Hugo_Treffner

Hugo Treffner

Hugo Treffner

Estonian educator

Hugo Hermann Fürchtegott Treffner (17 July 1845 – 13 March 1912) was the founder and first director of the Hugo Treffner Gymnasium in Tartu, and an important figure in the Estonian national awakening.

Hugo Treffner; photograph by Georg Friedrich Schlater

Biography

Hugo Treffner was born in a family of local parish clerk in the village of Kanepi. From 1868 to 1880 he studied philology and theology in the University of Tartu. While studying he also worked as a private teacher. In 1883, Treffner received permission to open his own school, a progymnasium with three grades. He was director of Treffner Gymnasium for the rest of his life while he also worked as religion teacher in other schools. He died after several health problems in 1912 and is buried in Raadi Cemetery in Tartu. Treffner was described by his contemporaries as a skilled politician who managed to get along with the Russian authorities very well to benefit his school.

Treffner actively took part in the national movement, in which he sided himself with Carl Robert Jakobson. He was a founding member of the Estonian Students' Society and the Society of Estonian Literati as well as an editor for various newspapers (including Postimees).

Hugo Treffner inspired A. H. Tammsaare to create the character of "Mister Maurus" in his second book of Truth and Justice. A statue of Hugo Treffner stands on the bank of the Emajõgi in Tartu.

Sources

  • Ülo Kaevats et al. 1996. Eesti Entsüklopeedia 9. Tallinn: Eesti Entsüklopeediakirjastus, ISBN 5-89900-047-3
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