Perspectivia

Büttner_Johann_Christian

Surname

Битнер, Битнир, Битнирз; Büttner, Bütner

Name

Иван Крестьян; Johann Christian

Languages taught

German; Latin

Confession

Lutheran

Place of birth, country

Saxony

Place of birth, town (province)

Lohsa, near Hoyerswerda

Place of death, country

Russia

Place of death, town (province)

Moscow

Date of death

beginning of 1714

Education

Büttner was enrolled as a student of theology at the university of Halle on October 5, 1701.

Initial profession

teacher, director of school

Career before coming to Russia

From 1703 to 1705, Büttner was head of the Lutheran grammar school in Pressburg (today Bratislava). Due to anti-pietistic movements in Hungary, he left Pressburg in 1705 and returned to Halle.

Career in Russia

Büttner was sent to Moscow by A.H. Francke in autumn 1705 together with his colleagues P.D. Brettschneider and M. Ruttich. He arrived in Moscow in December 1705 and became a Latin and German teacher (first class, “prima”) at the Moscow Foreign Language School. In summer 1706 (July 5) he succeeded J.W. Paus as director of this school. He remained director until the end of 1710 for an annual salary of 120 roubles and 50 roubles for food. Büttner knew Czech and quickly learned Russian. In his correspondence with A.H. Francke, he regularly reported the difficulties he met in running the school. Conflicts arose especially with the Russian administration and the parents of rich pupils, who often were sent to the school by order of tsar Peter I and not because their parents wished it. Büttner was very interested in languages and commissioned studies about the language and culture of his Tatarian, Kalmyk and Armenian pupils. He was also the author of the Theologia Patrum Graecorum, a compilation of sentences of Greek church fathers with their translation into Latin. His request to publish his works at Halle was refused. His translations of the New Testament into Russian and Armenian remained unfinished. In 1710, Büttner asked to be released for health reasons. Following Kovrigina, it was more likely that the actual reasons were the administration plans to reorganize the school by transforming it into a foreign language school only. He left the school in March or April 1711. In the following years, he taught the pupils of the German schools in the German Quarter. In 1714, Büttner died in Moscow.

Institutions in which the teacher has taught in Russia

Moscow Foreign Language School

Pupils

In 1711: Boris Khrushchev; Ivan Lodyzhenskii.

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

Social status of teacher’s pupils

nobility; civil servants; soldiers; merchants; craftsmen

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

Place of work in Russia, city (province)

Moscow

Dates of existence of the school / pedagogical activity

1705-1711

Subjects and aspects of subjects taught by the teacher

Latin; German

Büttner taught the middle (secunda) and the upper class (prima).

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 issues of Comeniusʼ books were used at the Moscow Foreign Language School. What we do know is that J.E. Glück translated Comeniusʼ “Vestibulum”, “Januae” and “Orbis pictus” into Russian. The “Vestibulum” was completed by end of 1703 and Glück applied to the tsar with a petition to publish it as “Преддверие к познанию русскаго, немецкаго, латинскаго и францускаго языков” (Белокуров 1907, p.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.

Other publications made by the teacher

  • · [Grotius, Hugo], О праве войны и мира [De iure belli ac pacis], 1706. [together with J.W. Paus]

Other activities of the teacher

· Theologia Patrum Graecorum, unpublished.

· De fide et ritibus Armenorum (1708), unpublished.

Büttner was very interested in the Armenian church, culture and tradition. His works on these topics were sent to A.H. Francke after his death, but remained unpublished.

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, bk. I, part 1, vol. 220, Moscow, 1907, pp. X, XIX, 6-14, 17, 22, 23, 27, 30, 106, 113, 120, 121, 127; Erik-Amburger-Datenbank. Ausländer im vorrevolutionären Russland [http://dokumente.ios-regensburg.de/amburger/index.php?id=7530&mode=1]; 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, S. 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, 39; Winter E. Halle als Ausgangspunkt der deutschen Russlandkunde im 18. Jahrhundert, Berlin, 1953, S. 169-174 206, 299; Winter Eduard, Halle als Ausgangspunkt der deutschen Russlandkunde im 18. Jahrhundert, Berlin, 1953, S. 384f.; 385f.

Author of the article

Kristine Dahmen