Ernst Theodor Langer

Ernst Theodor Langer (born August 23, 1743 in Breslau ; † February 24, 1820 in Wolfenbüttel ) was a German court master and librarian . From 1781 to 1820 he headed the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel.

Life

Ernst Theodor Langer was born in Breslau in 1743 as the son of a merchant. He attended high school in Oels , which he left at the age of 16 to join the Zieten'sche hussar regiment as a soldier . He was promoted to officer, but had to leave the military as unfit for service due to a gunshot wound. He then resumed his school studies at the pedagogy in Züllichau . As court master of Count Hochberg , he came to the Berge monastery school near Magdeburg , and subsequently to the University of Leipzig as a companion to the young Count Lindenau . Here he made the acquaintance of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , who later in Poetry and Truth , Book 8, praised the excellently learned and good book connoisseur . From 1769 to 1780 Langer traveled to Frankfurt am Main , Lausanne , Saint Petersburg , Paris , Rome and Holland. In the middle of 1773 he stayed in Braunschweig, where his pupil at the time attended the Collegium Carolinum . At this time he came into contact with Johann Arnold Ebert , Johann Joachim Eschenburg and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing , who had been the library director in Wolfenbüttel since 1770. In 1780 he visited Wolfenbüttel again and was introduced to the ruling Duke Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand through Lessing .

Head of the Herzog August Library Wolfenbüttel

After Lessing's death, Langer was appointed head of the Herzog August Library and ducal council on August 20, 1781. Lessing is said to have recommended him as his successor. The conservative Langer had extensive bibliographical knowledge and showed himself to be a good administrator of the library. He led them through difficult times. In 1795 there was a threat of merging with the University of Helmstedt and relocating it to Braunschweig, and during the French period in 1813 the collection would be transferred to Göttingen, Marburg and Halle. In 1807 he had to deliver around 400 valuable manuscripts and prints to Paris on the orders of the French intendant Daru, most of which were returned in 1815 after the collapse of the Kingdom of Westphalia . Also in 1815 the manuscripts and numerous prints from the University of Helmstedt, which was closed in 1810, came to Wolfenbüttel.

Langer worked intensively as a reviewer , especially in Friedrich Nicolai's General German Library , but left no scientific work behind.

Langer died in Wolfenbüttel in August 1820 at the age of 76.

literature

• Werner Arnold: Langer, Ernst Theodor . In: Georg Ruppelt and Sabine Solf (eds.): Lexicon on the past and present of the Herzog August Library Wolfenbüttel , Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1992, ISBN 3-447-03922-1 , p. 99.
• Otto von Heinemann : The ducal library to Wolfenbüttel. A contribution to the history of German book collections . 2., completely new. Wolfenbüttel 1894 (Reprint Amsterdam 1969), p. 194ff. ( Digitized version ).
• KG Jacob: In memory of Ernst Theodor Langer . In: Robert Naumann (Ed.): Serapeum . Journal for library science, manuscript studies and older literature , Volume 3, Leipzig 1842, pp. 88–93.
• Wolfgang Milde : Langer, Ernst Theodor . In: Horst-Rüdiger Jarck , Günter Scheel (ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon - 19th and 20th centuries . Hahnsche Buchhandlung, Hannover 1996, ISBN 3-7752-5838-8 , p. 368 .
• Paul Zimmermann :  Langer, Ernst Theodor . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1883, pp. 676-678.
• Paul Zimmermann: Goethe's letters to E. Th. Langer . In: Braunschweigisches Jahrbuch , New Series Volume 1. [= Volume 15 of the whole series], Zwissler, Wolfenbüttel 1922, pp. 1–34. ( Digitized version )

Individual evidence

1. ^ Otto von Heinemann: The ducal library in Wolfenbüttel. A contribution to the history of German book collections . 2., completely new. Wolfenbüttel 1894 (Reprint Amsterdam 1969), p. 195.