Johann Georg Friedrich Pflüger

Johann Georg Friedrich Pflüger (born November 25, 1818 in Schopfheim , † October 23, 1869 in Meersburg ) was the first main teacher and chairman of the Pforzheimer Höhere Töchterschule from 1849 to 1862 , from which today's Hilda-Gymnasium Pforzheim emerged . He later worked in the Baden high school council in Karlsruhe. He has written several school books and historical writings.

Life

He was the son of the ropemaker Bartlin Pflüger and was already noticed in his youth as being exceptionally gifted. While still at home in Schopfheim, he was a school assistant and substitute teacher and taught his peers there. In addition to primary school, he also attended the local priest's Latin school and learned several instruments. He earned some extra income as a copyist. The financial circumstances of his parents did not allow a visit to the Karlsruhe Lyceum, so that instead of studying theology he wanted, he moved to the Evangelical School Teachers' Seminar in Karlsruhe in 1835. There, Pflüger was a model student of Wilhelm Stern's mainly practical lessons and passed the candidate examination in 1837 as the best in his year.

After a few short temporary positions, he came to Rastatt as a teacher at the secondary school for girls in 1838 , where he also married and acquired a scientific and theoretical training and knowledge of the French language through self-study. He also improved his piano skills in Rastatt, headed the men's choir "Liederkranz" and wrote some songs for male choirs. Since teachers at that time were still forbidden from conducting associations, he probably kept his association activities a secret from the state authorities. Most of his compositions were published anonymously. Despite this commitment, he remained apolitical during the 1848 revolution.

In April 1849, he switched to the newly founded Höhere Töchterschule in Pforzheim, which he essentially built up in the first place. He had already applied the previous year, had the job confirmed and in the time until he switched he had developed an educational concept for the school. In the first year of school, 56 girls attended school. In 1860 the initially privately owned school was taken over by the city of Pforzheim. When Pflüger left, the number of students was 176.

In Pforzheim, Pflüger was also responsible editor of the Pforzheimer Observer and the Badischer Schulbote from 1856 , where he regularly published articles. In addition, he wrote several interdisciplinary school books and in 1861/62 an extensive work on the history of Pforzheim, which has been one of the most important sources of Pforzheim city history since the destruction of all Pforzheim archives in World War II .

In 1862 Pflüger was appointed to the high school council in Karlsruhe, where he was valued as experienced and with integrity in the implementation of the school reform and in the disputes with the previous church school supervision. Pflüger campaigned for the convening of teachers' conferences (the forerunners of the Baden teachers' association) and other supraregional teachers' meetings. His reading book for elementary schools , published in 1867, sparked a dispute with the Archdiocese of Freiburg , for whom the reading book, written by the Protestant Pflüger and intended for mixed denominational schools, was too secular. The protracted dispute over the reader, which was carried out in court and also from the pulpits of the Catholic Church, led to Pflüger's transfer to the deaf-and-dumb school in Meersburg, where he became seriously ill and died after one year of service at the age of 50.

Fonts

• Orderly collection of sample sets for teaching the German language. 1851
• Instructions for singing lessons. 1853
• Songbook for school and life. 3 volumes, 1857/58
• Baden patriotism. 1858
• History of the city of Pforzheim. 1861/62
• Reading book for elementary schools. 1867

literature

• Oskar Trost : Johann Georg Heinrich Pflüger - the author of the classic "History of the City of Pforzheim" . In: Pforzheimer Geschichtsblätter IV , 1976, pp. 167-169.
• Heide Hammel: Johann Georg Friedrich Pflüger and the upbringing of the higher daughters in Pforzheim. In: Badische Heimat. Volume 3, 1995, pp. 383-392.