Otto Wilhelm Masing


Otto Wilhelm Masing was an early Baltic German Estophile and a major advocate of peasant rights, especially regarding education.

Life

He received schooling at the town school of Narva and then at the Gymnasium of Torgau before studying theology, music and drawing at the University of Halle, returning to Estonia in 1786.
In 1796 he married Dorothea Amalie Ehlertz in St. John's Church of Dorpat, a daughter of the city councillor Carl Ulrich Ehlertz and his wife Louisa Dorothea née Stockenberg, a great-granddaughter of the sculptor Johann Gustav Stockenberg.

Work

His first employment after concluding his studies was as private tutor at the Manor in Neu-Isenhof for the children of the nobleman Otto Magnus von Toll.
In 1788 he became the pastor of the church in Lüg , then serving from 1795 in Maholm and from 1815 in Ecks, where he remained as pastor until his death.
From 1818 he also took on the post of assessor of the consistory of Livonia and from 1821 onwards he was also Provost for Tartu.

Contributions as publicist and linguist

In 1795, Masing compiled and published a children's textbook for learning reading, the ABD. He published a further textbook with methodical reading instructions, the Luggemislehhed, in 1821.
From 1821 to 1823, Masing published a newsletter Marahva Näddala-Leht, one of the earliest regular publications in the Estonian language.
Among other linguistic contributions, Masing is credited with creating the letter 'õ' to denote an Estonian phoneme not found in other nearby languages.

Honours