2. Johann Philipp von Roth
• *13 November 1754 – †13 June 1818
• Baltic German origin
• Studied in the universities of Königsberg (law) and Halle
(theology)
• In 1780 was consecrated as a pastor of the congregation of
Kanepi
• Marriage on 18 September 1780
• Husband to Beata Katharina Seefels (*1759 – †21.05.1818)
• Had 12 children
3. Johann Philipp von Roth
• Participated in many scientific, educational and clerical unions
• Was personally acquainted with the rector of the University of
Tartu – Georg Friedrich Parrot
• Got along well with the people of Kanepi congregation
• Was respected by the local landlords
• Was the supporter and protector of the peasants
• Appointed surnames (Estonian words) to the local peasantry
4. Johann Philipp von Roth’s school
• J. P. von Roth had the knowledge of the educational situation in
Germany
• Founded the school for boys in Kanepi 1804
– The new type of the parish school called Parochialschule
– The Law of Peasantry 1819 accepted these schools in Livonia
– The common subjects in the curriculum of the parish schools were
reading, writing, arithmetic, catechism
– Additional subjects geography, history, singing, gymnastics, field
work, handicraft, model building
5. Johann Philipp von Roth’s school
• New curriculum and school organisation
• A new method of interactive teaching used later in the Estonian
pedagogical science
– The senior students taught the younger pupils
– They all were supervised by the pastor
• The alumni of the school became schoolmasters and clerks in
the manors
6. Johann Philipp von Roth’s school
• In the Estonian school history Kanepi parish school is
mentioned as the first of this kind in Estonia
• The needlework school for poor girls was established by the
pastor von Roth in 1811 (Armen- und Industrieschule)
– The first educational establishment of the time for peasant girls
• Roth’s contemporaries highly evaluated 38 years of work of the
pastor at Kanepi
7. St. John’s Lutheran Church
• Building initiated by Roth,
construction began in 1804
• Architect – Friedrich Siegel
• Church was completed in 1808
• Consecrated in 1810 in the
name of St. John the Baptist
8. St. John’s Lutheran Church
• Holds the only Morning Star in
Estonia (found during the
restoration of 2002)
• Artist Adam Bauer finished the
altarpiece „Jesus on the Cross“ in
1853
• The organ was set up in 1902
(made in Frankfurt)
9. The newspaper
• He, along with his brother and brother-
in-law, published a newspaper for the
peasant people „Tarto maa rahwa
Näddali-Leht“ in 1806
– Only 39 issues were published
– Banned by the tsarist government due to
its liberalism
• His son Georg Philipp August von Roth
had the first ABC book published in
1814
10. Achievements of Johann Philipp von Roth
• Founded a convention of clergymen of Võru in 1802
• Compiled a handbook of local language and a book of songs in
1803
• Translated the first Livonian Law of Peasantry in 1804 into the
South-Estonian Dialect
• Kanepi parish was the first in Estonia to give surnames to common
people 1810
• J. P. von Roth built the parish clerk house which has remained to
this very day
