H. C. Andersens schooltime

On the 26th of October 1822 H.C. Andersen started his trip to Slagelse Latin school. (Grammar school). He travelled by post wagon.
He arrived at the school, which was in Bredegade 4-6 and here he was put into the 2 grade, along with 11 and 12 year old boys, although he was 17. He was placed there, because of he lack of basis school knowledge. At the beginning of his new life in Slagelse, he lived with Madam Erikke Henneberg in Bredegade 29.

But H.C. Andersen didn’t like his stay at the Latin school. He experienced humiliation and verbal assaults, from the schools brutal principal, Simon Meisling.
The vicious educator changed doing the period 1822-1826, thus he became more open and friendly against H.C. Andersen. This was maybe caused by the increased favour shown H.C. Andersen by from the king. In 1825 H.C. Andersen moved in at Simon Meisling house. The principal lived at the school, with his wife, 5 kids and 3 or 4 servants.
After some time, Simon Meisling wanted to try something new, and he got a job at Helsingør Latin School in 1826. he moved to Helsingør, and H.C. Andersen decided to move with him.

H.C. Andersens skolegang i Helsingør

The move to Helsingør did not have a good effect on Andersen. His already bad grades got worse. The poem, “The Dying Child”, was made, while Andersen went to school in Helsingør.

H.C. Andersen had several times been working with literature through the time he went to school in Helsingør, both in the form of writing, but also reading. This happened even though Andersen’s recommendation to the king mentioned that there was a hope to get Andersen away from these distracting ideas of creative writing. However Andersen did not do as expected. In the years 1822-1825 Andersen wrote about 50 poems, and the most wellknown, from this period is the above mentioned: “The Dying Child”.

In 1827 H.C. Andersen stopped going to school in Helsingør. He had for a prolonged period, complained about the conditions in the school, as an example, to Jonas Collin and Christian Høegh-Guldberg. But H.C. Andersens criticism did not make any greater impression and the situation did not change. Meisling became, at the same time as Andersen’s unpleasant stay in school, more and more broken. His marriage began to crumble and he became drowsy.

A new teacher came to the school in 1827, Christian Werliin, who taught in Hebraic. He personally went to Jonas Collin and told about the grotesque happenings that were to be found in the school. At last something happened. Rector Simon Meisling was notified that H.C. Andersen was to move back to Copenhagen, where there was a room, waiting for him, in Vingaardsstræde 131. Andersen would have his dwelling and private teaching there for one and a half-year.