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Thirty years later, Sprengel published his own great book on floral ecology, The Discovery
of the Secret of Nature in the Form and Fertilization of Flowers, in which he generously
acknowledged his indebtedness to Koelreuter. Koelreuter was still alive at the time and may
have had the pleasure of learning about Sprengel’s work through a visit from Sprengel’s doc-
tor, E. L. Heim,^33 who had helped Sprengel through a personal crisis.Sprengel’s Transformation: From Troubled Headmaster
to Apostle of Flowers
The more Christian Konrad Sprengel stared at the minutiae of floral structure, the more
amazed at God’s infinite wisdom he became.^34 Miraculously, his former resentment, bitter-
ness, and hypochondria melted away, and he felt a strange, long- repressed passion for life,
a spiritual re- awakening. Thus, Sprengel described his own “road to Damascus” experience
following a trying psychological period in this life.
Born in 1750 in Brandenburg, Prussia, Sprengel was the youngest of fifteen children—
both siblings and half- siblings. Both his father and grandfather were Lutheran
Archdeacons.^35 His father, Ernst Victor Sprengel, who was sixty- four when Sprengel was
born, was Archdeacon at St. Gotthard Church. In keeping with the family tradition, sev-
eral of Sprengel’s brothers from both sets of siblings pursued similar religious careers: first
studying theology at the University of Halle, next becoming secondary school teachers,
finally receiving pastoral appointments in nearby towns.
At first, Christian Konrad appeared to be destined for the same career path as his broth-
ers. In 1770, he matriculated at the University of Halle, studying theology and classical
philology. Upon graduating in 1775, he taught at two different secondary schools in Berlin,
and, in 1780, having performed his duties satisfactorily at these schools, he was offered the
position of headmaster of the Große Schule (a Lutheran public school) in Spandau, a pro-
motion he readily accepted.
The Lutheran Große Schule at Spandau was a secondary school, which, in Prussia at
the time, meant that it was voluntary, rather than mandatory. Because poor families could
not afford to support their children beyond a primary school education, the students at
the Große Schule were almost all the sons of the most affluent and influential families of
Spandau, who relentlessly sought privileges for their offspring well beyond those of ordi-
nary students. Over the years, incessant parental demands for special treatment had turned
the job of headmaster at the Große Schule into a living nightmare. Indeed, the position
of headmaster had become vacant because the previous headmaster had resigned in a huff
after an infuriating encounter with a particularly aggressive parent— and “nothing,” his
supervisor wrote, “could induce him to stay.” Nevertheless, buoyed by youthful enthusi-
asm, Sprengel took hold of the reins of the Große Schule and charged ahead. The subjects
he taught included German, Latin, Greek, French, theology, elementary mathematics, and
natural history.
As a Lutheran public school, the Große Schule was administered by both the town
council and the church. Any educational changes Sprengel wished to make thus had
to be approved by both. In 1781, a month after his inaugural lecture, Sprengel wrote a
forceful letter to both the Lutheran Superintendant and the town council in which he
proposed major organizational changes to the teaching plan. Instead of large classes