August Rossbach

August Rossbach (born August 26, 1823 in Schmalkalden , Electorate of Hesse , † July 23, 1898 in Breslau ) was a German classical philologist and classical archaeologist in Breslau.

Life

As the son of the school inspector and school principal Johann Georg Rossbach and the merchant's daughter Amalie geb. In summer Rossbach received his first lessons from his father. He attended the community school and the Progymnasium under his father and was admitted to the Cathedral Gymnasium in Fulda in 1840 . At the suggestion of his teachers Nicolaus Bach and Friedrich Franke , Rossbach decided to study Classical Philology and Protestant Theology at the University of Leipzig after graduating in 1844 .

Studied in Leipzig and Marburg

In Leipzig, Rossbach soon concentrated entirely on philology. The greatest influence exerted on him Gottfried Hermann , who accepted him in his third semester in his Greek society. Rossbach also heard lectures from Anton Westermann and Wilhelm Adolf Becker . After the death of his father (1845), Rossbach moved to the Philipps University of Marburg in 1846 , because a few semesters at a university in the state of Hesse entitled him to join the state service in the state of Hesse. In Marburg he attended archaeological and linguistic lectures by Joseph Rubino and Johann Gildemeister . Theodor Bergk accepted him into the Philological Society, where Rossbach met the student Rudolf Westphal , with whom he worked closely from then on. Both dealt with comparative linguistics and metrics and planned a career at the university together.

On May 26, 1848 Rossbach passed the state examination for the higher teaching post. Shortly afterwards his mother died. Rossbach stayed in Schmalkalden until the end of the year and then deepened his studies in Marburg. In October 1849 he became an intern at the Hanau grammar school and taught with great success. But since there was no prospect of a permanent job, he returned to the University of Marburg in 1850 and lived in Westphal's parents' house in Obernkirchen . On April 30, 1851, Rossbach received his release from the Hessian state services at his own request.

Tübingen

In order to find an approach for their academic career, Rossbach and Westphal went to the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen with their fellow student Karl Damian Achaz von Knoblauch-Hatzbach in 1851 . Westphal and Rossbach received their doctorate and habilitation there in quick succession the following year . Rossbach's habilitation was based on a work on Peirithoos and Theseus . The corresponding theses were strongly challenged in the defense, which lasted seven hours, by the Tübingen philology professor Ernst Christian Walz . But Rossbach prevailed and was appointed private lecturer for classical philology together with Westphal.

As a private lecturer in Tübingen , Rossbach gave lectures on Greek and Roman writers and, from 1854, systematic colleges. At the same time he worked out his first monograph, Studies on Roman Marriage (Stuttgart 1853), in which he applied the methods of comparative linguistics and thus became a pioneer of comparative cultural studies . In the following year (1854) he published a critical edition of Catullus and the 1st volume of the Greek Metrics , which he wrote with Westphal. On February 6, 1855, Rossbach was appointed associate professor . In the same year he published an edition of Tibullus Poems.

Wroclaw

In the summer of 1856, Rossbach accepted the call from the Silesian Friedrich Wilhelms University in Breslau to the chair for philology and archeology, which was vacant after Julius Ambrosch's death . This enabled Rossbach to maintain a family and to marry his fiancée Auguste Westphal , his friend's sister. On September 29, 1856 he took up the professorship in Breslau.

In addition to his philological and archaeological teaching activities, Rossbach held one of the two professorships for eloquence and as a result worked out speeches and program papers for the university. He was a member of the scientific examination committee and headed the Museum of Art and Antiquity, which his predecessor Ambrosch founded. Rossbach organized and enlarged the museum's collections, which he made into an instrument for the archaeological training of his students. In 1861, on the 50th anniversary of the university, he published a catalog of the museum's plaster casts. His services were honored on December 8, 1861 with his appointment as a corresponding member of the Royal Archaeological Institute .

His lectures focused on Greek literary, art and cultural history. In contrast to his colleague Friedrich Haase , Rossbach attached greater importance to large overviews than to a wealth of details. An eye disease that broke out early on also prevented him from including all new scientific publications. His services to the city and the University of Wroclaw remain undisputed. In 1866/67 he was rector of the university. He won Wilhelm I (Prussia) for the establishment of the Silesian Museum of Fine Arts in Breslau. In the winter of 1869/1870 Rossbach went on a study trip to Italy.

Rossbach died at the age of 75 after a long, serious illness. His students included the art historian Alwin Schultz and the archaeologists and philologists Hugo Blümner and Richard Foerster as well as his son, the archaeologist Otto Rossbach .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Rector's speeches (HKM)

literature

• Gustav Türk :  Roßbach, August . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 53, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1907, pp. 507-514.
• Johanna Kinne: Classical archeology and its professors at the University of Breslau in the 19th century . Dresden 2010. ISBN 978-3-940310-68-2 (on Rossbach pp. 227–334)
• Otto Rossbach: August Rossbach - A memory of his life and work . Koenigsberg i. Pr. 1900.

Web links

Wikisource: August Roßbach  - Sources and full texts

• Literature by and about Rossbach, August in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about August Rossbach  in the German Digital Library