Rudolf crowd

Rudolf Quantity (born June 7, 1845 in Weimar , † October 23, 1912 in Oldenburg ) was a German high school teacher and classical philologist .

Life and work

Quantity was the son of the Weimar master mason Bernhard Quantity. Since the father had left the family before the birth of his son, the mother Emma nee Föckler was solely responsible for the livelihood and upbringing of Rudolf and his brother. Crowd grew up in meager living conditions, which he improved as a child and adolescent through the provision of tutoring and temporary work. From 1857 he attended the Wilhelm-Ernst-Gymnasium Weimar . Attending school, which was made possible for him through scholarships, he completed in 1864 with the Abitur. He then studied classical philology and philosophy at the universities of Jena and Berlin . He was able to complete his studies in Jena in 1867 with a doctorate in philosophy, and in the same year began his first teaching position at his old grammar school in Weimar. In 1868 he traveled to Denmark to study . The following year he passed the state examination in Göttingen. Further study trips followed in Paris in 1870 and to Italy in 1872 , which aroused an interest in classical art history in Quantity. In 1890 he improved and completed his knowledge on a long study trip to Italy and Greece . He was one of the first high school teachers to incorporate his travels and on-site educational experience into his lessons and also placed a focus on art education, on which he published extensively. His further interest was in the life and work of Caesar , which he also prepared for high school lessons. In 1883 he published the first school edition of De bello Gallico and in 1893 that of De bello civili . Both works were successful and by 1910 had a total of 14 or 3 editions. From 1885 to 1910 he also edited a Lexicon Caesarianum together with Siegesmund Preuss .

On October 6, 1876, crowd was transferred to the Karl-Friedrich-Gymnasium in Eisenach and appointed professor there in 1880. With the help of a few colleagues, Menge founded a school museum there , which offered visual aids for geographical, historical and natural history lessons for all schools in the city. Furthermore, with financial support from Grand Duke Carl Alexander, he created a collection of large photographs to illustrate art and life in antiquity. At Easter 1886 he moved to the Francke Foundations in Halle . There he received the post of second professor for Latin language with the salary of a Prussian director and was at the same time Inspector Adiunctus of the affiliated alumnate of the school. During the years in Halle, Quantity turned to his third publication focus, practical pedagogy . From the end of the 1870s he was inspired by his contact with Wilhelm Rein , the last representative of Herbartianism , and with the Association for Scientific Education in Jena, to which Rein was also a member and whose board of directors was later elected to him. In 1896 he became co-editor of the magazine Lehrprobe und Lehrzüge , founded by Gustav Richter and Otto Frick , which also propagated Herbart's pedagogy . His commitment also intensified Menge's criticism of the prevailing practice of high school teaching:

“We still suffer terribly from mechanisms, yes, the same is raised by our school organism or at least by the practice prevailing in it. Because the grammar school is considered to be the best, where the Reiflinge can babble on the most without having to think. "

- Rudolf crowd

In 1895, Quantity was finally appointed to the Oldenburg Evangelical Teachers' College as a high school supervisor, which was also connected to the position of a consultant in the State Ministry. With this position, Quantity took over the school supervision of the higher and middle schools as well as fifty elementary schools, the teachers 'seminar and the daughter schools of the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg and also took care of administrative tasks such as school construction as well as the teachers' pay and school law. He reformed the curricula of high schools (1898) and middle schools (1908), based on Prussian models, and also reformed teaching.

Furthermore, he was committed to the popular education associations, and he supported the organizers of the popular entertainment evenings in Oldenburg. As a result of his diverse activities, from 1895 his publications were reduced to a few, mainly practical school writings, which he published in magazines and handbooks. In his private life, crowd was involved in the German language association , the colonial association and the literary sociable association , insofar as his time allowed . Friendships connected him with the director of the Oberrealschule Krause and the orientalist Carl Albrecht . In 1908 quantity was relieved by the introduction of full-time school inspectors for the elementary schools. Quantity died of blood poisoning in 1912 after an operation.

family

Quantity married Minna Sältzer on July 10, 1875, the daughter of a Weimar councilor. The sons Paul and Fritz and the daughter Elisabeth emerged from the marriage.

Works (selection)

• De Marci Masuri Cretensis Vita Studiis Ingenio. Jena. 1868.
• High school and art. Eisenach. 1877.
• Roman art conditions in the age of Augustus. Berlin. 1878.
• Introduction to ancient art. Leipzig. 1880. 2nd edition: 1901. English edition: 1887.
• together with S. Preuß: Questiones Caesarianae. Eisenach. 1883.
• Lexicon Caesarianum. Leipzig. 1885-1890.
• About the relative in the language of Caesar. Hall. 1889.
• Troy and the Troas portrayed according to their own views. Gutersloh. 1891. 2nd edition: 1905.
• Ithaca from my own experience. Gütersloh 1891, 2nd edition: 1903. (Ed.),
• As editor: August Hermann Böger Niemeyer: Original passages from Greek and Roman classics on the theory of education and teaching. Hall. 1898.

literature

• Hilke Günther-Arndt : Quantity, Rudolf. In: Hans Friedl u. a. (Ed.): Biographical manual for the history of the state of Oldenburg . Edited on behalf of the Oldenburg landscape. Isensee, Oldenburg 1992, ISBN 3-89442-135-5 , pp. 450-451 ( online ).

Web links

• Literature by and about Rudolf Menge in the catalog of the German National Library