Gerhard Schøning

Gerhard Schøning

Gerhard Schøning , also Gerhard Schöning (born May 3, 1722 in Buksnes (near Vestvågøy ), Nordland; † July 8, 1780 in Copenhagen ) is considered the first professional Norwegian historian.

Life

The beginnings

His parents were the businessman Andreas Schøning (around 1680–1740) and his wife Martha Ursin († after 1745). The father came from a Danish family.

When he was 10 years old, he first attended school with the clergyman in Buksnes and later with his uncle, Pastor Elias Schøning in Vågan . He was taught in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Norwegian, and religion. When his uncle died, his mother moved with him to Trondheim, where he attended cathedral school.

Although he stayed away from Lofoten for 17 years , he always referred to himself as a “northern lending”, regardless of where he lived.

Benjamin Dass from Northern Norway had been the rector of the cathedral school since 1735 and had built it into a model school within a short time. After an examination one year later, Schøning was immediately placed in the leaving class, and in March 1742 he was discharged from school with a very good certificate. In 1742 he passed the examen artium at the University of Copenhagen. On the recommendation of Rector Dass, he received a two-year scholarship. During the scholarship he became Basscalaureus and in 1744 he passed the theological exam, which all students had to take at that time. But Schøning was primarily interested in history, and his former rector Dass made sure that he received appropriate instructions from the Danish historian Hans Gram . Between 1744 and 1747 Schøning published four essays on oriental philosophy. During this time he was also chosen as the successor to B. Møllmann, the successor to Ludvig Holberg on the chair of history. He learned the historical method from the Reich archivist Jacob Langebek . Schøning was a long-term student. He continued to attend lectures in many classical languages, while still learning Old Norwegian ( Norrøn ), German and French and also studied many real subjects.

Act

In 1748 Schøning received a doctorate in philosophy. In 1750 he wrote a treatise on the old Norwegian wedding and marriage based on saga texts. In 1751 he was accepted into the "Kongelige Danske Selskab" (Royal Danish Society), which was headed by Jacob Langebek. It was built to promote Nordic history and language. In the same year a major paper of particular political interest was printed due to ongoing negotiations between Sweden and Norway-Denmark over their borders in the Sami territories. His investigation came to the conclusion that the Sami had the same origin as the Samoyed and that they immigrated from the north after the ancient Norwegian population. Gandvik (now part of Nesseby ), the outermost border of Finnmarken at that time , is identical to the Old Norse "Kvitsjøen" (White Sea). Here the author already proved himself to be a Norwegian patriot. As was customary in the 18th century, he regarded the Sami as an ethnically inferior people. This view had been reinforced by his youth in Lofoten, where there were many Sami.

While he was working on a paper on "Norway as Geography" and the Sami, he received an offer from his old school principal Dass to be his successor at the cathedral school. In 1751 Schøning came to Trondheim and took over this very well paid position and held it for 14 years. He was able to buy a plot of land in the city and after the celebration of the jubilee of absolutist rule in 1760, he received hereditary ownership of the royal estate from the king as thanks for his commitment to the celebrations.

Schøning married in May 1756 in Trondheim Fredrikke Hveding (baptized January 7, 1724 - † August 27, 1788), daughter of the council clerk and judicial adviser Jens Hveding (1691-1758) and his wife Elisabeth Maria Herdal (1700-1775).

Now he came up with the plan to write a Norwegian story and persuaded his friend Peter Frederik Suhm , who had come to Trondheim with him, to do the same for Denmark. When Johan Ernst Gunnerus became bishop in Trondheim in 1758, the plan was given new impetus. On the initiative of the bishop, the three founded a learned society in 1760, the "Trondhjemske Selskab", which from 1767 was allowed to call itself "Det Kongelige Norske Videnskabers Selskab" (The Royal Norwegian Scientific Society). From 1761 the society published scientific papers, most of which Schøning wrote.

In 1761 he wrote a story about the cathedral in Trondheim, which is considered to be groundbreaking in his time.

Through many learned treatises he cemented his reputation as a historian. In 1765 he was appointed professor of rhetoric and history at the Sorø Academy. Although this reduced his income, he accepted the call because he was closer to the sources in Copenhagen for his history work in Sorø.

In 1769 his book Afhandling om de Norskes og en Deel andre Nordiske Folkes Oprindelse was published . In it he starts from the historicity of the biblical flood. Only the elite that populated Noah's ark escaped. Survivors' agreements migrated north. They then immigrated to Norway from the far north. Schøning thought the Norwegians were a chosen people. The immigration thesis persisted well into the 19th century and was the main tenet of national historiography.

