Friedrich Wilhelm Wagner (philologist)

Friedrich Wilhelm Wagner (* 16th August 1814 in Schlawa , Kreis Glogau; † 10. June 1857 in Breslau ) was a German classical scholar , who as lecturer (1838-1845) and associate professor (1845-1857) at the University of Breslau had .

Life

Friedrich Wilhelm Wagner came from Schlawa (today Sława ) in the Glogau district and later moved with his parents to Breslau, where he attended the Maria Magdalenen grammar school from 1824 . After graduation, he studied classical philology at the University of Breslau from Easter 1838 . His academic teachers were Karl Ernst Christoph Schneider and Friedrich Ritschl , whose philological seminar Wagner attended for two years. In the summer of 1837 he was with a dissertation on The Frogs (a comedy of Aristophanes ) PhD . On August 6 of the same year he passed the teaching examination. From September 1837 to September 1838 he completed his probationary year at the Maria-Magdalenen-Gymnasium and then worked for half a year at the Elisabeth-Gymnasium . Since his main interest was in research, he aspired to an academic career and completed his habilitation in December 1838 at the University of Breslau. In his habilitation thesis he dealt with the then unresolved question of whether the numerous elegies in the Anthologia Palatina under the name Euenos could be ascribed to a single poet or to several. Wagner took the view that there must have been several poets with this name.

As a private lecturer at the University of Breslau, Wagner mainly gave lectures on Greek literature, epigraphy , Latin style exercises and propaedeutics. For his students he wrote the outline of the classical bibliography (Breslau 1840), which was an indispensable aid at the time. In 1845 Wagner was appointed associate professor. He gave his inaugural Latin lecture on the tragic poet Moschion and his fragments. This theme represented an excerpt from his life's work, a compilation of all fragments of the Greek tragedians including a reconstruction of the pieces. His Poetarum tragicorum graecorum fragmenta (three volumes, Breslau 1844-1852) were the first collection of this kind and stood next to the Fragmenta Comicorum Graecorum , which the Berlin philologist August Meineke published (Berlin 1839-1857). First the second volume appeared with the fragments of Euripides (1844), the third volume with the minor tragedians in 1848 and the first volume with the fragments of Aeschylus and Sophocles in 1852. A comprehensive history of the Attic tragedy, with which the series was to end, did not come about anymore.

In the following years Wagner mainly occupied himself with the Platonic dialogues . On behalf of the Leipzig publisher Wilhelm Engelmann , he wrote bilingual text editions (with explanatory and text-critical notes) of almost all dialogues, including Timaeus , Kritias , Parmenides , Nomoi , Epinomis , Theaitetos , Sophistes , Politikos and Philebos . Wagner signed the preface to the last volume in this series on May 15, 1857. A few weeks later, on June 10, he died of a pulmonary embolism after a long illness .

Wagner's work was forgotten soon after his death. His largest company, the fragment collection of the Greek tragedians, was replaced by August Nauck's large-scale collection Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta while he was still alive (1856) . The Naucks collection was distinguished by its greater accuracy and was only replaced towards the end of the 20th century.

literature

• Leopold Cohn :  Wagner, Friedrich Wilhelm . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 40, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1896, p. 495 f.

Web links

Wikisource: Friedrich Wilhelm Wagner  - Sources and full texts