Heinrich Bosshard

Heinrich Bosshard

Memorial plaque on the "Heinrich Bosshardt" schoolhouse in Schwamendingen

Heinrich Bosshard (born April 8, 1811 in Bolstern near Kollbrunn , then part of the municipality of Seen near Winterthur ; † April 3, 1877 in Highland , Illinois , USA ) was a Swiss teacher, musician, poet, naturalist and farmer.

After his own school days in Iberg , which belongs to the municipality of Seen , he first worked as a fisherman and accompanied his mother in her work as a peddler with textile goods. On the recommendation of the pastor of his parish, Bosshard joined the Küsnacht ZH teacher training college in 1832 as one of the first students .

Bosshard gained importance from 1834 as one of the pioneers of the modern Zurich school system and in 1836 as the poet of the Sempach song .

biography

Beginnings

Heinrich Bosshard grew up in modest circumstances. The father's income from his job as a shoemaker was not enough to support the family with his son Heinrich and his two younger siblings. Therefore, as a peddler in cotton goods, the mother contributed her own to the family income. In addition, there was the income from their own small farm with a single dairy cow .

In the parental home, the father ruled with a strict hand. Almost every day the children were punished with the rod or a piece of rope. The discussion was not if, but at most when it was beaten. Heinrich Bosshard later wrote in an essay that it said «Do you want to before or after dinner? Do you want now or in the morning? ». This kind of upbringing was common at the time, and it was even regarded as healthy, saying something like: «Just look at him, that's why you're so big! You are threshed apart. " (from another essay by Heinrich Bosshard).

Heinrich went to school in the neighboring town of Iberg, where the lessons mainly consisted of learning by heart and spelling. Or as he himself wrote: «Every half day we had to repeat to the teacher twice; and every time we had recited, he spelled out to each one what he now had to learn until he recited. And so it went year out and year in. "

He learned the flute - and the violin - from the neighboring Wäckerli family . Heinrich Bosshard was sponsored as a child by the local pastor . On his motivation, Bosshard entered the newly opened teacher’s seminar at the age of 21. Until then he was active as a fisherman and by accompanying his mother while peddling. Heinrich used to take his violin with him on the peddling tours and play it to customers, which helped a lot with the sale.

Time as a teacher

A new school system was created on the basis of the Zurich cantonal constitution of 1831. The liberal government attached great importance to a clear separation of church and school, as well as to the training of teachers. Heinrich Bosshard was one of the first to graduate from the new teacher training college. During his time at the teacher training college, he made a name for himself with essays on current affairs and with extensive knowledge of the natural sciences . Therefore, he was still writing natural history articles in the educational writings of the seminar director Ignaz Thomas Scherr . After completing his training, Heinrich Bosshard joined the school in the then independent municipality of Schwamendingen in 1834 as one of the first professionally trained teachers in the canton . There he lived in the official apartment on the first floor of the school building. Because teachers were paid very poorly at the time, Bosshard also got a barn and a small farm to run from the community. Here he gained his first experience in beekeeping.

Bosshard's curriculum was no longer just spelling, reading, and memorization. He taught the new subjects geography, history and natural history with enthusiasm and he broke new ground in the form of teaching: one day a month he took his classes on excursions into the forest and on the Zürichberg . In addition, he studied drama performances with his students, the props of which were made in class. The Schwamendingen School was soon considered to be a modern model school, which has received several awards for being particularly innovative.

Modern teachers like Bosshard fell out of favor with the reactionary rulers after the Züriputsch in 1839. When Bosshard also stood up for the seminar leader Scherr, who had been deposed in the course of the change of power, he was also dismissed from the teaching post and charged with disturbing religious peace. The Schwamendinger gave him a triumphant reception after his return from the court process in Zurich , where he was finally acquitted. However, since the professional ban remained in place, Schwamendingen hired him as a community clerk to keep him in town. Only after a petition from 101 schoolmates had been sent to the government council , the latter lifted the ban a year later, but recommended the school authorities "to keep a watchful eye on Mr. Bosshard's moral conduct".

The conservative government, the so-called September regime, had created many enemies with the temporary dismissal of the popular teacher Bosshard. The call to demonstrate against the conservatives on the Ziegelhöhe above the village center was followed on August 29, 1841 by more than 20,000 people from all over the canton. This day went down in Zurich history as “The beautiful 29th August”. In 1845 the Liberals took power again and the modern school system was able to establish itself. In 1850 Heinrich Bosshard had to quit teaching for health reasons.

First sea voyage

To cure his lung disease, his doctors advised him to go on an extensive sea voyage. Bosshard took this advice in 1852 when he made the crossing from Le Havre to North America . It was just the time when Switzerland was considered to be one of the poorest countries in Europe and many Swiss sought their salvation in emigrating to America. So Bosshard found himself on board the three- master Costella among numerous compatriots willing to emigrate. After four weeks at sea, the sailor reached New York Harbor . There was great joy at the near end of the arduous passage. A celebration was spontaneously started on deck: «It was a warm, moonlit night; people wanted to stay on deck as long as possible. Now for the first time I took my violin out of the box; Everyone was delighted, happy songs rang out on the nearby, light-wreathed banks; There was dancing, festive processions and marching around the deck and all the suffering of the sea voyage was forgotten. After only a short slumber, we welcomed the first Sabbath in the new world. " (From views and experiences in North America by Heinrich Bosshard, Zurich 1853.)

