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Johann Julius Hecker (December 2, 1707 – June 24, 1768) was a German educator who established the first Realschule (practical high school) and Prussia's first teacher-education institution.
Hecker was born to a family of
Johann Julius Hecker (December 2, 1707 – June 24, 1768) was a German educator who established the first Realschule (practical high school) and Prussia's first teacher-education institution.
Hecker was born to a family of educator
A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching.
''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...
s in Werden
Werden is a southern borough of the city of Essen in Germany. It belongs to the city district ''IX Werden/Kettwig/Bredeney'' and has 9,998 inhabitants as of June 30, 2006. The borough occupies a space of and is situated at a median height of .
__ ...
, then part of Prussia. As a young man, he formed an interest in theology and was drawn to pietism and the ideas of August Hermann Francke
August Hermann Francke (; 22 March 1663 – 8 June 1727) was a German Lutheran clergyman, theologian, philanthropist, and Biblical scholar.
Biography
Born in Lübeck, Francke was educated at the Illustrious Gymnasium in Gotha before he studie ...
. After completing the gymnasium in Essen
Essen (; Latin: ''Assindia'') is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and D ...
, he studied theology, ancient languages, medicine, and natural sciences at the University of Halle. In 1729 he became a teacher in the Francke Pädagogium, teaching every subject, including Latin, Greek, Hebrew, German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
, religion, history, arithmetic
Arithmetic () is an elementary part of mathematics that consists of the study of the properties of the traditional operations on numbers— addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, exponentiation, and extraction of roots. In the 19th ...
, botany, anatomy, physiology, and chemistry
Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...
.
In 1735, Prussian king Frederick William I appointed Hecker to the position of pastor and school inspector for the in Potsdam, a home and school for the children and orphans of military personnel. A sermon that Hecker delivered in 1738 so impressed Frederick William that he appointed Hecker to be the first pastor of the new Trinity Church in Berlin, which was consecrated in 1739.
In his role as pastor of Trinity Church, Hecker started six four-class elementary school
A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...
s for education of the local populace. The schools were initially financed from Hecker's personal funds, a school lottery
A lottery is a form of gambling that involves the drawing of numbers at random for a prize. Some governments outlaw lotteries, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. It is common to find some degree of ...
, and private donations.
In 1747 he founded the first Realschule, the "Economic-mathematical Realschule" in Berlin, in which young people who were not suited for a traditional classical education could obtain a practical education to prepare them for careers in fields such as business, manufacturing, and the fine arts. The school emphasized visual and hands-on instruction, including visits to factories and artisans' workshops, instead of rote learning. In 1748, Hecker established a seminary for the training of teachers, the first such institution in Prussia.
Frederick William's son Frederick II (known as Frederick the Great), who became king of Prussia in 1740, was a proponent of Hecker's work. With the king's encouragement, Hecker started a garden near his school. In addition to vegetables, herbs, and fruit trees, the garden included a mulberry
''Morus'', a genus of flowering plants in the family Moraceae, consists of diverse species of deciduous trees commonly known as mulberries, growing wild and under cultivation in many temperate world regions. Generally, the genus has 64 identif ...
plantation for the purpose of silk production.
Hecker's educational work was a major influence on the formulation of Prussia's first general school law, issued by Frederick II in 1763, which formed the basis for a system of state-supported primary schools.
References
Further reading
* Fr. Ranke, ''Johann Julius Hecker'', (Berlin, 1861)External links
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hecker, Johann Julius 1707 births 1768 deaths People from Essen German educational theorists Founders of educational institutions Pietists 18th-century German Lutheran clergy Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg alumni Clergy from Berlin