Jakob Hausheer

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jakob Hausheer, around 1914

Jakob Hausheer (born October 11, 1865 in Wollishofen ; † May 7, 1943 in Zurich ) was a Swiss theologian , linguist and university professor .

Life

family

Jakob Hausheer was the third child of the farmer Johann Kaspar Hausheer (* July 28, 1838 - January 10, 1911) and his wife Anna Barbara (* February 13, 1837 - February 14, 1917), a weaver from Mettmenstetten , daughter of the winemaker Hans Rudolf Weiss (1801-1882).

On July 14, 1891, he married Anna Friederike Theresia (* February 18, 1869; † July 27, 1913), daughter of the tailor Johannes Schnabel from Zurich-Riesbach . They had two children together:

  • Hermine Anna Hausheer (born June 13, 1892 in Riesbach), married to Richard Stoffel;
  • Werner Otto Hausheer (born November 8, 1894 in Zurich ; † February 1970), tax advisor.

On August 20, 1936, he married his second wife, Klara Barbara (née Reithaar) (* May 9, 1881, † 1966). She was the widow of Cantonal Councilor Jakob Wegmann, who died in 1910 , had married the Herrliberg pastor Johann Jakob Graf in 1914 , with whom the domestic army had worked in the Old Testament section for over twenty years , and was divorced from Johann Jakob Graf.

education

After the family moved to Zollikon in September 1872 , Jakob Hausheer attended elementary school there and grew up in meager circumstances.

In the spring of 1878 he switched to the Cantonal School in Zurich and learned the Hebrew language from Heinrich Steiner (1841–1889), who had studied with Ferdinand Hitzig , an Old Testament scholar . Heinrich Steiner became his most important teacher, even after he finished school.

He enrolled at the University of Zurich on October 11, 1884 and began studying theology and oriental languages . He heard lectures from Heinrich Steiner, who also lectured at the university, and from Alexander Schweizer ( practical theology , New Testament and ethics ), Otto Fridolin Fritzsche (New Testament and church history ), Aloys Emanuel Biedermann (New Testament and systematics ), Gustav Volkmar (New Testament) and Heinrich Kesselring (1832–1919) (New Testament and Practical Theology) as well as private lecturer Moritz Heidenheim , who offered Semitic and Judaic events. In the summer of 1885 he learned Aramaic from Heinrich Steiner and Sanskrit from Heinrich Schweizer-Sidler . The Sanskrit course was followed by Vedic interpretation exercises with Adolf Kaegi in the coming semesters .

In autumn he successfully completed his studies with a certificate dated November 3, 1888. He was in Zurich the following day ordained and member of the Church Synod . On October 22, 1888, he received the church electoral certificate that would have enabled him to work as a pastor.

On the advice of Heinrich Steiner, he spent another year of study at the University of Halle . At the theological faculty, apart from Aramaic grammar with Friedrich Baethgen (1849–1905), he only attended events organized by Emil Kautzsch, who was called to Halle that year . The main purpose of his stay there, however, was Arabic-oriental studies, and so he heard from Andreas Heinrich Thorbecke (1837–1890), a student of Heinrich Leberecht Fleischer and a specialist in the field of early Arabic poetry. In 1889 he wrote his dissertation on the Mu'allaqa des Zuhair with Andreas Heinrich Thorbecke with the commentary by Ibn An-Naḥḥas , the oldest completely preserved commentary on this text. He passed his doctoral examination cum laude on August 8, 1889 ; however, the publication of his dissertation, which was necessary in order to formally lead the doctorate, did not take place until 1905. With a certificate of September 20, 1905, "Jacob Hausheer Helvetico" in Halle was awarded a Dr. phil. PhD .

Professional activity

First, he took over in 1889 a position as a religion teacher at the Zurich supplementary school, a continuation of the primary school , until at the twelve to fifteen year old Confirmation repeated once a week, especially at primary school level. In the fall of 1890 he became an "auxiliary teacher for religion and Hebrew" at the Zurich grammar school. His students included Emil Brunner and William Wolfensberger , with whom he was friends. It ended with Wolfensberger's premature death from the Spanish flu . Through Wolfensberger he was also closely connected to the then rector Jakob Bosshart .

