Perspectivia

Berkhahn_Otto

Surname

Беркган, Беркан, Беркхан, Биркан, Берхман; Berkhahn, Berkhan

Name

Отто; Otto

Languages taught

German

Confession

Lutheran

Family relations

Married to Helena Petersen (died: 13 August 1757 in St Petersburg).

Career in Russia

It is reported that Berkhahn already lived in Moscow, when E.J. Glück engaged him in 1705 to teach German at his newly founded Moscow Foreign Language School. In the following years, Berkhahn taught reading and writing in German in the lowest German class (“tertia”), six hours per day for an annual salary of 20 roubles with an additional 28 roubles for food. In March 1711, he was dismissed because of the decreasing number of students – there were only 12 students left in his class. Later, from 1720 onwards, Berkhahn worked as sexton at St Ann’s Church in St Petersburg.

Institutions in which the teacher has taught in Russia

Moscow Foreign Language School

Pupils

Semen Kudriavtsev; Ivan Poliakov; Alexei Zenzerov; Andrei Gorlov; Petr Popov; Semen Pavlov; Ivan Kartsov; Alexei Efimov; Fedor Zavodin; Galakhtion Chizhov (pupils of Berkhahn’s class in 1711, see Белокуров/ Зерцалов, 1907, p. 114).

For the complete list of pupils, studying at the Moscow Foreign Language School between 1703 and 1715, see Белокуров/ Зерцалов, 1907, p.XXII-XL.

Social status of teacher’s pupils

nobility; civil servants; soldiers; merchants; craftsmen

At the very start of the Moscow Foreign Language School pupils almost always came from the administration or (in some cases) from the higher nobility. The pupils had to learn foreign languages for service in the administration and the ministries (collegia) or diplomatic service. Quite soon, the social background of the pupils was extended significantly and sons of soldiers and craftsmen also enrolled. There were two different categories of students: those who received a government scholarship and independent (self-funding) pupils. In order to attract more pupils, in the first years of the school’s existence, students were exempted from military service.

Place of work in Russia, city (province)

Moscow; St Petersburg

Dates of existence of the school / pedagogical activity

1705–March 1711

Textbooks and other didactical literature used by the teacher

  • · Comenius, Johann Amos, Vestibulum linguae latinae […].
  • · Comenius, Johann Amos, Januae linguarum reseratae […].
  • · Comenius, Johann Amos, Orbis sensualium pictus […] Die sichtbare Welt […] (possibly: Nürnberg, 1698).
  • It is not quite sure which editions of Comeniusʼ books were used at the Moscow Foreign Language School. We know only that E.J. Glück translated Comeniusʼ “Vestibulum”, “Januae” and “Orbis pictus” into Russian. The “Vestibulum” was completed by the end of 1703 and Glück addressed a petition to the tsar asking for permission to publish it as “Преддверие к познанию русскаго, немецкаго, латинскаго и францускаго языков” (Белокуров, 1907, стр. 47). However, all the manuscripts remained unpublished.
  • Other texts used in language classes at the Moscow Foreign Language school were: various nomenclatures (primer, азбука) in German; proverbs; compilations of dialogues (possibly the Latin-German dialogues of Johann Georg Seybold); the Lutheran Bible; the Lutheran catechism; German hymns.

Sources

  • Белокуров С.А., Зерцалов А.Н., О немецких школах в Москве в первой четверти ХVIII в. Документы Московских архивов. 1701-1715, in: Чтения в Императорском обществе истории и древностей российских, при Московском университете, vol. I, part. 1, t. 220, p. I-XLI, 1-244, Moscow, 1907, pp. XIII, XV, XIX, 114; Erik-Amburger-Datenbank. Ausländer im vorrevolutionären Russland [http://dokumente.ios-regensburg.de/amburger/index.php?id=9557]; Koch Kristine, Deutsch als Fremdsprache im Russland des 18. Jahrhunderts. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des Fremdsprachenlernens in Europa und zu den deutsch-russischen Beziehungen, Berlin, New York, 2002, p. 177; Kovrigina V.A., Die deutschen Lehrer in Moskau in der zweiten Hälfte des 17. und im ersten Viertel des 18.Jahrhunderts, Lüneburg, 2000, S. 37.

Author of the article

Kristine Dahmen