Theodor Ziemssen

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Theodor Ziemssen (born February 18, 1777 in Greifswald , † October 20, 1843 in Thurow ) was a German theologian, educator and botanist .

Live and act

Theodor Ziemssen was the eldest son of the Greifswald deacon Johann Christoph Ziemssen . After private lessons and two years at the Greifswald city school , he studied theology for four years in Greifswald . In Jena he continued his studies with Fichte , Paulus and Griesbach for a year and then went to Switzerland as a tutor from 1799 to 1803 . In February 1799 he had joined the Society of Free Men in Jena .

There he got to know Herbart , who worked as an educator, and Johann Heinrich Voss's favorite student , Friedrich August Eschen . The three friends planned to found a modern educational institute. Herbart went back to Germany, however, and Eschen died in August 1800 while hiking on a glacier with Ziemssen on Mont Blanc . The shock of the accident led to a prolonged nervous illness in Ziemssen. His reports to the bereaved and to Voss were published without his knowledge. Ziemssen entered the service of Baron Frisching at Rümligen Castle and met Pestalozzi in Bern , whom he then often visited in Burgdorf . Ziemssen was also a member of the five-person commission commissioned by Minister Stapfer to review Pestalozzi's method. Pestalozzi later wrote to Ziemssen: "It is true, you were one of the first to suspect the fruit in the weak germ!" Ziemssen was meanwhile living in Bern with Gessner, Wieland's son-in-law, and planned to hold educational lectures. However, the family called him back to Greifswald and therefore turned down Pestalozzi's offer to take on the management of his institute. On the return journey, Ziemssen stopped in Jena, received his doctorate in philosophy and returned home in 1803. In 1804 he completed his habilitation in Greifswald through Pestalozzi's type of teaching. As a private lecturer, he read about education and philosophy and was also head of the country school teachers' seminar.

In 1806 he accepted the parish in Hanshagen near Greifswald and married Wilhelmine von Mühlenfels, a daughter of Johann Jakob von Mühlenfels and a relative of Friedrich Schleiermacher's wife . In 1807 he founded a private educational institution in Hanshagen, in which ten to twelve boys lived until 1826, who were taught according to the Pestalozzis method. Christian Adolf Hasert worked here as his assistant for a while.

In Hanshagen, Ziemssen a. a. in the rich natural surroundings, which the famous botanist Kurt Sprengel and Adelbert von Chamisso also enjoyed during their visits to Ziemssen.

The happy life was disrupted when the rectory burned down in July 1826 and Ziemssen suffered serious burns while rescuing the parish archives. He had to live in Greifswald for three years before the rectory was rebuilt. The educational institution was closed.

In 1815 he received his theological doctorate from the University of Rostock , and in 1821 he was appointed superintendent of the Greifswald regional synod .

Ziemssen died of a heart attack in the neighboring municipality of Thurow, which he was visiting on a business trip.

Fonts (selection)

  • On the Origin of Obedience in Education, an educational fragment. Greifswald 1803.
  • Dissertatio paedagogica de Pestalozziana institutionis methodo. 1804 (habilitation thesis).
  • The improvement of education is the most urgent need of the present. 1804.
  • Christianity in relation to the age of its origin. 1815.
  • Botanical remarks on the island of Rügen. 1819 (with Christian Friedrich Hornschuch ).

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Ernst Zunker:  Casimir Ulrich Boehlendorff and the Pomeranian friends from the society of free men and in the sphere of influence of Hölderlin . In: Society for Pomeranian History and Archeology (Hrsg): Baltic studies . New series, Vol. 60, NG Elwert, Marburg 1974, pp. 118-121 ( digitized version ).
  2. ↑ in Georg Anton von Halem's magazine "Irene", 1st volume Berlin 1801, pp. 156–194.
  3. ↑ Rebekka Horlacher; Daniel Tröhler (ed.): All letters to Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi. Volume 5: August 1817-1820. Berlin: de Gruyter 2013 ISBN 9783110304435 , p. 169f (line 43, line 47)
personal data
SURNAME Ziemssen, Theodor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pedagogue and theologian
DATE OF BIRTH February 18, 1777
PLACE OF BIRTH Greifswald
DATE OF DEATH October 20, 1843
Place of death Thurow