Hermann von Kerssenbroch

Who was Hermann von Kerssenbroch?

Hermann von Kerssenbrock was a German teacher and historian, b. Mönchshof, Barntrup, about 1520; d. Osnabrück, 5 July 1585. He attended school first in Paderborn, and after 1533 in Münster until his parents were banished from that city by the Anabaptists. He completed his studies at Cologne, where, in 1541, he received his degree of Bachelor of Philosophy and the Liberal Arts. In 1545 he left Cologne to teach in a superior school, probably at Düsseldorf, after which he was rector at Hamm, and head of the Pauline Gymnasium at Münster, which had formerly held a high reputation. After twenty-five years of fruitful activity there, he was obliged to leave Münster, and he was placed in charge of the Schola Salentina in Düsseldorf, founded by the Electoral Prince Salentin of Cologne, where he remained, however, only three years. In 1578 he took charge of a superior school in Werl, which he soon gave up to return to Osnabrück, where he remained as rector of the cathedral school for the rest of his life.

It is reportedly chiefly owing to his farsightedness that the school system of Westphalia, which was on the decline, began in a short time to show signs of new life. His first care was to place on a better financial footing the poorly paid teachers of the time who were chiefly dependent on the contributions from the parents of their pupils. A still extant programme of studies of the Pauline Gymnasium for the year 1551, entitled Ratio studiorum scholae Monasteriensis, saeculi, XVI, shows that as teacher he laid greatest stress on a thorough grounding in Latin and Greek, advocating also the study of Hebrew, but utterly disregarding the exact and historical sciences. He required a high degree of skill in the preparation of written work, and careful and constant practice in oral recitation.