Perspectivia

Herwart_Johann_Georg_von

Surname

Герварт; von Herwart, Herwardt, Herrwartt

Name

Иоган, Яган Георг; Johann Georg

Languages taught

German; French

Confession

Lutheran

Place of birth, country

Holy Roman Empire (Germany)

Place of death, country

Russia

Place of death, town (province)

St. Petersburg

Date of death

04.09.1776

Education

studies in jurisprudence and mathematics

Initial profession

maths teacher

Career before coming to Russia

Herwart used to be a maths teacher and worked in this profession for several years in his native country. He was also involved in land measurement in Gotha and Weimar.

Career in Russia

Johann Georg von Herwart came to Russia in 1732. He worked as private tutor and started to study jurisprudence and maths at the academic University, where he later became a “Kandidat” in jurisprudence and mathematics.

In May 1748, Herwart was recruited by the Academy School to replace Michael Groening, who left the school the same month. Herwart worked in the higher/upper (also called: first) German class and the lower French class until November 1750. His annual salary amounted to 300 roubles. There is evidence of several very negative criticisms on his pedagogical work. In January 1750, Johann Eberhard Fischer, the rector of the Academy School, reported: “[...] his intellect, and his knowledge, and his natural talents leave much to be desired. [Сухомлинов, 1900, vol.10, p.241f.] In November 1750, professor Stepan Krasheninnikov also assessed Herwartʼs qualification just as negatively: “[...] he is weak in French, and he has bad pronunciation, and nearly the same in German; at least what is true is that he teaches his students English in a disorderly manner, so there is not the slightest hope that the properties of the language can be understood from his teaching; neither does he make an effort to accustom his students to the correct pronunciation of words, and so they read in German in such a way that not only their pronunciation seems hideous to those who know the language, but their reading is incomprehensible as well.” [Сухомлинов, 1900, vol.10, p.638] Furthermore, Krasheninnikov pointed out the unfavourable consequences of Herwartʼs deficient skills: “This being so, the fruitless waste of time under this teaching caused some of the independent students to fall behind in school and to study for a fee on an extracurricular basis, which contributed to a negative image of the school.”  [Сухомлинов, 1900, vol.10, p.638] As a result of this report, Herwart was released from the position as a French teacher (he was replaced by the Frenchman Sougie [Сужи], who used to teach at the Cadet Corps) and was assigned to support his colleague Oestermann in the lower German class which had quite a lot of pupils. Later on, Herwart was also discharged from this position and left the Academy School. Count Cyril Razumovskiy, the Academyʼs president, confirmed in a letter that Herwart was discharged “because of his incompetence and his unsettled lifestyle” [Schröder, 1996, p.440] and also because he insulted K. F. Moderach, the inspector of the Academy School. In later years, Herwart became inspector of the Artillery and Engineering Cadet Corps.

Institutions in which the teacher has taught in Russia

Academy School (at the Academy of Science, St. Petersburg); Artillery and Engineering Cadet Corps

Pupils

Between 1748 and 1750, the number of pupils attending the Academy School fluctuated between 57 and 89. A significant part of them most likely joined the German class, because all students aiming to study at the Academy's University had to learn German and/or Latin. The names of a large number of these pupils, aged between 6 and 20 years-old, are known and listed in Suchomlinov’s registers, including information about the pupils' social backgrounds and learning progress.

Social status of teacher’s pupils

nobility; merchants; craftsmen; civil servants; peasants

The Academy School was attended by two different categories of students. The first group were pupils in receipt of a government scholarship, the second group were independent (self-funding) pupils. Among the group of independent pupils were nobles and non-nobles and also quite a lot of non-Russian pupils. Scholarship students were often children whose fathers served in the admiralty or in the army and who were sent to the Academy School, especially to learn German. Thus, the family background of the pupils was largely diversified from a wide spectrum of professions: from the higher nobility, army officers and civil servants, such as staff members of the Academy’s chancellery or the Collegia, to merchants, craftsmen, soldiers, farmers and even ordinary servants.

Place of work in Russia, city (province)

St. Petersburg

Dates of existence of the school / pedagogical activity

26.05.1748 – 11.1750

Subjects and aspects of subjects taught by the teacher

German; French; geography; history

Herwart taught German in the first (upper) German class, French in the lower French class, and also geography and history. In May 1748, the rector of the Academy School, Johann Eberhard Fischer, gave a detailed account of the organisation of the Academy School (Report on Saint-Petersburg Academy School). The aspects ?? and subjects, taught in the first German class, are described as follows: “The first German class is devoted to: the Orthodox religion, review of arithmetic and initial geometry studies. Review of essay rules and demonstration of properties of the German language. Interpretation of a simple writer and interpreting from German into Russian and from Russian into German. Translation from German into Russian and from Russian into German, according to the style and composition used for writing letters. Demonstration of the use of geographical maps, and history teaching. The French language. Calligraphy. Drawing. Dancing.” [Сухомлинов, 1897, vol.9, p.183f.] Regarding the number of German lessons in the first German class Fischerʼs organisation plan set up two lessons in the morning on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. On Wednesday and Saturday mornings, Herwart had to teach geography and history instead of German. In November 1750, as documented by a report of Prof. Krasheninnikov from November 1750, the German lessons in the first German class still took place in the mornings and lasted two hours. The number of French lessons was fewer; in 1748 for example, it was four hours per week.

