Friday, December 27, 2019

Ottenbach Schulhaus

1796 Johannes Weber and school education during the revolutionary period
Johannes Weber served from 1772 on as parish priest in Bubikon, came to the end of 1796 to Ottenbach and died here in 1800 at the age of 54. 1 He is in our end. This is because during the turbulent period from 1795 until his death he kept a school diary, first in Bubikon and from the beginning of 1797 in Ottenbach as a visitor. It provides information about the content and form of school lessons in Ottenbach during the revolutionary years up to 1800.

In the High Middle Ages education was a prerogative of the clergy. With a few exceptions, even the emperor was at best able to place his initials under a document in shaky handwriting. Less high nobility and all peasants could neither read nor write anyway. It was not until the Spit Middle Ages that the aristocratic and bilingual upper classes began to receive an intelligible literary education.

As early as 1634, some children of Ottenbach Ober filmed a certain school education, as can be seen from the population registers of that year:79,  Of 162 children and unmarried adults, three knew the full catechism. Another 15 could answer between 5 and 86 questions of faith by heart.  The only knowledge that a minority of the Ottenbacher children in the first Hiilfte (welcome) of the 17th century, described himself as having memorized the seats of faith. The content could not and did not have to be understood.

The population register also contains a compilation of who was Duty to attend church at Pentecost 1634 and who has not. According to this, two of the 41 18-year-old unmarried Ottenbachers in the 41 tiber (geographical name) were dispensed from church, 23 "obedient" went to church, 16 "disobedient" remained unexcused. (Ottenbach's population In the course of time by Bernhard Schneider)

1799 Ottenbach School Document from Federal Archives in Bern:

1.  1799
2. Ottenbach School
3. Schoolmaster: 52 and 1/2 year old Bernhart Funck, who has 9 children 6 sons and 3 daughters
4. Berhart taught for 32 years
5. Someone named Eximinator-Colegia in Zurich appointed the schoolmaster
6. The classes are 1st A,B,C Schuller (schoolchildren), 2nd spelling, 3rd reading 4 writing
7. School hours 8-11 am and 1-4pm
8. Boys - 82, girls 53
9.  Notes.
After Wednesday mornings there is a transporting school: Do the children have to visit those who have been dismissed from the daily school? Such things are started and ended with begging and singing: this is how it is said in the daily school, on sheeted, psalms, songs, alternations learned by heart from exquisite Bible sayings, and explained: Also do the reading exercises, the writing Exercises in respect of beautiful and right writing art went through, and von Bürgr. Pdriver who is almost always present, a Bible-Moral lesson added. The times visit this school. 48th boys and 58th daughters. Summa 106th of the winter counts one salary 4. ß:
Fehrner's will be a singing school throughout the summer, nor will the children's teaching be held in the church from one and a half to two o'clock. with boys and daughters from {old}: 12. to 25. years.

Notes: 
Bürgr. Pdriver is correctly the Bürger Pfarrer, the citizen pastor,
the time then 1799 was under French occupation, the Major was then called Munizipal Agent.

4. ß means 4 shilling (Beta = ss), part of a guilder or florin (fl.) = piece of gold, the franc was only introduced later (same currency as in France)

Agent was the French word then under Napoleon occupation = major of the village (Bürgermeister)

Maybe you remember the old religious booklets (abbreviations) that we already encountered in the Bevölkerungsverzeichnissen (BV) since 1634. (from Peter Bertschinger)

1799 Pastor Weber's school diary
The first entry in Pastor Weber's school diary, dedicated to Ottenbach, reads: "On Wednesday, January 11, 1797, I visited the school of repetition school in Ottenbach in the morning and afternoon, and only silently, without much influence, made my remarks and whined blessings to teachers and learners.
One week later, on January 18 and February 1, Weber visited the repeater school again and gave biblical instruction himself. The Repetierschule was a pre-school of the upper school and its attendance was voluntary. On February 3, Weber visited the Winter School for the first time. He looked through his schoolwork and noted down in particular "Jacob Sidler, Hansen the turner, Heinrich Schnebeli, the model technician, Gritli Schneebeli, ditto, Hans Jacob Stauder  von Lunnern, Barbara Gut, Hans Rudis", because they could not do math at all. In 1799, Ottenbach paid to those 12 of the 27 schools in the district of Mettmenstetten where arithmetic was taught. From then on, Pastor Weber regularly visited the Ottenbach Repetier School and the Winter School as a visitor. On February 22, 1797, for example, he "seriously urged several reading lessons and threatened to exclude uninformed people from religious instruction."
(Ottenbach's population In the course of time by Bernhard Schneider)

1800s Schulhiiuser
Until 1835 the building attached to the barn was used as a schoolhouse, from 1861 until its demolition in 1933 it served as a poorhouse. The school building from 1835 (Figures 22 and 23) cost 11680 francs and was subsidized by the canton of Zurich with 1200 francs according to the council decision of 20 June 1835". It was a building that was quite inconvenient at the time: Of the 13 school buildings subsidized in 1835, only.

