Jakob Escher-Bürkli

Jakob Escher-Bürkli (born as Jakob Escher , born October 3, 1864 in Zurich , † December 24, 1939 ibid) was a Swiss classical philologist and topographer .

Jakob Escher-Bürkli

Life

Jakob Escher was born the youngest of six children; he belonged to the Escher family branch "vom Glas". His father was the Zurich manufacturer Hans Jakob Escher-Escher (1819–1886), his mother Johanna Louise Escher (1832–1903) from the Escher-Gossweiler family branch. After attending grammar school from 1877 to 1883, Escher studied from autumn 1883 at the University of Geneva , from autumn 1884 at the University of Zurich, classical philology, archeology and ancient history. After four semesters in Göttingen (1887–1889), where he heard Hermann Sauppe , Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff and Karl Dilthey , he completed his studies in Zurich in 1890 with a doctorate. His dissertation, which went back to a suggestion by Karl Dilthey, was supervised by Hermann Hitzig and Hugo Blümner and was entitled Triton and his fight by Heracles . A study trip to Greece and Asia Minor followed from autumn 1890 to summer 1891.

In the winter of 1892/93 Escher worked for a short time in Glarus as a teacher before he was appointed to the Free Gymnasium in Zurich in 1894 . Here he taught the ancient languages. In 1893 he married Berta Bürkli, the daughter of the city engineer Arnold Bürkli-Ziegler. In 1903 Jakob Escher-Bürkli left school and went to the Zurich City Library as the second librarian . Here he was entrusted with cataloging and bookkeeping. Although he worked alongside the library office from 1907 to 1928 as President of District School Maintenance 1, he was able to work on a chronologically arranged card catalog of the Zürcher Drucke in his free time. Over time, however, the burden became too much for him, so that he left the library in September 1909. In 1910 Escher-Bürkli was appointed President of the Central Church Administration; at the same time he was a member and vice-president of the cantonal church synod. In 1929, the 65-year-old finally resigned from all offices and took his retirement home in Hinterbergstrasse. He remained a member of various academic circles and, after Gerold Meyer von Knonau's resignation in 1923, headed the Antiquarian Society in Zurich until his death . After the death of his wife in 1936, his health deteriorated. Escher-Bürkli withdrew more and more and finally died on Christmas Eve 1939 at the age of 76.

In the scientific field, Jakob Escher-Bürkli hardly made any major contributions. However, he published numerous topographical, archaeological and philological treatises and lectures in the organs of various scientific societies, for example on the meadows and meadows in Switzerland (1937). For the first six volumes (1893–1909) of the new edition of Paulys Realencyclopadie der classical antiquity , he wrote articles on various figures of Greco-Roman mythology.

literature

• In memory of Dr. Jakob Escher-Bürkli, b. October 3, 1864, died December 24, 1939 , mixed lot, Zurich without year (with portrait photo). This includes: a funeral speech by Pastor Th. Hasler, an address by K. Ulrich, an obituary by Anton Largiadèr. Copy in the Zurich City Archives.
• Konrad Escher: Dr. Jakob Escher-Bürkli, 1864-1939 (New Year's sheet for the best of the orphanage in Zurich 107, 1944) Zurich, Beer 1944 (p. 47 list of publications)

Web links

Wikisource: Jakob Escher-Bürkli  - Sources and full texts

• Literature by and about Jakob Escher-Bürkli in the catalog of the German National Library