg von Jäger retired after teaching for almost 60 years. He died on November 20 of the following year and was buried in the old cemetery in Speyer . His large grave cross in the cathedral chapter has been preserved there.

The pedagogue was married to Friederike von Ravenstein († 1857), daughter of the ducal councilor of Zweibrücken Karl von Ravenstein and his wife Friederike geb. Schmitthenner. Of their five children, the son Albert von Jäger became known as the director of the Palatinate Railways . Both father and son were avowed Catholics. His other son Rupert Jäger later became a teacher and philologist in Speyer.

Georg von Jäger is considered to be the main organizer of the Palatinate school system in the early 19th century. His curricula served as a model for all of Bavaria. In addition, he served as chairman of the administrative board of the Speyer Cathedral parish and held the office of 2nd chairman of the Historical Society of the Palatinate , for which he drafted the statutes in 1841.

Jäger is also the author of the historically significant book "Des Rheinkreis Jubelwoche" , in which he describes the Palatinate trip of the Bavarian King Ludwig I in 1829 in detail. He also wrote several school-specific works, such as "About the school and education system in the Bavarian Rhine District 1817-1827" .

literature

• Johann Josef Hermann Schmitt:  Jäger, Georg von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 50, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1905, pp. 621-623.
• Viktor Carl: "Lexicon of Palatinate Personalities" . Hennig Verlag, Edenkoben 1998, p. 325.
• Jakob Knauber : "Albert von Jäger, Director of the Palatinate Railways (1814–1887)" , publishing house of the Catholic parish offices in Ludwigshafen, 1925.
• Georg Rau: “Speech at the celebration of the fiftieth official anniversary of the Königl. Councilor, Rector of the Lyceum and Gymnasium zu Speier, Dr. Georg von Jaeger ” , Speyer, Kranzbühler, 1854 ( complete scan of the celebratory speech published in print ).

Web links

• Honorary citizen Georg von Jäger , website of the city of Speyer

Individual evidence

1. ^ Advertisement of the award of the medal in the Official and Intelligence Gazette for the Palatinate, No. 42, dated June 1, 1850
2. ↑ Contemporary statement about his teaching
3. ↑ To the book “Des Rheinkreis Jubelwoche” , by Georg von Jäger