Karl Münscher

Karl Münscher

Karl Münscher (born November 24, 1871 in Torgau ; † May 28, 1936 ) was a German classical philologist who worked as a professor in Münster from 1909. He published important studies on Greek rhetoric and the metrics of the Greek tragedians.

Life

Karl Münscher, the son of the classical philologist and high school prorector Friedrich Wilhelm Ferdinand Martin Münscher (1832-1897), came from an old scholarly family in Hesse. His older brothers were the district judge Wilhelm Münscher (1866–1915) and the chemist Kurt Münscher (1866 – after 1937); Albrecht Dieterich was his cousin.

Karl Münscher grew up in the town of Jauer in Silesia, where his father was transferred in 1873. There he attended elementary school and grammar school from 1878 to 1891, which was then headed by Richard Volkmann .

At Easter 1891 Münscher moved to the University of Breslau to study Classical Philology. At the suggestion of Franz Skutsch , he moved to the University of Göttingen in autumn 1892 . There he also heard German, historical, archaeological and linguistic lectures. He was particularly impressed by the philologists Hermann Sauppe , Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff and Friedrich Leo , who accepted him into the philological proseminar and then into the seminar, where Münscher soon became a senior. In April 1895 Münscher was at Wilamowitz with the dissertation Quaestiones Isocrateae doctorate .

After the state examination for higher teaching post, Münscher did his military service in Jauer from autumn 1896 (with the 2nd Battalion of the 19th Courbière Infantry Regiment). From autumn 1897 to autumn 1898 he completed his seminar year at the Friedrich-Gymnasium zu Breslau and then taught as an assistant teacher at various Silesian high schools: from autumn 1898 to Easter 1899 at the Friedrich-Gymnasium, from Easter 1899 at the Catholic Gymnasium in Neisse, from autumn of the same year at the municipal evangelical high school in Waldenburg, from Easter 1900 at the royal high school in Ratibor. There he was appointed senior teacher in April 1902.

In addition to his teaching activities, Münscher continued to work scientifically. During his time as an assistant teacher he continued the work he had begun in Göttingen and published three essays on the writings of the speaker Isokrates .

Due to his professional achievements and the recommendation of his teacher Friedrich Leo, Münscher was hired in May 1902 as a research assistant at the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae in Munich. For this purpose he was given leave of absence from his teaching position. In the three years he worked at the young thesaurus , Münscher wrote a large number of articles that appeared in the company's first volumes. His colleagues included Georg Dittmann and Theodor Bögel , with whom he had studied in Göttingen.

After his time at the thesaurus , Münscher returned to Ratibor and married his fiancé Erika Grau, the daughter of the architect Albert Grau in Breslau. He continued his scientific work on Isocrates without interruption.

In the winter of 1908 Münscher received (on the recommendation of his teacher Wilamowitz) a call to the University of Münster , where he was to hold one of the three chairs for Classical Philology. Münscher, who had not completed his habilitation , accepted this appointment and began his work as an associate professor in Münster in the summer semester of 1909, which he continued until his death. During the First World War , Münscher served as first lieutenant in the garrison in Münster from 1914 to 1918, but was not called to the front because of a riding accident. From 1915 he was able to continue his lectures at the university after work.

In Munster, Münscher expanded his research to include all of Greek literature. In addition to his main focus on Greek rhetoric, the metrics of the tragic was added, later also the Roman poetry of the Augustan and Neronian times and the Greek historiography. At Easter 1918 he was appointed full professor.

Münscher published numerous essays and wrote articles for the Realencyclopadie of classical antiquity . In 1925 he took over the publication of the annual report on the progress of classical antiquity from Alfred Körte , which he edited including the supplements until his death ( Bibliotheca philologica classica , Biographisches Jahrbuch für Altertumskunde ).

Münscher died on May 28, 1936 at the age of 64, shortly before his retirement . His last major project, a monograph on Greek rhetoric (with which he wanted to replace the work of Friedrich Blass ), he could no longer complete.

literature

• Leo Weber: Karl Münscher . In: Biographisches Jahrbuch für Altertumskunde . 63rd year (1937), pp. 25–50 (with picture and list of scriptures)
• Dietfried Krömer , Manfred Flieger (ed.): Thesaurus stories. Contributions to a Historia Thesauri linguae Latinae by Theodor Bögel (1876–1973) . Leipzig 1996. ISBN 3-8154-7101-X , p. 200

Web links

Wikisource: Karl Münscher  - Sources and full texts

• Literature by and about Karl Münscher in the catalog of the German National Library
• Karl Münscher's personnel form in the BIL's personal file in the archive database of the Library for Research on Educational History (BBF)