Friedrich Knoke

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Karl Ludwig Friedrich Knoke (born January 9, 1844 in Schmedenstedt , † October 22, 1928 in Osnabrück ) was a German classical philologist , local researcher and director of the Osnabrück Ratsgymnasium .

Knoke became known for his controversial theories about the location of the Varus Battle in 9 AD, in which the Cheruscan prince Arminius, as commander-in-chief of the Germanic rebels, defeated three Roman legions under the leadership of the governor Publius Quinctilius Varus . Knoke's name is linked to a joke of his students who smuggled a pottery shard during excavations on a mound in Bad Iburg in the southern district of Osnabrück that Knoke identified as a tumulus . The shard contained an inscription with the Latin alleged greeting Varus' to Knoke.

Life

Friedrich Knoke was the son of Johann Heinrich Gottlieb Knoke (1798-1880) and Marie Sophie Knoke, born in Brackebusch (1806-1870). He had seven older siblings, three brothers and four sisters. He spent childhood with them in Walsrode , attended the Lyceum in Hanover and studied philology and history at the University of Erlangen and the Georg-August University of Göttingen . During his studies he became a member of the Germania Erlangen fraternity in the winter semester of 1863/64 .

In 1871 Knoke passed the state examination. He then worked as a private tutor for the children of a landlord in the Baltic States, taught at the evangelical high school Andreanum in Hildesheim in 1872 and moved to the high school in the residential city of Dessau in 1873 . In 1874 he received his doctorate with the dissertation The Investiture Controversy according to the polemicals of the time .

On September 23, 1874, he married Elisabeth Mohr (1854–1923). The couple had five sons who were born between 1875 and 1889.

After moving to the Karlsgymnasium in Bernburg (Saale) in 1875 , he was appointed senior teacher there in 1877 and professor ten years later. From Bernburg he went to grammar school in Zerbst / Anhalt in 1889 and to Osnabrück in 1892 , where he became director of the council grammar school . In 1913 he was given the title of Privy Councilor . In 1914 he became a monument conservationist for the Osnabrück administrative district. He worked at the Ratsgymnasium until he retired.

Knoke took on a number of honorary positions in Osnabrück's public life. From 1912 until his death he headed the Historical Association in Osnabrück , was a member and chairman of the National Liberal Main Association, chairman of the church council of the Evangelical Lutheran parish of St. Marien and was active on the committee of the Osnabrück Museum.

He was buried in the Hasefriedhof in Osnabrück .

Knoke and the place of the Varus Battle

Before Knoke moved to Osnabrück in 1892, he had already dealt with the Roman era in Germania. His main interest was the site of the Varus Battle, which is now accepted in the Kalkriese region . Theodor Mommsen advocated this theory as early as 1885, while Knoke believed the valley between Moor and Kalkrieser Berg to be the scene of the battle of Germanicus against Arminius in AD 15.

Knoke was not an archaeologist and relied on the ancient philological sources to support his theories with excavations.

First he suspected the location of the Varus Battle in Habichtswald near Leeden in Tecklenburger Land and carried out excavations there. This theory has been heavily criticized by experts. After making the first discoveries in Bad Iburg, he refrained from this theory. As early as 1900, in his book “Das Varuslager bei Iburg”, he envisaged what was then Iburg as the site of the battle in the Teutoburg Forest . In addition to those of Theodor Mommsen and Klostermeyer-Delbrück, who accepted the train of the Varus legions south to the Roman camp in Haltern , his theory was included in an atlas, which at that time was the standard work as a historical school atlas. The 1916 edition of Putzger's historical school atlas from the Velhagen & Klasing publishing house presented the three theories equally on an overview map.

In the open wood , a wooded area on the northern city limits of Bad Iburg, at the foot of the Dörenberg west of the federal highway 51 , pottery shards were found in the mid-1920s during preparatory work for the construction of the outdoor pool at Kolbach, which Knoke received for assessment. Knoke immediately classified it as Roman and began digging in August 1926 on a beech-lined clay mound that was divided by the Kolbach. Knoke soon thought the 24 meter long hill was a tumulus that the Roman general Germanicus had built years after the Varus Battle for the burial of the Roman soldiers who fell in AD 9. Knoke concluded from this that the battle of the Teutoburg Forest took place here. As the clearest indication of the Roman origin of a number of finds, including two complete clay pots and a large number of shards, he interpreted a stamp on a shard. It shows a wheel with eight spokes according to Knoke's interpretation . He published his findings in the Osnabrücker Mitteilungen of the historical association and immediately received criticism, among others from the prehistorian Carl Schuchhardt from Hanover. Knoke stubbornly defended his point of view in a large number of publications, not infrequently polemically defending himself against criticism in the press.

