Ernst von Leutsch

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ernst Ludwig von Leutsch (born August 16, 1808 in Frankfurt am Main ; † July 28, 1887 in Göttingen ) was a German classical philologist who worked as a lecturer and professor in Göttingen. He is best known as the longtime editor of Philologus magazine .

Ernst von Leutsch

Life

Ernst von Leutsch was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1808, where his father Friedrich August von Leutsch was the royal Saxon ambassador to the Prince Primate Karl Theodor von Dalberg . Even before Dalberg's abdication, the Leutsch family returned to Dresden, where Ernst von Leutsch attended grammar school. The historian Karl Christian von Leutsch was an older brother. Later the family moved via Leipzig to Celle, where father Leutsch entered the Hanoverian civil service as a judge of higher appeals; from 1817 until his death he was Vice-President of the Royal Court of Appeal. After graduation, Ernst von Leutsch moved to the University of Göttingen in 1827 to study Classical Philology. His academic teachers included Georg Ludolf Dissen , Christoph Wilhelm Mitscherlich and Karl Otfried Müller . With his fellow students August Geffers , Karl Ludwig Grotefend and Friedrich Wilhelm Schneidewin , he was a deep friendship to the end of his life. During their studies they met regularly for philological meetings, in which Professor Müller also occasionally took part. In 1828, when Adolf Emperius joined the group, the group adopted the modern methods of textual criticism from Gottfried Hermann's school . Leutsch's dissertation Thebaidis cyclicae reliquiae , with which he received his doctorate in 1830 , also emerged from discussions in his circle of friends . Leutsch then went to Berlin for a year to deepen his studies with August Böckh .

After his return, Leutsch completed his habilitation in May 1831 in Göttingen and was appointed private lecturer. His habilitation theses, which he defended in 1833, earned him the appointment of assessor in the philological faculty. On May 2, 1837, after exactly five years as a private lecturer, Leutsch was appointed associate professor and, shortly after the dissent's death, rose to become a board member of the Philological Seminary.

1837 was the year in which the " Göttinger Sieben " protested against the repeal of the Hanoverian constitution and lost their chairs due to their refusal to oath. Leutsch was not one of them, but wrote a public protest note with five other professors against the repeal of the constitution and the servile majority of the academic staff. In addition to his colleagues Müller and Schneidewin, he was supported by the philosopher Heinrich Ritter and the lawyers Wilhelm Theodor Kraut and Heinrich Thöl . This commitment cost the six professors some prestige with the university administration, but had no negative effect on their respective careers.

After Müller's death in 1842, Professor Karl Friedrich Hermann from Marburg was appointed to Göttingen. Through pressure on the Hanoverian state government, he achieved that Leutsch and Schneidewin were appointed full professors at the University of Göttingen alongside him. With their new budget, the newly appointed professors were able to take a trip to Normandy during the 1842 semester break. Here they could see a manuscript of Cicero 's De oratore and make contact with French philologists such as Letronne and Boissonade .

Leutsch had a very intimate relationship with Schneidewin. The death of his colleague in 1856 was a severe blow to him. In addition to leading the seminar, Leutsch also took care of the deceased's family. During his time as a seminar leader, he was also appointed court councilor of the Kingdom of Hanover. In the year of his 50th anniversary as a doctor (1880) Leutsch received the title of a secret councilor. Leutsch retired in 1883; Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff from Greifswald was appointed as his successor .

The last years of his life were marred by progressive blindness , which caused Leutsch to dictate his letters and work. Only after a third eye operation in March 1887 did he regain his eyesight to such an extent that he could write letters himself. This year also marked the 50th anniversary of his professor and the 150th anniversary of the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. In the summer of July 28, Leutsch died of a stroke at the age of 78. Since he had no children of his own, the Göttingen University was designated as the sole heir of his legacy in his will. The university administration decided, however, to distribute a large part of the inheritance to the first degree blood relatives of the deceased and only claimed the scholar's extensive private library for themselves.

Services

Leutsch's greatest merit for the professional world was the editing of the Philologus magazine , which he had taken over in 1856 as the successor to his late colleague Schneidewin. He intended to enlarge this magazine, which was only ten years old, and developed extensive correspondence with specialist colleagues from all over Europe in order to attract contributors. As a result, the magazine gained a wide range of articles, but its professional standards decreased and the quality lagged behind magazines such as the Rheinisches Museum or the Hermes .

Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff wrote in his memoirs 1848–1914 (Berlin 1928, p. 204): “The hope that Philologus would die with him was unfortunately not fulfilled. A magazine is preserved when its content comes down through the librarians who do not allow a series to be torn down. However, this has the advantage that it is easier to pick up again than to found a new one. "

In addition to the Philologus as an organ for academic work, he founded the Philological Gazette in 1868 for reporting on developments and achievements and as a review organ in the field of classical philology. This supplement to the Philologus grew rapidly in size, but its publication was discontinued after Leutsch's death.

Criticism of Leutsch as an academic teacher and researcher

Leutsch saw himself primarily as an academic teacher and for this reason published relatively few writings. Despite this self-image, his poor speech talent and his selection of read ancient writers were often criticized. He gave Pindar , Aristophanes , Thucydides , Livius and Tacitus so much space in his lectures that there was little time for the other representatives and epochs of Greek and Roman literature and the events often emptied at the end of the semester. His rivalry with his colleague Hermann Sauppe , who wrote and spoke a significantly better Latin than Leutsch, also impaired the atmosphere at the seminar. Leutsch tended to translate small sections statically and thus did not provide any views of larger text complexes.

literature

Obituaries
Judgments of others about Leutsch

Web links

Wikisource: Ernst von Leutsch  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence


personal data
SURNAME Leutsch, Ernst von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Leutsch, Ernst; Leutsch, Ernst Ludwig von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German classical philologist
DATE OF BIRTH August 16, 1808
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH July 28, 1887
Place of death Goettingen