Johann Rudolf Schlegel

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Johann Rudolf Schlegel (born October 15, 1729 - † February 22, 1790 )

Johann Rudolf Schlegel (born October 15, 1729 in Heilbronn ; † February 22, 1790 there ; also Johann Rudolph Schlegel ) was a German theologian and educator at the time of the Enlightenment .

biography

Schlegel was born the son of a Heilbronn baker and attended the Heilbronn grammar school . During his school days, both parents died, so that Schlegel in 1746 as a sixth-former in the household of the young, only nine years older rector of the high school, George Samuel Bernhold was added (1720-1760). After graduating from high school, he studied theology and philosophy in Jena from 1748 and in Göttingen from 1751 . After several positions, including a two-year activity as a pastor in Böckingen , he became the third preacher at Heilbronn's Kilian Church at the end of 1759 . Six weeks later he was appointed rector of the Heilbronn grammar school, where he succeeded his foster father Bechtold, who surprisingly died of pulmonary consumption ( tuberculosis ).

As the rector of the Heilbronn grammar school, Schlegel was particularly active as a reformer. Already during his first year in office he changed the old-language reading canon: in Greek he introduced the works of other authors such as Herodotus , Xenophon , Thucydides and Aristotle in addition to the New Testament, which was previously only read , and works by Valerius Maximus , Horace , Ovid and Cicero's letters in Latin classes .

In 1762 he gave lessons in German for the first time. In 1765 he created the position of a French teacher, later temporarily also that of an Italian teacher, and the demand for the school's first geometry and English teachers to be appointed goes back to him. In language lessons, he vehemently opposed the mere memorization of vocabulary and advocated a playful and realistic approach to languages. In later writings he even represented the positions of Johann Bernhard Basedow , whose allegations against the prevailing school practice he had rejected in 1770. Schlegel rejected the educational privilege of higher classes and advocated equal educational opportunities for members of all social classes. He promoted the secondary school idea , as he recognized that the local grammar school is not a pure grammar school in which only students are to be prepared, but is mixed with a trivial school in which people are also taught who are not actually of the learned class, but to Scribes, traders, artists, school-keepers and craftsmen are intended .

In addition to his work as rector in Heilbronn, Schlegel gained importance as the author of numerous writings, including a general history of the known states , through the translation and continuation of the work of Johann Lorenz von Mosheim on church history, through a large and small catechism and a reader through revisions of the Heilbronn hymn book . His reputation as a scholar led to his admission to the Historical Institute in Göttingen and the Latin Society in Jena.

He was married to Sofia Dorothea Orth (1734–1805), the daughter of Heilbronn mayor Georg Heinrich Orth . Schlegel died of liver disease in 1790. According to him, and to Professor Carl Albert Schlegel 1911 was Schlegelstraße named in Heilbronn.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Date and place of death as well as details of the street naming according to: Gerhard Schwinghammer and Reiner Makowski: Die Heilbronner street names . Edited by the city of Heilbronn. 1st edition. Silberburg-Verlag , Tübingen 2005. p. 181
  2. ↑ 100 years of the Robert-Mayer-Gymnasium Heilbronn 1889–1989 . Robert-Mayer-Gymnasium, Heilbronn 1989

literature

  • Felix Werner: Johann Rudolf Schlegel 1760–1790 . In: 350 years of high school in Heilbronn. Festschrift for the anniversary of the Theodor-Heuss-Gymnasium . Heilbronn City Archives, Heilbronn 1971 (Publications of the Heilbronn City Archives, 17)


personal data
SURNAME Schlegel, Johann Rudolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schlegel, Johann Rudolph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German theologian and educator at the time of the Enlightenment
DATE OF BIRTH October 15, 1729
PLACE OF BIRTH Heilbronn
DATE OF DEATH February 22, 1790
Place of death Heilbronn