Eduard Friedrich Ferdinand Beer

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Eduard Friedrich Ferdinand Beer (born June 15, 1805 in Bautzen , † April 5, 1841 in Leipzig ) was a German orientalist , epigraphist and paleographer .

Life

Gravestone Eduard Friedrich Ferdinand Beer, Alter Johannisfriedhof Leipzig

Eduard Friedrich Ferdinand Beer was born on June 15, 1805 in Bautzen as the son of the tailor Leonhard Beer (1775–1827) and his wife Erdmuthe Eleonora Dorothea, born in 1785, the daughter of the tailor Gottlieb Apelt (1753–1805) and his wife Rosina Dorothea Friese ( 1761–1810), born. Beer has been interested in languages ​​since childhood. From 1817 he attended a high school in his hometown. Two years later he began to learn the Hebrew language , but also dealt with the Semitic languages ​​in general . At Easter 1824 he began studying Oriental Studies at the University of Leipzig . His teachers were Ernst Friedrich Karl Rosenmüller , Gustav Seyffarth and Heinrich Leberecht Fleischer . He also made friends with Bernhard Dorn , an orientalist who was also studying . Because his father died in 1827, Beer had problems financing his studies. Therefore, he also worked as a proofreader. Nevertheless, he was able to provide the basis for his main work, and a serious illness in 1828 did not prevent him from doing so. Beer belonged to the University of the Hebrew Society Georg Benedikt Winers .

Beer completed his studies in 1833. Through a scholarship he could this year by the University and the Doctor of Philology doctorate be. Moreover habilitation he did this year for Orientalist philology, his habilitation thesis Inscriptiones et papyri veteres semitici, quotquot in Aegypto reperti sunt, editi et inediti, recensiti et ad originem hebraeo-judaicam relati, cum Palaeographia hebraea concinnata but could not be published; for Wilhelm Gesenius had already published a work shortly before that contained most of the material from Beer's work. That year he was hired by the philosophy faculty as a private lecturer .

During this time, Beer wrote for literary magazines, rather irregularly, as he had to prepare his lectures. In 1838 he was finally promoted to associate professor of Semitic palaeography after a review of cuneiform inscriptions by other researchers in the Halleschen Literatur-Zeitung . He held this office until his death. On April 5, 1841, he died in Leipzig at the age of 35 of a hemorrhage as a result of a lung disease from which Beer had suffered since his youth.

Beer had knowledge of Hebrew, English , French and Italian as well as Sanskrit . In addition to his university work, he dealt with gardening and the game of chess . He was the first to deal with the inscriptions of the Nabataeans and founded this branch of Semitic epigraphy. In his main work he interpreted inscriptions from the Sinai Peninsula for the first time . Still, his life was not measured by success. Even during his time as a professor, apart from a few bonuses, he received no salary, so that he was impoverished all his life.

Works

  • Inscriptiones veteres litteris et lingua hucusque incognitis ad montem Sinai magno numero servatae, Fasc. 1 (Leipzig 1840)
  • Studia Asiatica, Fasc. 3 (Leipzig 1840)
  • Explanation of the Sinaite inscriptions (1840)

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Beer, Eduard Friedrich Ferdinand
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German orientalist, epigraphist and paleographer
DATE OF BIRTH June 15, 1805
PLACE OF BIRTH Bautzen
DATE OF DEATH April 5, 1841
Place of death Leipzig