Karl Friedrich August Grashof

Karl Friedrich August Grashof (born August 24, 1770 in Groß Germersleben , † March 4, 1841 in Cologne ) was a German theologian, educator, mathematician, school councilor and grammar school director.

Life

Grashof was the son of a magistrate who died in 1775. Two siblings died in childhood. His mother remarried in 1786. After his father's death, he attended secondary schools in Aschersleben , where he was able to skip a class, in the Francke Foundations in Halle and finally the cathedral school in Magdeburg. His mother and stepfather, the bailiff Haberland, lived in nearby Rogätz . From the winter semester 1789 to the summer semester 1792 he studied theology at the University of Halle (with Georg Christian Knapp ) and also attended lectures in mathematics (with Georg Simon Klügel ), chemistry (with Friedrich Albrecht Carl Gren ), philosophy, psychology and ancient languages. The death of his stepfather in 1792 made an early termination of his studies necessary and almost a year as a tutor. After the exam ( pro licentia concionandi ) on November 19, 1793 at the bishopric of Stendal and by the general superintendent of Altmark and Prignitz , Jani, who dealt with eleven questions (introduced by Johann Christoph von Woellner ) above all on the content of the lectures attended, but also asked for personal data up to the sermons he had given so far, the chairman of the examinations advised him to apply for one of the vacancies at the secondary schools, as his studies focused on "school matters". In 1794, as a theology candidate, he took up a teaching position at the pedagogy of the Realschule in Berlin, which later became the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Gymnasium . In 1798 he became vice rector and 1810 rector of the Lyceum in Prenzlau . In 1813 he joined the Prussian army and subsequently also took part in the Battle of Leipzig as a lieutenant . When the French withdrew from the Rhineland towards the end of the wars of liberation , Grashof was appointed provisional director of public education at the General Government in Aachen on July 14, 1814. From there he was transferred to the newly established consistory in Cologne in 1816 as consistorial and school councilor. In 1820 he also took over the management of the then municipal "Higher Citizens School" in the buildings of the abolished Carmelite monastery in Severinstrasse , which was elevated to a grammar school in 1825 and was named Friedrich Wilhelm grammar school in 1830 . He exercised both functions until his death.

Tombstone

On July 7, 1797 he married Dorothea Luisa Brothers (1778-1848). The couple had six children: Carl Grashof (1799 Prenzlau - 1874 Boppard), high school teacher at the Royal High School in Düsseldorf (father of Franz Grashof ), Adelaide Grashof (1800 Prenzlau - 1882 Cologne), Julius Werner Grashof (1802–1873), high school teacher and Pastor in Trier and Cologne, August Wilhelm Grashof (* 1809), captain of the artillery in Wesel, the painter Otto Grashof (1812–1876) and the merchant Friedrich Grashof (1818 Cologne - 1888 Cologne).

Grashof has made a special contribution to the reorganization of the secondary school system in Prussia. He died in 1841 at the age of 70 and was buried in the Melaten cemetery in Cologne (lit. G, between lit. D + E).

Honors

• In 1806 he received his doctorate from the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Frankfurt / Oder because of his mathematical work (not an honorary doctorate!)

Works

• Theses sphaerologicae , Felisch, Berlin 1806
• From my life and work: at the same time as a contribution to the history of the Rhine Province , Bädeker, Essen 1839 (digitized see below)

literature

• Carl Krafft:  Grashof, Karl Friedrich August . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1879, p. 587 f.

Web links

• Vita based on the preface to his autobiography

Individual evidence

1. ^ Family Grashof at heidermanns.net Genealogie (accessed January 2016)