Max Schneidewin

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Maximilian Paul Ernst Berthold Schneidewin (born February 24, 1843 in Göttingen , † January 22, 1931 in Hameln ) was a Protestant theologian , philosopher , classical philologist and high school teacher . His father was the classical philologist Friedrich Wilhelm Schneidewin , one of his sons the lawyer Karl Schneidewin .

Life

Schneidewin attended the Göttingen grammar school from 1851 to 1860. During this time he was friends with Albert Möser (1835–1900) and Eduard Grisebach . Both later became writers. Through Möser, Schneidewin got to know Schopenhauer's philosophy. From 1860 to 1863 he studied ancient languages ​​and philosophy in Göttingen and made friends with the later Goethe researcher Veit Valentin . In 1863 he passed the senior teacher examination.

In 1864 he began his probationary year at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Gymnasium in Berlin . From 1865 to 1867 he worked there as an assistant teacher. His friends in Berlin included the poet Hans Herrig and the later high school teacher and anti-Semite Bernhard Förster . In 1865 he received his doctorate in philosophy. In 1867 he received the post of senior teacher at the grammar school in Arnstadt in Thuringia .

In 1870 he moved to Hameln , where he lived until his death. He taught there for 41 years (1870-1911) at the Schiller Gymnasium, predominantly in the subjects of Latin and Greek. Schneidewin is said to have mastered the ancient languages ​​better than his mother tongue, noted the philosopher and former student Theodor Lessing in his memoirs Once and never again . On June 14, 1887, Schneidewin was awarded the title of professor.

In addition to his teaching activities, he published a wide range of philosophical, literary and political topics and gave lectures. He wrote articles for the Prussian yearbooks and the Berlin daily Der Tag from the August Scherl publishing house . In the “Tag” , Schneidewin expressed himself very positively about the philosopher Eduard von Hartmann .

Schneidewin died on January 23, 1931 in Hameln and was buried there. He left behind his wife Adolfine, née Koch, and three children. The son Wilhelm worked as a teacher in the north in East Friesland and son Karl as a prosecutor in Leipzig . The daughter Sophie worked as a teacher in Bad Oeynhausen .

In 1943, the city of Hameln honored him on his 100th birthday with a plaque on his house at Klütstraße 18.

Act

Schneidewin was a fully trained scholar. He was considered an expert in classical philology. With numerous publications, independently and in magazines, he participated in the exchange of his time on philosophical, educational, philological and political topics and his ideas fell out of the ordinary. He can join the pragmatists of the 19th and 20th centuries. Century can be counted. He rejected metaphysical and religious concepts for philosophy. He followed Kant insofar as knowledge or recognition arises from intuition and thinking.

As a teacher

Schneidewin was a loyal official. He did not share the authoritative teaching style of his colleagues. His personal reputation was not the focus for him. Above all, he wanted to impart his knowledge to his students. However, they disliked his startling scholarship. They took advantage of his factual and friendly style of teaching to hold themselves harmless "for the discipline of iron" from other teachers. While he was concentrating on the topic, there were repeated attacks in class, to which he only reacted when they became too violent - but then unsuccessful. The support he asked from the school administration did not materialize.

Schneidewin got involved with students with difficulties. His pupil, the later poet and philosopher Theodor Lessing , called him his favorite teacher. In connection with family problems, Lessing showed a strikingly negative learning behavior that was not followed by any tutoring. It was only through contact with Schneidewin that Lessing was able to pass the Abitur. He stood up for his favorite teacher and even fought for him during breaks. Schneidewin was the only teacher who “encouraged me to do everything that up until then one had wanted to drive out of me as 'alotria' and as 'breadless art': verse making, dreaming, philosophizing.” Their friendship lasted thirty years despite differing political and philosophical views long until Schneidewin's death.

As an author

Schneidewin made his extensive literary work known throughout Germany, on the one hand through philological publications, for example dictionaries on individual authors (Homer and Cicero), and comparative studies of classical texts. In 1875 the concise dictionary for all Greek literature , written together with Berthold Suhle , was published , which Wilhelm Pape also included for his concise dictionary of the Greek language .

