August Geffers

Heinrich Karl August Geffers (born January 6, 1805 in Portenhagen , † March 10, 1863 in Göttingen ) was a German classical philologist and grammar school director.

Life

August Geffers, the son of a teacher, attended grammar school in Holzminden from Easter 1820 to Easter 1826 and then studied Protestant theology at the University of Göttingen , but soon switched from this subject to classical philology. From 1827 he belonged to the philological seminar and the philological association under the direction of Georg Ludolf Dissen and Karl Otfried Müller . He earned his living from private lessons. While still studying, at the beginning of 1829, Geffers got a job as a collaborator (assistant teacher) at the Göttingen grammar school ; a scientific examination was not necessary until 1831. Geffers graduated in the same year on September 26, with the promotion of Dr. phil. from.

In 1831 Geffers was appointed vice rector and full professor of the secondary school. He supported the director Friedrich August Grotefend , who was appointed in the same year, in reforming the grammar school, wrote the grammar school's first program treatise in 1832, and represented the ill director several times in the following years. After Grotefend's death (1836) he was initially not promoted: The directorate went to the grammar school director Karl Ferdinand Ranke from Quedlinburg. After its departure (1842) Geffers was finally appointed rector of the grammar school and headed it until his death. At the same time he headed the pedagogical seminar, which provided the scientific teacher training after university studies. During his tenure, the Göttingen grammar school experienced an upswing. The quality of teaching improved through personnel decisions, new curricula and teaching materials. The number of pupils rose from 200 (1831) to 213 (1842) and 369 (1863). After the school building at Wilhelmsplatz was expanded in 1839 and two real classes were added to the grammar school in 1840, a third real class was added in 1851.

Geffers was born in 1832 with Henriette. Greve married. The couple had four children, only two of whom reached adulthood.

Fonts (selection)

• Quaestiones Democriteae . Göttingen 1829 (dissertation)
• De ἄν particula dissertatio . Göttingen 1832 (school program)
• De nova Academia Arcesila auctore constituta. Particula great . Göttingen 1842 (school program)
• De Arcesilae successoribus disputatio . Göttingen 1845 (school program)
• De Oedipi Sophoclei culpa commentatio . Göttingen 1850 (school program)
• De Deo ex machina in Philocteta Sophoclis interveniente commentatio . Göttingen 1854 (school program)
• Antiquity and Christianity in grammar schools . Göttingen 1857 (school program)

literature

• Ernst von Leutsch : In memory of Dr. August Geffers . Goettingen 1863
• Friedrich August Eckstein : Nomenclator philologorum . Leipzig 1871, p. 185
• Wilhelm Pökel : Philological writer's lexicon . Leipzig 1882, p. 90

Web links

Wikisource: August Geffers  - Sources and full texts

• History of the Göttingen grammar school (PDF file)