Wolfgang Ernst High School

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Wolfgang Ernst High School
Count Wolfgang-Ernst.jpg
Count Wolfgang Ernst - founder and namesake
type of school high school
founding 1601 (probably before 1416)
address

Wilhelm-Lückert-Strasse 4

place Büdingen
country Hesse
Country Germany
Coordinates 50 ° 16 '55 "  N , 9 ° 7' 0"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 16 '55 "  N , 9 ° 7' 0"  E
carrier Wetteraukreis
student about 1000
Teachers 80
management Oliver Eissing
Website www.wolfgang-ernst-gymnasium.de

The Wolfgang-Ernst-Gymnasium in Büdingen is one of the oldest German high schools . It was founded in 1601 by Count Wolfgang Ernst von Isenburg (1560–1633) as a Latin school . The Wolfgang-Ernst-Gymnasium is attended by around 1,000 students who are taught by around 80 teachers. The current main building of the school was built in 1989.

history

The beginnings

References to a school in Büdingen can be found for the first time in 1416. An invoice shows that the schoolmaster received ten guilders and ten hellers for a business trip to Mainz . In 1475, the Büdingen citizen Heinrich Sunder donated an altar in the Marienkapelle and granted the schoolmaster a legacy , for which he had to sing mass with his students .

The well-known theologian, reformer and fable poet Erasmus Albertus taught in Büdingen in 1520. A traditional statement shows his pedagogical direction: "Since I was a schoolmaster, I poked the children, if I found lies, much sooner and more, because they could not their lesson." His other writings show that the school education is not only religious knowledge, but also classical education. In 1580 the Büdingen pastor Josua Opitz (1542–1585), who was responsible for the school supervision, put together a “school law” for the Latin school, which contained a curriculum or a catalog of lessons and a timetable.

Thudichum , Skull, Dingeldein and Decker see the classrooms of the Latin School until 1602 in the “New School” between the church and the tower, which was built in place of the demolished St. Anne's Choir. Peter Nieß and Karl Dielmann assigned the school to the rooms that were specially raised for this purpose in the Gothic palace chapel , which today still bear the name "High School". In place of the second yoke of the older Liebfrauenkapelle above the Marienchor, the “New Consistorium”, also called “Presbytery”, was built in 1602 on the south side. The Latin school stayed in these rooms until the beginning of the 20th century.

Even though the school served as preparation for attending the university from the second half of the 16th century , in Büdingen it was simply called “the school” or occasionally “state provincial school”. The name “Gymnasium” appeared for the first time in 1600 when the scholar Melchior Colerus asked Count Wolfgang-Ernst in a memorial letter that the venerable Gymnasium in this city should remain in its former prime and dignity: “Generosum huius Urbis Gymnasium in pristino flore et dignatate permansurum ” .

high school

On June 3, 1601, Count Wolfgang Ernst founded a Latin school to re-establish the “old high school” in Büdingen, from which the Wolfgang Ernst Gymnasium emerged. Wolfgang Ernst had previously supported students of the Reformed faith in Herborn with scholarships . The Latin school was financed from pensions and gradients of the former monasteries in order to “provide a good school within the youth, until they could progress with benefit in other places and obtain publica testimonia doctrinae et eruditionis (... get ahead with benefit and obtain public proof of their knowledge can ...), be instructed and taught with diligence ” . The number of teachers should be at least four. In 1608 a total of 155 students, including many foreigners, attended the school. According to the deed of foundation, there was a “community” for these foreign students, “in which each one did not reimburse more than 30 guilders for board” .

As a result of the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), the witch hunt (1532–1699) and the plague (1635), the population of Büdingens fell to about a thousand people. As a result of the events, the income intended for the school also failed to materialize. The number of teachers fell to two because of a lack of money, and they could no longer be paid. So the number of students also decreased. In 1662 there were only 70 students; at times classes had to be dissolved.

It was not until the beginning of the 18th century that the “state and provincial school”, which had disappeared into a “city school”, regained importance. With his edict of tolerance in 1712, Count Ernst Casimir I attracted religious refugees from all over the world, such as Huguenots , Waldensians , inspired and other separatists. As a result, the suburb was built in front of the Untertor (Jerusalem Gate) until 1724 . With the takeover of the school management in 1730 by the literary and learned Rector Scholae Professor Isaac Pels from Hanau, better learning conditions arose. During his tenure, Pels used all means - including "heavy blows" against the "bad, depraved, almost incomprehensible youth" who, instead of going to church, prefer to chase after catching crabs in "godless freedom" . Under him the number of classes grew and foreign students also came to the school in Büdingen. Pel's teaching and penal methods did not remain undisputed.

