Heinrich Julius Bruns

Bruns memorial in Reckahn

Heinrich Julius Bruns (born June 29, 1746 in Rohrsheim , Principality of Halberstadt , † September 23, 1794 in Reckahn , Mark Brandenburg ) was a Brandenburg-Prussian teacher and schoolmaster .

Life

After Heinrich Julius Bruns showed exceptional school achievements, he received a vacancy (for talented children from less well-off families) at the Halberstadt Cathedral School Stephaneum under the rectorate of Christian Gottfried Struensee . There, too, his performance was above average.

In 1765 he got to know Friedrich Eberhard von Rochow , also canon in Halberstadt, better and he employed him as a scribe and musician at Reckahn Castle . He opened his library to Bruns and talked to him about a better country school. In preparation for the reform pedagogy class, they practiced the teaching method in the Reckahner Gutspark. Although Bruns had returned to Halberstadt as a teacher and organist in 1771 , after the death of the previous cantor in Reckahn he applied for the vacant teaching position, which was part of the position of cantor and organist. He received the position on January 2, 1773 and held it until his death. In 1774 the newly built school building in Reckahn was moved into. So he became the most important employee of F. E. von Rochow in the practical implementation of his educational reform.

Grave in Reckahn

The school was considered to be the "model of all rural schools" and attracted many visitors, including teachers, clergy, Prussian officials and scientists. Bruns himself kept a "directory of visitors to the Reckahn School", which is preserved in the Rochow Museum in Reckahn . Among 1200 visitors in two decades was the Halberstadt cathedral dean Ernst Ludwig Christoph Spiegel zu Desenberg in 1777, who founded the first Prussian teachers 'seminar in Halberstadt in 1778 after a conversation with F. E. von Rochow about the establishment of a country school teachers' seminar .

Bruns married in 1776 and again after the death of his wife in 1782. He had three children from his first marriage and four children from his second marriage. He died of consumption in 1794 . His grave is in the church cemetery immediately south of the Reckahn village and castle church .

Honors

• In the manor park of the Reckahn manor, Friedrich Eberhard von Rochow had a monument erected for Bruns; the inscription reads: “H. J. Bruns. He was a teacher. "
• An exhibition room in the Reckahn School Museum .
• The new primary and secondary school in the district Lehnin the municipality Lehnin bears his name since August 2011th

literature

• Frank Tosch: Heinrich Julius Bruns (1746–1794). Students - teachers - teacher trainers . Edition Lumière, Bremen 2015, ISBN 978-3-943245-34-9 .
• Frank Tosch (ed.): "He was a teacher." Heinrich Julius Bruns (1746–1794). Contributions to the Reckahner Kolloquium on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of his death (= sources and studies on the Berlin-Brandenburg educational history , vol. 2). University of Potsdam, Potsdam 1995. ISSN  0946-8897 .
• Wolfgang Rocksch: Heinrich Julius Bruns. Reckahn's school master. In: Pädagogik und Schulalltag , vol. 49 (1994), issue 3, pp. 290-299, ISSN  0030-9249 ; ISSN  0943-2299 .

Web links

Commons : Heinrich Julius Bruns  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Heinrich Julius Bruns in the catalog of the German National Library
• School museum website