Hermann Genthe

Hermann Genthe (full name Franz Hermann Genthe , born April 2, 1838 in Eisleben , † June 30, 1886 in Hamburg ) was a German classical philologist , prehistorian and high school teacher. He taught at high schools in Memel , Berlin and Frankfurt am Main and was director of the Landesgymnasium in Korbach (1875–1878), the Stiftische Gymnasium in Duisburg (1878–1881) and the Wilhelm Gymnasium in Hamburg (1881–1886). His scientific work related to prehistory and early history , provincial Roman archeology and classical philology. His most important works, a Sophocles lexicon and a study of the Etruscan barter trade , were reprinted in the 20th century.

Life

Youth and Studies

Hermann Genthe was the son of the writer and grammar school teacher Friedrich Wilhelm Genthe (1805–1866) and Henriette geb. Rosenkranz (1803–1877), a sister of the philosopher Karl Rosenkranz . Genthe initially received private tuition and attended the Eisleben grammar school from 1846 to 1855 , where his father also taught. He was most influenced by the director Friedrich Ellendt , a specialist in Greek and Latin grammar and literature. After his death (May 11, 1855), Genthe passed the matriculation examination on October 9, 1855 and went to the Martin Luther University in Halle-Wittenberg to study theology and philology. His inclination, however, was more towards philology and after taking part in the exercises of the philological seminar under Gottfried Bernhardy for two semesters , he decided to switch to the Berlin University for the winter semester of 1857/58 . Genthe studied there for three semesters. August Boeckh and Moriz Haupt accepted him into the philological seminar; at the same time Genthe attended philosophical lectures with Friedrich Adolf Trendelenburg and Siegfried Hirsch as well as archaeological exercises with Eduard Gerhard . On July 23, 1859, Genthe was promoted to Dr. phil. doctorate , with his fellow students Lucian Müller , Eduard Pinder (1836–1890) and Gustav Uhlig appeared as opponents in the defense .

Early career and participation in the Franco-German War (1859–1871)

On October 29, 1859, Genthe passed the teaching examination in the subjects German, Latin and Greek (for all classes), history and geography (for the intermediate level) and religion (for the lower level). From autumn 1859 to September 30, 1860 he completed the probationary year in the Prussian school service at the municipal high school in Landsberg an der Warthe , where he also taught full hours as an assistant teacher and gymnastics teacher. On October 1, 1860, he received a permanent position at the grammar school in Memel ( East Prussia ), where he taught as the second full teacher (from 1865 first full teacher). Genthe was well known as a gymnastics teacher in this city, also dealt with the country's history and culture (for example with Lithuanian ) and joined the physical-economic society in Königsberg as a foreign member , but he lacked the scientific stimuli of the capital . He tried to get a transfer to Berlin. He did not get a job at the newly founded Sophien Gymnasium , but instead at the Gray Monastery Gymnasium . There Genthe was hired on April 1, 1867 as the 10th full teacher, which, however, was associated with a loss of salary. At Easter 1870 Genthe was promoted to the 9th full teacher and received the same salary as in Memel.

When the Franco-Prussian War broke out (July 1870), Genthe volunteered and joined the 1st Lower Silesian Infantry Regiment No. 46. There he was trained as a vice sergeant in an officer course. During the siege of Paris he was sent to the front with his unit and took part in the fighting. After a few weeks he was appointed in command of the observatory at La Jonchère . On January 20, 1871, he fended off the last massive attack of the French infantry there and received several awards and the appointment of second lieutenant.

Later career as a senior teacher and grammar school director (1871–1886)

In April 1871 Genthe returned to Berlin, but did not stay there long, because on October 1, 1871 he accepted a senior teacher position at the grammar school in Frankfurt am Main , which was then headed by Tycho Mommsen . Genthe's career was now picking up speed: in autumn 1873 he was appointed professor and in autumn 1875 director of the state high school in Korbach , which was under Prussian administration.

"Hermann Franz Genthe Dr. Phil. Prof. Director “, collective grave Wilhelm-Gymnasium , Ohlsdorf cemetery

In the autumn of 1878 Genthe moved to the Stiftisches Gymnasium in Duisburg as director and two and a half years later (on April 1, 1881) to the Neue Schelloehrenschule in Hamburg , which was founded by the Senate as the third higher education institution in Hamburg (after the Johanneum and the Christianeum ) was. Genthe led the school to high esteem and, as a gymnastics teacher, also vigorously maintained physical education, for which he published a programmatic essay in 1885. Under his directorate, the school was named "Wilhelm-Gymnasium" (in honor of Emperor Wilhelm I ) on February 21, 1883 by decision of the Senate . In the spring, the Wilhelm-Gymnasium left its temporary building and moved into the new building on Moorweidenstrasse.

On June 30, 1886, Genthe died of an abdominal disease at the age of 48.

In the Ohlsdorf cemetery , Hermann Genthe, among others, is commemorated on the collective grave slab of the Wilhelm Gymnasium in the Althamburg Memorial Cemetery.

Marriage and children

From autumn 1867 Genthe was married to Louise Zober († 1896), the daughter of the architect and building officer Hugo Zober. The couple's three sons, Arnold (1869–1942), Siegfried (1870–1904) and Hugo (1873–1896), received many suggestions from their father, who taught them English, French and Latin, in their childhood and youth. All three traveled the world as explorers; the oldest, Arnold, went to the USA and China as a photographer.