From the school year 1892/1893 on he also taught at the private secondary school for girls, the position he had received from Josephine and Anna Grebel in Zurich. From 1894 he worked as an auxiliary teacher for Latin and from 1898 also for religious history at the teachers' college in Küsnacht near Zurich.

Also in 1904 he took part in the International Congress for the General History of Religions, which took place in Basel from August 30 to September 2 . Leonhard Ragaz , at that time pastor at Basel Minster , had offered him accommodation for these days. The first secretary of the congress was the Old Testament scholar Alfred Bertholet .

While he was giving up religious education at high school in 1905, he kept the position as a Hebrew teacher until 1936.

On November 1, 1905, he was appointed full professor for the Old Testament and oriental languages ​​at the University of Zurich, succeeding Karl Viktor Ryssel . The teaching staff includes Paul Wilhelm Schmiedel (New Testament), Konrad Furrer (History of Religion and Old Testament), Gustav von Schultheß-Rechberg (1852-1916) ( Systematic Theology ), Arnold Meyer (New Testament and Practical Theology), Emil Egli (Church History) and the private lecturer Arnold Rüegg (1856–1933) (church history). On February 17, 1906, he gave his inaugural lecture on the psychology of the prophets . His students included Ludwig Köhler , Walter Baumgartner , Walter Nigg , Walther Zimmerli and Hans Wildberger (1910–1986), who also became his successors.

After the death of Konrad Furrer in 1908 he took over the department of religious history. His range of courses now also included events such as "General History of Religions", " Buddhism ", " Islam ", "Extra-Christian Mysticism ", "Death and the Afterlife in Extra-Biblical Religions" or "Prayer in Extra-Christian Religions".

From 1912 to 1914 he was dean of the theological faculty for the first time and from 1922 to 1924 for the second time.

After he resigned from his position as a full professor in 1934, he now mainly offered philological courses as an honorary professor , for example Ethiopian in the summer of 1936 , which he resumed in the winter semesters 1941/1942 and 1942/1943.

After his dissertation, he did not publish anything and ordered that his estate be burned after his death; It was to be prevented that an unauthorized version of his writings and explanations came into circulation. He bequeathed his library to the University of Zurich. After his death it was found that, in addition to the languages ​​of India, he had also dealt with classical Armenian , Malay , the Hausa language , Turkish and Swahili .

His body was buried in the Enzenbühl cemetery in Zurich. The grave was lifted in the 1990s.

Scientific work

After Friedrich Paul David Bürkli from Zurich died in 1896, his extensive Oriental collection was donated to the Zurich City Library at the time. Since experts were needed to record “the works with titles in oriental languages”, Jakob Hausheer and Heinrich Suter took over the cataloging of the more than a thousand books. Heinrich Suter worked as a mathematician at the canton school and had learned Arabic from Heinrich Steiner and Jakob Hausheer.

Collaboration on the Zurich Bible

From 1907 to 1931 Hausheer worked as a leading employee with particular reliability and linguistic power in the German translation of the Old Testament of the Zurich Bible . In addition to Jakob Hausheer, the Old Testament section at that time included: Johann Conrad Gasser (1870–1951), Otto Roth (1872–1911), Johann Jakob Graf (1868–1948) (since 1908), Konrad Furrer and Johann Jakob Straumann, pastor in Dübendorf . The latter had studied with Heinrich Fleischer in Leipzig and was president of the Old Testament section .

After Konrad Furrer's death, Jakob Hausheer became President of the Plenary Commission of the Bible Revision and thus formally head of the entire project. The new Zurich Bible was presented to the public on October 11, 1931 (Jakob Hausheer's 66th birthday and the 400th anniversary of Huldrych Zwingli's death ). On November 1, 1931, Reformation Sunday of that year, the Bible was officially introduced in the Zurich church.

