Johannes Sturm

Johannes (or Jean) Sturm, Latinized as Ioannes Sturmius (1 October 1507 – 3 March 1589) was a German-French educator, influential in the design of the Gymnasium system of secondary education.

Sturm was born in Schleiden. In 1521 or 1522 he started studies at the school of St. Jerome at Liège, and went on to the University of Leuven. There he had a share in a printing press and issued several Greek works. In 1529 he moved to Paris, where in addition to selling books he was asked to teach and gave lectures on Cicero and Demosthenes. Influenced by the writings of Martin Bucer he adopted the principles of the Protestant Reformation. He participated in the attempt to reconcile Protestant and Roman Catholic parties in 1534.

At the urging of Bucer and the unrelated statesman Jacob Sturm von Sturmeck, Sturm accepted a call to teach in Strassburg in 1537, and in 1538 he set up the Protestant Gymnasium there. He directed the school for 43 years, and the school attained a wide celebrity, becoming an influential model for humanistic gymnasia especially in Germany.

He undertook diplomatic missions on behalf of Strassburg, the Protestant estates and the king of France. He attended the conferences at Hagenau and Worms in 1540, and at Regensburg in 1541; and went with Bucer to meet the elector of Cologne, in 1542. After helping to negotiate peace between England and Francei 1545, he again went to France in 1546, at the outbreak of the War of the Schmalkaldic League, to seek the help of François I. He asked for German aid to the Huguenots, which made him suspect in the eyes of Lutherans.

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