He wrote books on ancient-classical school education ( Das humanistische Gymnasium, 1923) and literary-philosophical contributions to classical literature ( Die Homerische Naivetät, 1878; Horazische Lebensweisheit, 1890) and new classical literature ( Skeptical thoughts on Faust, 1909). He paid tribute to colleagues such as the Göttingen philologist Ernst von Leutsch and the Goethe researcher and art theorist Veit Valentin in monographs. There were essays about the most widely read author of his time, Countess Ida Hahn-Hahn , and an obituary for the Austrian pacifist Bertha von Suttner .

On the one hand, his philologically oriented writings were positively appreciated. His expertise, outstanding expertise and responsive style were praised. On the other hand, the one-sidedness and the "petty" and tiresome train of thought of his portrayal of ancient humanity was criticized.

Schneidewin also commented on current political issues. In Hameln in 1899 he was said to have been the only one who loudly criticized the excessive nationalism of the local national associations. Loyalty to Germany, according to Schneidewin, degenerates there into “poodle madness” and is clearly anti-Semitic. This can be seen in the content of the new national song, which has enjoyed increasing popularity since 1841.

He described the negative effects of the growing nationalist tendencies of his time ( Against the Nationalization of Philosophy, 1916). He commented on whether anti-Semitism or philosemitism could be sensible political solutions ( The Jewish Question in the German Empire, 1894). In 1909 his book Pro pace appeared on the subject of peace and a critical account of predictions about a coming war. In 1919 he published a monograph on the pros and cons of women's suffrage.

Schneidewin finally dealt with religious questions. In 1902 he explained his conclusions from the biblical research of the 19th century in the "Tag" . The New Testament exegesis had shown that the image of Jesus of the early Christian communities was clearly different from that of institutionalized (official) Christianity of the present. What is uttered today by church authorities, for example about original sin and the divine direction of human life, "Christ has not yet carried in his consciousness". Together with these results, the teachings of Kepler and Copernicus and the philosophical ideas of Giordano Bruno and Baruch Spinoza about infinity , it is necessary to proclaim a new image of God .

"This God himself would be the unified 'subject' underlying all world phenomena, himself the actual bearer of all experience, for which the many Is lack the precondition of substantiality."

He suggested striving for a religiosity that is based on the "attitude of every individual towards God" instead of expecting the action of a God who supposedly does everything for people.

philosophy

Schneidewin's pragmatic philosophizing was associated with topics related to ideological issues in his time. He dealt with the idea of infinity , understood the ancient texts around which his teaching revolved as a suggestion for possible answers to current problems and took a position on current issues such as nationalism , anti-Semitism and equal rights for women.

He advocated self-taught philosophizing. He believed that the universities' claim that they alone should train philosophers correctly was unjustified. Philosophers, he wrote in his publication on Arthur Schopenhauer , Eduard von Hartmann and Adolf Steudel , were primarily characterized by their dedication to the big questions of what people can know, and also to the conditions and changeability of human thought. Philosophers have an inner need to find clear answers. This goes far beyond any literary interest. Reading other philosophers is, of course, a part of knowing the state of your own science. God does not play a role in his philosophizing, he is a philosopher who prefers his own thinking or his own reason to obedience to authorities.

The idea of ​​infinity and its consequences

In 1900 Schneidewin published “The infinity of the world according to its meaning and its significance for humanity. Thoughts on the connection of the three hundred year memory of Giordano Bruno's martyrdom for the doctrine of the infinity of the world. ”In 1909 another edition appeared. The reason for this publication was the book by the Danish historian and philosopher Troels Troels-Lund (1840–1921) “Himmelsbild und Weltanschauung im Wandel der Zeit” in 1899. It touched on a topic that Schneidewin occupied with 25 years of age and which he published in 1867 "The Copernican Truth and Christian Dogma" had prompted. Regardless of the Copernican change, theologians of his time still maintained that the earth was the center of the solar system. Lund, who found the same thing - like Schneidewin for Germany - for Denmark, followed up on the explosive topic with his book. With the teachings of Nicolaus Copernicus and Johannes Kepler - according to Lund - a new epoch had dawned: One must now finally assume that our cosmos is infinite.

