August Buchner

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August Buchner

August Buchner (born November 2, 1591 in Dresden ; † February 12, 1661 in Apollensdorf ) was a German classical philologist, poet and literary theorist of the Baroque period .

Life

Buchner was the son of Oberzeugmeister Paul Buchner (1531-1607) and his wife Maria, the daughter of Dresden's mayor Bastian Kröß (1524-1602). He received his first lessons in Dresden from private teachers and then went to school there. On November 17, 1604, he moved to the electoral state grammar school Schulpforta , the former forge for the Saxon pastors and civil servants. In a tightly organized daily routine, the students were mainly taught knowledge of religion and ancient languages. In addition, the Artes Liberales , rhetoric , dialectics , music and poetics were taught. Under the rectorate of Justin Bertuch , Buchner obtained his university entrance qualification here.

He decided to study at the University of Wittenberg, where he matriculated on November 19, 1610. His initial goal was to complete a law degree. To this end, he began a basic philosophical course in accordance with university customs. His teachers were in poetics Friedrich Taubmann and Johann Rodenberg , in ethics he heard Balthasar Meisner , attended Erasmus Schmidt's lectures on Greek language and literature, strengthened his rhetorical skills with Adam Theodor Siber and probably also heard Jakob Martini in logic. Buchner must have already distinguished himself in the field of poetics during his studies.

After Rodenberg had left the professorship in 1615, the Saxon court, contrary to the university's proposal to fill the chair with Johannes Wanckel , preferred Buchner, who had not yet received a master's degree, for the teaching position. He became Professor of Poetics on March 12, 1616, took over the inspection of the university library and on March 19 of that year acquired the academic degree of Magister of the Seven Liberal Arts. Buchner had an extraordinary effect in his lectures on poetry. They formed the center of the Wittenberg poets' circle , which was related to the Fruit-Bringing Society , to which Buchner himself belonged under the company name Der Comrades , as well as the Silesian Poet School .

Buchner's students and epigones included a long line of well-known Baroque poets and writers such as Christian Brehme , Samuel von Butschky , Simon Dach , Johann Michael Dilherr , Paul Fleming , Johann Franck , Paul Gerhardt , Enoch Gläser , Christian Gueintz , Christian Keimann , Balthasar Kindermann , Johann Klaj , Christoph Kormart , Zacharias Lund , Johann Sebastian Mitternacht , Heinrich Mühlpfort , Martin Opitz , Karl Ortlob , David Schirmer , Johann Georg Schoch , Jacob Schwieger , Andreas Tscherning , Jakob Thomasius and Philipp von Zesen . After Opitz's death, Buchner was seen as his spiritual heir, who had an extraordinary influence on the development of German baroque poetry .

After Jeremias Spiegel died as professor of rhetoric in 1631, his professorship was merged with the professorship of poetics. This attempted to keep Buchner in Wittenberg, as the takeover also meant an improvement in his salary. Buchner, who mainly pushed for the German language to be used in both professorships, had developed Wittenberg into an academic rhetoric center in the 17th century. So he involved the entire spectrum of literature in his lectures. He preferred Roman literature, which he explained using poets and prose writers and published a large number of annotated editions. In addition to his academic tasks, Buchner also took part in the organizational tasks of teaching. In the winter semesters 1618, 1621, 1623, 1628, 1629, 1633, 1634, 1640, 1646 and in the summer semester 1653 he was dean of the philosophical faculty. In the summer semesters of 1618, 1628, 1632 and 1654 he headed the rectorate of the Wittenberg University as a magnificence .

Act

August Buchner's main work, Instructions for German Poetry , was published in Wittenberg in 1665 by his son-in-law Otto Praetorius after his death . It contains his poetic lectures, which arose from his handwritten legacy and from the circulation of interested parties. He also inscribed himself in the almost two hundred year history of the edition of the Thesaurus Eruditionis Scholasticae, first printed in 1571 by famous philologists . The founder of this dictionary of the Latin language, which is characterized by a rich phraseology and numerous different educational elements, was the humanistic schoolboy Basilius Faber . Buchner had it appear in an improved edition, enriched with many additions. This is a testament to the lifelong devotion of the one who also emerged as a lexicographer.

He was critical of the crisis in the Melanchthonian system: only a few love and still cultivate the humaniores literae . There is hardly anyone in Germany who can rightly boast of the name of a literatus and an eruditus . The 17th century saw an invasion of avarities , and one rushed to profitable sciences. During the Thirty Years' War he preserved the Wittenberg tradition of the dual Academiae encomium , which presented Leucorea as the mother of religion and the liberal arts , to the outside world .

Buchner's extensive correspondence, a treasure trove for research, awaits its scientific evaluation and edition to this day.

family

Buchner married on November 20, 1616 with Elisabeth Krause, the daughter of the lawyer Jakob Krause in Wittenberg. The marriage produced five daughters and six sons. Of the children, two sons and two daughters survived the father. From the children we know:

  • Maria Elisabeth Buchner
  • Paul Buchner I.
  • Johann Buchner, Polish lieutenant captain
  • Anna Maria Buchner
  • Joachim Friedrich Buchner
  • Dorothea Christina Buchner, married. with Otto Praetorius
  • Paul Buchner II
  • Christian August Buchner, master builder and master builder in Dresden
  • Jacob Wilhelm Buchner, Swedish lieutenant
  • Elisabeth Buchner, married. February 3, 1646 in Wittenberg with Heinrich Cosel , legal scholar
  • Dorothea Buchner

Works (selection)

Collective editions

  • Dissertationum academicarum. Wittenberg 1650 (University publications; extended editions 1678 and 1679)
  • Orationes panegyricae. Kleve 1668 (eulogies and funeral speeches; extended editions 1669, 1672, 1681, 1682)
  • Orationum academicarum. 3 parts. Dresden 1675 (with biography p. 886-942) and others.
  • Epistolae. Dresden 1679 (letters; 9 prints, best ed. 1707 and 1710)

Individual works

  • (Ed.) Basilius Faber: Thesaurus eruditionis . Wittenberg 1623 (first new edition by Buchner of the Latin-German dictionary; 15 editions)
  • (Ed.) Plautus : Comoediae. Wittenberg 1640 (first new edition commented by Buchner; 5 editions)
  • (Ed.) Gabriel Naudé: Bibliographia politica. Wittenberg 1641
  • (Ed.) Petrus Cunaeus: Orationes. Wittenberg 1643
  • (Ed.) Pliny the Younger : Epistolarum libri X. Frankfurt / Oder 1644
  • A short guide to German fiction. Leipzig 1977 (Ndr. D. Jena 1663)
  • Instructions for German Poeterey [and] Poet , ed. Marian Szyrocki. Tübingen 1966 (Ndr. D. Edition Wittenberg 1665)

literature

Web links

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personal data
SURNAME Buchner, August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lyric poet
DATE OF BIRTH November 2, 1591
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden
DATE OF DEATH February 12, 1661
Place of death Pollensdorf