Pomerania (Pommern) Occupations

For two and a half centuries teachers in Kreis Demmin
To regulate church and school business, so calledConduitenlisten were established. These were reports sent by the local priest to the responsible officials. The priest was the inspector over the schools in his parish. He would list the teachers and made an assessment about them. Teachers were more or less idealists. They could not earn a living just from teaching, therefore, they had to have other professions to make ends meet. In the county of Demmin most worked also as tailors and weavers, something they could do at home during the winter months. Often the school posts went from father to son, or a man would marry the school teacher’s daughter and inherit his teaching post this way. In former years the local pastor or the manor lord hired teachers; the appointment of positions was also regulated by the village council. That teachers were next to priest responsible to transmit the cultural heritage is no secret. Therefore, the Prussian authorities mandated compulsory education in 1717. In 1736 school laws were installed. The author, Max Bruhn, established a list of educators according to villages of the county of Demmin, covering the 1700 and 1800s. His research was published in Archiv für Sippenforschung, Jahrgang 44, Heft 71 (1978), starting with page 542. The periodical is accessible through FamilySearch, Family History Library, call number 943 B2as.

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