“ In Troels' book, I encountered for the first time in my life ... the company, ... making the cosmic thought, which is otherwise almost everywhere unbelievably neglected, the main thing to make the most important moment in the whole worldview. For me it had always been the main thing; it was from it that I had come to philosophical reflection; I had always held it to be the fact of the facts which give philosophy its empirical material. "

The church is right when it regards the writings of Copernicus as a danger to its teaching. Because the whole story of salvation presupposes that the earth is the center of the world. Schneidewin shared the view with Lund that a change in this worldview is not easy to achieve. The new descriptions of the cosmos have been known for two hundred years, but everything is still going on as usual. The philosophers also generally ignored the cosmic thought. The ancient cosmological concepts as published by Lucretius had not come into use because of proven godlessness and the dominance of Christian views. Neither do the ideas of Giordano Bruno and Spinoza .

In the new worldview, God can no longer be directly experienced. The new god is no longer a moral judge. Only human things are available to us to orient ourselves. People are now responsible to one another for their actions. This idea of ​​human society has little in common with “Christian brotherhood”. In the new epoch it has an independent value that unites people and is not bound by Christian values ​​that are determined by dogma.

“ The comprehensive, this-sided human interest is modern and is only misinterpreted from certain sides in Christianity as its original tendency. "

The connection of other humanity through the cosmic thought is related to its vastness. From the latter arises the interest in everything human on our planet.

Here Schneidewin distances himself from Troels Lund, for whom God's love should be the lasting bond between people. Schneidewin prefers Hartmann's idea here . He developed a "religion of the spirit". God and man are no longer separate, man is the appearance of God. Pain and suffering are characteristics of man and no longer characteristics of God. And this religion is dogma-free.

The idea of ​​humanity

Like others of his contemporaries, Schneidewin saw ancient humanity as “an example of free and full humanity”. The basic idea of ​​ancient humanity was to use enlightened thinking or reason to "be a full (whole) person".

“Ancient humanity is an attitude”, so Schneidewin explained meticulously over many sides, “a way of thinking” that influences the feelings. Conversely, the sensations are also influenced by it and thus regulate action. You connect like-minded people. They are able to act amicably in certain situations. It is - in a philosophical sense - neither provable nor generally valid. It is a kind of intellectual property that the individual assumes to be true and that serves his own actions. Individuals have often tried them out, checked them through thought and found them to be part of their own values. It is not an ethical obligation, but the voluntary performance of the individual. Freedom is therefore also a condition of humanity. The qualities “free” and “human” are therefore considered to be synonymous in Latin. Humanity corresponds to the ideal of man. The following ancient Greek verse summarizes his description:

“ You are human. Now be it and never forget it! "

Today - differently - humanity denotes any kind of philanthropy in word and deed. It shows itself as a loving, accommodating approach to the other, more mild than strict, but above all as help and relief in need. It is practiced because the person in need is human. On the other hand, ancient humanity is practiced because the agent is human. Ancient humanity is closer to the subjective than to the objective. It is traded for subjective reasons.

“Philanthropy” for “Humanitas” is the most common translation. It is meant to meet others in a way that is comfortable for them. For example, not avoiding a conversation, but rather asking questions and answers. Interest in and forbearance with others are also referred to as humanitas. Humanitas, one's own humanity, help to be tolerant instead of being angry with others. Humanity also describes behavior that a person first has to learn if he wants to be an accepted member of "humane society". This also includes training in the language and knowledge of civilizational achievements such as art and science. And not to forget the most natural thing , that error belongs to humans: Errare humanum est . The ancients were also well versed in this.

This complex topic and its motives cannot be presented in a philosophically satisfactory manner. This is due, among other things, to the fact that philosophers are mostly designers of what is already there and not “finders”. Philosophy also obliges philosophers to change the “content of human consciousness” if this “brought about” the cause of philosophy (the insistence on evidence and universality).

In addition to the lack of philosophical evidence and universality, the ideal of humanity suffers from the disadvantage that it can neither theoretically nor practically "bring everything into order". But he considers them the friendliest "refuge in the darkness and the storms of the human lot". Unfortunately, she owes the Christian theological answers, she only knows human answers.

For his students he would like the idea of ​​ancient humanity to regain importance for the present. In 'our restless times' they need orientation on what he described as the 'truly essential' of humane society, namely as “subjective humanity” or, in other, wider context with “taking pleasure in one's own doing”.

