Adolf Ausfeld

Adolf Ausfeld (born August 30, 1855 in Gotha , † August 15 or 16, 1904 in Heidelberg ) was a German classical philologist and high school teacher.

Life

Adolf Ausfeld came from a family of teachers and lawyers in Thuringia. His father was the lawyer Adolf Ausfeld, his mother Georgine geb. Handle. After both parents died of typhus at an early age, Adolf Ausfeld grew up with his father's brother, a landowner, near Fulda . From 1866 to 1869 he attended the Schnepfenthal educational institution , where several generations of his family worked as teachers and directors. He then attended grammar school in Fulda , where he passed the school leaving examination in 1872. Ausfeld then studied classical philology and German at the universities of Jena (1872–1873), Göttingen (winter semester 1873/74) and Leipzig (1874–1877). In Leipzig he particularly followed the Germanists Rudolf Hildebrand and Friedrich Zarncke and the Latinist Friedrich Ritschl . Ritschl accepted him into the philological society in 1875, to which Otto Crusius also belonged at the time .

After his doctorate as Dr. phil. (September 5, 1876) and the teaching examination served Ausfeld from 1877 to 1878 as a one-year volunteer with the 113th Infantry Regiment in Freiburg im Breisgau , to which he later belonged as a reserve officer. He then did an internship at the Alsatian grammar school in Saarbrücken from 1878 to 1880 . In 1880 he switched to Baden's civil service and taught as an intern at the Progymnasium in Donaueschingen , where he was appointed professor in 1882. The next year (1883) he married the daughter of the Freiburg painter Weber, with whom he had lived during his military service. The couple had two sons.

In 1886 Ausfeld moved from Donaueschingen to the grammar school in Bruchsal and in 1895 to Baden-Baden . In 1896, Ausfeld and several colleagues under the direction of Friedrich von Duhn went on an extensive study trip through Italy and Sicily with the goal of Tunis . However, he fell ill in Syracuse on malaria and had to stay behind. Thanks to the intensive care of his wife, who immediately followed him, he recovered and after a few weeks returned to Baden-Baden, where he resumed his work. In 1902 he was transferred to Heidelberg , where he did not work for long. He died of appendicitis on August 15, 1904 .

Like many high school teachers of his time, Ausfeld was scientifically active alongside his teaching activities. Apart from his dissertation on the Greek poet Oppian (1876), his research focus was the Alexander novel , which was written in numerous variants and reviews in antiquity and the Middle Ages. Ausfeld dealt intensively with the transmission history of the Alexander romance, in particular the ancient Greek and Latin versions. When Ausfeld died, two of his books were not yet finished: the edition of the Greek Alexander novel and a popular retelling of the Alexander saga. The edition was published by Wilhelm Kroll , who also dealt with the Alexander novel, through the agency of Teubner-Verlag and his friend Otto Crusius (1907); Ulrich Bernays published the popular retelling in 1908.

Ausfeld's book on the Greek Alexander novel was in its time the first account of the complicated tradition that met critical standards and carefully evaluated the known material. In the course of the 19th century, however, it was overtaken by other text editions: In 1926, Wilhelm Kroll published his edition of the oldest text (review α), followed by new editions of the reviews β, γ and δ by Leif Bergson and others in the 1960s .

Fonts (selection)

De Oppiano et scriptis sub eius nomine traditis . Gotha 1876 (dissertation, Leipzig)
About the sources on Rudolfs von Ems Alexander . Donaueschingen 1883 (school program)
On the criticism of the Greek Alexander novel. Investigations into the inauthentic parts of the oldest tradition . Bruchsal 1894 (school program)
The Greek novel of Alexander . Published by Wilhelm Kroll after the author's death. Leipzig 1907
The legend of the great King Alexander told for the youth . Edited by Ulrich Bernays from the estate of the author. Lörrach 1908 (school program)

literature

Ulrich Bernays: Adolf Ausfeld's life . In: The Greek Alexander novel . Published by Wilhelm Kroll after the author's death. Leipzig 1907, pp. IV-XI

Web links

Wikisource: Adolf Ausfeld - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

↑ Bernays mentions August 15th, as does the chronicle of the city of Heidelberg for 1904 . 12th year, Heidelberg 1906, p. 156. The 16th of August indicate: Negotiations of the forty-eighth meeting of German philologists and schoolmen in Hamburg from 3rd to 6th October 1905 . Leipzig 1906, p. 98; Literature sheet for Germanic and Romance philology . 25 (1904), p. 290; Biographical yearbook and German necrology . Volume 10, 1904 (1907), p. 9 *.

personal data
SURNAME	Ausfeld, Adolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Ausfeld, Georg Adolf (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German classical philologist and high school teacher
DATE OF BIRTH	August 30, 1855
PLACE OF BIRTH	Gotha
DATE OF DEATH	August 15, 1904 or August 16, 1904
Place of death	Heidelberg

[1] Bernays mentions August 15th, as does the chronicle of the city of Heidelberg for 1904 . 12th year, Heidelberg 1906, p. 156. The 16th of August indicate: Negotiations of the forty-eighth meeting of German philologists and schoolmen in Hamburg from 3rd to 6th October 1905 . Leipzig 1906, p. 98; Literature sheet for Germanic and Romance philology . 25 (1904), p. 290; Biographical yearbook and German necrology . Volume 10, 1904 (1907), p. 9 *.