Already in 1880 the space available in the school building was no longer sufficient for the needs of the school. A generously designed new building was erected:- "The new school building, situated on a magnificent viewpoint to the east above the village, was built in 1880/81 at a cost of 59000 Swiss francs. An average of 115 pupils in alien classes should be taught there. 3 teachers are involved in the training of the youth, as well as a work teacher for the working school. The old school building is still used for the following purposes: a classroom for the 1st and 2nd grade, a meeting room for associations and cooperatives, a council meeting room and a wedding room, an apartment for the school caretaker etc.". (Ottenbach's population In the course of time by Bernhard Schneider)




Secondary School
Ottenbach has never filmed (sponsored) tiber's (geographical area) own secondary school. In 1826, senior officer Melchior Hirzel founded the Mettmenstetten District School. The school was transformed into a secondary school on 18 September 1833, covering the entire district of Knonau without the municipalities of Bonstetten, Stallikon and Wettswil. In 1854 Affoltern and Hedingen founded their own secondary school. In 1857, Hausen broke loose. On 23 November 1884 the municipality of Obfelden decided to build its own secondary school, which was inaugurated on 9 May 1886. This meant the opening of the secondary school in Obfelden/ Ottenbach, which at that time paid 27 Schiller. To this day, the Ottenbach upper schools of Schiller still receive their lessons in Obfelden. As a result of the revision of the Elementary School Act of 24 May 1959, a secondary school was added to the secondary school. (Ottenbach's population In the course of time by Bernhard Schneider)

1792 Ottenbach School

Apparently the schoolmaster at that time, Hofstetter in Lunnern, was not one of these few. On October 28, 1782, school inspector Meyer wrote to Pastor Locher in Ottenbach that he had allowed two men from Oberlunnern (Hans and Oswald Stehli) to send their boys to Ottenbach's, in addition to the repeating school in Lunnern, but warned them to the schoolmaster In spite of the bad habits attached to him, Hofstetter did not show any reluctance and did not let his own school, which had only been urgently stopped about 70 years ago, decline again. Elsewhere, Pastor Locher writes about the Lunnern school at the time: “This is the most common one in the Ottenbach parish. The teacher is with themost parents don't have good credit. He lacks diligence to show what he can from an obvious side. Writing is under all criticism in this school. If you want to learn it, go to Ottenbach or Wolsen. The singing school is maintained by coercion and with the help of some adults from Lunnern. "In 1797 Hofstetter was discharged after at least 40 years of school service and was provisionally replaced there by citizen Jakob Meyer for one year. Then Heinrich Gut, also from Unterlunnern It was clear from the following letter to the college of examiners that it was suitable for school services: “The school service in Unter-Lunnern has relied on public ones Announcement *) only the bearer of this letter, Heinrich Gut, reported, a man who, from the community, as he really deserves it, has the testimony of a well-behaved, well-made man, but has the level of knowledge of shoe shops that is in which should have been sufficient in the middle of this century, but its addition and perfection perhaps from his honest heart and his not incapable head should be expected. Since he is the only pretender for the current school service, not just because there is a shortage of capable people in the local community, but because the capable people do not see any encouragement to use these talents in the urge of times, I recommend him for testing and await further decree that finds good, etc. - J. Weber, pastor. "Hrch. Good was invented as weak in the examination, but was declared optional due to a lack of candidates. He subsequently procured the Lunnern school until his death in 1814. Hans Jakob Meyer, who worked on the winter of 1778 in thePerson of his son Heinrich got a helper. The latter had to attend exams in the rectory in Zurich on November 8th and received approval from the convention of examiners on November 27th to keep school as a support for his aging father. A few years later the school was relocated to Wolsen, where, as we will hear later, it was soon brought up to a relatively good standard. (Obfelden, Gedenkschrift zum 50-jährigen Bestand der Gemeinde, Oktober 1897 )