Karl Wilhelm Kruger

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Karl Wilhelm Krüger (born September 28, 1796 in Groß Nossin , Pomerania , † May 1, 1874 in Weinheim ) was a German classical scholar .

Life

Karl Wilhelm Krüger was the son of a landlord and was mainly brought up in the house of his maternal grandfather, Johann Christian Strenge. He showed a talent for languages ​​and a great interest in history. In Szczecin he attended a grammar school, where he was intensively involved in learning Greek . Then in 1813 he followed the call of the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III. " To his people ", to participate in the wars of liberation against Napoleon Bonaparte , volunteered in the 1st Pomeranian Jägerregiment and worked so hard at Waterloo (June 18, 1815) that he coughed up blood , the aftermath of which he was probably felt whole further life. After returning home from the war, he did not need to take a high school diploma due to his brilliant performance in the top grammar school class, as he never took an exam later on. Because even in Halle , where he studied philology from 1816 , August Seidler, in agreement with Schütz, got Krüger to be awarded a doctorate in philosophy by the faculty on the basis of his Commentationes criticae and a short colloquium in 1819.

Although it had been decided that those people who had taken part in the Wars of Liberation should be given preference when filling positions, Krüger did not succeed in getting a job in Prussia immediately after completing his studies . As he himself indicates ( Kritische Analekten , vol . 73), he was suspect because of his political views. So in 1820 he accepted a position in Zerbst as a sub- principal , became vice-principal there in 1821 and, with a significantly higher salary, became assistant principal in Bernburg in 1822 . In 1822 he married Adelheid Imme and had five children with her. He made a name for himself as an excellent philologist through his work on Dionysius of Halicarnassus and his Latin edition of Xenophons Anabasis, and in 1827 he was appointed professor at the Joachimsthalsche Gymnasium in Berlin , headed by August Meineke . In his lessons in Greek he always followed his own compilations, according to which he taught despite contradiction of an authority and from which his grammatical writings developed. Hand in hand with these studies went his efforts on Xenophon, Dionysius, Herodotus and Thucydides . Several strokes of fate struck him; His daughter died in 1830, and in three days in 1831 he lost his wife and three sons who succumbed to cholera . In addition, he had conflicts with younger colleagues, due to which he ended his ten-year teaching activity at the Joachimsthal Gymnasium in 1838. The government granted him a pension and thanked him for the service rendered to the institution.

In 1831 Krüger had completed his habilitation at the Berlin University after overcoming a few difficulties; he read about Greek grammar, Aristophanes , Demosthenes , Euripides , Plato and Thucydides , among others . Since his retirement he lived as a private scholar, first in Nauen , then in Neuruppin , Heidelberg and Weinheim. He devoted himself above all to his main work, the teaching of Greek language , the elaboration of which he had started in 1836. Since he did not get along with his publishers either, he founded a bookstore whose publishing house only published his own writings.

From 1848 Krüger also developed a lively political activity in a decidedly democratic direction and wrote several pamphlets on it. As a grammarist he used an even more violent polemic against colleagues all his life, and thus left a very unpleasant impression. He died of a stroke on May 1, 1874 at the age of 77 in Weinheim, deeply shaken by the death of his second-married daughter Therese .

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Krüger's main work, the Greek Language Teaching for Schools (2 vols., Berlin 1842–56; 6th edition 1892 ff.), Exerted some influence, in particular by giving Greek teachers a better understanding of the language they taught. Krüger reproached his colleagues for the fact that none of them had systematically read through the most important Greek authors for grammatical purposes, and he himself fulfilled this requirement made by him to the fullest extent. As quite independent, he shows himself to be a master in the grammatical art language with his succinct brevity. His selection of examples and references is exemplary. From his main work emerged the Greek language theory for beginners (Berlin 1847; since 1869 under the title Smaller Greek language teaching ; 11th edition 1884) and Homeric theory of forms , later titled Homeric and Herodotic theory of forms (Berlin 1849; 5th edition 1879).

A wider dissemination of Kruger’s Greek language teaching encountered obstacles. It was rightly objected that it contained too much material, while the smaller grammar, the Greek language teaching for beginners , at least in the older editions, seemed too short and too difficult to understand. The objection that the print was too small for a school book was also justified. Then Kruger had made many enemies through his violent attacks against deserving scholars, including historians such as Johann Gustav Droysen and Arnold Dietrich Schaefer , and through his radical political principles. The caustic afterwords that he appended to the various editions of the grammar and other writings, such as his edition of Herodotus, were not enough for recommendation. Nevertheless, the larger language teaching had six editions by 1892 and became an important guide in teaching.

The comparative linguistics was Kruger dismissive and therefore attacked Georg Curtius violently. His sharp, but readable and factually often very valuable pamphlets include his reviews of the second edition of August Matthiae's extensive grammar and Raphael Kühner's school grammar (1836), his critical letters on Alexander Buttmann's Greek grammar (Berlin 1846), on Georg. Curtius' Greek theory of forms (Berlin 1867), on Greek school grammars (a script also directed against Curtius, Neuruppin 1869), as well as the epilogue to Krüger's Greek language theory (Berlin 1871).

Excellent editions, especially in grammatical respect, were provided by Kruger from several ancient Greek historians. According to his own statement, he wrote the learned commentary on some of the writings of Dionysius of Halicarnassus as a student; The 34-sheet work was printed under the title Dionysii Halicarnassensis historiographica (Halle 1823). The first Latin edition of Xenophons Anabasis (Halle 1826) followed three years later with Latin commentary and an exhaustive index verborum , which later appeared as the Lexicon for Anabasis (Berlin 1849; 4th edition 1872). The second edition (Berlin 1830; 7th edition 1888) "with explanatory notes" brought a short German comment and became famous as a sample of a school edition with brief explanations in the most concise form. The historical works of Thucydides (2 vols., Berlin 1846-47; 3rd edition 1860) and Herodotus (2 vols., Berlin 1855-56; 2nd edition 1866 ff.), As well as the Anabasis of the Arrian (Berlin 1851), after a larger edition with Latin commentary (2 volumes, Berlin 1835–48) had preceded it.

In addition, Krüger wrote, among other things, a Latin translation of Henry Fynes Clinton's Fasti Hellenici from the 55th to the 124th Olympiad (Leipzig 1830), historical-philological studies (2 vols., Berlin 1836–51) and critical analects, with rich supplements and corrections (3 issues, Berlin 1863–74). His studies of modern history arose, among other things, the vividly written history of the English Revolution under Charles I (Berlin 1850), in which his democratic convictions are expressed. After his death, his friend and student Wilhelm Pökel took care of the new editions of his writings .

literature

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personal data
SURNAME Kruger, Karl Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German philologist
DATE OF BIRTH September 28, 1796
PLACE OF BIRTH Gross Nossin ( Pomerania )
DATE OF DEATH May 1, 1874
Place of death Weinheim