Bernard Abraham van Groningen

Bust of Bernard Abraham van Groningen

Bernard Abraham van Groningen (born May 20, 1894 in Twello ; † March 1, 1987 in Leiderdorp ) was a Dutch Greek writer and papyrologist .

Life

Bernard was born the son of pastor Rudolf van Groningen (* around 1859 in Voorst) and his wife Johanna Roskam (* around 1868 in Twello), who married on March 21, 1891 in Voorst. In the year Bernard was born, his parents moved to Brussels , where his father became assistant preacher in the Dutch evangelical community. After visiting the Royal Athenaeum in Brussels, he began to study literature at the Université libre de Bruxelles in 1912 , which he continued in 1915 at the University of Groningen . From 1916 he worked as a teacher at the grammar school in Groningen and in 1919 switched to the grammar school in Leeuwarden in the same capacity . On July 8, 1921, he received his doctorate in Groningen under the ancient historian Antoon Gerard Roos (* February 23, 1877 in Groningen; † September 2, 1953 in Oldenzaal) with the topic De papyro Oxyrhynchita 1380 (German: Das Papyrus Oxyrhynchita 1380 ) to the doctorate Philosophy and rose to the position of vice-principal of the grammar school in Leeuwarden in the same year. In 1925 he qualified as a private lecturer in Greek papyrology at the Groningen University and in 1926 became rector of the grammar school in Assen . On September 20, 1928, he was appointed professor of the Greek language and Greek antiquities at the University of Leiden , which he took up on January 23, 1929 with the introductory speech Nieuwe Getuigen (German: New Witnesses ).

Groningen was particularly interested in papyrology . In the field of Greek language and literature, he placed particular emphasis on ancient Greek poetry, with the works of Pindar , Theognis of Megara , Sappho , Aeschylus , Sophocles , Euripides , Callimachus , Homer and Herodotus being the focus of his Hellenic research. Together with the legal historian Martin David (born July 3, 1898 in Posen; † April 9, 1986) and the legal scholar Julius Christiaan van Oven , van Groningen founded the Leiden Papyrological Cabinet in 1935 , which was incorporated into the Leiden Papyrological Institute in 1962 . During the time of the German occupation of the Netherlands (1940-1945) in World War II , he turned against the National Socialist orientation of the university business at Leiden University. Therefore, he resigned his professorship and was dismissed from his professorship on May 20, 1942. On August 7, 1942, he was kidnapped as a hostage to Sint-Michielsgestel and from October 1943 he lived in exile in Steenwijkerland . After the war he returned to his chair on September 4, 1945. In the academy year 1949/50 he acted as rector of the alma mater , for which he gave the rector's speech De Griekse Geest (German: The Greek Spirit ) on the 375th anniversary of the establishment of the educational institution on February 8, 1950 .

Van Groningen became a member of the Society for Dutch Literature in Leiden in 1929, and in 1935 he became a member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences , for which he was chairman of the literature department from 1949 to 1964. From 1950 he was also a member of the Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen , in 1953 an external member of the Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie van België voor Wetenschappen en Kunsten , was president of the Fédération Internationale des Associations d'Études Classiques in 1954/59 and he became honorary chairman of the international society of papyrologists . In 1949 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Queen's University Belfast , in 1951 an honorary doctorate from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and in 1957 received the Medal of Honor from the University of Liège . He was made a Knight of the Order of the Dutch Lion and he became Commander of the Order of Orange-Nassau . On April 3, 1964, van Groningen retired from his professorship and said goodbye to his university environment on May 8 of the same year. He remained literary well into old age, died in a nursing home and was buried in the Rijnhof cemetery in Leiden.

Van Groningen was married twice. His first marriage was in Leeuwarden in December 1920 with Sophia Catherina van der Poel (* around 1893 in Klundert; † November 10, 1932 in Leiden), the daughter of Johannes Marinus van der Poel (* November 28, 1858 in Culemborg; † July 1, 1937 in Doorn) and his wife Alida Sohia Heij, who was married on March 26, 1885 in Culemburg (born October 1, 1861 in Culemborg; † January 26, 1951 in Leiden). After his first wife died in a stillbirth, he married her sister Elisabeth Maria van der Poel on March 21, 1934 in Leiden (* around 1889/90 in Egmond aan Zee; † March 6, 1960 in Leiden). This marriage also remained childless.

Publications (selection)

• De papyro Oxyrhynchia 1380 ; Groningen 1921
• Le Gymnasiarque des métropoles de l'Egypte romaine ; Groningen 1924
• Nieuwe doigen ; Groningen 1929
• Aristote, Le second livre de l'Economique ; Leiden 1933
• Papyrological leerboek ; Leiden 1940, 1946 (with Prof. Dr. M. David)
• Short manual of Greek palaeography ; Leiden 1940, 1955
• Herodotus' Historiën ; Leiden 1945 / 9–1955, 5th vol.
• Heimwee en fantasie, Grieksche droomen van volmaakt leven ; Amsterdam 1947
• De literatuur van het oude Hellas ; The Hague, 1950
• Semolina geest ; Leiden 1950
• In the grip of the past, essay on an aspect of Greek thought ; Leiden 1953
• Homerus, four edges van zijn persoonlijkheid ; Amsterdam 1954
• Dyscolus ; Leiden 1960
• Pindare au banquet, les fragments de scolies ; Leiden 1960
• Bedwongen hartstocht, of Hoe bouwde de Griek zijn beschaving op? ; Leiden 1964
• De mythe in de literatuur ; The Hague 1964
• Carmina et epigrammata Graece ; Leiden 1972
• Eleven hymns by Romanos ; Leiden 1976
• The three Griekse wore these from Aeschylus en Sophocles ; Leiden 1977
• Euphorion ; Amsterdam 1977
• Pragmateia peri tēs historias kai tēs kritikēs tōn Hellēnikōn keimenōn ; Athens 1980

literature

• How is that? Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, 1948, p. 184
• PJ Sijpesteijn: Levens report BA van Groningen. In: Jaarboek of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, 1988. Amsterdam, pp. 118–124 ( online )
• Hartlijke honoring bij afscheid van prof. Van Groningen te Leiden. In: Nieuwe Leidsche Courant. May 9, 1964, p. 3 ( online )

Web links

• Groningen in the professorial catalog of the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
• Groningen in the professorial catalog of the University of Leiden
• Groningen entry at the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences (KNAW)
• Groningen at the digital library of Dutch literature (DBNL)