Andreas Georg Wähner

Andreas Georg Wähner (born February 24, 1693 in Rhida , County Hoya ; † February 21, 1762 in Göttingen ) was a German orientalist .

Life

The son of the preacher Ernst Albrecht Wähner and his wife Anna Gertrud (daughter of the provost in Lüchau, Andreas Reinbeck) received their first training from their father and private teachers. Without attending a public school, Wähner acquired a thorough knowledge of Latin, Greek, Hebrew and the other elementary sciences. Prepared in this way, he moved into the University of Helmstedt in 1710 . After he had already combined reading the Old and New Testaments in the original language in his home country with a thorough study of the Greek profane writers (non-church scriptures), he was concerned with learning the oriental dialects and the Exegetics .

It was not only the lectures that helped him to expand his knowledge of the subjects mentioned, but also the way he dealt with the famous Hermann von der Hardt . Wähner refrained from some of the peculiarities of that famous orientalist, including his strange ideas about the connection between languages ​​and his addiction to forcing a similarity between Hebrew and Greek. In theology, Johann Andreas Schmidt was his main teacher, philosophy he heard from Johann Rempen (1663–1744) and Johannes Oldermann (1686–1723), mathematics and experimental physics from Rudolph Christian Wagner (1671–1741) and Alexander Christian Gackenholz (-1717 ).

From 1712 he used his philological knowledge for private lectures, which he gave to some students in Hanover and Braunschweig with the approval of the court. His dissertations de mare Asphaltite, defended under Oldermann's chairmanship, fall during this period ; de regione Ohir and the Greek grammar written in 1715 at the suggestion of Schmidt . Wähner gave up the idea of ​​devoting himself to an academic career when he was offered a vice rector position at what was then a grammar school in Göttingen in 1718 . Greek and Hebrew, along with pure mathematics, were the subjects of his lessons there. When the grammar school in Göttingen was closed in 1733 and the University of Göttingen was established, he turned down the application to become a teacher at the city school established there.

Following his wish, he received permission from the Hanoverian Ministry to read lectures at the Göttingen University without having to first become a master’s degree. At that time he had his "Hebrew Grammar" printed, which stands out because it was the first book to be published at Göttingen University. When his thorough knowledge of the oriental languages ​​quickly attracted a large audience, he decided in 1737 to accept the degree of master's degree . He changed his decision to go to Jena when he received an extraordinary professorship in oriental languages ​​in Göttingen in 1738 , which was converted into a full professorship in 1739. In that task he worked until the end of his life.

Act

The main merit of Wähner lies in the field of Hebrew antiquities, which at that time also included the history of the formation and preservation of Hebrew literature. In view of the latter relationship in particular, Wähner's “Antiquitates Hebraeorum” deserve to be named as a classic book of Hebrew philology. The passages on the Masora , on the oldest manuscripts and editions, on the Mishnah and the Talmud , on the hermeneutic rules of the rabbis , offered a treasure trove of the most dignified and richest sources of instruction on the way in which the Jews themselves kept their literature, passed on and have laid out. His “Thorough Grammar of the Hebrew Language” from 1735 is also recommended for its simplicity and clarity in the exposition of the most important laws of language, as far as they were recognized at the time.

Publications

• Diss, de. . .seu de mare Asphaltite. Helmstedt 1712
• Diss. De regione Ophir. Helmstedt 1714
• Diss, de. . . seu de festo encaeniorum. Helmstedt 1715
• The Greek language German Grammatica. Wolfenbüttel 1715; New edition under the title Thorough Grammatica of the Greek Language, in which such is presented clearly according to its own nature, without burdening the learners with unnecessary rules and exceptions, and everything is derived from correct sentences. Wolfenbüttel 1752
• Syntaxis Graeca or Study of the Properties of the Greek Language. Wolfenbüttel 1716
• Thorough grammatica of the Hebrew language. Goettingen 1735
• Diss philol. In 2 Sam. 8.2., Qua David Moabitarum victor crudelium numero eximitur. Wolfenbüttel 1738
• Progr. De Endorensi praestigtatrice. Wolfenbüttel 1738
• Diss. Philol. De prunis in capite inimici, ad Proverb. 25, 22. et Rome. 12, 20. Wolfenbüttel 1740
• Antiquitates Ebraeorum de Israeliticae gentis. Göttingen 1742 (online) , 1743 (online)
• Diary from the Seven Years War . Edited and edited by Sigrid Dahmen. Universitätsverlag Göttingen, Göttingen 2012, ISBN 9783863950637 .

literature

• Heinrich Doering : The learned theologians of Germany in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Volume 4, Verlag Johann Karl Gottfried Wagner, Neustadt an der Orla, 1835.
• Johann Georg Meusel : Lexicon of the German writers who died from 1750 to 1800. Vol. 14, Gerhard Fleischer the Elder J., Leipzig 1815, p. 309. (online)
• Johann Christoph Strodtmann: History of scholars living now. Eleventh part (Volume 6), Joachim Andreas Deetz, Celle 1746, p. 424. (online)
• Johann Stephan Pütter : Attempt of an academic scholarly story from the Georg August University of Göttingen. Vandenhoeck Verlag, Göttingen 1765, Vol. 1, p. 67. (online)
• Carl Joseph Bouginé: Handbook of the general Litterargeschichte after Heumann's plan. Vol. 5, Orell-Geßner-Füßli & Comp., Zurich 1792, p. 48. (online)
• Johann Georg Heinsius: Impartial Church History of the Old and New Testaments. Verlag Johann Wilhelm Hartung, Jena 1766, p. 848. (online)
• Friedrich Karl Gottlob Hirsching : Historical literary handbook of famous and memorable people who lived in the eighteenth century. Verlag Schwickert, Leipzig 1812, Vol. 15, 1st section, p. 184. (online)
• Carl Gustav Adolf Siegfried:  Wähner, Andreas Georg . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 40, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1896, p. 594.
• Hans-Günther Waubke: The Pharisees in Protestant Biblical Studies of the 19th Century. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 1998, ISBN 3-16-146971-2 , p. 15. (online sample)