Otto Kern (philologist)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Otto Kern. Oil drawing by Paul Moennich , 1906

Otto Ferdinand Georg Kern (born February 14, 1863 in Schulpforta ; † January 31, 1942 in Halle (Saale) ) was a German classical philologist and archaeologist . Kern mainly researched the Greek religion (especially Orphic ) and the ancient city of Magnesia am Meander and later also dealt with the history of ancient studies. From 1907 he was a professor at the University of Halle-Wittenberg , whose rector he became in 1915/16.

Life

Otto Kern was born near Naumburg an der Saale. His father Franz Kern was a senior teacher at the Pforta state school at the time , and later he became the school's director. Otto's mother was Clara Kern, née Runge, who was 14 years his junior. His father introduced him to the Greeks at an early age and also to German literature, especially Goethe . Otto Kern attended grammar school in Stettin , where his religion teacher Anton Jonas introduced him to the history of religion. From 1883 to 1887 he studied classical philology and archeology at the universities in Berlin and Göttingen. His lecturers there were renowned scientists such as Ernst Curtius , Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, and Hermann Diels and Carl Robert , whose lives he later examined in a biography. Kern's doctorate took place on January 21, 1888 in Berlin with the dissertation De Orphei Epimenidis Pherecydis theogoniis quaestiones criticae . After completing his doctorate, he was assistant to Carl Robert until 1890.

In the following years (from 1889) he worked as an archaeologist in Italy, Greece and Asia Minor. From 1889 to 1891 he was able to travel to the Mediterranean area as a scholarship holder of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) and from 1891 he digged together with Carl Humann in the ancient city of Magnesia am Mäander . He also dealt with this city in his habilitation thesis Founding History of Magnesia am Mäander from 1894. From 1894 he was a private lecturer in classical philology in Berlin, where he also worked as an unskilled worker in the sculpture department of the Royal Museums . In 1897 Kern was appointed associate professor at the University of Rostock ; from 1900 he was a full professor there. In 1907 he moved to the University of Halle, where he was elected rector in 1915/16. In Halle he founded the “Thiasos” working group on the history of religion. In 1922 he turned down an offer at the University of Hamburg . Before his retirement in 1931, he traveled again to Thessaly from 1925 to 1926 . He received two honorary doctorates from the University of Halle: in 1929 that of the law and political science faculty, and in 1930 that of the theological faculty. Kern became a member of the right-wing German Fatherland Party and then of the German National People's Party (DNVP). In 1937 he was elected a corresponding member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences .

Otto Kern died on January 31, 1942 at the age of 78. Parts of his estate are in the possession of the Göttingen University Library (Wilamowitz biography), in the central archive of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (materials on the Pozzo drawings) and in the archive of the German Archaeological Institute (one letter).

plant

Kern researched primarily in the field of religious history, his main work is the three-volume The Religion of the Greeks (1926–1938). In it he underlined in particular the relative independence of Greek religion from Greek mythology and instead emphasized the role of religious cult . His special field of research was the Greek mystery cults and orphics , which he had already dealt with in his dissertation and to which he later dedicated several works ( Orpheus , 1920; Orphicorum fragmenta , 1922). In the epigraphic field he published editions of the inscriptions from Magnesia am Maeander, the city in which he himself had led the excavations (especially Die Insschriften von Magnesia am Maeander , 1900). As part of the Inscriptiones Graecae he was commissioned to work out an edition of the Greek inscriptions of Thessaly, which appeared in 1913.

In addition, towards the end of his career he did research mainly on the history of classical studies. In 1924 he published a biography of the German classical scholar Friedrich August Wolf ; In 1927 he tried to write a biography of his teachers Hermann Diels and Carl Robert. He also contributed to research into the life and work of the classical philologist Karl Otfried Müller by editing part of his letters and a diary ( Carl Otfried Müller , 1908; Correspondence , 1936). For the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie he also wrote articles on important ancient historians and classical philologists. Before his death he worked on a biography of his teacher Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorf, which he could no longer complete. Kern's autobiographical work Meine Lehrer (manuscript, dated 1939, owned by the Archaeological Institute of Humboldt University Berlin ) was published from 2002 to 2006 under the direction of Michael Hillgruber and was published in 2008.

Fonts

  • De Orphei Epimenidis Pherecydis theogoniis quaestiones criticae . Berlin 1888.
  • The founding story of Magnesia on Maiandros. A new certificate . 1894.
  • The development of classical studies at the University of Rostock . 1906.
  • War and cult among the Greeks . Hall a. P. 1915.
  • Orpheus. A study of the history of religion . 1920.
  • Friedrich August Wolf . M. Niemeyer, Halle a. P. 1924.
  • The Greek Mysteries of the Classical Period . Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, Berlin 1927.
  • Hermann Diels and Carl Robert. A biographical attempt . OR Reisland, Leipzig 1927.
  • The religion of the Greeks . 3 volumes, Weidmann, Berlin 1926–1938 (reprinted Berlin 1963).
  • My teachers. Memories [1939]. Edited by Michael Hillgruber. Hildesheim 2008.
As editor
  • The inscriptions of magnesia on the maeander . Spemann, Berlin 1900 (reprinted Berlin 1967).
  • Carl Otfried Muller. Life picture in letters to his parents with the diary of his Italian-Greek trip . Edited by Else and Otto Kern. Berlin 1908.
  • Inscriptiones Graecae . Volume 7, Marcus & Weber, Bonn 1913.
  • Orphicorum fragmenta . Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, Berlin 1922.
  • From the official and scientific correspondence of Carl Otfried Müller. Selected pieces with explanations by Otto Kern . Göttingen 1936.

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Otto Kern  - Sources and full texts

Remarks

  1. ↑ See Otto Eißfeldt's obituary, in: Historische Zeitschrift 166, 1942, p. 219 f., Here in particular p. 220.
  2. ↑ Henrik Eberle: The Martin Luther University in the time of National Socialism. Mdv, Halle 2002, ISBN 3-89812-150-X , p. 379.
  3. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 130.
  4. ↑ See Otto Eißfeldt's obituary, in: Historische Zeitschrift 166, 1942, p. 219 f., Here p. 219.
personal data
SURNAME Kern, Otto
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kern, Otto Ferdinand Georg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German classical philologist and archaeologist
DATE OF BIRTH February 14, 1863
PLACE OF BIRTH School gate
DATE OF DEATH January 31, 1942
Place of death Halle (Saale)