Bernhard Heinrich Overberg

A 1580 edict from Christian I, Elector of Saxony had made sacristans serve as schoolteachers, in addition to their other duties, which left them little time or interest in teaching.

[2] By Overberg's day, schools in Prussia were often taught by discharged non-commissioned officers, while in Westphalia the teachers-cum-sacristans often worked a third job as day-labourers.

[1][2] Overberg wrote to the Archbishop Maximilian Friedrich von Königsegg-Rothenfels, complaining that the poor pay could not attract good teachers.

[1] This school would offer a course of practical and theoretical study for schoolteachers during the autumn vacation, paid for at public expense; teachers who passed the final examination would receive an increase in salary.

[1][5][6] Overberg became part of her circle of close friends, alongside Furstenberg, philosophers Johann Georg Hamann and François Hemsterhuis, and poet Friedrich Leopold zu Stolberg-Stolberg.