Education Knight from Ban de la Rosh

Valdersbach is a tiny village on the western border of Elsas, who stores the memory of an amazing person - Johann Friedrich Oberlin. In the French manner, he is also called Jean-Frederick Obellen (Jean-Frédéric Oberlin).

The name Oberlin was firmly intertwined with the concepts of enlightenment and humanism, and the small museum dedicated to it on the outskirts of the same village allows you to plunge in the era of two -century prescription, which gave rise to a galaxy of natural scientists, philanthropists and collectors of glorious collections. If you wish, you can spend the whole day there, childishly surprised at every exhibit related to the personality of the former owner-Pastor Oberlin.

Russian -speaking publications are very sparingly written about Oberlina, but, fortunately, one small old book published in the St. Petersburg printing house of the brothers in the middle of the century before last - in 1867 was found in the funds of the Russian State Library. Translated from the German language, it gives a detailed description of the life of Oberlin and his sixty years in Ban de la Rosh (French Ban de la Roche). On the basis of this ancient publication, as well as a modern biography, recently published in Strasbourg, I managed to compose my idea of ​​this in many ways an outstanding person.

In the preface of the same book, its compiler fairly asks the question: “ What kind of idea is to offer Russian readers a biography of the evangelical pastor? Is the teachings, the life and deeds of the foreign spiritual person, even the most beneficial for the parishioners, can interest us or bring us any benefit? .. Foreigned these and similar questions when the real book appears, we could briefly answer that they themselves will be resolved when the reader wishes to familiarize themselves with its content without prejudice and disassembled. Oberlin's beneficial activity, which not only turned the deserted wild country into a zealous garden, but also its inhabitants, immersed in deep ignorance and extreme poverty, brought to a high degree of mental and moral development and material well -being ... ”1” 1

Johann Friedrich Oberlin was born in Strasbourg on August 31, 1740. “ His father is a thorough scientist, was a professor in the gymnasium of the city, while his eldest brother later became a famous historian and archaeologist .” There were nine children in total, including seven sons.

Still studying at the University of Strasbourg, Oberlin thought about his mission and wrote about the readiness to become a "instrument of service to God." After graduating from the university, for several years he stayed with the teacher 2 in the house of the famous surgeon, Dr. Tsigenhagen, where he acquired those medical and surgical knowledge, to which he later had to resort to helping his neighbor quite often. He also had hunting for military service and even, taking advantage of the admission of officers, took part in military exercises. And he would be a military priest if he had not arrived by that time in Strasbourg Pastor Stuber, looking for a worthy receiver in an inconspicuous mountain village of Steinal.

“ In the same years, about eighty families existed in extreme poverty, contented almost exclusively by forest apples and roots that they themselves and their pigs ate. And although the breeding in the Steinal of Potato began in 1709, it was carried out so carelessly and stupidly that the collection of fruits in the half of the last century barely rewarded the work and costs of planting. And the inhabitants of that time! The poor semi -wild people, dressed mostly in torn rackets and spoke with rude expansion, incomprehensible even in the neighborhood. The people who had no relations even with the nearest environs, since, according to the then state of the valley, for six to seven months a year was cut off from any message with big roads ...

During the first half of the XVIII century, clergymen, properly preaching the gospel of the poor inhabitants of this valley, were no doubt not by the saviors, but the corruption of souls, and some of them did not teach the poor Steinalians anything new, except for the use of vodka and love for hunting.

The reason for such an unsuccessful choice of spiritual pastors in Steinal could be that young people who were most capable of preaching the gospel, richly gifted with knowledge, are non -fascinated in relation to morality, considered worthy of an advantage over others to take a place in a rich coming, while mediocre and even worthy condemnia, as it were, put them in those poor parishes, which did not preserve in their poverty No other good, except for the gospel. But, fortunately, not all young spirituals shared such a way of thinking. And in poor Steinal, a worthy candidate of theology - Johann Stubér ... entered in 1750 ...