Scientific work

In addition to teaching, Genthe did scientific work, where he set different priorities throughout his life. Since his studies he has been drawn to philology and archeology. His first publications concerned the Roman poet Marcus Annaeus Lucanus , but a more significant project was the revision of the Sophocles Lexicon ( Lexicon Sophocleum ) founded by his former teacher Friedrich Ellendt in 1836. On behalf of the Borntraeger publishing house , Genthe created a new edition in the 1860s, for which he worked through the scientific works and editions of the last few decades. The manuscript was completed in 1869, but could not appear until 1872 because of Genthe's military service. This delay also led to a legal dispute: The Leipzig philologist Wilhelm Dindorf had published a Lexicon Sophocleum in 1870 , which was largely based on Ellendt's dictionary from 1836. The Borntraeger publishing house then filed a criminal complaint against Dindorf. The commercial court at the Leipzig District Court obtained a corresponding opinion and sentenced Dindorf to a fine on October 23, 1873. Genthe-Ellendt's Lexicon Sophocleum remained in use long after its publication and was last reprinted in 1958 and 1965.

After moving to Frankfurt, Genthe turned primarily to prehistory and early history. He joined the Senckenberg Natural Research Society and became a board member of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum . Genthe used the archaeological finds of the region for a study on the barter of the Etruscans with the north (1873), which represented a significant advance in economic history and was reprinted in 1968.

Even during his short period of work in Korbach and Duisburg, he dealt with the local history and published corresponding studies. Even in Hamburg, where the establishment of the school for scholars took up his time, he found the time for scientific work and published essays on Latin literature and on didactic questions relating to ancient language teaching .

Fonts (selection)

• De M. Annaei Lucani vita et scriptis . Berlin 1859 (dissertation)
• The wind deities among the Indo-European peoples. A mythological treatise . Memel 1861 (school program)
• Scholia vetera in Lucanum e codice Montepessulano . Berlin 1868 (school program)
• Index commentationum Sophoclearum from anno MDCCCXXXVI editarum triplex. Confecit Hermannus Genthe . Berlin 1874
• About the Etruscan barter to the north . Frankfurt am Main 1873 (school program). New extended edition 1874. Reprint Wiesbaden 1968
• Antiquities from the principality of Waldeck and Pyrmont . Korbach 1877 (school program) ( digitized online )
• Brief history of the Princely Waldeckisches Landesgymnasium Fridericianum zu Corbach . Mengeringhausen 1879
• History of the city of Corbach. Festschrift for the 3rd secular celebration of the Princely Waldeckisches Landesgymnasium in Corbach . Mengeringhausen 1879
• Duisburg antiquities. A contribution to the history of the city of Duisburg and the prehistoric map of Germany . Duisburg 1881 (school program)
• Epistula de proverbiis Romanorum ad animalium naturam pertinentibus . Hamburg 1881 (school program)
• Grammar and literary reading in ancient language lessons. A contribution to the questions of the grammar school today . Hamburg 1882 (school program)

Editing

• Madvig's Latin language teaching for schools. After Gustav Tischers arrangement for the high school classes, extended by Hermann Genthe . 2nd edition, Braunschweig 1869. 3rd, improved edition, enlarged with a linguistic appendix, 1877
• Lexicon Sophocleum adhibitis interpretum explicationibus, grammaticorum notationibus, recentiorum doctorum commentariis. Composuit Fridericus Ellendt . Editio altera emendata, curavit Hermannus Genthe . Berlin 1872. Reprints Hildesheim 1958, 1965

literature

• Friedrich August Eckstein : Nomenclator philologorum . Leipzig 1871, p. 187
• Wilhelm Pökel : Philological writer's lexicon . Leipzig 1882, p. 91
• Franz Eyssenhardt : Franz Hermann Genthe . In: Annual report on the progress of classical antiquity . 12th year 1886, volume 45 (1886). Nekrologe = biographical yearbook for archeology . 9th year, 1886, pp. 61–66
• Franz Bömer (editor): Wilhelm-Gymnasium Hamburg 1881–1956 . Hamburg 1956

Web links

Wikisource: Hermann Genthe  - Sources and full texts

• Literature by Hermann Genthe in the catalog of the German National Library
• Hermann Genthe's personnel sheet in the personnel file of the BIL expert body in the archive database of the Library for Research on Educational History (BBF)

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b c} Genthe in the vita of his dissertation, De M. Annaei Lucani vita et scriptis . Berlin 1859, after p. 85.
2. ^ Franz Eyssenhardt: Franz Hermann Genthe . In: Annual report on the progress of classical antiquity . 12th year 1886, volume 45 (1886). Necrologist, p. 62.
3. ^ Franz Eyssenhardt: Franz Hermann Genthe . In: Annual report on the progress of classical antiquity . 12th year 1886, volume 45 (1886). Nekrologe, pp. 62-64.
4. ↑ On physical exercise in our age . In: Festschrift for the inauguration of the Wilhelm-Gymnasium in Hamburg on May 21, 1885 . Hamburg 1885, pp. 1-9.
5. ^ Hermann Lüssenhof: The Wilhelm-Gymnasium 1881-1931 . In: Franz Bömer (editor): Wilhelm-Gymnasium Hamburg 1881–1956 . Hamburg 1956, pp. 9-16, here 9f.