Bonn philologists dispute
The Bonn Philologists 'Dispute , also known as the Bonn Philologists' War, was a conflict that had simmered since 1855 and escalated publicly in 1865 between the two Bonn philology professors Friedrich Ritschl and Otto Jahn . The conflict marked a turning point in the Bonn School of Classical Philology .
course
In 1854, Friedrich Wilhelm Ritschl, professor of philology at Bonn University , applied to the Prussian Ministry of Culture (at that time under Karl Otto von Raumer ) to appoint a further professor of philology and archeology to supplement the work of the 70-year-old Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker . Since Welcker was currently abroad at that time, Ritschl pursued the appointment without his knowledge. Ritschl's preferred candidate, Otto Jahn, followed the call without knowing that it was behind Welcker's back.
Jahn started teaching at Bonn University in the summer of 1855 and got into a tense relationship with Welcker. The latter viewed the new professorship as an affront to his person and completely broke off the connection with the younger Ritschl. Jahn tried to maintain a respectful relationship with Welcker, whom he admired as a scientist, but the relationship between the two remained tense until Welcker withdrew from teaching in the autumn of 1862 due to his onset of blindness.
In order to improve the relationship with Welcker, Jahn, for his part, had distanced himself from his sponsor Ritschl, which made him feel neglected. Within a few months of Jahn's arrival, the two had become estranged. The conflict arose in the spring of 1865 for the following reason:
Because of the lack of Greek courses at the University of Bonn (the professors for Classical Philology were mainly Latinists ), Jahn tried to get his friend Hermann Sauppe from Göttingen to come to Bonn. Because he feared a negative reaction from Ritschl, he operated this calling behind his back. After Jahn had declared that he would only stay on his chair in Bonn if Sauppe was appointed, the Ministry of Education under Heinrich von Mühler approved the proposal. Contrary to a previously given promise, Sauppe declined the call to Bonn.
When Ritschl found out about the incident, he started a smear campaign against Jahn, which split the philological seminar into two camps: the employees were on the side of their then dean Ritschl, while the student body almost without exception sided with Jahn. The ministry gave Ritschl a sharp reprimand for his slander.
The publication of the reprimand in the press exacerbated the affair and led to its politicization: in the state parliament, the liberal opposition attacked the Bismarck government for its tactless publication. In doing so, they took sides for Ritschl and against the liberal Jahn, who in turn received support from the conservative side. Theodor Mommsen was on the side of Jahn, with whom he had been close friends since her time in Leipzig in 1847/48.
In May 1865, Ritschl finally asked to be released from the Prussian civil service and moved to the University of Leipzig in Saxony . Ritschl presented himself in public as a victim of collegial and state ingratitude and displayed his moral superiority, while u. a. his student Wilhelm Brambach proclaimed the "end of the Bonn School of Philology". The former Bonn student Hermann Deiters took a stand against this invective in his work “The Philological Study in Bonn”. Brambach responded with the text "Friedrich Ritschl and Philology in Bonn"
Despite the change of his rival to another university, Jahn, who remained in Bonn, could not feel like a winner: he was aware that his secret efforts to secure Sauppe's appointment had caused the departure of a capable philologist. His guilty feelings, fueled by Ritschl's self-portrayal, undermined his health until he died in 1869 of a lung disease.
Aftermath
The conflict represented a turning point in the history of the Bonn School , but not its end. Under Ritschl and Jahn's successors, Hermann Usener and Franz Bücheler , philology reached new heights in Bonn: both complemented each other excellently in research and teaching and attracted a large number of students. During the time she was active, Bonn remained among the leading universities in classical philology. It was only after she left at the beginning of the 20th century that other universities overtook her, especially the Friedrich Wilhelms University in Berlin .
literature
- Wilhelm Brambach: The end of the Bonn school of philology . Cologne 1865
- Hermann Deiters: The philological studies in Bonn. From a schoolboy from the Rhineland . Cologne 1865
- Wilhelm Brambach: Friedrich Ritschl and Philology in Bonn . Leipzig 1865
- Hermann Deiters: Bonner Zeitung . August 3, 1865
- Carl Werner Müller : Otto Jahn . Teubner, Stuttgart / Leipzig 1991. ISBN 3-519-07423-0
- Paul Egon Huebinger : Heinrich von Sybel and the Bonn Philological War . In: Historisches Jahrbuch 83 (1964), pp. 164-216.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Carl Werner Müller: Otto Jahn . Teubner, Stuttgart / Leipzig 1991, ISBN 3-519-07423-0 , p. 34 f.