Paul Thielscher

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Paul Thielscher (born April 16, 1881 in Stein near Sibyllenort , Silesia , † April 14, 1962 in Berlin ) was a German classical philologist .

Life

Paul Adolf Thielscher came from a Silesian farming family. His father, grandfather, and great-grandfather had been country teachers. Thielscher himself studied Classical Philology and History at the University of Breslau . He particularly highlights Franz Skutsch and Eduard Norden among his academic teachers . In 1906 he was charged with a thesis on the history of transmission of the Flavian poet Statius , Silius Italicus and Manilius Dr. phil. PhD . On December 14th of the same year he passed the first state examination in Greek, Latin and history. In the following year (1907) he did his habilitation at the University of Kiel , which he achieved on October 23. He then taught in the winter semester of 1907/1908 as a private lecturer in Kiel. On April 26, 1908, he left the teaching staff at the university and switched to teaching.

Thielscher was active in the school service in various cities in the province of Pomerania : After the seminar year in Kolberg and the trial year in Stargard , Thielscher was employed as a senior teacher in Pyritz in October 1910 . In April 1913 he moved to Demmin as a senior teacher , where he worked for more than ten years. In 1914 he joined the newly founded Association for Homeland Care zu Demmin, of which he was chairman from 1922 to 1924, and in his spare time he worked in the Demmin District Home Museum , where he worked on the pewter, coin and autograph collections and the sculptural works. In May 1924 Thielscher left Demmin and went to Dramburg as a teacher . In August he moved to Köslin . In August 1929 he moved to Berlin-Friedenau . Here he retired on April 1, 1933.

Thielscher spent the last phase of his life in Berlin (from 1933 to 1962) as a private scholar. He took advantage of the city's rich academic network while continuing his academic work. For example, he associated with the legal historian Ulrich von Lübenow , the historian Otto-Friedrich Gandert and the Christian archaeologist Klaus Wessel .

Services

Thielscher's scientific work spans a wide area, which is due to his wide-ranging interests and versatile talent. Two constants are the preoccupation with ancient texts and with technical subjects.

His first research work on Flavian poetry was based on his dissertation. He published his studies on the complex history of transmission, especially of Manilius, in various journals from 1907 to 1956. As early as 1907, Jacobus van Wageningen followed Thielscher's first discoveries in his Manilius edition. The later studies influenced the new edition by George P. Goold (1985, 1998). In addition, Thielscher published further studies on Cicero's topic, on the writings of Aristotle , on ancient theater and games and on the Germania of Tacitus .

Thielscher extended his work from the pagan literature of antiquity to the Gospels and Jesus research. In 1930 he published an extensive book The Self-Development of the Material in the Four Gospels , which formed the first volume in a series with the title Our knowledge of Jesus. A new way of investigating sources . Four volumes were planned, which Thielscher completed in manuscript (he also revised the first part). However, there was no publication.

Thielscher pursued technical interests in his essay on Caesar's Rhine Bridge (1939), which he wrote together with Karl Saatmann and Emil Jüngst. He identified the architect of this bridge with Vitruvius , as he explained in the relevant RE article . Thielscher's late work was an annotated translation of Cato 's De agri cultura . To explain the text, which is considered particularly difficult because of its numerous technical details and was misunderstood by several editors and translators, Thielscher consulted specialists from the fields of early history, agriculture and medicine.

Fonts (selection)

  • De Statii Silvarum Silii Manilii scripta memoria . Breslauer Dissertation, Tübingen 1906 (= Philologus . Volume 66 (1907), pp. 85-134).
  • Our knowledge of Jesus. A new way of investigating sources . Volume 1: The self-development of the material in the four Gospels . Gotha 1930.
  • District home museum Demmin: The sculptures . Demmin 1937.
  • District home museum Demmin: The pewter tools and their masters . Demmin 1937.
  • with Karl Saatmann and Emil Jüngst: Caesar's Rhine Bridge . In: Bonner Jahrbücher 143/144, 1938/39, pp. 83–208
  • Marcus Cato's instruction on agriculture . Berlin 1963.

literature

  • Ulrich von Lübenow: Paul Thielscher † . In: Gnomon . Volume 34 (1962), pp. 638-639
  • Friedrich Volbehr : Professors and lecturers at the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel . Fourth edition, edited by Rudolf Bülck, completed by Hans-Joachim Newiger . Kiel 1956, p. 216

Web links
personal data
SURNAME Thielscher, Paul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Thielscher, Paul Adolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German classical philologist
DATE OF BIRTH April 16, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH Stein near Sibyllenort , Silesia
DATE OF DEATH April 14, 1962
Place of death Berlin