Christian August Lobeck

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Christian August Lobeck (engraving).

Christian August Lobeck (born June 5, 1781 in Naumburg (Saale) , † August 25, 1860 in Königsberg i. Pr. ) Was one of the leading German classical philologists of the 19th century. His research in the field of religious history was trend-setting; in the Greek language research he included the young discipline of Indo-European language research. As one of the last German humanities scholars , he wrote his works entirely in Latin.

Life

Lobeck, son of the rector of the Naumburg Cathedral School, attended the institute headed by his father for five years, where his lessons were entirely limited to Latin and Greek. Already at this time he made friends with August Seidler (1779–1851), two years his senior , with whom he remained in contact until his death. The two of them read different poets together, including Vergil and Gottfried August Bürger . They shared the dream of becoming a poet themselves. Lobeck left school at the age of 15 and enrolled at the University of Jena for law . He also heard lectures by the theologians Johann Jakob Griesbach , Heinrich Eberhard Gottlob Paulus and Karl David Ilgen as well as the philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte .

In the second semester, Lobeck changed course location and subject: He moved to the University of Leipzig and studied Protestant theology with the aim of teaching at grammar schools. He tried to supplement his inadequate schooling with private training. The aim of his studies, which he pursued up to the exam, gave way to an inclination towards classical philology. Lobeck heard from the philology professors in Leipzig Christian Daniel Beck and Johann Gottfried Jakob Hermann , who was initially too high for him, but later stimulated him the most. The friendship between the two lasted until Hermann's death in 1848. In Leipzig, Lobeck led a secluded life devoted entirely to studies. Among his fellow students, his friends included his colleagues Karl Gottlob August Erfurdt and Karl August Förster . In 1799 Lobeck became a candidate for the ministry, but continued to focus on his academic training. In 1802 he completed his habilitation as a private lecturer at the University of Wittenberg with a text Disputatio de diis veterum adspectu corporum exanimium non prohibitis directed against Gotthold Ephraim Lessing , which was a reaction to Lessing's book How the ancients have formed death .

Shortly after completing his habilitation, Lobeck became an adjunct in the philological faculty in Wittenberg. He held Latin and Greek lectures as well as a disputatory in which Greek was spoken in addition to Latin. Friedrich August Wilhelm Spohn , Gregor Wilhelm Nitzsch , Friedrich Traugott Friedemann and Friedrich Lindemann were among the visitors to this disputatory . At that time Lobeck earned his living from his monthly salary as custodian of the university library and private lessons. After the University of Wittenberg suffered heavy losses due to the redistribution of Germany in the Peace of Tilsit in 1807, Lobeck's position was also canceled. He went to the Wittenberg Lyceum as vice rector and was appointed rector shortly afterwards. Lobeck did not interrupt his scientific work in this position either. Before the siege of Wittenberg by the Prussians (1814), Lobeck fled to Bad Schmiedeberg . After the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig (1813), Lobeck was offered a position at the University of Königsberg , where he succeeded his college friend Karl Gottlob August Erfurdt as professor of eloquence and classical studies from 1814 . Erfurdt had recently fallen ill and died.

In 1815 Lobeck married the daughter of superintendent Kuntze in Bischofswerda (1789–1879). The couple did not have children of their own, but had two foster daughters, and Lobeck promoted the academic career of his much younger cousin Florian Lobeck in Königsberg.

Lobeck worked in Königsberg as a professor of classical philology, archeology and ancient history. Until Karl Lehrs' appointment (1845), Lobeck was the only professor of classical studies in Königsberg. Latin style exercises were at the center of his efforts. In each triennium he gave six four-hour lectures in Latin on various subjects and fields of classical studies. His interpretations were also considered worth listening to among Königsberg students in all subjects. Since 1848 he was a foreign member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences . In 1849 he was elected a foreign member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres . Until 1851 he headed the philological seminar of the Königsberg University alone, from then until his dismissal in 1857 together with Karl Lehrs. Lobeck was a speaker at the university, senior librarian, examiner and director of the examination committee for teacher training candidates. In addition, the determined liberal and rationalist was politically active as an elector. This was the reason for many a quarrel with his friend and student Wilhelm Drumann , who was a conservative and avowed monarchist.

In three stays in the spa town of Bad Salzbrunn , he was able to restore his poor health, which resulted from overexertion while studying , to such an extent that he did not have to take any vacation until his death. He also almost never left his place of residence and work in Königsberg, where he was considered an original because of his erudition, his style and his friendly, humble nature. His motto was the word of the Seven Wise Men of Greece : vive latenter ( λάθε βιῶσας ), "live in secret". The first serious complaints of old age appeared in 1857, which is why he resigned from his teaching post shortly thereafter. However, he did not let his scientific work rest. He died peacefully in his sleep three years later. At the funeral on November 29, 1860, Ferdinand Nesselmann honored him with a poetry recital.

Services

Lobeck's work focused on text interpretation, Greek religious history and Greek linguistic research.

Lobeck was the first to reject the theory of an oriental religious import into Greece. His major work Aglaophamus sive de theologiae mysticae Graecorum causis libri tres (1829), on which he had worked for more than 20 years, was received with great benevolence and astonishment, and Wilhelm von Humboldt praised it: He thinks it is impossible in a higher one Combine degrees of depth of research and completion of representation. In this work, Lobeck proved that the Greek mystery cults had autochthonous origins and had not been introduced from the Orient in the traditional form. Despite the numerous negative findings in the Aglaophamus , the work resulted in many positive findings of the 19th century.

In the field of Greek linguistic research, Lobeck had already proven his competence in the edition of Sophocles' Aias (1809). His edition of the grammarian and lexicographer Phrynichos (1820) was also the result of careful research. The second half of the book is a series of treatises on word formation. After completing the Aglaophamus , Lobeck turned exclusively to linguistic research. In 1835 he published a second edition of the Aias , as well as Paralipomena (additions) and additions to Buttmann's Greek grammar in 1837 , as well as Pathologiae Graeci sermonis Elementa in two volumes (Volume 1 in 1853, Volume 2 posthumously in 1862, edited by Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Müller ). Word formation was the focus of all works. During the massive upheavals in the field of linguistics through the discovery of linguistic affinities in the 1930s, Lobeck succeeded in adapting the new teaching and incorporating it into his research, although it was rejected in many places for a long time. Georg Curtius praises his ability to structure and his, albeit often incorrect, etymologies in his work, Basic Features of Greek Etymology .

Fonts

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Lobeck's speech on the 300th anniversary of the Albertus University on August 30, 1844 in Königsberg Cathedral was famous
  2. ^ GHF Nesselmann : Chr. A. Lobeck. Presented at his death ceremony on November 29, 1860 . In: New Prussian Provincial Papers . Volume 6, Königsberg 1860, pp. 251-252.

Web links

Wikisource: Christian August Lobeck  - Sources and full texts
Wikisource: Christianus Augustus Lobeck  - Sources and full texts (Latin)
personal data
SURNAME Lobeck, Christian August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German classical philologist, historian of religion and linguist
DATE OF BIRTH June 5, 1781
PLACE OF BIRTH Naumburg (Saale)
DATE OF DEATH August 25, 1860
Place of death Koenigsberg i. Pr.