In the first years after 1800, Rector Hadermann tried to modernize the teaching method. But even that could not stop the school from declining again, which went hand in hand with the temporary disempowerment of the Ysenburg-Büdingen family. In 1806, the county of Ysenburg-Büdingen was incorporated into the Rheinbund Principality of Isenburg . In 1816 the county fell into the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt. Due to the loss of reputation and grievances in school life, government councilor Hedebrand finally demanded that the grammar school be gradually converted into a community school. In any case, the school could not serve its purpose for future students. The plan nevertheless failed due to the commitment of men like Pastor Keller and Rector Hadermann, so that the old "high school" remained. Pastor Keller was a councilor, inspector of the school and state parliament deputy in one person. For years he systematically carried out the political preparatory work for the renewal of the "Provincial School" as a "Landesgymnasium" by Grand Ducal Hessian decree of February 27, 1822. The unification of the Reformed and Lutherans in 1817 to form a Protestant community was also important, so that the savings the now superfluous parish offices of the school could benefit.

School removals

Old building of the Wolfgang-Ernst-Gymnasium 2008
Main entrance of the new grammar school

On May 1, 1822, the school was converted into a state high school on the initiative of Count Ernst Casimir. In 1829 the grammar school moved into the previous Lutheran church in Schlossgasse, which had now been converted for school purposes. When the count was raised to the rank of prince in 1840, the school was called the Großherzogliches Gymnasium Büdingen. In 1879 the grammar school moved into a new building on Gymnasiumstrasse. The school was expanded by several buildings. Two pavilions at the location of today's Büdinger district court in the Stiegelwiese as well as classrooms in other schools were necessary to cope with the increasing number of pupils. Hundreds of middle and upper school students, so-called hiking classes, rushed through Büdingen to reach their classrooms, which were kilometers apart. In 1989, after years of massive pressure from parents, the school was able to move into a sufficiently large new building on the south-eastern edge of Büdingen.

Well-known teachers

  • Erasmus Alberus (1520); * around 1500, † 1553; German theologian, reformer and author of hymns and fables
  • Johannes Lonicer (Johannes Lonicerus, 1544); * around 1497, † 1569; Classical philologist, professor of the Greek and Hebrew languages ​​in Marburg, humanist, poet and Protestant theologian
  • Rudolf Goclenius the Elder (1601); * 1547 as Rudolf Gockel, † 1628; Professor of Philosophy, Logic, Metaphysics and Ethics at the Philipps University of Marburg
  • Johannes Martin Keller ; * 1766, † 1829; Director of the high school
  • Georg Thudichum (1818); * 1794, † 1873; German Protestant theologian and classical philologist
  • Georg August Otto Dingeldein ; * 1861, † 1951; German philologist, high school professor and specialist book author
  • Otto Keller (politician, 1879) (from 1924); * 1879, † 1947; Hessian politician (DVP)

Known students

Literature / sources

  • Georg Thudichum: History of the grammar school in Büdingen , together with news of the church and school system in general. Invitation ... , Büdingen: Heller'sche Hofbuchdruckerei, 1832.
  • H. Weyerhäuser: Communications about the high school library in Büdingen together with a list of the books in it from the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries . ( School program ), Büdinge: Hellern 1881 ( digitized version )
  • Program of the Grand Ducal Gymnasium in Büdingen . 1884/85 - 1887/88 ( digitized version )
  • Annual report of the Grand Ducal Gymnasium in Büdingen . 1888/89 - 1900/1901 ( digitized version )
  • Bernhard skull: Brief history of the high school in Büdingen , Büdingen 1901.
  • Annual report of the Großh. Wolfgang-Ernst-Gymnasium in Büdingen . 1901/02 - 1914/15 ( digitized version )
  • Otto Dingeldein : On the history of the Büdinger Gymnasium , essay, 1926.
  • Hans-Velten Heuson: Büdingen - Yesterday and Today: Works on the history of the city and its surroundings (1300–1945) . Collected and edited by Volkmar Stein for the author's 75th birthday. Büdingen 2004 (collection of articles)
  • Willi Luh: On the history of the Wolfgang Ernst School (grammar school) in Büdingen . In: Kreis Büdingen - Wesen und Werden, 1956.
  • Willi Luh: The Wolfgang Ernst School - from the beginning until 1976. Festschrift for the 375th anniversary celebration , 1976.

Web links

Commons : Wolfgang-Ernst-Gymnasium  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://wolfgang-ernst-gymnasium.de/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=997&cntnt01returnid=97
  2. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: Dr. Klaus-Peter Decker , The increase in the Büdinger Schloßkapelle and the marriage of Count Wolfgang zu Ysenburg-Büdingen in 1561 , Büdinger Geschichtsblätter, Volume XVIII, 2005@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.jungborn-buedingen.de
  3. ^ Munzinger-Archiv GmbH, Ravensburg: Alexander Demandt - Munzinger Biographie. In: www.munzinger.de. Retrieved April 20, 2016 .