Jacob Martin Philippi

Jakob Martin Philippi (around 1865)

Jacob Martin Philippi (born May 25, 1807 in Hamburg, † April 20, 1903 in Hamburg ) was a German Protestant theologian , founder and rector of the high school in Solingen .

Life

Martin Philippi was born as the son of Ludwig Alexander David and nephew of Johann Jacob Martin Philippi . He was the grandson of the famous Brunswick court factor Alexander David .

He attended the Johanneum and the academic high school in Hamburg. Around Easter 1828 he went to Jena to study theology there, not so much from an internal occupation as at the request of his father. In addition, the scholarships received were only intended for theology students. At Easter 1830 he went to the University of Berlin, but turned from theology to diverse studies and at Easter 1831, without a theological exam, went to Swinoujscie as a private tutor to Friedrich Wilhelm Krause , then as a private tutor to Paris. In the spring of 1839 he became a teacher at the secondary school in Elberfeld. In order to be able to teach here, in the autumn of 1839 he took the complete, then so-called senior teacher exam, from the court advisor Professor August Wilhelm Schlegel at the royal. Examination commission in Bonn for French and English.

In 1840 a “school curatorium” that met in Solingen elected him to be the founder and rector of a high school. It was founded on October 15, 1841 with 23 students. Classes first took place in the town hall, later in the Catholic rectory in Brunnenstrasse and the former Vollmann Latin School on the corner of Klosterwall and Neustrasse. Today it is the Schwertstrasse high school . Although the city authorities only provided the school with minimal material help, the institution developed so far that the better pupils who had left the upper class obtained the certificate of entitlement to one year of military service.

In 1875, as the weaknesses of old age made themselves felt, he asked to leave, and at the end of the school year 1875 he moved to Hamburg, his hometown, to spend the years he had left with his siblings and close to his children and grandchildren to spend.

Martin Philippi was gifted in ancient languages ​​and in historical research. But he also speaks new languages: in perfect English, he told his grandchildren stories from the French era. After a trip to Italy in 1897, during which he broke his arm by jumping out of a moving tram, he decided to translate the Hebrew Bible into English, French and German. Nobody knows how far he has come with the monumental project. Philippi was buried in the Ohlsdorf cemetery in Hamburg.

family

His three sons from his first marriage to Julie Peltzer were born in Solingen-Clauberg:

• Alexander (born February 26, 1845 † September 9, 1915) is a shareholder in the bank J.Magnus & Co . in Hamburg
• Ernst (born June 4, 1846 in Solingen; † February 11, 1917 in Crawley ) becomes CEO of J. & P. ​​Coats , the world's largest manufacturer of sewing thread in the UK.
• Rudolf (born December 14, 1848), settles in America.

Martin married Auguste Zapp for the second time on June 7, 1854. The children come from her

• Maria (born April 26, 1855 in Solingen; † April 20, 1858 ibid.)
• Adolf (born August 13, 1857 in Solingen)

literature

• Heinz Rosenthal : History of the high school Schwertstraße to Solingen. Ed. Bund old students. B. Boll printing house, Solingen 1953.
• Chronicle of the Schwertstrasse grammar school
• I. Knoblauch, A. Kropp, S. Metens, E. Syska: 150 Years of the Schwertstrasse High School in Solingen. Festschrift. Hermann Ulrich printing works, Solingen 1991.