Gottfried Hermann

This article deals with the philologist Gottfried Hermann. For other people see Gottfried Herrmann .

Gottfried Hermann

Painting by Carl Christian Vogel von Vogelstein (1841)

Johann Gottfried Jakob Hermann (born November 28, 1772 in Leipzig ; † December 31, 1848 there ) was a German classical philologist .

Life

Gottfried Hermann, privately represented by Karl David Ilgen , moved already in 1786 the University of Leipzig to jurisprudence to study, but turned more and more, especially under the influence of the related with him Friedrich Wolfgang appeal , the philology, went on a semester by Jena (1793/94), in order to devote himself to the Kantian philosophy under Carl Leonhard Reinhold , completed his habilitation in Leipzig in October 1794 by defending the writing “De poeseos generibus”. In 1796 he published the text "De metris poetarum graecorum et romanorum", in which he referred to the metric rule, later named after him as Hermannsche Brücke , according to which in Homeric hexameter an end of a word is extremely rare after the first shortness of the fourth meter So there is a bridge ( scheme : - ◡◡ - ◡◡ - ◡◡ —◡⏜◡ — ◡◡— ×). However, this rule was already described by Johann Heinrich Voss before Hermann .

In 1798 he became associate professor of philosophy, in 1803, after he had refused the appointment as rector of the school gate in 1802 , full professor of eloquence , in 1809 also of poetry and died as a senior at the university on December 31, 1848.

Hermann was the recognized head of the critical-grammatical school (the so-called word philologists), which recognized the goal of philology in the understanding of ancient written works, and in the study of language the first and most indispensable means of achieving it, and thereby entered into a certain contradiction to the universal direction of August Boeckh and his students like Karl Otfried Müller , of whom a one-sided view was criticized. The dispute over this prompted him to write About Böckh's Treatment of Greek Inscriptions (Leipzig 1826) and the review by Mr. KO Müller Eumeniden des Aeschylos (Leipzig 1835) along with a review of an anti-criticism and two reviews by Mr. KO Müller (Leipzig 1839); but this feud, too, has gradually given way to mutual recognition. His correspondence with Friedrich Creuzer was based on a more amicable exchange of different views on mythology : the letters on Homer and Hesiodus (Heidelberg 1817) and on the essence and treatment of mythology (Leipzig 1819).

His lectures, mostly of an exegetical nature, were distinguished by the rare liveliness of the presentation, the clarity and precision of the presentation, an unsurpassed method; through the " Greek Society " founded in 1799 and since 1834 as director of the philological seminar, he sought to awaken and sharpen the judgment of his students in a closer circle. The first of his literary works are groundbreaking on ancient metrics , in that he set up a scientific theory of the same on the basis of the Kantian doctrine of categories , but ignoring the old rhythmicists and musicians.

Since 1812 Hermann was a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences . In 1825 he became an honorary member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg . In 1846, the year it was founded, he was elected a full member of the Royal Saxon Society of Sciences . On May 31, 1846 he was accepted into the Prussian order Pour le Mérite for science and the arts .

Honors

Medal Gottfried Hermann 1840

On the occasion of his 50th anniversary as a doctor in 1840, a medal was dedicated to Gottfried Hermann. On this occasion, too, he was given the silver "smoke altar", which reflects the fact that he was known as a heavy tobacco smoker.

Works

• De metris poetarum graecorum et romanorum (Leipz. 1796)
• Handbook of Metrics (das. 1799)
• Elementa doctrinae metricae (das. 1816)
• Epitome doctrinae metricae (das. 1818, 4th ed. 1869) (an individually enriched and corrected excerpt from the Elementa for lectures. Cf. Freese, De Hermanni metrica ratione (Halle 1820), and Geppert, About the relationship of Hermann theory the metric for tradition (Berl. 1835))

Furthermore, Hermann was the founder of a more rational treatment of Greek grammar, which has not remained without significant influence on a better design of the grammar in general, especially the German one. This subheading includes:

• De emendanda ratione graecae grammaticae pars I (Leipz. 1801)

the rich additives and digressions on Vigers

• De praecipuis graecae dictionis idiotismis liber (das. 1802, 4th ed. 1834)

and the

• Libri IV de particula ἄν (das. 1831; also "Opuscula", vol. 4)

Only after his death did his edition of the Bukoliker Bion und Moschos (Leipz. 1849) appear as well as the one that he had intended half a century before, which he never let out of sight

• Review of Aeschylus (obtained from his son-in-law M. Haupt, that. 1852, 2 vol .; 2nd ed. 1859).

His smaller essays on a wide variety of subjects, mostly in exemplary Latin representation, only rarely in his native language, as well as his odes and other Latin, including Greek poems and reproductions that breathe a truly classical spirit, are collected in the

• Opuscula (Vol. 1–7, Leipz. 1827–1839 by himself, Vol. 8, published in 1877 by his grandson Theodor Fritzsche).
• G. Hermann's Latin letters to his friend Volkmann were published by AB Volkmann (Heidelb. 1882). See O. Jahn, Gottfr. H. A memorial speech (Leipz. 1849); Köchly, Gottfr. H. On his hundredth birthday (that. 1874).

literature

• Conrad Bursian :  Hermann, Gottfried . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 12, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1880, pp. 174-180.
• Hermann Köchly : Gottfried Hermann: On his centenary birthday . Heidelberg 1874
• Hans Joachim Mette :  Hermann, Gottfried. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1969, ISBN 3-428-00189-3 , p. 657 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Kurt Sier , Eva Wöckener-Gade (eds.): Gottfried Hermann (1772–1848), International Symposium in Leipzig, 11.-13. October 2007 . Tübingen 2010

Web links

Commons : Gottfried Hermann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Wikisource: Gottfried Hermann  - sources and full texts

• Literature by and about Gottfried Hermann in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Gottfried Hermann  in the German Digital Library
• Hermann Koechly: "Directory of all Hermann's lectures" (1874)
• Article on the 150th anniversary of death, University Journal of the University of Leipzig, issue 1/1999
• “The Beginnings of Classical Studies in Leipzig during the Goethe Era” - Exhibition of the Leipzig University Library from October 12, 2007 to January 19, 2008
• Gottfried Hermann in the professorial catalog of the University of Leipzig
• Otto Jahn : Gottfried Hermann in the Internet Archive

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Gottfried Hermann: De metris poetarum graecorum et romanorum. Leipzig 1796, p. 273.
2. ^ Rudolf Kassel : Poetry and versification among the Greeks (1981). In: Small Fonts. de Gruyter, Berlin a. a. 1991, ISBN 3-11-012757-1 , p. 99 ff. Books.google , 106 f.
3. ↑ Members of the previous academies: Gottfried Hermann. Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities , accessed on April 3, 2015 . 
4. ^ Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1724. Johann Gottfried Jakob Hermann. Russian Academy of Sciences, accessed August 17, 2015 . 
5. ^ Members of the SAW: Gottfried Hermann. Saxon Academy of Sciences, accessed October 26, 2016 . 
6. ↑ The Order Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts. The members of the order. Volume 1: 1842-1881. Gebr. Mann-Verlag, Berlin 1975, ISBN 3-7861-6189-5 , p. 126.
7. ↑ Stefan Krmnicek, Marius Gaidys: Taught images. Classical scholars on 19th century medals. Accompanying volume to the online exhibition in the Digital Coin Cabinet of the Institute for Classical Archeology at the University of Tübingen (= From Croesus to King Wilhelm. New Series, Volume 3). University Library Tübingen, Tübingen 2020, pp. 72–74 ( online ).