The first volume in the history of Norway was published in 1771, followed by the second volume two years later, which lasted until the death of Håkon the Good . It was the first attempt to write a book about Norwegian history that placed the events in Norway in a cultural and historical context. It was inspired by French historiography of Scandinavia, according to which the cold turned people into capable fighters. Even the title was the program at a time when Norway was seen as part of Denmark: the Norwegian Empire never ceased to be a sovereign state. At the time, Ove Høegh-Guldberg was the most powerful man in the state. Sayings like these have been passed down from him: “There are no Norwegians”, or about the nationally minded authors in Christiania: “These hideous babblers in Christiania.” Suhm's historical work about the Scandinavian countries closes with the text: “Love your fatherland above all else. What is your homeland All countries owned by the king: Denmark, Norway, Holstein and Iceland. Let the foolish distinction between a Dane, a Norwegian, or a Holsteiner cease; Of course, your languages ​​are different, but God understands you all, a king rules you all. ”Here Schøning set clear and long-lasting counter-accents.

1773-1775 he received a royal grant to travel to Norway to study the way of life and ancient traditions. This resulted in a unique collection of texts and drawings, which was widely used as source material even after Schøning's death. They are archived in “Gerhard Schønings Collections” in Copenhagen. His travel descriptions appeared in print in three volumes from 1910 to 1926.

In August 1775 Schøning was appointed Royal Secret Archivist in the Royal Archives in Copenhagen. Therefore Schøning had to break off his research trip. The job was well paid. As Reich archivist, he became a member of the Arnamagnæan Commission, which had to manage the collection left by Árni Magnússon . During this time Schøning was working on the third volume of his Norwegian history, which he also completed. But it was only printed after his death. On the basis of his will, his library with around 11,000 volumes was transferred to "Det Kongelige Norske Videnskabers Selskab" in Trondheim.

Honors

Gerhard Schøning was a member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences from 1758 and received the title of judicial councilor in 1774. In 1879 a street in Christiania was named after him, and in 1956 the previous middle school in Trondheim was given the name "Gerhard Schøning School".

meaning

Schøning's work is pervaded by the desire to inspire his compatriots for the fatherland. In his work Om de norskes og en Del andre nordiske Folks Oprindelse he limited himself to the representation of the Norwegian people, while his colleague Suhm in his work Skildring af Folkenes Oprindelse som en Indledning til de Nordiske Folks Sardeleshed (1769) did not between Norway and Denmark made a difference. Schøning is one of the pioneers of Norwegian national consciousness and national romanticism.

Works (selection)

• Nogle Anmærkninger over vore gamle nordiske Forfædres Giftermaal og Bryllupper , Copenhagen 1750
• Forsøg til de Nordiske Landes, særdeles Norges, gamle Geographie , Copenhagen 1751
• Forsøg til Forbedringer i den gamle Danske og Norske Historie (together with PF Suhm), Copenhagen 1757
• Handling of the game of Grækers and Romeres save Begreb and Kundskab of the Nordiske Lande : In: Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab's writings Volume 9, Copenhagen 1761, pp. 151-306
• Deskrivelse about the tilforn meget stamped and vidtberønte Dom-Kirke i Trondhjem , Trondheim 1762
• Afhandling om de Norskes og en Deel andre Nordiske Folkes Oprindelse , Sorø 1769
• Norges Riiges Historie , Vol. 1–2, Sorø 1771–1773. Volume 3 Copenhagen (posthumously) 1781
• (Ed.) Heimskringla edr Noregs Konga-Sögor af Snora Sturlusyni , Volume 1–2, Copenhagen 1777–1778
• Reise, som gjennem en Deel af Norge i de Aar 1773, 1774 and 1775 paa HM Kongens Bekostning er gjort og beskreven , Heft 1–2, Copenhagen 1778 (complete in 3 volumes Trondheim 1910–1926. Facsimile edition Trondheim 1979–1980)
• Tegninger samlet eller made by Gerhard Schøning i forbindelse with hans traveler i 1770-arene and hans work with norsk history and topography . Edited by A. Berg and E. Sinding-Larsen, 1968

Remarks

This article is essentially based on Norsk biografisk leksikon . Other information is specifically proven.

1. ↑ This is the name form in Nordisk familjebok . 2nd ed. 1916. Volume 24, Sp. 1338 ( online ).
2. ↑ Common name for the inhabitants of Northern Norway
3. ↑ Entrance examination for the university, corresponds to the Abitur, but is accepted by the university.
4. ↑ The lowest academic degree.
5. ↑ Elviken p. 33.
6. ^ Montesquieu advocated this climate theory in De l'esprit des lois (1748). Liv Bliksrud: “Norsk grålysning eller europeisk aftenrøde? Patriotisme i Norske Selskab i København. ”In: Odd Arvid Storsveen et al.: Norsk Patriotisme før 1814. pp. 185–201, 194.
7. ↑ Elviken p. 34.
8. ↑ Quoted from Elviken, p. 34.

literature

• Andreas Elviken: The Development of Norwegian Nationalism . Berlin 1930.
• Rolf Granquist: Article “Gerhard Schøning”. In: Norsk biografisk leksikon

Web links

Commons : Gerhard Schøning  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files