Franz Kern (philologist)

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Franz Georg Gustav Kern (born July 9, 1830 in Stettin , † December 14, 1894 in Berlin ) was a German classical philologist , Germanist and grammar school director.

Life

Franz Kern was the second son and fifth child of Government Secretary George Friedrich Kern. Franz Kern attended the Marienstiftsgymnasium in Szczecin from Easter 1840 to autumn 1848 , where his teachers Hermann Bonitz and Ludwig Giesebrecht awakened a love for the ancient languages ​​in him. After graduating from high school, Kern studied Classical Philology and German Studies in Berlin . When his father died in 1849, Kern financed his studies with private tuition. He passed the exams for Latin, Greek and German in 1851 and returned to Stettin in 1852, where he became a probandus at the Marienstiftsgymnasium. Here he also took care of his father's house after his older brother died in 1851. With his appointment as a member of the philological seminar (1853) and the permanent position as a collaborator at the grammar school (1854) Kern secured his livelihood. At the grammar school he taught Latin, Greek and German as well as gymnastics and gave private lectures for girls who at that time did not have a secondary school in Szczecin. His family obligations were fulfilled when his mother died in 1857 and he was able to marry off one of his sisters a little later. In 1859 he was able to move to the newly founded grammar school in Pyritz as a sub-principal .

But only a year later he gave up this position and went as a senior teacher at the Pforta State School , which was then headed by Karl Ludwig Peter . It was here in 1862 that Kern married Klara Runge, the daughter of a doctor from Szczecin, who had been his student in Szczecin. Their first child was born a year later, Otto Kern , who later studied philology like his father. In Pforta, Kern also had time for research work for the first time since his studies. His teacher Bonitz had already introduced him to the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle , and his colleague from Szczecin Richard Volkmann familiarized him with Schopenhauer . In Pforta, Kern exchanged ideas with his younger colleague Max Heinze about the pre-Socratics and published his research results in school programs.

When Heinze went to Oldenburg as a prince educator in 1866 , he recommended Kern to the vacant rectorate of the grammar school there. Here, as before, Kern worked as a teacher and researcher. He initially dealt with the philosophy of the Eleates . Together with his colleague Heinrich August Lübben , he published a German reader. In 1868 he published a pamphlet on Fr. Rückert’s Wisdom of the Brahmin , the second edition of which appeared in 1885.

After just three years, Kern returned to his Prussian homeland from the tight conditions of the small state of Oldenburg, first (Easter 1869) as director of the municipal high school in Danzig , then in 1871 as director of the newly founded urban high school in his hometown of Stettin. A highlight of his local career was the 35th philologists' meeting, which took place in Stettin in autumn 1880 and was chaired by Kern. But just a year later, Kern changed his place of work for the last time and went to the Kölln High School in Berlin as director . Here he worked until the end of his life as a grammar school director, director of the royal educational seminar and member of the Greek language club Graeca . His research in the Berlin years was mainly devoted to the reform of the school system and German school grammar. After a lively debate in the 1880s, his reform proposals found their way into the Prussian school system. In 1894, after many years of hard work, an illness forced him to leave his education office on hold and finally to stop research. After a long period of weakness he died on the night of December 14th to 15th of the same year.

literature

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personal data
SURNAME Kern, Franz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kern, Franz Georg Gustav
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German classical philologist, Germanist and grammar school director
DATE OF BIRTH July 9, 1830
PLACE OF BIRTH Szczecin
DATE OF DEATH December 14, 1894
Place of death Berlin