Otto Tschirch (4 June 1858 – 13 March 1941) was a German

pedagogue Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken as ...

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

and

archivist An archivist is an information professional who assesses, collects, organizes, preserves, maintains control over, and provides access to Document, records and archives determined to have long-term value. The records maintained by an archivist c ...

. Alongside his general teaching, his particular specialism was the history of

Brandenburg an der Havel Brandenburg an der Havel () is a town in Brandenburg, Germany, which served as the capital of the Margraviate of Brandenburg until it was replaced by Berlin in 1417. With a population of 72,040 (as of 2020), it is located on the banks of the H ...

and of the

Margraviate of Brandenburg The Margraviate of Brandenburg (german: link=no, Markgrafschaft Brandenburg) was a major principality of the Holy Roman Empire from 1157 to 1806 that played a pivotal role in the history of Germany and Central Europe. Brandenburg developed out o ...

more generally. These were the focus of much of his published output.

Life

Family provenance

Otto Richard Sigismund Tschirch was born in

Guben Guben (Polish and Sorbian: ''Gubin'') is a town on the Lusatian Neisse river in Lower Lusatia, in the state of Brandenburg, Germany. Located in the Spree-Neiße district, Guben has a population of 20,049. Along with Frankfurt (Oder) and Görlitz ...

, then a mid-sized industrial town straddling the Neiße River, located between

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

and Breslau. He was the second recorded son of Carl Adolf Tschirch (1815–1875), an evangelical minister in Guben. His elder brother,

Alexander Tschirch Alexander Tschirch (17 October 1856 – 2 December 1939) was a German-Swiss pharmacist born in Guben. He received pharmacy training in Dresden and at the ''Berner Staatsapotheke'' (Bern state apothecary). From 1878 to 1880 he studied at the U ...

(1856-1939), later gained distinction as a professor of

pharmacy Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it links heal ...

Bern german: Berner(in)french: Bernois(e) it, bernese , neighboring_municipalities = Bremgarten bei Bern, Frauenkappelen, Ittigen, Kirchlindach, Köniz, Mühleberg, Muri bei Bern, Neuenegg, Ostermundigen, Wohlen bei Bern, Zollikofen , website ...

Early years

Otto Tschirch attended the elementary and secondary ( "Gymnasium") schools in Guben before moving on to study at

where between 1876 and 1880 he studied

History History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

Germanistics The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...

Geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...

Philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

and

Pedagogy Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken as ...

. His lecturers at Berlin included

Mommsen Mommsen is a surname, and may refer to one of a family of German historians, see Mommsen family: * Theodor Mommsen (1817–1903), classical scholar, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature * Hans Mommsen (1930–2015), historian known for arguing ...

, Nitzsch and

Droysen Johann Gustav Bernhard Droysen (; ; 6 July 180819 June 1884) was a German historian. His history of Alexander the Great was the first work representing a new school of German historical thought that idealized power held by so-called "great" men. ...

for History, Kiepert for

, Johannes Schmidt for Indo-German languages,

Albrecht Weber Friedrich Albrecht Weber (; 17 February 1825 – 30 November 1901) was a Prussian - German Indologist and historian who studied the history of Jainism in India. Some older sources have the first and middle names interchanged. Weber was born in B ...

for

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

and

Philosophy of language In analytic philosophy, philosophy of language investigates the nature of language and the relations between language, language users, and the world. Investigations may include inquiry into the nature of meaning, intentionality, reference, ...

with Steinthal. After university Tschirch taught, till 1882, at the orphanage (''"Zivilwaisenhaus"'') in

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...

. He obtained his teaching certificate in June 1882 and in October of that year took up a position as a

Referendary Referendary is the English form of a number of administrative positions, of various rank, in chanceries and other official organizations in Europe. Pre-modern history The office of ' (plural: ', from the Latin ', "I inform") existed at the Byzan ...

at the Luisenstädtische Gymnasium (secondary school) in Berlin,In 1928 the Luisenstädtische Gymnasium was renamed as the Heinrich-Schliemann-Oberschule. switching early on to the Saldern-Gymnasium (secondary school) in

, where from 1884 he had a permanent contract.

Middle years

1884 was also the year in which he received his doctorate, from the

University of Halle Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (german: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg), also referred to as MLU, is a public, research-oriented university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg and the largest and oldest university i ...

, for work on the history of

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

between 1162, the year of the city's virtual destruction, and the departure of

Frederick I Frederick I may refer to: * Frederick of Utrecht or Frederick I (815/16–834/38), Bishop of Utrecht. * Frederick I, Duke of Upper Lorraine (942–978) * Frederick I, Duke of Swabia (1050–1105) * Frederick I, Count of Zoller ...

during the 1180s. In 1899 he was appointed to the newly created (though at this point unpaid) office of

Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a states of Germany, state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an ar ...

municipal archivist, and in 1902 he was nominated as a professor. He continued to teach till his retirement from it in 1921. As a historian he remained active in various other respects.

Beyond the school walls

Tschirch became a member of the Brandenburg an der Havel Historical Association in 1886. In 1894 he joined the management committee, becoming deputy secretary in 1894 and principal secretary to the association in 1895. Between 1909 and 1937 he served as its chairman. He was deeply involved in celebrations of the town's millennial anniversary in 1929. Along with this, he was appointed Municipal Archivist in 1899, initially on an honorary basis, but the position was one for which he received a salary between 1921 and 1929. It was in 1929 that his two-volume work "Geschichte der Chur- und Hauptstadt Brandenburg a. d. Havel. Festschrift zur Tausendjahrfeier der Stadt 1928/29" was published, its appearance timed to coincide with the town's millennium. Most recently reprinted in 2013, the work has become a standard work on the history of Brandenburg and the region. In 1912 Tschirch was a co-founder of Brandenburg's Museum Association (''"Vereinigung Brandenburgischer Heimatmuseen"''), becoming deputy chairman in 1922 and chairman in 1932. After the museum opened, between 1923 and 1939, he was responsible for running it. He was also a member of the Historical Commission for the Brandenburg Province and Berlin between 1925 and the commission's closure in 1939. There was a move to have Otto Tschirch made an honorary citizen of

in 1929, but the idea was rejected by the young mayor of Brandenburg, . Fresdorf was a member of the SPD (party) and was suspicious of Tschirch's monarchist sympathies. However, Fresdorf moved on in 1932, and during 1933 Otto Tschirch was made an honorary citizen of his home town. Further recognition came in 1993 when a street in Brandenburg was named after him, to be followed by a school in 2007.

†

Otto Tschirch died following a traffic accident in

on 13 March 1941. His final decades were crowned by further historical projects and publications.

Family

Otto Tschirch married Maria Beata Schütz in 1885. Three recorded children resulted: Ilse (1886), Siegfried (1888) and Alexander (1890). Of these, Ilse married in 1917 an evangelical minister called Karl Ludwig Wilhelm Lencer; Siegfried became a ship's officer and, later,

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

. Alexander became a physician, practicing as a gynaecologist in

Wismar Wismar (; Low German: ''Wismer''), officially the Hanseatic City of Wismar (''Hansestadt Wismar'') is, with around 43,000 inhabitants, the sixth-largest city of the northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and the fourth-largest city ...

from 1919.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tschirch, Otto 19th-century German educators 20th-century German educators 19th-century German historians 20th-century German historians German archivists People from Guben People from Brandenburg an der Havel 1858 births 1941 deaths