Bengt Gottfried Forselius (''ca'' 1660, Harju-Madise,

Harju County Harju County ( or ''Harjumaa''), is one of the fifteen counties of Estonia. It is situated in northern Estonia, on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland, and borders Lääne-Viru County to the east, Järva County to the southeast, Rapla Count ...

Swedish Estonia Estonia under Swedish rule signifies the period of time between 1561 and 1710, when present-day Estonia was under the rule of the Swedish Empire. In the wake of the breakup of the State of the Teutonic Order, the Baltic German Baltic nobility, ...

– November 16, 1688,

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) was a founder of public education in

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

, author of the first ABC-book in the

Estonian language Estonian ( ) is a Finnic language and the official language of Estonia. It is written in the Latin script and is the first language of the majority of the country's population; it is also an official language of the European Union. Estonian is sp ...

, and creator of a spelling system which made the teaching and learning of Estonian easier. Forselius and Johann Hornung were mainly responsible for making a start at reforming the Estonian literary language in the late 17th century. Some

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

constructions were abandoned, and a strict spelling system was adopted which still relied on German

orthography An orthography is a set of convention (norm), conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, punctuation, Word#Word boundaries, word boundaries, capitalization, hyphenation, and Emphasis (typography), emphasis. Most national ...

. Forselius was a Swede born in Estonia. His father, pastor Johann Forselius was originally a Swede from Finland, thus the Swedish family was familiar with

Finnic languages The Finnic or Baltic Finnic languages constitute a branch of the Uralic language family spoken around the Baltic Sea by the Baltic Finnic peoples. There are around 7 million speakers, who live mainly in Finland and Estonia. Traditionally, ...

. Forselius spoke good Estonian as well as Swedish and German. He received his first education at the

Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...

(Reval) Gymnasium and then graduated with a law degree from the

University of Wittenberg Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (), also referred to as MLU, is a public research university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg. It is the largest and oldest university in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. MLU offers German and i ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. In 1684, after returning to Estonia, Forselius founded the first teachers'

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') may be a tertiary educational institution (sometimes awarding degrees), part of a collegiate university, an institution offering vocational education, a further education institution, or a secondary sc ...

(), to teach Estonian schoolteachers and parish clerks, in (Bishop's Manor) near

Tartu Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 97,759 (as of 2024). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of Riga, Latvia. Tartu lies on the Emajõgi river, which connects the ...

(Dorpat). The course there lasted for two years, with emphasis on fluent reading, religion instruction, German, arithmetic and bookbinding. Forselius introduced a new method of teaching whereby, instead of remaining passive, during lessons one student read aloud while the others followed. In 1686, an ABC-book devised by him was introduced into use in Estonian schools. Many local

Baltic German Baltic Germans ( or , later ) are Germans, ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950), their resettlement in 1945 after the end ...

aristocrats at the time disliked Forselius' idea of encouraging peasants to aspire to education and complained that pupils of the schools were taken by the Swedish army or that school fees were expensive. Forselius countered this by taking two of his best pupils, Ignati Jaak and Pakri Hansu Jüri (Jüri, son of Hans from Pakri), from the parish of Kambja, to

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

, where their abilities impressed King

Charles XI of Sweden Charles XI or Carl (; ) was List of Swedish monarchs, King of Sweden from 1660 until his death, in a period of History of Sweden, Swedish history known as the Swedish Empire (1611–1721). He was the only son of King Charles X Gustav of Sweden ...

. By the time of Forselius death in 1688 he had founded 38 schools with 800 pupils in the Estonian areas of

Swedish Livonia Swedish Livonia () was a dominion of the Swedish Empire from 1629 until 1721. The territory, which constituted the southern part of modern Estonia (including the island of Ösel ceded by Denmark after the Treaty of Brömsebro) and the northe ...

and 8 schools with 200 students in

. Forselius drowned during a storm on his return from Stockholm where he had just been appointed inspector of

Livonia Livonia, known in earlier records as Livland, is a historical region on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea. It is named after the Livonians, who lived on the shores of present-day Latvia. By the end of the 13th century, the name was extende ...

n peasant schools with the power to create as many as he saw fit. Between 1687-1695 by the order of Swedish state schools were to be established in every Estonian parish. By 1898, 97 percent of Estonian population was literate.

References

External links

Bengt Gottfried Forselius at Estonian Writers' Online Dictionary

The B. G. Forselius Society
{{DEFAULTSORT:Forselius, Bengt 1688 deaths People from Lääne-Harju Parish Estonian people of Swedish descent Estonian scholars Estonian non-fiction writers 17th-century Estonian people Year of birth unknown 17th-century writers University of Wittenberg alumni Deaths by drowning Year of birth uncertain People from the Duchy of Estonia (1561–1721)