Otto Jessen (pedagogue)

Otto Jessen. Lithography by Heinrich Aschenbrenner (around 1860–1870)

Hans Otto Jessen (born December 26, 1826 in Schleswig , † March 28, 1904 in Berlin ) was a German educator .

Life and work as a teacher

Otto Jessen was the youngest son of the psychiatrist Peter Willers Jessen and his wife Amalie, nee Eccardt. He had a sister and five older brothers, two of whom died early. He spent his childhood and youth in good circumstances and attended a private school until he was 14. He then got private lessons in old and new languages, mathematics and drawing. At the age of 18 he received training in field measurement and leveling from a surveyor in Schleswig. He then studied geodesy for two years at the University of Kiel . In the winter of 1847/48 he went to Berlin, where he wanted to study mathematics and physics.

Instead of studying, Jessen volunteered for the army to fight in the German-Danish War . In February 1851 he left the army and ran the steam mill of a close relative for three years. With the intention of becoming a teacher, he traveled eight months through Germany in 1855 with the support of the Holstein Ministry. During the trip he collected information about the organization of commercial schools and their teaching content. In the meantime he learned mathematics from Heinrich Borchert Lübsen in Hamburg and drawing from Friedrich Heimerdinger .

After the trip, Jessen moved to Altona and in autumn 1856 took over Lübsen's teaching position for mathematics and mechanics at the trade school of the Patriotic Society of 1765 . He also taught mathematics and freehand drawing at a Sunday school in Altona. At Easter 1857 he set up his own polytechnic lecture institute, where he taught mathematics, natural sciences, drawing and field measurements. In the same year he married Luise Engel. He had five children with his wife, whose father was a member of the Schleswig-Holstein government.

In 1860 Jessen moved the Polytechnic Advanced Training Institute to Hamburg . In addition, he joined the Patriotic Society as a regular member, where the further development of industrial training was discussed in detail at that time. Since the company's own vocational school, which was run by the company, could not ensure up-to-date training, the educational institution was to be financed and modernized by the state. Jessen played a key role in the deliberations on this.

In the period that followed, the city set up a general trade school with an attached school for builders, following resolutions by the Senate and the citizenship. The Senate appointed Jessen on February 13, 1865 director of the new educational institutions. As headmaster, he looked after 150 students in the general trade school that opened on May 7, 1865. On November 1st of the same year, 57 pupils also took part for the first time in the building trade school, which was located in the building of the Patriotic Society. Jessen directed both schools until June 1880.

Then Jessen moved to Berlin. There he took on the task of setting up a trade school based on the Hamburg facility. Jessen ran the Central Industrial School himself from October 1880 until the end of his life. In Berlin, too, he devoted himself in particular to mathematics and drawing. During this time, the Prussian Ministry of Culture commissioned him to inspect drawing lessons at Prussian trade schools.

The Prussian king honored Jessen for his achievements with the gold medal for services to the trade .

The philologist Otto Jessen was his son; his daughter Auguste married the ancient historian Otto Seeck in 1882 .

Volunteering

Jessen also worked part-time for the further training of young people who were in employment. Since 1864 he was a member of an educational committee of the educational association for workers . The Jessen couple supported the association for the promotion of female vocational training and employment as an active member . Otto Jessen spoke at the founding meeting on February 18, 1867 and explained his concept for the establishment of a girls' school: The establishment should not only impart knowledge in the subjects of German, mathematics, the natural sciences or drawing, but also offer help for later household and professional activities. To this end, he suggested teaching sewing, measuring and cutting, cleaning and commercial drawing. The girls' school opened on May 1, 1867 and initially had 36 students.

As a member of the Patriotic Society of 1867, Jessen devoted himself mostly to the Museum of Art and Crafts , which opened in 1877 and which was affiliated with the General Trade School. During his time in Berlin in September 1887, he founded the Association of German Industrial School Men, which he chaired himself. He was later made honorary chairman.

He was also an extraordinary member of the Hamburg Artists' Association from 1832 .

literature

• Sigrid Schambach: Jessen, Otto . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 5 . Wallstein, Göttingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-8353-0640-0 , p. 202-204 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Heinrich Schipperges :  Jessen, Peter. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 10, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1974, ISBN 3-428-00191-5 , p. 423 f. ( Digitized version ).