Johann Gottfried Wetzstein

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Johann Gottfried Wetzstein

Johann Gottfried "Fritz" Wetzstein (born February 19, 1815 in Oelsnitz im Vogtland , † January 18, 1905 in Berlin ) was a German diplomat and orientalist .

Life

Grave in cemetery II of the Sophiengemeinde in Berlin

Wetzstein studied at the Royal High School in Plauen and completed his Abitur at the St. Thomas School in Leipzig . In 1836 he moved to the University of Leipzig , where he studied Protestant theology and Semitic languages with Heinrich Leberecht Fleischer . He was promoted to Dr. phil. PhD. In 1843 he went to Oxford to use the treasures of the local “ Bodleian Library ”, in 1846 became a lecturer in Arabic languages at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Berlin and from 1849 to 1861 he was Prussian consul in Damascus .

As such, he made a contribution to bringing about peace between the Druze of the Jebel ad-Duruz in the eastern part of the Hauran and the Turkish government. In 1860 he successfully stood up for the persecuted Christians. As a scientist, he recorded Syriac Arabic . He was in close correspondence with Paul Ascherson , Alexander von Humboldt , Friedrich Delitzsch , Carl Ritter and Gustav Nachtigal .

He returned to Europe in 1862 and took up residence in Berlin. As a private lecturer he taught from 1867 to 1875 at the Berlin University and the Institute for the Science of Judaism . He also advised the Bismarck government . During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71 , he traveled to Tunisia with the Africa explorer Gerhard Rohlfs as a Prussian agent in order to encourage Algerian Berber tribes to revolt against France. The mission failed because the French defense learned early on of the intentions and because of the complete misjudgment of the situation on the ground.

In 1874 he was elected a corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and in 1886 of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences .

Wetzstein is buried in Cemetery II of the Sophiengemeinde Berlin . In his honor the “Dr. Johann Gottfried Wetzstein Foundation ”.

Numerous manuscripts collected by him are now in the Berlin State Library and the universities in Leipzig and Tübingen , including a Quran fragment from the 7th century in Tübingen .

Works (selection)

  • Travel report about Hauran and the Trachons together with an appendix about the Sabaean monuments in Eastern Syria. Verlag von Dietrich Reimer, Berlin 1860. ( Online at Internet Archive )
  • Lectures on the New Arabic language. Berlin 1868.
  • Selected Greek and Latin inscriptions, collected while traveling in the Trachons and around the Haurân Mountains . Philological and historical treatises of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Berlin, Berlin 1864, pp. 255–368
  • Linguistic from the tent camps in the Syrian desert . Leipzig 1868. ( Online at the University and State Library of Saxony-Anhalt )
  • The Batanean Gable Mountains: Excurs on Ps. 68,16 to Delitzsch's Psalm commentary . Leipzig 1884

literature

  • Ingeborg Huhn: The orientalist Johann Gottfried Wetzstein as Prussian consul in Damascus (1849–1861): depicted according to the papers he left behind . Islamic Studies Vol. 136. Klaus Schwarz, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-922968-89-9 ( digitized version ).
  • Ingeborg Huhn: The estate of the orientalist Johann Gottfried Wetzstein in the manuscript department of the Berlin State Library - Prussian cultural property . Catalogs of the manuscript department: series 2, bequests vol. 9. Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 2006
  • Ingeborg Huhn: Johann Gottfried Wetzstein. Orientalist and Prussian Consul in Ottoman Syria (1849-1861) , Klaus Schwarz, Berlin 2016 (Islamic Studies, Volume 329), ISBN 978-3-87997-452-8 .
  • Gerhard Küchler: Johann Gottfried Wetzstein. Royal Prussian Consul in Damascus 1848-1862, orientalist and friend of Alexander von Humboldt. in: Yearbook for Brandenburg State History 29 (1978), pp. 7–24.

Web links

Wikisource: Johann Gottfried Wetzstein  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ingeborg Huhn: The estate of the orientalist Johann Gottfried Wetzstein in the manuscript department of the Berlin State Library - Prussian cultural property . Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 2006, p. 11.
  2. ↑ ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: In the 100th year of Johann Gottfried Wetzstein's death: Orient Department reminds of diplomats and researchers ).@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / staatsbibliothek-berlin.de
  3. ^ Peter Heine: The Rohlfs / Wetzstein company in Tunis during the Franco-German War 1870/71. In: Die Welt des Islams 22 (1982), pp. 61-66.
  4. ↑ 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. 257.
  5. ↑ A Kufic fragment of the Koran, containing Sura 17.37–36.57. Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen
  6. ↑ Rarity discovered: Koran manuscript comes from the early days of Islam , press release from the University of Tübingen on November 10, 2014, accessed on November 17, 2014

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personal data
SURNAME Whetstone, Johann Gottfried
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wetzstein, Fritz (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German diplomat and orientalist
DATE OF BIRTH February 19, 1815
PLACE OF BIRTH Ölsnitz
DATE OF DEATH January 18, 1905
Place of death Berlin