Johann Hinrich Sahn

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Johann Hinrich Sahn (born April 12, 1767 in Lübeck ; † November 18, 1835 there ) was a German navigation teacher.

Live and act

Johann Hinrich Sahn was a son of the skipper Johann Simon Sahn (baptized on September 1, 1728 in Lübeck) and his wife Anna Christian, née Gave (baptized on March 3, 1734 in Lübeck; † August 26, 1776 ibid). She was a daughter of the skipper Andreas Gave.

Sahn lost his mother early; the father went to sea and perhaps also went down in a ship a few years after the birth of his son. Sahn spent childhood and youth in the Lübeck orphanage and then worked for twenty years as a seaman, most recently as a helmsman. From around 1793 he gave seafarers private nautical instruction in the winter. On April 25, 1794, he married Elsabe (Elisabeth) Dorothea Möller (* 1755/56; † July 26, 1819 in Lübeck) in Lübeck. The couple had a daughter and two sons who died young.

In 1808, Ludwig Suhl and the businessman Hinrich Rolff recommended the Society for the Promotion of Charitable Activities to set up a navigation school in Lübeck similar to the one in Bremen , which Sahn was to run. A commission had already found him a suitable director. Six colleges of the citizenry and the non-profit society helped to acquire teaching material and took over Sachs salary, the room rent to Mayor Matthäus Rodde .

The navigation school started operating in June 1808 on a trial basis for a planned five years. Due to the economic downturn during the Lübeck French period , the financial resources for the school decreased. Suhl and Sahn turned to authorities in Lübeck, Hamburg and Paris , but were unable to prevent the school from closing in 1812. Sahn found it difficult to support his family with private lessons in his apartment.

Sahn considered working as a seafarer again. For this reason, too, the non-profit society and several colleges of the citizenry financed another five years of school operation. But they gave less than half of the funds raised in 1808. Sahn resumed teaching with materials he had provided himself. In 1819 he received a well-paid offer for a position as a navigation teacher in Hamburg. The Lübeck Senate then paid him a salary from the state treasury. After major negotiations, the Senate agreed in 1825 to turn the navigation school into a state institute, where Sahn would get a lifelong position.

In 1826 the school moved into the building of the seafaring school at Kaisertor in the Lübeck Wallanlagen , in which Sahn was given an apartment. He participated in drawing up an examination for Lübeck tax people, which came into force in 1827 and which he accepted himself. He also trained capable helmsmen as navigation instructors. Due to health problems, he needed the assistant Johann Georg Friedrich Franck for teaching in the last months of his life, who later took over his position as headmaster.

Sahn had a broad knowledge in the field of seafaring. This resulted from his own time as a seaman, the navigation lessons that he presumably had been given by a captain from Lübeck, and theoretical knowledge he had learned himself. He taught based on the "system of practical helmsman" and the "manual of shipping" by Hinrich Braren . He himself made suggestions for improvement of the manual, which were included in the second edition in 1823. Sahn aligned the form and content as closely as possible to the requirements of the shipping industry of his time. His classes included math, astronomy, nautical science, geography, rules for helmsmen and accident management. In addition, he carried out practical exercises in sky observation and the handling of instruments.

It was not important to Sahn that his students memorized the content as usual. Instead, they should acquire and apply the material independently. He sometimes employed assistant teachers who gave lessons in drawing, German, English, reading, writing and arithmetic. In the summer, boys were given lessons to prepare them for seafaring professions. Experienced sailors attended the courses in winter.

The teaching methods created by Sahn have received multiple praise in public exams. His model was used as a model for the reform of the Hamburg navigation school and the establishment of a school in Gdansk in 1817. Problems caused Sahn the years of worries about his existence, the constantly changing class attendants and the great age differences of his listeners, who also had no uniform prior knowledge.

Sahn also worked as a reviewer beyond the lessons. When Poul Vendelbo Løvenørn's nautical charts were to be reissued in Copenhagen , he was used as an adviser. He did his own research and wrote short reports about it that appeared in Lübeck newspapers and the Astronomical News and was in regular friendly contact with Heinrich Christian Schumacher .

Sahn determined the correct latitude of Lübeck for the first time. He also determined the solar eclipse of September 7, 1820. The Lübeck Senate gave him recognition for this. From 1826 at the latest, he edited the Lübeck pocket calendar. Ludwig Suhl presented his findings on the "decrease and increase in daylength", the "observations of sea currents" and the "rebuttal of fear as if our earth had to expect its downfall from a comet" at lectures by the non-profit society. The fact that Sahn did not do this himself suggests that he was a humble and reserved person.

On the occasion of its 25th anniversary of service, Lübeck institution Sahn presented numerous honors and awards. Since 1817 he belonged to the " Hamburg Society for the Dissemination of Mathematical Knowledge ".

Awards

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ortwin Pelc: Sahn, Johann Hinrich . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 9 - 1991. ISBN 3-529-02649-2 , page 327.
  2. ^ Ortwin Pelc: Sahn, Johann Hinrich . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 9 - 1991. ISBN 3-529-02649-2 , page 327.
  3. ^ Ortwin Pelc: Sahn, Johann Hinrich . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 9 - 1991. ISBN 3-529-02649-2 , page 327.
  4. ^ Ortwin Pelc: Sahn, Johann Hinrich . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 9 - 1991. ISBN 3-529-02649-2 , page 327.
  5. ^ Ortwin Pelc: Sahn, Johann Hinrich . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 9 - 1991. ISBN 3-529-02649-2 , pages 327-328.
  6. ^ Ortwin Pelc: Sahn, Johann Hinrich . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 9 - 1991. ISBN 3-529-02649-2 , page 328.
  7. ^ Ortwin Pelc: Sahn, Johann Hinrich . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 9 - 1991. ISBN 3-529-02649-2 , page 328.
  8. ^ Ortwin Pelc: Sahn, Johann Hinrich . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 9 - 1991. ISBN 3-529-02649-2 , page 328.
  9. ^ Ortwin Pelc: Sahn, Johann Hinrich . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 9 - 1991. ISBN 3-529-02649-2 , page 328.
  10. ^ Ortwin Pelc: Sahn, Johann Hinrich . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 9 - 1991. ISBN 3-529-02649-2 , pages 328-329.
  11. ^ Ortwin Pelc: Sahn, Johann Hinrich . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 9 - 1991. ISBN 3-529-02649-2 , page 329.
personal data
SURNAME Sahn, Johann Hinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German navigation teacher
DATE OF BIRTH April 12, 1767
PLACE OF BIRTH Lübeck
DATE OF DEATH November 18, 1835
Place of death Lübeck