Leonhard Schmitz
Leonhard Schmitz (born March 6, 1807 in Eupen ; † May 28, 1890 in London ) was a German ancient historian and classical philologist .
Live and act
Schmitz was born in Eupen, which was then occupied by the French and from 1815 Prussian, and attended the Augustinian high school in Aachen . He then studied philology and history at the University of Bonn from 1828 and was influenced in particular by Barthold Georg Niebuhr , Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker and Christian August Brandis . Schmitz completed his studies with a doctorate and actually wanted to start an academic career. However, in those years he met the Englishwoman Eliza Mary Machell and married in 1837 and then moved with her to England , where in 1840 their daughter, later the music critic Leonora, was born.
In England, Schmitz initially dealt with the translations of Niebuhr's lectures on Roman history and the Latin grammar by Karl Gottlob Zumpt , begun by Connop Thirlwall , wrote numerous entries for the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith and gave the Classical Museum out. This work and his proficiency in English led to his appointment as principal of the prestigious Royal High School in Edinburgh in 1846 . During this time he wrote numerous academic papers on Roman history, the history of the Middle Ages as well as handbooks for history and geography and taught as a private tutor the two firstborn sons of the British Queen Victoria , the Prince of Wales Edward VII and the Duke of Edinburgh Alfred .
Since the London International College opened in the Borough of Hounslaw in 1866 and also because he was very impressed by the new school philosophy, Schmitz moved with his family to the capital and became the first principal to take over the management of this school. As part of the new school philosophy, both access to school and the range of topics were internationalized, corporal punishment for students abolished, the curriculum focused on scientific subjects, modern languages placed in the foreground and old languages such as Latin and Greek only offered in later classes . Due to various, not exactly comprehensible resistances, Schmitz gave up the management of the college in 1874, which was closed in 1889. Schmitz himself then worked from 1874 to 1889 as a Classical Examiner (examiner for classical languages) at the University of London .
For his services Schmitz was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Edinburgh and was made an honorary doctorate from the University of Aberdeen in 1849 and from the University of Edinburgh in 1886 .
Fonts (selection)
- The Classical Museum , JW Parker, London, 1844
- Grammar of the Latin Language , Blanchard and Lea, Philadelphia 1849
- A History of Rome from the earliest times to the death of Commodus AD 192 , Walton & Maberly, London 1853
- A manual of ancient geography , Blanchart and Lea, Philadelphia 1857
- History of Greece. From the earliest times to the destruction of Corinth. Along with an appendix on the civilization, religion, literature and art of the Greeks , Baumgärtner's bookstore, Leipzig 1859
- The Crown Atlas of Classical Geography, Consisting of Fifteen Maps , Constructed and Engraved by Edward Weller; with Distinctive Letterpress by Leonhard Schmitz, William Collins, Sons & Company, London 1873
- A history of England for junior classes , GP Puttnams Sons, New York 1873
- A practical grammar of the German language: with a sketch of the historical development of the language and its principal dialects , John Murray London 1876
- A Manual of Ancient History: With Copious Chronological Tables . Vol. V, Seton Mackenzie, Edinburgh 1877
- A History of Latin Literature , Collins, London 1877
- A History of Rome for junior Classes , Copp Clark, Toronto 1878
- Ancient history; from the remotest times to the overthrow of the Western empire, AD 476 , Peter Fenelon Collier; New York 1898
literature
- Richard Hoche: Schmitz, Leonhard . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 34, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1892, pp. 283-729.
- Franz Bornmüller: Biographical Writer's Lexicon (1882) , Verone 2017, p. 651 ( digitized )
- Stefan Manz: Migrants and Internees: Germans in Glasgow 1864–1918 , Franz Steiner Verlag 2003, p. 94 ( digitized )
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF file) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed April 6, 2020 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Schmitz, Leonhard |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German ancient historian and classical philologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 6, 1807 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Eupen |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 28, 1890 |
| Place of death | London |