Richard Reitzenstein

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Richard August Reitzenstein (born April 2, 1861 in Breslau ; † March 23, 1931 in Göttingen ) was a German classical philologist and religious historian .

Life

Reitzenstein was a student at the Maria Magdalenen Gymnasium in Breslau until he graduated from high school in 1879 . He then studied in Berlin with Theodor Mommsen and received his doctorate in 1884 with Johannes Vahlen with a source-critical study of missing authors by Cato and Columella . He then worked for Mommsen for a long time in Italian libraries. On February 24, 1888 Reitzenstein completed his habilitation in Breslau with a study of detailed problems in the tradition of the Alexander campaign at Arrian . In 1889 he became an associate professor for classical philology in Rostock . From 1892 to 1893 Reitzenstein was a full professor in Gießen and then moved to Strasbourg . The encounter with the local representatives of historical-critical exegesis and the acquaintance with the Egyptologist Wilhelm Spiegelberg , who accompanied Reitzenstein on a study and research trip in 1898 and whose papyrus finds form the basis of Reitzenstein's Strasbourg manuscript collection, stimulated Reitzenstein to deal with questions of religious history. In 1911 he was appointed to Freiburg im Breisgau and in 1914 to succeed Friedrich Leo in Göttingen . There he became a pioneering representative of the School of Religious History , although at that time he was hardly concerned with issues of the history of religion, but almost exclusively with Latin authors. In 1928 Reitzenstein retired. His successor at the chair was Eduard Fraenkel . After his death, his students dedicated a commemorative publication to him for his 70th birthday on April 2, 1931, which was published by Eduard Fraenkel and Hermann Fränkel .

Richard Reitzenstein was married to Antonie Keil (1864–1934) since 1890. The couple had a daughter and two sons: the librarian Richard Reitzenstein (1894–1982) and the classical philologist Erich Reitzenstein (1897–1976).

Services

Reitzenstein's importance lies primarily in the fertility of the Hellenistic mystery religions for New Testament exegesis and the research into ancient syncretism and gnosis , whose origins he derived from Egypt since his Poimandres (1904) and from an Iranian redeemer myth since 1916. In addition, in the wake of the Semitist Mark Lidzbarski, he pointed out the importance of the Mandaean traditions for understanding the Gospel of John and above all the explanation of the baptism of St. John and the early Christian baptism ritual. The theologian Rudolf Bultmann took up these impulses later. Furthermore Reitzenstein drew attention to the parallelism of Hellenistic philosophers' lives and travel novels with the apocryphal literature of the apostles. Finally, he influenced the research on Theognis decisively, whose work he as for content stocked Kommersbuch at her.

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Richard Reitzenstein  - Sources and full texts