Methods of teaching

As for the teaching methods, Fischerʼs organisation plan of the Academy School pointed out that the German teachers, as often as possible, should use German and not Russian as the language of instruction, because the students should learn German and  would benefit more from the German and also would get used to it. [“German teachers should offer their teaching in German and not in Russian as much as possible, because it is a way to study German, and the student receives large benefits from teaching offered in German, and gradually gets used to the German language. ” [Сухомлинов, 1897, vol. 9, p. 188]]

Textbooks and other didactical literature used by the teacher

  • · [Ehrenreich Weissmann], Teutsch-lateinisch- und rußisches Lexicon, samt denen Anfangsgründen der Rußischen Sprache. Zu allgemeinem Nutzen bey der kayserl. Academie der Wissenschaften zum Druck befördert. Немецко-латинский и русский лексикон купно с первыми началами рускаго языка к общей полъзе при Имп. Академии науке, печатию издан, St Petersburg, Типогр. АН, 1731.
  • · [Johann Hübner], Kurtze Fragen aus der neuen und alten Geographie, Leipzig, 1693 [The German original version was translated into Russian probably between 1711 and 1716. In 1719 the Russian translation was published in Moscow as “Земноводнаго круга краткое описание из старыя и новыя географии по вопросам через Яна Гибнера собранное [...]”].
  • · [Martin Schwanwitz], Немецкая грамматика, из разных авторов собрана и российской юности в пользу издана от учителя немецкого языка при Санкт-Петербургской гимназии, St Petersburg, Tipogr. AN, 1730.
    • ·         [Joachim Lange], Colloquia Scholastica, Школьные разговоры, Schul-Gespräche, Dialogues, St Petersburg, Tipogr. AN, 1738. ·         [Hilmar Curas], Einleitung zur Universalhistorie zum Gebrauche bey dem ersten Unterricht der Jugend, Berlin, 1723.
  • · Азовская история [one volume in Russian and one volume in German].
  • · Катехизис русский.
  • · One arithmetic book [in German].
  • · [Georg Wolfgang Krafft], Краткое руководство к математической и натуралной географии с употреблением земнаго глобуса и ландкарт сочинено в ползу россискаго юношества и переведено с немецкаго языка [...], St. Petersburg, 1739.
  • These books were listed in a report written by K. F. Moderach, the inspector of the Academy School, to the Academyʼs chancellery in July 1750. Most of these books were popular textbooks used in Western Europe. Some of them were translated into Russian or complemented by a Russian version (like e.g. Weißmannʼs dictionary, Hübnerʼs questions about geography and Langeʼs dialogues). Others, like Curasʼ “Universalhistorie”, were used in the original German version. The members of the Academy, professors or teachers, wrote their own textbooks, too. So for example did Professor G. W. Krafft, whose “Einleitung zur […] Geographie” was first published in German (Academy Press, 1738). The Russian translation was published a year later at the Academy Press, too. The German grammar, which was bilingual in German and Russian, was compiled by the Academy Schoolʼs teacher Martin Schwanwitz and constituted the first German grammar printed in Russia for the needs of Russian students (first edition: Academy Press, 1730). In the middle of the 18th century, the print run of the grammar was already quite high so that a certain number of the students could be provided with their own personal copy of the grammar. For example, this was the case for eight students, who each received the German grammar in June 1748 after having passed the exam to get the Academy scholarship.

Sources

  • Материалы по истории Санкт-Петербургского Университета. XVIII век. Обзор архивных документов. Ed. E.M. Balashov, O.V. Iodko, N.S. Prokhorenko, G.A. Tishkin, St Petersburg, 2001, p. 140; Сухомлинов М.И., Материалы для истории Академии наук, St Petersburg, 1885, vol. 4 (1887), p. 18; vol. 5 (1889), p. 76; vol. 9 (1897), p. 183-188, 236, 403, 458; vol. 10 (1900), p. 241f., 279, 474, 638; Erik-Amburger-Datenbank. Ausländer im vorrevolutionären Russland [http://dokumente.ios-regensburg.de/amburger/index.php?id=53659&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, p. 178, 180, 182, 225; Schröder Konrad, Biographisches und bibliographisches Lexikon der Fremdsprachenlehrer des deutschsprachigen Raumes. Spätmittelalter bis 1800, vol. 5, Augsburg, 1996, Nachträge und Ergänzungen Buchstaben A bis K, 1996, p. 440.

Author of the article

Kristine Dahmen