A few years later he received an honorary call to Strasbourg to the place of the parish priest at the church of St. Thomas. He believed that he could accept this invitation with a clear conscience, because now he had the opportunity to choose a truly pious candidate to replace the Valdbach parish . ”

It was then that Johann Oberlin appeared. March 30, 1767, 26 years old, he joined the Waldbach (Waldersbach).

“ Soon he was convinced that his duties in relation to the arrival should be two kinds: firstly, by all means to strive for the salvation of souls, and then, as far as possible, to facilitate the bodily needs of the Steinalians, which mostly have come from their own guilt.

It is noteworthy that it was in the past attitude, that is, in care of the external well -being of the parishioners, he first met their most stubborn resistance. The Steinalians in the then beggarly pride were extremely offended when Oberlin, like his predecessor, pointed them to their home grief, untidiness, negligence and their inability. His good sentences they called only unnecessary gossip.

At a time when the peasants encouraged the peasants to correct the roads, they, who were not accustomed to such intense work, were embittered against him, and he was repeatedly obliged to be the speed of his horse by salvation from the rude explosion of their indignation . ”

But still, " Lyubov Oburnlin for all his parishioners was very likened to the love of tender parents for their children ."

Oberlin could not calm down until he brought his parishioners who lived in bitter need and external deprivations, to moral well -being and well -being. When he arrived in Steinal, agriculture was in him, perhaps in a worst position than in the entire district. The peasants believed that their soil lost its fertility, not even thinking that the reason for this was just their inability to treat the fields. Potatoes - and he completely degenerated. There was no question of breeding trees, sowing clover, hayfields. The forest was mercilessly exterminated. And poverty has reached the scale of unthinkable.

And since the parishioners, according to their familiarity to this position, did not believe the word of the new pastor, he had to preach in business.

In several small plots of the Earth, he produced very successful experiments on breeding field vegetables, bread and fruit trees. This example of beautiful plantations, in comparison with which the peasant lands represented a sad sight, convinced them. “ One, then the other, they came to the pastor with the question:“ How does he reach such a good harvest on such poor soil? ” And Oberlin explained to them that much depends on diligence and art . ” After that, the Steinalians themselves began to correct the situation, starting to experience the breeding of potatoes, which Oberlin himself wrote out for them from Switzerland, Germany and Lorraine. Soon in Strasbourg itself, Steinal potatoes appeared on sale. However, Oberlin did not stop there. He made attempts to breed flax by writing out seeds from Riga for that. And this experience was successful.

At the insistence of Oberlin, the bed of streams that poured the fields and prevented the haymaking of their spills, was deepened, while the swamp places were dried by conducting ditches and channels to them. The first he introduced in Steinal and breeding fruit trees. He taught his parishioners to remove trees from grains and improve them with vaccination. He also painstakingly cared about cattle breeding, even having established an annual prize from his personal funds in favor of a community that would present a better will, and thereby excited a living competition.

Soon, the number of inhabitants of Steinal increased to the fact that the fields of fields were already insufficient for the growing population. Then Oberlin introduced the spinning of the wool, from which Steinal acquired annually to 32 thousand francs.

Soon, the noble family of Legrand arrived in Steinal from Basel. Attracted by the activities of such a wonderful person, they founded a spinning production and school in Steinal.

The most important enterprise Oberlin was the construction of roads that could connect the remote and mountainous terrain with the rest of the country. Calling the Steinalsev to that, he himself, putting Kirk on his shoulders, set to build. This case is displayed in well -known engravings today.

In addition, he studied crafts and equipment. So the workshops appeared in Steinal. At his own expense, he made payment for the children of the parishioners to the teacher’s assistants, and provided the poor countless benefits (mostly secretly).

Of course, the question arises: where could the pastor have such substantial means for his violent activity? Everything is simple: Oberlin, at his house, contained “ parasites and pupils - sons of enough noble parents, willingly entrusted to him ”, so much so that several people who wanted to have for every similar “vacancy”. The fact that he acquired with his labor from the upbringing and training of these children, and he spent 3 for the improvement of the area entrusted to him 3 .

