Julius Sommerbrodt

Julius Sommerbrodt (born December 6, 1813 in Liegnitz , † January 6, 1903 in Breslau ) was a German classical philologist . He worked as a teacher in Liegnitz (1838–53), as a grammar school director in Ratibor (1853–1854), Anklam (1854–1859) and Posen (1859–1868) and as a provincial school council in Kiel (1868–1873) and Breslau (1873–1873) 1887). As a philologist, he stood out particularly through his school commentaries on Cicero's and Lukian's writings as well as through his text-critical studies on Lukian.

Life

Julius Sommerbrodt came from an old family of pastors in Lausitz. Except for his grandfather, his ancestors had the surname Letochleb , which his father translated into Sommerbrodt . Julius Sommerbrodt was the youngest son of the pupil depositor-rendant and royal councilor Heinrich Sommerbrodt (1770-1829) and his wife Julie Treutler (1783-1831). His older brothers were the Court of Appeal President Otto Sommerbrodt (1805–1879), the pharmacist Heinrich Sommerbrodt (1807–1872), the art and bookseller Louis Sommerbrodt (1811–1877) and Pauline (* 1809), who later lived in Berlin High school teacher Fritz Schneider married. He grew up in Liegnitz, Glogau and Breslau, where he attended the Elisabet Gymnasium from 1825 . Here the teachers August Wellauer and Gustav Pinzger encouraged him to study classical philology. After graduation (Easter 1831), Sommerbrodt began studying at the University of Breslau , where, in addition to the private lecturers Wellauer and Pinzger, he heard the literary historian Ludwig Wachler and the philologists Karl Ernst Christoph Schneider and Franz Passow . Sommerbrodt developed a close relationship with Passow in particular.

The first year of his studies brought Somerbrodt two strokes of fate: on June 26th his revered teacher Wellauer died, on November 10th his mother; now Sommerbrodt was an orphan. On Passow's advice, he moved to the University of Leipzig in the summer semester of 1832 , where he was the house guest of the physicist Heinrich Wilhelm Brandes , who had moved from Breslau . Among the students, Sommerbrodt soon made friends with Otto Jahn , Eduard Osenbrüggen , Diedrich Rudolf Stürenburg and others. Of the academic teachers, he was most impressed by Gottfried Hermann , in whose societas Graeca he was accepted in February 1833. In the winter semester of 1833/34 he left Leipzig to complete his studies at Berlin University . His academic teachers included August Boeckh and Karl Lachmann , the heads of the philological seminar, the philologist Karl Gottlob Zumpt and the philosophers Henrich Steffens and Friedrich Adolf Trendelenburg . In November 1834, Sommerbrodt passed the teaching qualification, on April 27, 1835 he was promoted to Dr. phil. PhD .

After graduating, Sommerbrodt went on educational trips of several years. As a private tutor for the von Richthofen children , he traveled through Poland, Hungary, Austria, Italy, southern France and Switzerland. He also pursued scientific projects and made the acquaintance of various scholars, for example in Rome at the Archaeological Institute with Christian Karl Josias von Bunsen , Eduard Gerhard , Felix Papencordt and Ludwig von Urlichs . On September 24, 1837, Sommerbrodt reached Geneva, where he ended his journey and returned to Silesia.

Sommerbrodt decided against an academic and a school career. After a year as a trial candidate at the Elisabet Gymnasium in Wroclaw, he was transferred to the Knight Academy in Liegnitz as an inspector in 1838 , where he worked for 15 years. In 1844 he was appointed professor. Sommerbrodt also continued his academic work in Liegnitz: he published two school programs on Attic theater and a school commentary on Cicero 's Cato maior de senectute (1851), which had twelve editions by the turn of the century.

On August 29, 1853 Sommerbrodt received a rector's position at the grammar school in Ratibor . Just one year later, he switched to the newly founded grammar school in Anklam , which under his leadership enjoyed a remarkable boom. The success qualified Sommerbrodt to lead one of the largest Prussian high schools, the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Gymnasium in Posen (from 1859), which at that time had over 700 students. In order to meet the need for young teachers, Sommerbrodt got in touch with Professor Friedrich Ritschl from Bonn , who brought him some graduates. In return, Sommerbrodt recommended that many students study in Bonn. The teachers employed under Sommerbrodt included Otto Heine , Adolf Brieger , Hermann Peter , Gustav Richter , Theodor Plüss and Philipp Kohlmann . Through the intercourse with these scholars, Sommerbrodt's scientific work also took a remarkable boost: in Posen he wrote his school commentary on the writings of Lucian of Samosata , his manuscript studies on Lucian and the popular book on Greek theater .

In 1868 there were signs of another career change for Sommerbrodt: On February 29th, the advisor for higher education, Ludwig Adolf Wiese , asked him if he would be willing to go to Schleswig-Holstein as a provincial school councilor. After a long hesitation, Sommerbrodt accepted the offer and moved with his family to Kiel in July 1868. He also documented his grateful memories of his years as a teacher and headmaster in his publishing activities: he dedicated his translation of Cicero's De oratore to his high school graduates, all of whom he listed by name; he dedicated his collection of essays Lucianea (1872) to his colleagues in Poznan.