Later investigations of the Knokeschen finds and the earth mound revealed further theories about its origin. The pottery shards were after excavations in Osnabrück, which brought comparable finds to light, the Osnabrück region and the 13./14. Century assigned. According to recent findings, it is unlikely that the mound contained the remains of a medieval pottery . It is possible that Knokes Tumulus was a waste dump of the Iburg Benedictine Abbey . The monks of the monastery used the Bennost quarry on the Dörenberg to procure building material and maintained a water pipe from the Dörenberg to the monastery to supply it with drinking water.

Varus' salute to Knoke

In the collective memory of the population of Osnabrück and the district, Friedrich Knoke, who called in his students to help out during excavations, remained through an incident that the Osnabrück writer and cultural historian Ludwig Bäte told then Federal President Theodor Heuss during his visit to Osnabrück at the end of the 1950s told a group of dignitaries in the Ratskeller . During an excavation, Knoke came across a clay-encrusted pottery shard that appeared to belong to an amphora . After cleaning, Knoke discovered a signature. It read

“TE SALUTANT; CNOCE; QUINTILIUS VARUS GRATUS TUUS "

"Greetings, Knoke, your grateful Quintilius Varus"

- Pottery inscription

Bäte further reported: “What happened next, the statements of those involved differ from one another. They only agree that the excavation was abandoned without the anticipated outburst of anger. Nobody knew where the unregistered find went. "

Works

literature

  • Ulrike Hindersmann, Heimatbund Osnabrücker Land e. V., Kreisheimatbund Bersenbrück e. V. (Ed.): Friedrich Knoke and the search for the site of the Varus Battle in the Osnabrück region. In: Heimatjahrbuch 2009 - Osnabrücker Land . Heimatbund Osnabrücker Land e. V., Georgsmarienhütte 2009, ISSN  1618-5757 , pp. 70-76.
  • Daniel Hockmann , Heimatbund Osnabrücker Land e. V., Kreisheimatbund Bersenbrück e. V. (Ed.): Friedrich Knoke and the location of the Varus Battle near Bad Iburg. In: Heimatjahrbuch 2009 - Osnabrücker Land . Heimatbund Osnabrücker Land e. V., Georgsmarienhütte 2009, ISSN  1618-5757 , pp. 77-86.
  • Wilhelm Fredemann: The grateful Varus - experiences and encounters . Das Viergespann, Frankfurt am Main 1979, ISBN 3-922408-14-1 , pp. 77f.
  • Knokes Vita in Rainer Hehemann (arr.): Biographical manual for the history of the Osnabrück region . Rasch, Bramsche 1990, ISBN 3-922469-49-3 , pp. 164-165.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Life data of parents, wife and children  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.lennee.de  
  2. Life data of Knoke's siblings  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.lennee.de  
  3. ^ Ernst Elsheimer (ed.): Directory of the old fraternity members. Edition 1925/26. Frankfurt am Main 1925/26, p. 229.
  4. ^ Wilhelm Fredemann: The grateful Varus. Experiences and encounters . Frankfurt am Main 1979, quoted here from: Ulrike Hindersmann: Friedrich Knoke and the search for the location of the Varus Battle in the Osnabrück region. In: Heimatjahrbuch 2009 - Osnabrücker Land. Heimatbund Osnabrücker Land e. V., Georgsmarienhütte 2009, ISSN  1618-5757 , p. 75. (Note: the spelling and grammar of the quotation corresponds to the source given)
  5. ^ Wilhelm Fredemann: The grateful Varus. Experiences and encounters . Quoted here from: Ulrike Hindersmann: Friedrich Knoke and the search for the location of the Varus Battle in the Osnabrück region. In: Heimatjahrbuch 2009 - Osnabrücker Land . P. 75.
  6. Works given by: Ulrike Hindersmann: Friedrich Knoke and the search for the location of the Varus Battle in the Osnabrücker Land In: Heimatjahrbuch 2009 - Osnabrücker Land pp. 73–74