page_title: Karl G. Maeser
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Karl G. Maeser / Early life
caption_attribution_description: English: Karl Gottfried Maeser's house of birth Deutsch: Geburtshaus von Karl Gottfried Maeser (1828-1901)
context_page_description: Karl Gottfried Maeser was a prominent Utah educator and a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He served 16 years as principal of Brigham Young Academy. Although he was not the first principal of the Academy, he is considered its founder. The Academy later became Brigham Young University in 1903.
  Before teaching at the Academy, Maeser taught at several different schools in Germany and in Utah. He tutored Brigham Young's children. Maeser incorporated the Monitorial System into his teaching philosophies and believed that students should each have responsibilities. Maeser was influenced by Pestalozzian educational theory, but also advocated that schools should include religion.
  Maeser served as a missionary for the LDS Church in four nations and held many leadership positions in the church, including serving as the head of the Church Educational System and in the central leadership of the Sunday School. His educational philosophies shaped Brigham Young Academy and other church academies throughout Utah. He represented the church at the Mid-Winter Fair in San Francisco, distributing information about Utah and the church's schools.
context_section_description: Karl G. Maeser was born on January 16, 1828, in the town of Meissen, in Saxony, Germany, to Johann Gottfried and Federicka Zocher Maeser. Maeser was the oldest of four sons. His family was well known in Meissen. His father was a china painter in a porcelain shop. Maeser went to public school in Meissen. He temporarily lost his sight for eight months when he was 11 years old due to an unknown cause.
  In 1842, Maeser enrolled in the Kreuzschule in Dresden; he attended for two years, and graduating from the Kreuzschule could have propelled him into the German upper class. However, Maeser chose to study at Friedrichstadt Schullehrerseminar in Dresden, a school to train prospective teachers. He graduated on May 20, 1848. Maeser became a schoolteacher and tutored Protestant children in Bohemia for three years.  He returned to Dresden and was a teacher at the First District School in Dresden. He later taught at the Budich Institute, where he was made Oberlehrer (Senior Teacher).
  In December 1848, Maeser was required to enlist in the military for a two-year assignment; however, he was declared "unfit." Maeser had no major physical or mental disabilities that would have impacted his conscription. On June 11, 1854, Maeser married Anna Mieth, the daughter of the director of the First District school in Dresden. The couple had their first child, Reinhard, in 1855. They had eight children together.
caption: The house where Karl G. Maeser was born
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