Johannes Classen (pedagogue)

Johannes Classen (born November 21, 1805 in Hamburg , † August 31, 1891 ibid) was a German pedagogue and classical philologist .

Life

Johannes Classen

Classen was a student of the Johanneum in his hometown and as early as 1825 a member of the Masonic lodge Absalom zu den netteln .

He studied philology and history with Barthold Georg Niebuhr in Bonn , where he completed his habilitation in 1829 . Since 1827 he lived in the house of his teacher, whose son Marcus he taught. When Niebuhr died in 1831 and his wife followed him only nine days later, Classen took care of the three orphaned children. He brought her to Kiel and stayed there for a year until he was appointed as an adjunct at the Joachimsthalsche Gymnasium in Berlin in 1832 , and a year later as a professor at the Katharineum in Lübeck , where he was also director of the Society for the Promotion of Charitable Activities from 1848–1851 was.

In 1853 he became director of the municipal grammar school in Frankfurt am Main . Under his predecessor Johann Theodor Vömel , who ran the school since 1823, the traditional grammar school had experienced a decline. Vömel was considered to be an inadequate schoolmaster, biased in small details. Under Classen's direction, a new spirit arrived at the school, which his headmaster in Lübeck, Johann Friedrich Jacob , had described as follows:

“Because the school is a moral institution, because the spirit of the teacher is supposed to have an invigorating effect on the spirit of the pupil, freedom of spirit and freedom of activity must be granted to that person, as far as possible, and above all cultivated in this free receptivity become."

In 1855 Classen implemented a reform of the curriculum, examination regulations and school regulations at the Consistorium , the school supervisory authority of the Free City of Frankfurt . The prerequisite for being awarded the Abitur was now seven years of school attendance (previously six years). The most important examination performance was a free Latin assignment, which the high school graduate had to complete in the last semester. In addition, the teachers' conference determined the grades in all compulsory subjects as well as in behavior and diligence.

Under Classen's leadership, the school quickly regained great prestige, not least because of the qualified teaching staff that Classen was able to bring to Frankfurt. They included the historians Johannes Janssen and Georg Ludwig Kriegk and the classical philologist Alfred Fleckeisen .

"Johannes Classen Dr. Phil. Prof. Director ”, Johanneum collective grave , Ohlsdorf cemetery

In 1861 he was together with Fleckeisen President of the Frankfurt Philologists' Assembly .

In 1864 Classen accepted a position as director of the Johanneum in his native Hamburg, after he had already turned down an offer in 1860. He was succeeded by Tycho Mommsen at the Frankfurt grammar school .

In 1874 Classen retired and from then on devoted himself to his scientific work, especially his main work, the publication of all of Thucydides' works in an eight-volume school edition . In 1879, on the occasion of his fiftieth doctoral jubilee, he received a scholarship for a longer study visit to Italy and Greece .

Classen died on August 31, 1891 in Hamburg.

In the Ohlsdorf cemetery , Johannes Classen, among others, is commemorated on the collective grave slab of the Johanneum of the Althamburg Memorial Cemetery.

Works

• Biography of Jakob Micyllus (1859)
• Publication of the works of Thucydides (eight volumes, 1862–1889)
• The former commercial academy of Professor JG Büsch and the future of the academic high school in Hamburg , Verlag W. Mauke Söhne, Hamburg, 1865

literature

• Hartmut Freytag: About the important school man Johannes Classen (1805-1891), the teacher Theodor Storms and Emanuel Geibels , in: Verein für Lübeckische Geschichte und Altertumskunde (Ed.): Zeitschrift für Lübeckische Geschichte , 90 2010, p. 215 ff. PDF
• Wolfgang Klötzer (Hrsg.): Frankfurter Biographie . Personal history lexicon . First volume. A – L (=  publications of the Frankfurt Historical Commission . Volume XIX , no. 1 ). Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-7829-0444-3 .
• Heinz-Joachim Heydorn, Karl Ringshausen (Ed.): Beyond Resignation and Illusion: Festschrift for the 450th anniversary of Lessing-Gymnasium, the old Frankfurt Latin School from 1520. Moritz Diesterweg publishing house, Frankfurt am Main 1971.
• Carl Joachim Classen :  Classen, Johannes. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 3, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1957, ISBN 3-428-00184-2 , p. 264 ( digitized version ).
• Richard Hoche :  Classen, Johannes . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 47, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1903, p. 497 f.
• Johannes Classen. Commemorative script from the Johanneum School of Scholars. Lütcke & Wulff, Hamburg 1892. (therein: the untitled, authoritative appraisal of Cs by. F. [Friedrich] Schultess (p. 1–34), the funeral speech given by pastor Georg Behrmann on September 3, 1891 (p. 35–38) , the obituary by Ludwig Herbst (p. 39–42) and the list compiled by Wolfgang Meyer of 38 publications as well as the 14 lectures that Classen gave during the years 1836–1852 in the Society for the Promotion of Charitable Activities in Lübeck (p. 43–46))

Web links

Commons : Johannes Classen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files