Travel through North America

On his way through the young United States , the adventurous teacher was mostly on foot. He did not hesitate to ask for a ride on wagons. Bosshard returned the favor for such transport services by playing the violin and telling news from Europe. After Bosshard had wandered through the states of New York, Pennsylvania , Ohio , Indiana , Illinois , Iowa and Minnesota , he went by ship to Florida .

Wherever the traveler was in the evening, he looked for a place to spend the night. He often knocked on the door of the nearest house. In this way he came into contact with different people whom he always met with interest. When he was staying with a dark-skinned family as a guest, he was confronted with the then current questions about slavery and racial exclusion even in northern states, where there was actually no slavery. Heinrich Bosshard visited various tribes of indigenous people and thus got to know their needs. While the settlement pioneers initially concluded land use contracts with the Indians , from 1830 onwards almost all indigenous peoples were resettled from the area east of the Mississippi ; At that time, armed conflicts between Indians and Union troops raged in the west. Bosshard reported to those who stayed at home about all of his travels and the incidents he had experienced in monthly letters, which were initially printed in a monthly magazine and later published as a three-volume book under the title Views and Experiences in North America .

Back in Switzerland, Bosshard was followed by several truckloads of collected minerals, zoological objects, plants and the like. With the same he gave lectures to those who wanted to emigrate as well as to inquisitive teachers and professors from the newly established universities. For the new school subject geography , he decided to publish a large school wall map of America. He took care of sticking the printed sheets on canvas himself, as well as attaching the eyelets and transporting them to the school buildings.

Second trip to North America

Less than three years after returning home from his first overseas voyage, Heinrich Bosshard was drawn to the New World again. This time he first went to Canada, where he focused his travel activities on studying the customs of the indigenous peoples there. In Quebec he was a frequent guest and confidante of a tribal chief, with whose help he got to know other Indian tribes. Travel in North America was not unrestricted at the time. On his second trip, Bosshard carried an accompanying letter from the Union's Minister of War, which identified him as a traveling scientist. This letter is said to have saved him from capture several times.

Bosshard also met Swiss settlers on his tours. From these he found out about the supposedly particularly happy life in the small town of Helvetia in the New Schweizerland region in the state of Illinois. Curiosity therefore also drove him to where he quickly felt at home. In the end he had to travel back to Zurich to his wife and children, but he left the following words: “It would be painful for me to say goodbye forever to this little country so richly blessed by God. I write - goodbye! " Determined to return, Bosshard bought a piece of land on the hill called the Jura in Helvetia, which was later renamed Highland.

Emigration and retirement

Heinrich Bosshard monument in Winterthur

Heinrich-Bosshard-Strasse in Winterthur

During his second trip to America, Heinrich Bosshard must have made the decision to move there forever with his wife and three children between the ages of 12 and 16. It so happened that the family left for the New World in the year of Heinrich's return from his second trip to America in 1860.

Initially, the Bosshards in Highland had to tighten their belts. Although he had run a small farm as a teacher in Schwamendingen, he first had to learn a lot in order to be able to earn a living for his family as a farmer . Then the Civil War broke out (until 1865), which also caused economic difficulties. In the end, the effort paid off, so that Heinrich Bosshard was able to report back to his old home in 1867: “The yield of fruit, cattle and honey increased our income to well over 2,000 dollars this year, which is more than my teacher's income in Schwamendingen in the 17 years together. " Heinrich celebrated some successes, especially with beekeeping .

This is how the Bosshard family came to prosperity, which they also used to entertain and entertain numerous guests every Sunday. As in Schwamendingen, Bosshard was also involved in the numerous choral societies in Highland. As a person, as a poet and as a composer, he gained a lot of respect in his new homeland and he was regularly called in as an expert for school music exams.

In March 1877 Heinrich Bosshard fell ill with typhus , from which he died on April 3, 1877, already weakened by a heart condition. He found his final resting place, as he wished, on the Bosshard farm between his beehives. A plaque and a memorial in the town of Highland still remember him today. In Seen today a monument by the church and a street remind us of Bosshard.

Works

• Views and experiences in North America. A monthly. Published by Heinrich Bosshard. Zürcher and Furrer, Zurich 1853–1855.
• Handbook for the map of the United States of America, the British possessions with Mexico, the West Indies and Central America. Zürcher and Furrer, Zurich 1857.
• Descriptions from America. Second trip. A monthly. Published by Heinrich Bosshard. Zürcher and Furrer, Zurich 1859–1860.

literature

• The Book of the Germans in America. P. 386, digitized
• Roland Munz : Heinrich Bosshard. Exhibition for the Mosaic Festival on May 12, 2012. Published by the Local History Commission of QV Schwamendingen, Local Museum Group. Schwamendingen 2012 ( PDF; 4.2 MB ).

Fonts

• R.Bachnang: Heinrich Bosshard. A picture of life . In: Schweizer Illustrierte , Heft 4, 1900, pp. 598–600.

Web links

Commons : Heinrich Bosshard  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Bosshard Heinrich, teacher and poet of the Sempacherlied, 1811–1877 in the Winterthur glossary.
• schwamendingen.info
• zunft-schwamendingen.ch
• Memorial in Highland, Illinois
• Monument in Winterthur