At Michaelmas 1873 Sommerbrodt got a job as a provincial school councilor in Silesia and moved with his family to Breslau. During his term of office there were crises and upheavals: the small and medium-sized towns in Silesia tried to set up high schools for which financial and human resources had to be established. Then there was the Kulturkampf , the effects of which the Reformed Sommerbrodt and his Catholic counterpart Wilhelm Dillenburger successfully saved the schools. Sommerbrodt's relations with the Prussian minister of education Adalbert Falk , who was his brother-in-law, were useful . The training of trainee teachers at the educational seminar, which he led with Dillenburger alternately every year, was a particular concern of his. By royal decision he was a member of the Provincial Synod from 1875, by which he was elected to the General Synod. On December 31, 1887, Sommerbrodt took his leave of the school staff for reasons of age. He held the chairmanship of the scientific examination committee for ten years before he resigned after the death of his second son in 1897. After a long illness, Sommerbrodt died, being looked after by his daughter, at the age of 90.

Julius Sommerbrodt was married to Marie Passow (1820–1881), a daughter of his academic teacher Franz Passow. The couple had four children: Erdmuthe, Gottwald (early †), Max Ludwig (1847-1897, later senior medical officer in Berlin) and Ernst (* 1851), who became a high school teacher in Hanover and Lauban and in 1891 published the Ebstorf map of the world .

Scientific work

Sommerbrodt's writings were partly aimed at the public (see Das oldgriechische Theater , 1865), partly tailored to the needs of higher schools: his commentary on Cicero's dialogue Cato maior de senectute (first 1851) stood out from the competition of similar, simultaneous comments and had twelve editions by 1896. Sommerbrodt gradually incorporated the results of the critical and exegetical Cicero research, so that the forewords of the editions mirror the Cicero research of the 19th century.

In his own research, Sommerbrodt pursued two topics that had accompanied him since his student days: the Greek stage scene (especially the tragedian Aeschylus ) and the writings of Lukian of Samosata. Sommerbrodt used his free time, especially the holidays, mainly for scientific work. So he traveled to Italy several times to the Cicero and Lukianhandschriften in the local libraries collate . He made his last trip in 1897, at the age of 83. He published the results of his manuscript studies in various journals and in 1872 bundled them (under the title Lucianea ). His extensive school commentary on selected writings by Lucian should be viewed against this background: For the first time since early humanism , he made it possible to read Lukian as a school author.

The result of his decades of research was the three-volume Lukian edition in the Weidmannschen Buchhandlung , which was published from 1886 to 1899. After the outdated edition by Karl Gottfried Jacobitz (1836–1841), this late work of Sommerbrodt was a milestone in the history of editions and formed the basis of the (unfinished) Teubner edition by Nils Nilén (1906–1923), who had two manuscripts in honor of his predecessor the letters J and S provided.

Fonts (selection)

• Rerum scenicarum capita selecta . Berlin 1835 (dissertation)
• M. Tulli Ciceronis Cato maior sive de senectute dialogus. Explained by Julius Sommerbrodt . Leipzig 1851. Last 12th edition, Berlin 1896
• Selected writings of Lucian. Explained by Julius Sommerbrodt. First volume: About Lucian's life and writings. Lucian's dream. Charon. Timon . Berlin 1860. Second edition, Berlin 1872. Third edition, Berlin 1888
• Selected writings of Lucian. Explained by Julius Sommerbrodt. Second volume: Nigrinus. The rooster. Icaromenippus . Berlin 1853. Second edition, Berlin 1869. Third edition, revised by Rudolf Helm , Berlin 1907
• Selected writings of Lucian. Explained by Julius Sommerbrodt. Volume Three: How to Make History. The fishermen's school of speakers. The uneducated book lover. About the mimes . Berlin 1857. Second edition, Berlin 1878
• Luciani codicum Marcianorum lectiones edidit Iulius Sommerbrodt . Berlin 1861
• The ancient Greek theater . Stuttgart 1865
• Cicero's speaker. German by Julius Sommerbrodt . Stuttgart 1870. Second edition, revised by Heinrich Uhle, Berlin 1901
• Lucianea . Leipzig 1872
• Scaenica. Collecta edidit Julius Sommerbrodt . Berlin 1876
• Lucianus. Recognovit Iulius Sommerbrodt . Three volumes in five parts, Berlin 1886–1899

literature

• Friedrich August Eckstein : Nomenclator philologorum . Leipzig 1871, p. 538
• Wilhelm Pökel : Philological writer's lexicon . Leipzig 1882, p. 260
• Richard Foerster : Julius Sommerbrodt . In: Schlesische Zeitung . No. 10 of January 6, 1904
• Anton Bettelheim (Hrsg.): Biographisches Jahrbuch and German Nekrolog . Volume 8 (1903). Berlin 1908, column 110 *
• Richard Foerster: Julius Sommerbrodt . In: Annual report on the progress of classical antiquity . Volume 141, Berlin 1909 = Biographical Yearbook for Archeology . 31st year (1908), pp. 108–123
• Siegfried Göbel: Memories of an old professor of well-known contemporaries and people in life . Berlin 1926, pp. 61-67

Web links

Wikisource: Julius Sommerbrodt  - Sources and full texts

• Literature by Julius Sommerbrodt in the catalog of the German National Library
• Homepage of the Treutler family with information about the Sommerbrodt family
• Jonathan Groß: Biogram of Julius Sommerbrodt in the scholarly historical prosopography of the Teuchos Center