Hubert Petersmann

Hubert Petersmann, 1989

Hubert Petersmann (born August 20, 1940 in Klagenfurt ; † January 31, 2001 in Heidelberg ) was a German-Austrian classical philologist .

Life

After his matriculation examination at the Bundesgymnasium in Klagenfurt, he studied English and Classical Philology at the University of Vienna from the winter semester 1959/60 . In addition, he studied Romance studies , Indo-European studies and comparative linguistics . His teachers include the classical philologists Walther Kraus , Albin Lesky and Rudolf Hanslik . Petersmann received his doctorate in 1965 with the work: Plautus Stichus. Introduction, text and commentary (published 1973 by C. Winter-Verlag Heidelberg). After teaching in England and at grammar schools in Austria, he became a university assistant for classical philology at the University of Vienna with Hans Schwabl ( Greek studies ). In 1976 he completed his habilitation with a work by Petrons urbane prose. Studies on language and text at the University of Vienna. From 1976 to 1981 he was a university lecturer at the Department of Classical Philology at the University of Vienna. In 1981 he was appointed full professor of classical philology at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg (successor to Viktor Pöschl ) with a focus on Latin and Greek linguistics. Through the linguistic investigation of colloquial and dialectal phenomena, he came to textual criticism and interpretation. He was visiting professor at the Universities of Budapest, Catania, Naples and Basel as well as a Visiting Fellow at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (UK) and Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in The Humanities at the University of Edinburgh. From 1996 to 1998 he was dean of the Faculty of Oriental and Classical Studies at Heidelberg University. On January 31, 2001, Petersmann suddenly died in Heidelberg on the way to a lecture. His grave is in Klagenfurt.

effect

In the Heidelberg University Seminar of Classical Philology, he made a special contribution to the development and expansion of a linguistic major. In addition, he made a major contribution to the internationalization of his subject. In his research he dealt with the linguistic history of the Greek Koiné and the Latin language, especially their spoken form from the archaic epoch to Romania . In classical philology, Petersmann worked methodically through the combination of ancient religious studies and linguistics (etymology) new knowledge and clarified some important questions. In literary studies he conducted research on Homer and the Greek tragedies. He was also personally interested in questions of Celtology and the study of ancient Indian (Sanskrit) and Hittite texts.

editor

Petersmann was the publisher of

• Library of Classical Classical Studies , C. Winter-Verlag Heidelberg, from vol. 77, 1986–2000.
• Lustrum - international research reports from the area of ​​classical antiquity, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen (together with H. Gärtner, Regensburg). (1986–2000)
• Variolingua. Nonstandard - standard - substandard; from 1996 (together with J. Albrecht, N. Cartagena, B. Glauser and others). Peter Lang - Europ. Publishing house of the sciences, Frankfurt am Main

Works

• T. Maccius Plautus , Stichus. Introduction, text, comment. University Press C. Winter, Heidelberg 1973, ISBN 3-533-02237-4 .
• Petron's urban prose. Studies on language and text (syntax). Meeting reports of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, phil.-hist. Class, Vol. 323, Vienna 1977, ISBN 3-7001-0223-2 .
• M. v. Albrecht (Hrsg.): The Roman literature in text and representation. Volume 1: Republican Era I: Poetry. Edited by Hubert Petersmann and Astrid Petersmann. Philipp Reclam jun., Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-15-008066-5 .
• Bernd Hessen (Ed.): Lingua et Religio. Selected small writings on the ancient history of religion on a linguistic basis. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2002, ISBN 3-525-25231-5 . (with a detailed bibliography)
• R. Herzog, PL Schmidt (Hrsg.): Handbook of the Latin literature of antiquity. Volume 1: The Archaic Literature: From the Beginnings to Sulla's Death. The pre-literary period and the period from 240 to 78 BC Chr. Ed. By W. Suerbaum. With the collaboration of: Jürgen Blänsdorf, Eckard Lefèvre, Detlef Liebs , Hubert u. Astrid Petersmann, Gerhard Radke, Ekkehard Stark, Werner Suerbaum. CH Beck, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-406-48134-5 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Hubert Petersmann in the catalog of the German National Library
• Short obituary in the Heidelberg student magazine Ruprecht
• Short obituary of the seminar for Classical Philology at the University of Heidelberg