Oluf Gerhard Tychsen

Relief portrait of the orientalist Oluf Gerhard Tychsen on the main university building in Rostock

Oluf Gerhard Tychsen (born December 14, 1734 in Tondern ; † December 30, 1815 in Rostock ) was a German orientalist and librarian .

Life

Tychsen studied at the University of Halle . After graduating, he worked in Halle as a teacher at the orphanage of the Francke Foundations . In 1763 Tychsen accepted a position as professor for oriental languages at the University of Bützow and stayed that way until 1789.

When Duke Friedrich Franz I merged the universities of Bützow and Rostock that year and chose Rostock as the location, Tychsen advanced to the position of chief librarian (library director).

In addition to expanding the university library, Tychsen also devoted a lot of time to his private research library. With a few exceptions, the University of Rostock bought his entire estate.

The Bützow secondary hours are considered his main work. The six volumes were written between 1766 and 1769 and were a treasure trove for Jewish history. Today Tychsen is considered one of the founders of Arabic palaeography and was the first to achieve some success with his attempts to decipher cuneiform writing .

From 1803 Tychsen was an extraordinary and from 1812 honorary member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences . Since 1813 he was a foreign member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences . Tychsen received two honorary doctorates in 1813 from the theological and legal faculties of the University of Rostock.

Works (selection)

Correspondence 1777-1815 . Rostock University Library 1992

Letters from Oluf Gerhard Tychsen .
Letters from Giovanni Bernardo de Rossi

Bützow secondary hours. Dedicated to various matters pertaining to oriental scholarship . Bützow 1766/69

literature

Günter Camenz: Die Herzoglichen, Friedrichs University and Pedagogy of Bützow in Mecklenburg , Bützow: Gänsebrunnen Verlag, 2004
Heinrich Doering : The learned theologians of Germany in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Neustadt an der Orla: Johann Karl Gottfried Wagner, 1835, vol. 4, pp. 529–540 ( online with extensive bibliography)
Ramona French: Oluf Gerhard Tychsen. A German orientalist of the 18th century . Dissertation, University of Rostock 1984
Anton Theodor Hartmann : Biblical-Asian guide to Oluf Gerhard Tychsen . Heyse, Bremen 1823, digitized
Anton Theodor Hartmann: Strange supplements to the literary-biographical works dedicated to the OG Tychsen's merits . Heyse, Bremen 1818, digitized
Anton Theodor Hartmann: Oluf Gerhard Tychsen or walks through the most varied areas of biblical-Asian literature . Heyse, Bremen 1818/20 (4 volumes) Volume 1 , Volume 2.1 , Volume 2.2 , Volume 2.3 , Volume 3
Heinrich Klenz : Tychsen, Oluf Gerhard . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 39, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1895, pp. 38-51.
Heike Tröger: The acquisition of the estate of Oluf Gerhard Tychsen, orientalist and librarian by the Rostock University Library . University of Rostock 1990

Web links

Individual evidence

^ Members of the previous academies. Olaus (Oluf) Gerhard Tychsen (Tüchsen). Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities , accessed on June 23, 2015 .

personal data
SURNAME	Tychsen, Oluf Gerhard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Tychsen, Olaus Gerhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German orientalist
DATE OF BIRTH	December 14, 1734
PLACE OF BIRTH	Tondern
DATE OF DEATH	December 30, 1815
Place of death	Rostock

[1] Members of the previous academies. Olaus (Oluf) Gerhard Tychsen (Tüchsen). Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities , accessed on June 23, 2015 .