Being continuously active in his vocation, Oberlin demanded the same from others: " There was nothing more disgusting to him more than laziness ." But even more disgusting than bodily laziness was “lethargy of the mind” to him - “ lethargy that does not want to think and think about anything, but it makes everything mechanically learned pointless .” On Thursdays, he appointed two hours for adult parishioners for reasonable conversations with them about agriculture, housekeeping, and natural sciences. I bought an electric machine and some other physical devices, had an excellent collection of plants 4 .

Oberlin reached even more fame as a good mentor. Only a well -known example can be brought into the statement.

“ Once I heard a terrible noise from my office. From the window I saw that everything village-old and small-crowded and screaming at some stranger, like a flock of raven pursuing an eagle owl that appeared during the day. ” It turned out that the crowd was mocked over the negligence of getting to them a Jew. “Here Oberlin explained to them how at that moment they were unworthy of the name of Christians; Then the pastor raised the stranger’s knot on his shoulders, took his hand and inserted his hospitable house. ” Another example testifies to the same thing: “Having once learned about the woeful situation in the colonies of the African slaves, Oberlin for a long time refrained from the use of coffee and sugar, which was followed by many of the Steinalians.”

He met and survived the years of revolutionary upheavals and Napoleonic wars, helping the arrival, not forgetting about his pastoral and human calling. Steinal himself witnessed his fate - a miserable village in the past, which has turned over sixty years through the efforts of the enlightener into a pleasant and prosperous land. “Dissal beautiful houses built of stone and surrounded by fruit trees are artless, but a good road connecting Steinal with a large road, transparent streams, which a person takes an artificial bed so that they, flowing to the river, could only benefit; Wood seedlings and fertile fields between beautiful meadows - all this is a kind of entertainment garden in the middle of the stone mountains. For the first time, visiting Steinal, with a fugitive acquaintance with some of his inhabitants, in the house or on the field, amazing and delighted by friendly open faces and the helpfulness and politeness, which, as can easily be seen, do not make memorized forms, but stem from the heart. But it is even more important that the conversations of these villagers discover the mental education, the wealth of various useful knowledge, usually encountered only between well-trained and diligently educated citizens ”-this is the description of Stein-la 1842. “Who might think that this is the same Steinal that these are the children of the very parents who have been here in several decades?”

The name Oburnlin and his efforts to organize life became known throughout Europe. On the model of his work, many settlements were transformed. Shortly before his death in 1826, he was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor.

The name of Oberlin was also known in Russia. They recall one case when one of his former students, consisted in the Russian service, during the stay of Emperor Alexander I in Frankfurt, asked for permission to excommunicate in order to visit a long-time teacher. “I know Mr. Oberlin; This is the person whom I revere and entrust myself with his prayers, ” the sovereign told him. And this is not at all surprising.

So the glory of a modest pastor, whose stubborn and disinterested work, changed about herself, not only the place in which he had to realize his calling, but also many people who later continued his undertaking in many corners of our light had to be proclaimed.

This is how the example of an amazing person who showed that one kind and directed person can change the world, changing people, is revealed to us today. Such was an example of the life of Johann Friedrich Oberlin, a genuine humanist of his time, a knight of education from Ban de la Rosh.

1 hereinafter quoted. according to the book. “The features of the life of the famous philanthropist John Obernin, a former pastor in Steinal” / Per. With him. - St. Petersburg: Print. Br. Circle, 1867.

2 It is noteworthy that the actually educated, Franz Heinrich Cigengen (Franz Heinrich Ziegenhagen, 1753–1806), became a prominent figure in the enlightenment, philanthropist and critic of all religion institutions.

3 Here I will allow myself to interrupt and note the similarity of the story of Oberlin with the activities of the practicing humanist Dr. Schweitzer.

4 The richest collections of Oberlin have survived to the present day and today form the basis of the museum in Waldersbach.