Peter Dietrich Grothe

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Peter Dietrich Grothe, probably around 1845

Peter Dietrich Grothe (born June 23, 1806 in Herscheid ; † February 10, 1887 in Delft ), nickname Dietrich, was a German-Dutch teacher for mathematics , natural sciences and mechanics , director of the Provinzial-Gewerbeschule in Hagen (today one of the locations of the South Westphalia University of Applied Sciences ), head of the Technical School in Utrecht and Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanical Technology at the Polytechnic in Delft, today's Technical University . Because of the participation of some of his students in the Iserlohn uprising of 1849 in the final phase of the revolution of 1848/1849 , disciplinary proceedings were initiated against him. Although no one could prove that he supported the uprising, he was suspended from service in March 1850 because of his democratic convictions and emigrated to the Netherlands .

Live and act

Grothe was born in Herscheid in Westphalia as the son of Johann Peter Grothe and Maria Gertrud Schmidt. He attended the trade school in Hagen from 1826 to 1828, i.e. in its third year, and then studied for three and a half years at the Berlin Trade Institute . There he graduated in 1832 and thus obtained the qualification to teach at the Prussian trade schools.

Grothe was married to Albertina Schlickum and, after their death, to Wilhelmina Riepe, born on June 1, 1809 in Hagen and died on April 16, 1875 in Delft, with whom he had two daughters.

Worked at the Hagen Provincial Trade School

Grothe first settled in Hagen in 1832 as a court taxator , but at the instigation of Hagen industrialist Eduard Elbers was hired as a teacher of mathematics and arithmetic at the Provincial Trade School in Hagen that same year, where he later taught physics and chemistry. After the departure of the director Gottlieb Vormann in 1833, there was no uniform school management, so that until 1839 the directorate was jointly exercised by the drawing teacher Theodor Dieckerhoff and Grothe, who had belonged to the vocational school from the beginning. Grothe was regarded as an excellent teacher and achieved that from 1835 onwards, a large number of graduates were able to continue studying as scholarship holders at the industrial institute in Berlin. He was also in lively exchange with the entrepreneurs of the Hagen district, so in 1839 he founded the monthly magazine “Märkischer Gewerbefreund for merchants, manufacturers, craftsmen and farmers” with Friedrich Harkort .

On August 11, 1839, Grothe was appointed director of the trade school. In 1840 he adapted the courses to the different requirements of the students and introduced a second regular year class. In the school program of 1842, excellent elementary knowledge was required for the first grade; those who did not have it had to go to the second grade. In addition, he introduced a "higher department of the first class" for those students who wanted to qualify for the Berlin Business Institute . Furthermore, he modernized the technical equipment of the vocational school in the following years.

Democratic sentiment and the Iserlohn uprising

Since students from the Hagen trade school also took part in the bloody Iserlohn uprising of 1849 from May 10 to 16, 1849 in the course of the May uprisings of the revolution of 1848/1849 , disciplinary proceedings were initiated against Grothe as its director. The investigations showed that Grothe did not support the riots, but that his attitude towards the students was not energetic enough. He was accused of having a “democratic attitude”. On March 8, 1850, he was suspended from duty. Grothe left Germany bitter and went into exile in the Netherlands.

New start in the Netherlands

At the mediation of the Utrecht professors GJ Mulder, Bake en O. van Rees, Grothe took over the management of the newly established private technical school in Utrecht on August 1, 1850 . It was the first of its kind in the Netherlands and was intended to provide application-oriented technical training based on the model of trade schools. Grothe carried out his new task very successfully; in 1863 the facility had eight teachers and 63 students, and the curriculum was three years. According to the law on higher education ( wet op het middelbaar onderwijs ) of May 2, 1863, “higher civic schools ” ( hoogere burgerschoolen ) were set up, the technical school was to be dissolved and converted into a state higher civic school. For this purpose, Grothe was offered the Chair of Mechanical Technology and Mechanical Engineering ( mechanical technologie en de kennis van werktuigen ) at the Delft Polytechnic, founded in 1842 - today's Technical University - by the Dutch Interior Minister Johan Rudolf Thorbecke . Grothe began working there as a professor on September 1, 1864 and worked there until his honorable discharge on September 1, 1883.

Fonts

swell

  1. ^ A b Molhuysen, Philipp Christiaan, and Blok, Petrus Johannes: Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboek. Deel 7. Sijthoff, Leiden 1911, pp. 504-505.
  2. ↑ Monthly magazine “Märkischer Gewerbefreund for merchants, manufacturers, craftsmen and farmers”, urn: nbn: de: hbz: 6: 1-59948
  3. ^ Saager, Heinz: Technical educational work since 1824 . In: Verein der Freunde (Ed.), Festschrift Inauguration of the new building of the State Engineering School for Mechanical Engineering in Hagen . Self-published, Hagen 1964. p. 21
  4. ^ Ralf Blank, Stephanie Marra and Gerhard E. Sollbach: Hagen. History of a city and its region. Klartext-Verlag, Essen 2008. ISBN 978-3-89861-893-9 . Pp. 313, 328
personal data
SURNAME Grothe, Peter Dietrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Dutch university professor for engineering
DATE OF BIRTH June 23, 1806
PLACE OF BIRTH Herscheid
DATE OF DEATH February 10, 1887
Place of death Delft