Maximilian Berlitz

Who was Maximilian Berlitz?

Maximilian Delphinius Berlitz was a linguist and the founder of the Berlitz Language Schools, the first of which he established in 1878 in Providence, Rhode Island.

Born David Berlitzheimer of Jewish parents in Mühringen, Württemberg, Germany, he and his sister were soon orphaned, and he grew up in a family of educators in the Black Forest. Berlitz was required by law to serve as an apprentice; he chose to work for a watchmaker for three years. He later moved to France and then to Providence, Rhode Island, United States in 1872. His first employment was as a teacher of French and German at Warner Polytechnic College, which he took over in 1878 when the owner of the school, Mr. Warner, disappeared with all the prepaid tuition money. When Berlitz became ill, and was unable to teach a French class, he quickly hired Nicholas Joly to replace him and take over the class. Since he had always corresponded with Joly in French, he did not realize that Joly did not speak any English until after he had hired him. Joly taught the class entirely in French by using gestures, pointing to objects and using tone of voice and facial expressions to convey meaning. Berlitz returned to the class six weeks later to find that his students, who had spoken little to no French before Joly began teaching, were conversing semi-fluently in French. Their pronunciation and grammar were also very good. Berlitz used this experience to develop the Berlitz Method, in which only the target language is spoken from the first day of class. Students rely on the same techniques Joly used, rather than translation, to gather meaning and learn grammar and vocabulary.