Johan Nicolai Madvig

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Johan Nicolai Madvig

Johan Nicolai Madvig [joˈhæn ˈneɡolaɪ̯ˀ ˈmæðˀʋiːˀ] (born August 7, 1804 in Svaneke , Bornholm ; † December 12, 1886 in Copenhagen ) was a Danish classical philologist and politician.

Life and work

Madvig studied at the University of Copenhagen , a. a. with Frederik Christian Sibbern (1785–1872) and Frederik Christian Petersen (1786–1859). From 1826 he was a substitute lecturer. He was already considered a great exceptional talent. Immediately after receiving his doctorate in classical philology in 1828, he was given an editing position. From 1829 to 1879 he was a professor. Madvig developed into a classical linguist of European format, especially in the field of text criticism . As an excellent connoisseur of Latin and Greek, especially the works of Cicero and Livius , he was considered by many contemporaries to be the epitome of the scholar: In Søren Kierkegaard's polemics there are several references to Madvig. Between 1855 and 1879 he was elected rector of the University of Copenhagen five times. Madvig was President of the Danish Academy of Sciences from 1867 until his death in 1886 .

At the age of 24 Madvig married Elisabeth Bjerring, who was a few years older; the couple had six children. His grave is in the Copenhagen Assistance Cemetery .

Politician

Madvig also embarked on a political career. At first he stood in opposition to the absolutist system and sympathized with the ideas of the July Revolution of 1830 . During the 1830s and 40s he was moderately national liberal . Like Johan Ludvig Heiberg , he made a name for himself as an internal critic of the liberal movement. In 1848 he was elected to the Folketing in the Bornholm constituency of Aakirkeby . From 1848 to 1851 he was the Danish Minister of Education and 1852-1853 President of the second chamber of parliament. In the German-Danish nationality conflict, his scientifically based views on the relationship between language and nation made him stand up for dividing the Duchy of Schleswig along the language border without regard to historical affiliations . This made him quite isolated among his Danish contemporaries.

Educational reformer

Concept of education

Madvig was a representative of moderate neo-humanism : In his opinion, the canon of classical neo-humanist education should be expanded to include modern languages ​​and natural sciences. The humanistic literacy had a higher priority than a purely professional training for him. With regard to their goals, Madvig was very close to the German new humanists (cf. Johann Gottfried Herder , Friedrich Immanuel Niethammer , Wilhelm von Humboldt and Johann Friedrich Herbart ). He also expected a promotion of humanity as a whole from the perfect and free development of the individual.

However, Madvig developed his own ideas about how this education could be achieved. The educational process, which he describes as “participation in life”, must always be based on the personal requirements and interests of the individual. An awareness of the individual for the greater order to which he belongs can only arise on the basis of a positive knowledge of this order and its elements: nation, humanity, nature, ultimately God.

School regulations 1850

In 1848 Madvig was initially a school inspector and supervised the Danish schools for scholars. The latter retained responsibility for the exams, while random checks were used to ensure the quality and comparability of the degrees. The school inspector also made decisions about appointments and dismissals. Apart from his term of office as minister of education, which began shortly thereafter, Madvig remained inspector of the secondary school system until 1879.

The Danish School Act of 1850 bore the clear signature of Madvig. Under him, the church-oriented Latin school became a place of higher civil education and a means of educating the middle class. Mother tongue lessons took up more space at the expense of Latin and Greek and German as a foreign language moved into the curriculum. The total number of lessons was significantly higher than, for example, B. in Prussia . The CC Hall School Act of 1871 tried to end this overload by dividing the grammar schools into a linguistic-historical and a mathematical-scientific branch. Madvig agreed to this second reform as a member of parliament, but until the very end he had campaigned to maintain a unified humanistic grammar school . At this point in time, Prussia was no longer a role model for Madvig, who now saw his emphasis on personal dispositions and interests realized above all in the English education system.

Awards

Bust of Johan Nicolai Madvig in Svaneke

Works

  • Opuscula academica , volumes 1 and 2, 1834/42
  • Cicero. De Finibus Bonorum Et Malorum , 1839
  • Latin language teaching for schools , 1841, German 1844
  • Greek syntax , 1846, German 1847
  • Livius (volumes 1–4, together with JL Ussing), 1861/66
  • Adversaria critica ad scriptores Graecos et Latinos , Vol. 1-3, 1871/84
  • Small philological writings , Leipzig 1875 (reprint 1966)
  • The Constitution and Administration of the Roman State , Volumes 1 and 2, 1881/82, in German and Danish at the same time

In addition, his memoirs appeared posthumously: Livserindringer , edited by NA Madvig, two volumes, 1887 and 1917.

literature

  • Jesper Eckhardt Larsen: JN Madvig's thenelsestanker. Enkritisk humanist i den danske romantik , Museum Tusculanums Forlag, Copenhagen 2002. ISBN 87-7289-757-0
  • Brigitte Hauger: Johan Nicolai Madvig. The Language Theory of a Classical Philologist , Nodus, Münster 1994. ISBN 3-89323-122-6

Web links

Commons : Johan Nicolai Madvig  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jesper Eckhardt Larsen, JN Madvigs dannelsestanker , p. 60 f.
  2. ↑ Jesper Eckhardt Larsen, JN Madvigs dannelsestanker , p. 107 f.
  3. ^ Members of the previous academies. Johan Nicolai Madvig. Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities , accessed on May 1, 2015 .
  4. ↑ Order Pour le Mérite for Science and the Arts. The members 1842-1881. Volume I, Gebr. Mann-Verlag, Berlin 1975, p. 294f. ( PDF on the Order's website)
  5. ↑ Prof. Dr. Johan Nicolai Madvig , members of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences Website of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences
  6. ^ Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1724. Johan Nicolai Madvig. Russian Academy of Sciences, accessed October 3, 2015 (Russian).
  7. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 158.
  8. ^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF file) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed March 19, 2020 .
predecessor Office successor
Ditlev Gothard Monrad Danish Minister of Education
November 16, 1848 - December 7, 1848 		Peter Georg Bang
personal data
SURNAME Madvig, Johan Nicolai
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Danish classical philologist and politician, member of the Folketing
DATE OF BIRTH August 7, 1804
PLACE OF BIRTH Svanike
DATE OF DEATH December 12, 1886
Place of death Copenhagen