Karl G. Maeser founded Brigham Young Academy in Provo, Utah in 1875, under the direction of Brigham Young, the second prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
This year, Brigham Young University celebrates 150 years since its beginnings as Brigham Young Academy, and the influence of Brigham Young University has spread much farther than its campus in Provo, Utah.
“The spiritual legacy of Karl Maeser, I think without a shadow of a doubt, can be found in what is now known as Brigham Young University,” James Perry, area Church history manager for Northern Europe, said. “And his efforts and his sacrifices have reverberated and affected perhaps every country on this earth.”
Brigham Young University is now a center of education where thousands of students grow to become both scholars and disciples through academic and spiritual study. But long before the university took shape in Utah, Maeser’s experience as a teacher in Germany and missionary in London helped shape the ideas he would later bring to life.
Early life and education
Karl G. Maeser was born in Miesen, Germany, in 1828. He later attended the prestigious Kreuzschule, a highly respected preparatory school that prepared students to attend a university. Attending a university would have significantly elevated Maeser’s social standing, but he decided instead to attend a teacher’s college in the nearby town of Dresden.
While this decision was a major drop in prestige, the educational philosophies he learned there laid the foundation for the ideologies he would later bring to BYU.
“They educated not only the brain, they educated the heart. They were very kind people and loved the children in a very new and unique way,” Francis Neugebauer, a board member at the School Museum of Dresden, said.
At the teacher’s college, Maeser learned the philosophies of Johan Pestalozzi, a Swiss education reformer who taught that children should be treated with love and warmth rather than punishment. In those days, it was common for teachers to hit children and inflict other corporal punishments in school. Pestalozzian theories resonated with Maeser, who also believed that children should be treated with kindness.
“Maeser was a loving soul who saw potential in people and expected them to live up to it. And they did,” said A. LeGrand Richards, author of Maeser’s biography, titled “Called to Teach: The Legacy of Karl G. Maeser.”
Maeser often focused on children who went unnoticed, Richards said. For example, he once spoke to a group of teachers, imploring them to seek out and nurture children from unideal home lives.
“I just love that. The idea that the moment we take charge of a class, we are as messengers from our Heavenly Father, as His representatives, and we have a mission of an angel to perform,” Richards said.
Spiritual conversion
Maeser first encountered The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints through a pamphlet that ridiculed the teachings of the Church. Maeser felt that the spirit of the flyer was wrong and desired to learn the truth of what the Church believed.
The closest missionaries were located in Denmark, so Maeser wrote a letter to them, hoping to learn more about the doctrine of the Church. These missionaries then connected him with missionaries in London, and after exchanging multiple letters with them, Maeser gained a testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and decided to be baptized.
But there was no religious freedom in Germany at the time, so when missionaries did eventually visit Germany, Maeser and his wife were secretly baptized in the Elbe River in Dresden at midnight to avoid persecution.
“Maeser was one of the first members of the Church in Germany and one of the first members in my entire family,” said Hannah Gruse, a descendent of one of Maeser’s siblings. “To be part of that legacy … I'm pretty proud to be a member of that family.”
Maeser knew that joining the Church meant he could lose his job as an educator, as the laws of Saxony at the time allowed only those with certain religious affiliations to be teachers. Even in the face of persecution, Maeser chose to continue practicing his newfound religion.
“This is just so inspiring to me,” Richards said. “For me, what you see is a man who's got an independent spirit who is willing to do what the Lord wants him to do, and he does that his whole life.”
Eventually, Maeser and his family were forced to leave Germany when their Church membership was discovered.
“Even though leaving Germany was a great sacrifice, it ultimately enabled him to use his faith and education to become an instrument in the Lord’s hands and lay the foundation of what would become Brigham Young University,” Emma Moss, third-great-granddaughter of Maeser, said.
Missionary service in the United Kingdom
After becoming one of the first Germans to join The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Maeser and his family left Germany to escape religious pressures and settled temporarily in the British Isles.
There, he was called to serve as a missionary among German-speaking immigrants in London.
At the time, the Church had over 30 branches across the UK, and the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ was reaching many.
“It was a time of enormous religious vitality but also of enormous religious debate,” Joshua Bennett, associate professor at the University of Oxford, said. “One of the big characteristics of 19th-century English life was the growth of religious denominations and revival.”
