Martin Kawerau

Peter Martin Kawerau (born November 11, 1815 in Bunzlau (now Polish: Bolesławiec ) in Silesia; † November 13, 1874 in Berlin ) was a sports teacher and church musician .

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Martin Kawerau was born as the son of the teacher at the Bunzlauer orphanage and teacher training college and later Köslin government and school councilor Peter Kawerau and his wife Juliane nee Jezler and grew up with six children. He spent his childhood and youth in Bunzlau, Jenkau near Danzig (today in Polish: Jankowo Gdańskie), Königsberg (today in Russian: Kaliningrad) and again in Bunzlau, was a high school student in Groß Glogau (Głogów), then in Lauban (Lubań) in Silesia, where he passed the Abitur in 1836.

In the same year Kawerau began studying theology, pedagogy and music at the University of Königsberg , which he completed in 1837 at the Friedrich Wilhelms University in Berlin . In 1839 he passed the rectorate exam in Köslin in Pomerania (today in Polish: Koszalin) and in 1842 went to Kolberg (Kołobrzeg) as vice rector .

In 1843 Kawerau took over a teaching position at the teachers' college in his hometown Bunzlau, which he practiced for six years.

In 1849 Kawerau moved to Berlin, where he took a course in gymnastics from the sports teacher Hans Ferdinand Maßmann . A year later he became a gymnastics teacher at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Gymnasium and at the Royal Realschule, at the same time a teacher at the Royal Central Gymnastics Institute. He also taught religion, German, history, geography, French and Latin at various other schools.

For 25 years, Kawerau was the head of the gymnasium on Berlin's Hasenheide , together with sports educators such as Walter, Voigt and Günter. For this task he completed a course with Adolf Spieß in Darmstadt .

In 1860 Kawerau took over the service of organist at the St. Matthew Church in Berlin , where he founded and directed a choir. Here he became a close friend with Carl Büchsel . Kawerau became a member of the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin and the Zelterschen Liedertafel .

Martin Kawerau wrote numerous larger essays about gymnastics, about Adolf Spieß and Gutsmuths. In addition, small poems and compositions, especially for the Zeltersche Liedertafel, come from his pen.

Kawerau had been married to Luise Henriette Emilie Kahle since August 14, 1843, daughter of the Königsberg superintendent and pastor at the Altroßgärter church Ernst Gottfried Kahle. The marriage resulted in seven children, including the theologian and Luther researcher Gustav Kawerau , the church musician (and his father's successor at the St. Matthew Church in Berlin) Hermann Kawerau and the architect and building researcher Georg Kawerau .

literature

• Autobiography. (Excerpt) In: New year books for the art of gymnastics , 3rd issue, 1875, page 97ff.
• Euler: Memories of Martin Kawerau. In: New year books for gymnastics , 1876.
• Obituary in the annual report of the Kgl. Realschule, preschool and Elisabethschule in Berlin 1875. Berlin 1875.
• Siegfried Kawerau: The Kawerau family through 333 years. To the oldest family member, Peter Gustav Kawerau, on his 70th birthday. Landsberg (Warthe) 1917.