Two years before his death, Hausheer had burned the documents for the announced "scientific supplement" to the Old Testament, as he told Walter Nigg at the beginning of 1942, who later summarized this ... the nature of the Old Testament text is of such a fragile nature in numerous places that his clarification of meaning can often only take place in a hypothetical manner. If I now expressly refer to all those difficulties in a scholarly supplement where I was obliged to make a conjecture, if I still explain in detail the radicalism with which I proceeded here, then in the ecclesiastical-theological circles that are today the Emit sound, bright horror arise. These people do not even want to see the bottom of things on their own, but when I stumble upon them, as it were, on what uncertain basis this Old Testament 'Word of God' stands, on which they build their entire church tower, then they spread it Translation not an hour longer. But I don't want to have worked half my life for nothing .

Trivia

His son Werner had invited him to a car trip to Italy , where the vehicle broke down. To the surprise of the son, who did not speak Italian, the father was able to make himself understood and, when asked by the son, explained that he had read something about Italian once.

honors and awards

  • Jakob Hausheer received an honorary doctorate from the Theological Faculty of Basel on November 18, 1927 .
  • In 1938 he was appointed honorary professor in recognition of his “longstanding and excellent service”.

Memberships

  • On December 17, 1884, Jakob Hausheer was accepted into the Zofingia student union .
  • From 1889 he was a member of the German Oriental Society , whose chairman was Andreas Heinrich Thorbecke.
  • He became a member of the Lang Foundation, a foundation that emerged from circles of free-minded theologians and awards scholarships for studying theology. The office of President, which he was given in 1910, he held until 1938.
  • He became a member of the Concordat Examination Authority , to which he has belonged since December 2, 1908. It was a body of representatives of the German-speaking Swiss churches and theological faculties, which were united in a concordat, and which was responsible for taking exams. He stayed on this body until 1935, when he asked for his dismissal due to a hearing impairment.

Fonts (selection)

  • The Mu'allaḳa des Zuhair with the commentary of the AbûĞa'far Aḥmad Ibn Muḥammad An-Naḥḥâs . Berlin publishing house by Reuther & Reichard 1905.

literature

  • Jakob Hausheer. In: Peter Schwagmeier: The Zurich scholar Jakob Hausheer . Published in: Studies on the Hebrew Bible and its Post-History . Contributions to the 32nd International Ecumenical Conference of Teachers of Hebrew. Frankfurt am Main 2009.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Family tree of Rudolf Weiss. Retrieved January 25, 2020 .
  2. ↑ German biography: Steiner, Heinrich - German biography. Retrieved January 24, 2020 .
  3. ^ Kesselring, Heinrich. Retrieved January 24, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Schulthess-Rechberg, Gustav von. Retrieved January 24, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Rüegg, Arnold. Retrieved January 24, 2020 .
  6. ^ University of Freiburg - Life. Retrieved January 25, 2020 .
  7. ^ Frank Jehle: Hans Wildberger (1910-1986): A theological biography . Theologischer Verlag Zürich, 2015, ISBN 978-3-290-17792-8 ( google.de [accessed on January 25, 2020]).
  8. ↑ Wildberger, Hans. Retrieved January 25, 2020 .
  9. ^ Johann Jakob Graf (1868 - 1948). Zurich City Archives, August 12, 2008, accessed on January 24, 2020 .
  10. ^ Johann Conrad Gasser: The new Zurich Bible translation. 1944, accessed January 24, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Uwe Wolff: The secret is mine: Walter Nigg. A biography . Theological Verlag Zurich, 2012, ISBN 978-3-290-17617-4 ( google.de [accessed on January 25, 2020]).
  12. ↑ Walter Nelz: Tragedy of a Theologian: a significant event that deserves, torn from the past and made widely known. In: Befreiung, issue 11. 1955, accessed on January 25, 2020 .
  13. ^ The Lang Foundation. Retrieved January 25, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME House army, Jakob
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss Protestant theologian, linguist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH October 11, 1865
PLACE OF BIRTH Wollishofen
DATE OF DEATH May 7, 1943
Place of death Zurich