Born in 1669 as the son of a swordmaker in Neumarkt near Halle, Semler went to the gymnasium in Halle and studied at the universities of Leipzig and Jena. He became Magister in 1697. In 1699 he was appointed pastor of the Hospital and of the Moritzkirche, which brought him also the charge of inspecting the ‘lowest German schools’. In 1701 he married Dorothea Küchmeister. The couple had twenty-two children. In 1708 Semler became dean of the Ulrichskirche and held the position until his death in 1740. He taught at the university of Halle on philosophy, mathematics, and theology from 1697 to 1699. His sermons were very popular and he was held to be orator sine pari until 1722, when an ailment damaged his vocal cords. A brilliant theologian, philosopher, and astronomer, Semler was first and foremost an educator. Unfortunately, he found a powerful opponent in August Hermann Francke, who attacked him in 1699 on confessional issues. As a result, Semler could not work with and for the Waisenhaus, but had to go his way, which he did by opening in 1708 in his own house a mathematical arts and crafts school, which grew into a mathematical and mechanical Realschule, and thus gave birth to the German institution of the ‘real-school’, seminarium status oeconomici dedicated to mechanical arts open to all arts and crafts, as opposed to a ‘word-school’ limited to the humanities, seminarium status ecclesiastici et politici. In his program Nützliche Vorschläge zur Ausrichtung einer mathematischen handwercks-Schule (Halle, 1705), Semler saw the final goal of schooling in habituating children to reality. He chose to avoid what he took to be speculations and useless subtleties, and focussed instead on ‘the ipsissimae res, which are Dei opera, and on those machines, which provide the world with everyday innumerable advantages. It is evident that one should not prefer exotica and curiosa, but rather quotidiana and necessaria, for the latter bring praestantissimam utilitatem to our lives’ (p. 8). Semler built astronomical models in order to ‘demonstrate’ natural laws ‘in the presence of the objects’ and wrote an atlas of the heavens.
Semler, Christoph
POZZO, Riccardo
2010-01-01
Abstract
Born in 1669 as the son of a swordmaker in Neumarkt near Halle, Semler went to the gymnasium in Halle and studied at the universities of Leipzig and Jena. He became Magister in 1697. In 1699 he was appointed pastor of the Hospital and of the Moritzkirche, which brought him also the charge of inspecting the ‘lowest German schools’. In 1701 he married Dorothea Küchmeister. The couple had twenty-two children. In 1708 Semler became dean of the Ulrichskirche and held the position until his death in 1740. He taught at the university of Halle on philosophy, mathematics, and theology from 1697 to 1699. His sermons were very popular and he was held to be orator sine pari until 1722, when an ailment damaged his vocal cords. A brilliant theologian, philosopher, and astronomer, Semler was first and foremost an educator. Unfortunately, he found a powerful opponent in August Hermann Francke, who attacked him in 1699 on confessional issues. As a result, Semler could not work with and for the Waisenhaus, but had to go his way, which he did by opening in 1708 in his own house a mathematical arts and crafts school, which grew into a mathematical and mechanical Realschule, and thus gave birth to the German institution of the ‘real-school’, seminarium status oeconomici dedicated to mechanical arts open to all arts and crafts, as opposed to a ‘word-school’ limited to the humanities, seminarium status ecclesiastici et politici. In his program Nützliche Vorschläge zur Ausrichtung einer mathematischen handwercks-Schule (Halle, 1705), Semler saw the final goal of schooling in habituating children to reality. He chose to avoid what he took to be speculations and useless subtleties, and focussed instead on ‘the ipsissimae res, which are Dei opera, and on those machines, which provide the world with everyday innumerable advantages. It is evident that one should not prefer exotica and curiosa, but rather quotidiana and necessaria, for the latter bring praestantissimam utilitatem to our lives’ (p. 8). Semler built astronomical models in order to ‘demonstrate’ natural laws ‘in the presence of the objects’ and wrote an atlas of the heavens.
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