Ernst Förstemann

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Ernst Förstemann, painting by Julius Scholtz
Signature Ernst Förstemann.PNG

Ernst Wilhelm Förstemann (born September 18, 1822 in Danzig ; † November 4, 1906 in Charlottenburg ) was a German archivist , librarian and historian .

Life and work

Ernst Förstemann was the son of Wilhelm August Förstemann , grammar school professor for mathematics in Danzig, and attended the grammar school there until 1840. His father, who had six children, died in 1836. From the age of six, Förstemann suffered from a weakness of the eyes due to a feverish illness. Until 1844 he studied comparative linguistics at what was then Berlin's Friedrich-Wilhelms University, now Humboldt University Berlin, and did his doctorate in Halle (Saale) in the same year . From 1845 to 1851 he worked as a teacher at the grammar school in his hometown and then went to Wernigerode . It is interesting that it was Förstemann's former gymnastics teacher who was able to inspire him for the German language, especially for Middle High German.

In Wernigerode, Förstemann worked as a teacher at the lyceum and at the same time worked as an archivist and librarian in the orangery building (see Fürst zu Stolberg-Wernigerodesche Library ). In 1865 he took over the management of the Royal Library in Dresden . In 1887 he was appointed Privy Councilor and took over the management of King Wilhelm I's private library and that of the Princely Secondary Library in Dresden. In the same capacity Förstemann also served his son and successor, King Friedrich III. He was given a special honor when he was accepted into the so-called Dresden Fürstenzug . Between 1887 and 1897 Förstemann was able to decipher the calendar part of the Codex Dresdensis .

With his Old German Name Book (1857), Förstemann is considered the founder of German name research and, through his work The German Place Names (1863), the founder of systematic German place name studies . With his plea for the use of the "numerical method" (meaning language statistics) and the statistical surveys of various linguistic phenomena (sounds, grammatical phenomena, names), Förstemann is one of the pioneers of language statistics and thus of quantitative linguistics . In addition to numerous linguistic articles on comparative linguistic research, he stood out through publications in the field of librarianship and Mayan research . He coined the term folk etymology , which established itself beyond the German-speaking area.

In December 1898 Ernst Förstemann retired and settled in Charlottenburg. There he died at the age of 84 and was buried in Luisenfriedhof III .

Works (selection)

  • Northern Pomerania and its antiquities . In: Preußische Provinzial-Blätter , Volume 9, Königsberg 1850, pp. 254–275.
  • Old German name book. 2 volumes (I: personal names ; II: place and other geographical names ) 1856/59; 2nd edition Bonn 1900 (volume 1. Personal names : partly online ); Volume II in the 3rd edition in two volumes, ed. by Hermann Jellinghaus , Bonn 1913/16; Reprint Munich / Hildesheim 1966–1967.
  • The German place names. Nordhausen 1863; Reprinted by Walluf near Wiesbaden in 1973.
  • About the Gräflich Stolbergische Bibliothek zu Wernigerode , 1866
  • Communications from the Royal Public Library of Dresden , 1866 ff.
  • History of the German language tribe , 2 vols. 1874/75 (reprint 1966)
  • The connection between the German libraries . In: Zentralblatt für Bibliothekswesen , vol. 1, 1884, pp. 6–12 ( digitized version ).
  • Systematic, alphabetical, chronological order. In: Centralblatt für Bibliothekswesen, vol. 1, 1884, issue 8, pp. 293-303 ( digitized version ).
  • The Maya apparatus in Dresden . In: Centralblatt für Bibliothekswesen , Vol. 2, 1885, pp. 181–192 ( digitized version ).
  • Count Christian Ernst zu Stolberg-Wernigerode , Hanover 1886.
  • The library servants . In: Centralblatt für Bibliothekswesen , Vol. 3, 1886, pp. 190–196 ( digitized version )
  • Messages from the administration of the Royal. public library in Dresden from 1881–1885 . In: Centralblatt für Bibliothekswesen , Vol. 3, 1886, pp. 319–331 ( digitized version )
  • Libraries' needs and resources . In: Centralblatt für Bibliothekswesen , Jg. 4, 1887, pp. 97-106 ( digitized version ).
  • Dictionaries and libraries . In: Central Journal for Libraries . Vol. 6 (1889), pp. 448-451 ( online ).
  • For the deciphering of the Maya manuscripts, 7 vols. 1887/98
  • On the history of the book collections in the County of Wernigerode up to the Thirty Years' War, especially the collection of Count Wolfgang Ernst zu Stolberg (created from around 1569–1606). , undated (manuscript)
  • A historical Mayan inscription . 1902. In: Globus, Volume 81, No. 10, pp. 150-153

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Ernst Wilhelm Förstemann  - Sources and full texts
Commons : Ernst Förstemann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christoph König (Ed.), With the assistance of Birgit Wägenbaur u. a .: Internationales Germanistenlexikon 1800–1950 . Volume 1: A-G. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2003, ISBN 3-11-015485-4 , pp. 502-503.
  2. ↑ Flyer of the Codex Dresdensis (PDF; 202 kB) on the website of the Saxon State and University Library
  3. ↑ Ernst Wilhelm Förstemann: About the numerical phonetic relationships in German. In: Germania 6, 83-90; Quote p. 83.
  4. ↑ Ernst Förstemann: About German folk etymology . In: Journal for comparative linguistic research in the field of German, Greek and Latin [= Kuhns Zeitschrift] 1, 1852, 1–25.
  5. ↑ death survey . In: Dresdner Geschichtsblätter , No. 2, 1908, p. 248.
personal data
SURNAME Förstemann, Ernst
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Förstemann, Ernst Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German archivist, librarian and historian
DATE OF BIRTH September 18, 1822
PLACE OF BIRTH Danzig
DATE OF DEATH November 4, 1906
Place of death Charlottenburg