Publications

  • On the seeds of epistemological and ethical philosophemes among pre-Socratic thinkers. In: Philosophical monthly books . Vol. 2, 1869, pp. 257, 345, 429.
  • About the new "philosophy of the unconscious". Hamelin 1871.
  • Clearly arranged Greek-German concise dictionary for all Greek literature. With a tabular list of irregular verbs. Together with Berthold Suhle. Leipzig 1875.
  • Homeric naivete. An aesthetic-cultural-historical study. Hamelin 1878.
  • Three popular philosophical essays. Hameln 1883 (1. “Arthur Schopenhauer and Eduard von Hartmann”, 2. “Adolph Steudel”, 3. “One of the winged words of Goethe's Faust as a harmonious formula for solving modern life”, OCLC 29274832 , digitized ).
  • Homeric vocabulary arranged factually. Paderborn 1883.
  • German and Latin written overview of the Ciceronian Miloniana and Sestiana. Hamelin 1884.
  • Ernst von Leutsch. A necrology. Goettingen 1888.
  • The Horazi wisdom from the fifteen odes dedicated to questions of the art of living. Hanover 1890.
  • Cicero and Jacob Grimm on old age. Hamburg 1893.
  • A comprehensive and metacritical review of Cicero's assessment of Epicurean ethics in his second book de finibus. Festschrift. Hamelin 1894.
  • The Jewish question in the German Reich. Attempt to reach an impartial arbitration award between anti-Semitism and philosemitism aimed at the salus publica. Hamelin 1894.
  • Ancient humanity. Berlin 1897.
  • About the life of Johannes Schneidewin (born 1519 in Stolberg) . See the article by Max Schneidewin . Stolberger Anzeiger, August 14, 1903.
  • The infinity of the world according to its meaning and its significance for humanity. Thoughts on the connection of the three hundred year memory of Giordano Bruno's martyrdom for the doctrine of the infinity of the world. Berlin 1909.
  • Skeptical thoughts on Faust's second monologue (= studies on comparative literary history ). Berlin 1909.
  • The Catholic Chancellor and Freedom of Thought. Hamelin 1918.
  • Aristotelian physiognomy. Conclusions from the physical to the soul. Heidelberg 1929.

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Max Schneidewin  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Theodor Lessing: Once and never again: Life memories. Prague 1935 (e-text of the 1965 edition).
  2. ↑ Gunnar Anger: Max Schneidewin. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL).
  3. ↑ The basis of the following two sections is the article by Gunnar Anger: Max Schneidewin. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL).
  4. ↑ See on German pragmatism Johannes Hirschberger : History of Philosophy Volume II , Frechen o. J. (Herder licensed edition) pp. 538–541.
  5. ↑ See Wilfried Altkrüger, Bernhard Gelderblom: "The people in arms". Publication of the association for regional cultural and contemporary history Hameln e. V.
  6. ↑ Index entry in the Deutsche Biographie .
  7. ↑ See three popular philosophical essays. Hameln 1883, especially pp. 4 f., 7-9, 26-29.
  8. ↑ The infinity of the world, according to its meaning and according to its meaning for humanity. Berlin 1900, p. 43.
  9. ↑ The infinity of the world, according to its meaning and according to its meaning for humanity. Berlin 1900, p. 37.
  10. ↑ Cf. for the previous sections: Schneidewin: The infinity of the world, according to its meaning and its significance for humanity. Berlin 1900, pp. 1-44. Further aspects of infinity can be found at Schneidewin.
  11. ↑ Cf. on the historical background Wilhelm Nestle : Greek world view in its meaning for the present. Lectures and papers. Stuttgart 1946, pp. 9-12.
  12. ↑ See the previous sections Schneidewin: Antike Humanität , pp. 8–46.
  13. ↑ Cf. Schneidewin: Drei popular-philosophische Essays, p. 48 and Gustav Wendt in a review of Max Schneidewin, Antike Humanität in: Das humanistische Gymnasium. Heidelberg 1899, pp. 17-28. Digitized.
personal data
SURNAME Schneidewin, Max
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schneidewin, Maximilian Paul Ernst Berthold (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Evangelical Lutheran theologian, philosopher and classical philologist
DATE OF BIRTH February 24, 1843
PLACE OF BIRTH Goettingen
DATE OF DEATH January 22, 1931
Place of death Hamelin