Missionaries in the UK today still draw strength from Maeser’s example.
“There have been a lot of hardships and trials on my mission,” said Sister Frehner, a full-time missionary in Liverpool. “But being here has helped me feel closer to Jesus Christ. Sometimes I think about those early missionaries like Heber C. Kimball and Karl G. Maeser — and I feel like I’m walking in their shoes.”
While in London, Maeser developed a clearer sense of the connection between spiritual and intellectual learning, something that would become central to his educational philosophy.
“There was a lot of talk in the 19th century about truth and about light,” Perry said. “So for Elder Maeser, the relationship between secular studies and gospel learning was closely connected.”
In 1857, Maeser ended his time as a full-time missionary and sailed with his family to meet with the Saints in Zion – Salt Lake City, Utah – where prophet Brigham Young would commission him to found Brigham Young Academy.
Though Maeser’s time in England was relatively short, it had a long-lasting impact on his work. His time in London prepared him for the challenges and opportunities he would face bringing the academy to fruition.
A call to academia
After Maeser had been living in Utah for some time, Brigham Young, the prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the time, called Maeser to found a university.
And after years of setbacks and sacrifices, Brigham Young Academy was born in 1875.
Today, 150 years later, the academy has grown far beyond the one building, into what is known now as Brigham Young University. \
Many thousands of students have been blessed by the academic and spiritual educations they have received there, which all began with Maeser’s commission, Manfred Heller, Dresden native, believes.
Richards explained that Brigham Young told Maeser he “ought not to teach even the alphabet or the multiplication tables without the spirit of God.”
“In my experience at BYU, having the spirit with me as I learn and take these classes has been so important and monumental,” Noah Wilhite, a current BYU student, said.
Richards said Maeser saw people’s full potential and expected them to live up to it. Maeser didn’t believe in forcing people to learn things.
“Maeser would say that the best, highest motive for learning is spirituality,” he said. “You do things because you have a sense of mission, and when you do that, that's much more powerful than anything else you could give them.”
By study and by faith: Maeser’s legacy
Maeser infused spiritual teachings into every aspect of the educational institution, and many of these still impact the lives of students today.
“Such a critical part of BYU’s mission is this combination of study and faith, of being intellectually enlarging and spiritually strengthening,” said Cecilia Peek, director of the BYU London Centre.
This ideal is at the heart of Maeser’s educational philosophy, and it continues to inspire students and faculty at BYU today.
“The most important thing,” she added, “is to recognize within our students that these are my fellow brothers and sisters, fellow children of God. If I don’t recognize that, I’ve missed the heart of teaching.”
Seeking learning “by study and by faith” is the central focus of BYU today, making it a unique and inspired institution.
“It … lifts me up when I do my religion classes, as well as just even in accounting, we're talking about Jesus before we learn about accounting. That's so cool,” said BYU student Ali Nearon. “And it just reminds me that, yes, even accounting can apply to the gospel, and we can be thankful to the Lord for helping us with accounting.”
BYU student Andrew Smith said he appreciates the inspired philosophy Maeser brought to BYU.
“We can read the scriptures, we can learn how to pray, while also just building a community of learning,” he reflected. “And all of that started because Maeser; he had a dream of a place where we could become disciples of Christ.”
Now, 150 years later, BYU has grown into a world-renowned university, still carrying on a legacy of spiritual and academic learning.
“Brigham Young University isn't about the buildings that you see all around here,” BYU President C. Shane Reese said. “It's about the people. It's about their commitment to our dual heritage of spiritually strengthening and intellectually enlarging.”
President Reese said he strives to carry on Maeser’s legacy each day.
“If we're to remain unique as a university, as an institution of higher education in America, we absolutely have to stay laser-focused on our commitment, our focus on our students. Their experience is of paramount importance on this campus,” he said. “And it is absolutely clear to me that Karl G. Maeser’s legacy is what informs that on our campus today.”
Maeser wrote:
“The Brigham Young Academy has been a chosen instrument in the hands of the Lord God of Israel, to plant the seed for an educational system … opening to our youth the avenues to all intelligence, knowledge, and power.”
Karl G. Maeser’s life is a testament to the legacy born from a life that is guided wholly by God. 150 years later, Brigham Young University continues to inspire students to blend the spiritual with the secular as they enter to learn and go forth to serve, incorporating the Lord in every step of the way.