Otto Eduard Schmidt

Otto Eduard Schmidt (born August 21, 1855 in Reichenbach im Vogtland , † February 14, 1945 in Dresden ) was a German educator and writer .

Life

Birthplace in Langen Gasse 8 in Reichenbach in Vogtland, spring 2010

Symbolic gravestone in the cemetery of the St. Afra School in Meissen on May 15, 2011

Schmidt's house in Hirschsprung

Schmidt grew up as the seventh child of a Reichenbacher teacher and cantor. At an early stage he showed himself eager to learn and gifted. At the age of 13 he already spoke Latin and French and learned Greek. With the support of the Reichenbacher Realschuldirektor he applied for admission to the Kreuzgymnasium in Dresden at the age of 15 . Due to the excellent results of the entrance examination and his giftedness, Schmidt was waived the first year of school, so that he completed the Abitur in four instead of five years.

After graduating from high school, he studied philology and history at the University of Leipzig , which he obtained at the age of 23 with a doctorate as Dr. phil. completed. In 1878 Schmidt passed the state examination. In order to finance his living, Schmidt gave private lessons. In 1879 he became a senior teacher at the newly founded Wettiner Gymnasium in Dresden. From Easter 1880 Schmidt taught at the Royal High School in Dresden Neustadt. There he taught Latin, German and history for eleven years. From 1891 to 1905 he taught at the Princely School of St. Afra in Meißen. During this time he wrote an Afranian celebratory song in 1893, on the basis of which he was honored with the title of professor by the Saxon King Albert . In this position as a professor, Schmidt traveled to Italy in 1884 and 1898 on a scientific assignment. He lived in the teacher's apartment in the provost building of the economic courtyard of St. Afra. During this time he acquired a country house in Hirschsprung in the Ore Mountains , which he declared to be his adopted home. In 1905 he accepted the appointment as rector of the high school in Wurzen , where he taught history of literature, Latin, history and geography in the lower and upper prima . In 1910 he became rector of the Albertinum grammar school in Freiberg . In 1919 Schmidt retired and moved to the state capital Dresden at Blochmannstrasse 7, where he continued doing research and writing. He mainly worked on behalf of the Landesverein Sächsischer Heimatschutz eV. 1938 his wife died. In 1939 Schmidt became an honorary member of the Saxon Commission for History. Schmidt arrived at the age of 89 during the air raid on 13/14. Killed in February 1945 . His body was never found.

plant

From 1895 Schmidt published almost two hundred different books, essays and offprints, in which he dealt not only with Saxon history but also with Roman antiquity at the time of Marcus Tullius Cicero . In 1902 the first volume of his seven-volume main work, the Kursächsische Streifzüge, appeared . For this he wandered through the former Electorate of Saxony in the old borders before the Congress of Vienna . To this day, this work is a central standard work of Saxon home and specialist libraries. However, there is already clear evidence of Schmidt's problematic historical-political agitation against the Sorbian population in Upper Lusatia , which will culminate in his polemic Die Wenden of 1926. Following Theodor Fontane's hikes through the Mark Brandenburg , Schmidt is referred to as the Saxon Fontane .

Most important works

• M. Tullius Cicero's correspondence from his proconsulate in Cilicia to Caesar's murder , Teubner, Leipzig 1893
• Electoral Saxon Streifzüge , Vol. 1–4 Grunow, Vol. 5–7 Wilhelm and Bertha von Baensch Foundation, Leipzig / Dresden 1902ff.
• Picture atlas on Saxon history , Teubner, Leipzig 1909 (together with JL Sponsel)
• Minister Count Brühl and Karl Heinrich von Heinecken . Letters and files, characteristics and representations of Saxon history (1733–1763) , Brandstetter, Leipzig 1921
• Sachsenland - A home book for the Free State and Province of Saxony, Sachsen-Altenburg and Anhalt , Brandstetter, Leipzig 1925
• Prince Otto Carl Friedrich von Schönburg and his family. Family life and artistic care of a princely house in the age of sensitivity and romanticism , Seemann, Leipzig 1932
• Three Carlowitz brothers - Carl Adolf, Hans Georg and Anton von Carlowitz. Life pictures and letters from the romantic age of the wars of freedom and the constitutional struggles (1770–1840) , Koehler & Amelang, Leipzig 1933
• Wander, oh wander! Life memories, v. Baensch Foundation, Dresden, 1936.

Honors

In 1925 Otto Eduard Schmidt became an honorary citizen of his hometown Reichenbach, which in 1940 put a plaque on the house where he was born and later named a street in a new GDR development area after him. On the occasion of his 150th birthday, the Hirschsprung Home Support Association set up a memorial stone in Klengelpark and renamed a path in the Unterdorf as OE Schmidt Steig .

literature

• Rudolf Richter: Otto Eduard Schmidt. In: Mitteilungen des Landesverein Sächsischer Heimatschutz, Volume XIV, Issue 9–10 / 1925, pp. 321–327
• Karl-Hans Pollmer: Famous personalities from our homeland - Otto Eduard Schmidt. In: Erzgebirgische Heimatblätter 5/1980, pp. 105-106, ISSN  0232-6078
• Richard Klinkhardt: The Saxon forays of the Saxon Fontane. The Rundblick, Wurzen, No. 1, 1988.

Web links

• Literature by and about Otto Eduard Schmidt in the catalog of the German National Library
• Literature by and about Otto Eduard Schmidt in the Saxon Bibliography
• Professor Dr. Otto Eduard Schmidt - biography with portrait
• Dresden, Blochmannstrasse - Otto Eduard Schmidt's Dresden house at Blochmannstrasse 7 after the bombing
• With Otto Eduard Schmidt in the Spreewald with numerous photos
• Tales from the history of modern times. Höckner, Dresden 1887 ( digitized version ).
• with Oskar Enderlein: Tales from legend and history of antiquity and the first period of the Middle Ages. 5th edition Damm, Dresden 1901 ( digitized version ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Richard Klinkhardt: The Saxon forays of the Saxon Fontane. from: The panorama. Wurzen, No. 1, 1988.
2. ^ ^{A b} Gerhard Steinecke: Walking o Walking - In the footsteps of Otto Eduard Schmidt. in: Meißner Official Journal: Official notices of the city of Meißen. August 24, 2005, No. 8, page 10.
3. ↑ Manfred Schober : Alfred Meiche . In: Institute for Saxon History and Folklore (Ed.): Saxon Biography . "Significantly, Schmidt was made an honorary member in 1939 when the Saxon Commission for History was reorganized."
4. ↑ Zwahr, Hartmut: My countrymen. The Sorbs and Lusatia in the testimony of German contemporaries . Domowina Verlag, Bautzen 1984, p. 371-372 .
5. ↑ Alexander Rudolf: Life and work of Otto E. Schmidt. on: Internet presence of hirschsprung.de. 2010, online ( Memento of the original from July 9, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed March 24, 2010.