Hermann Dessau

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Hermann Dessau

Hermann Dessau (born April 6, 1856 in Frankfurt am Main , † April 12, 1931 in Berlin ) was a German ancient historian and epigraphist .

Life

After graduating from high school at Easter 1874 at the Städtisches Gymnasium Frankfurt am Main (today Lessing-Gymnasium ), the son of the rabbi and headmaster Samuel Dessau studied in Berlin, among others with Theodor Mommsen , who later promoted him, and received his doctorate in Strasbourg in 1877. He carried out a research trip to Italy and North Africa for the long-term project Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (CIL) of the Prussian Academy of Sciences , led by Mommsen, and qualified as a professor in Berlin in 1884 for ancient history. From 1900 to 1922 he was a scientific official at the CIL, from 1912 an extraordinary professor, from 1917 a full honorary professor at the University of Berlin . Due to its Jewish origins, Dessau was unable to obtain a full professorship in Wilhelmine Germany.

Dessau was buried in his native city of Frankfurt am Main.

Hermann Dessau's brother Bernardo Dessau (1863-1949) was a physics professor at the University of Perugia and founder of the first Zionist magazine in Italy (Il Vessillo Israelitico) , while Hermann Dessau was extremely cautious about both Zionist and Jewish reform efforts.

Services

Dessau's main focus was on Latin epigraphy; for the CIL he edited several volumes. Above all, his name is linked to a selection of almost 10,000 Latin inscriptions , which is still important , Inscriptiones Latinae selectae (1892–1916), which is sometimes also cited as "Dessau" (abbreviated to "D.").

In addition, Dessau was one of the editors of the first edition of the Prosopographia Imperii Romani of the Prussian Academy of Sciences. His essay On Time and Personality of the Scriptores Historiae Augustae , published in 1889, was fundamental for the evaluation and research of the Historia Augusta . Dessau wrote more than 600 specialist articles for the Realencyklopädie der classical antiquity .

Dessau's three-volume history of the Roman Empire (1924–1930), which he wrote in retirement, based on his own source research and therefore deviates in many individual findings from traditional scientific views , remained unfinished.

Fonts (selection)

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Hermann Dessau  - Sources and full texts