Otto Praetorius
Otto Praetorius, also: Prätorius (* 1636 in Cölln , today Berlin ; † February 28, 1668 in Wittenberg ) was a German historian, literary scholar, poet and university professor.
Life
As a child, Praetorius experienced the Thirty Years' War . His hometown was badly affected during this time; The plague, smallpox and the bacterial riot reduced the population from an initial 12,000 before the war to 5,000 at the end of the war. Praetorius found that he had no particular prospect of further development there. That is why he went to the University of Wittenberg on October 26, 1658 . Here, on June 7, 1661, he was appointed professor of poetry as the successor to his patron and father-in-law August Buchner , although he did not have a doctorate.
Some faculty members argued against his appointment. Nevertheless, he prevailed over the other applicants, not least thanks to the personal intervention of Elector Johann Georg II of Saxony . Only now did he acquire the degree of master's degree on October 15, 1661 . In 1665 he published the influential German poetics of his father-in-law August Buchner, which until then had only circulated by hand, in two parts, “e museo”. In 1668 he edited the first complete edition of Buchner's Latin university speeches.
In 1665 he also wrote a history of the House of Saxony, for which he also received the title of electoral historiographer. However, due to his untimely death, he was unable to complete his biography of Johann Georg I of Saxony . It was Konrad Samuel Schurzfleisch who continued the work he had started and received an extraordinary professorship in history at the University of Wittenberg.
Works
- (Ed.) August Buchner's guide to German poetry. Wittenberg 1665 (Ndr.Tübingen 1966)
- (Ed.) August Buchner's POET, from his posthumous library. Wittenberg 1665 (Ndr.Tübingen 1966)
- (Ed.) Augusti Buchneri Orationes panegyricae, habitae in Academia Wittenbergensi. 2 parts Cleve 1668 and so on.
- Panegyricum Friderico Wilhelmo Electorii Brandenburgensi ob pacis otium, dictum
- Secessum Roethaviensem
literature
- Praetorius, Otto. In: Johann Heinrich Zedler : Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts . Volume 29, Leipzig 1741, column 151.
- Heinz Kathe : The Wittenberg Philosophical Faculty 1502–1817 (= Central German Research. Volume 117). Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-412-04402-4 .
- Walter Friedensburg : History of the University of Wittenberg. Max Niemeyer, Halle (Saale) 1917
- Henning Witte: Diarium Biographicum . 2 vols. Danzig / Riga 1688–1691
Individual evidence
- ^ Bernhard Weissenborn: Album Academiae Vitebergensis - Younger Series Part 1 (1602–1660), Magdeburg 1934, p. 526
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Praetorius, Otto |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German historian and university professor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1636 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Cölln , today Berlin |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 28, 1668 |
| Place of death | Wittenberg |