Rudolf Schneider (historian)

Rudolf Schneider (full name Ernst Rudolf Schneider , born August 12, 1852 in Mühlberg / Elbe , † May 9, 1911 in Heidelberg ) was a German military historian and high school teacher.

Life

Rudolf Schneider, the son of the businessman Heinrich Schneider, grew up with four brothers and a sister in Mühlberg on the Elbe . From 1866 to 1870 he attended the Pforta State School . At the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War he was admitted to the final exam by the rector Karl Ludwig Peter , although he was only a subpriman. After passing the exam, Schneider joined the 107th Infantry Regiment in Leipzig , which was posted to France after just a few weeks. He took part in several battles and witnessed the siege of Paris with his two older brothers . In 1871 he received the war memorial .

After his return from the war, Schneider studied classical philology and German at the universities of Berlin , Leipzig and Greifswald . In Leipzig he wrote his dissertation with Eduard Zarncke on the war of singers at the Wartburg , with which he was awarded a doctorate on October 16, 1875. phil. received his doctorate . In his last semesters of study in Greifswald, he especially joined the philologist Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff and passed the teaching examination in Latin, Greek and German on July 1, 1876.

After completing his studies, Schneider entered the Prussian school service. He completed the probationary year at the Sophien-Gymnasium in Berlin from October 1, 1876 to October 1, 1877 , where he was then employed as a full teacher. On April 1, 1879, he moved to the Königsstädtische grammar school , where he was appointed senior teacher on October 1, 1886 and a grammar school professor on December 18, 1894. In September 1903 he received the Order of the Red Eagle, 4th class; shortly afterwards he retired for health reasons (October 1, 1903). He moved to Mühlberg / Elbe, and later to Heidelberg, where he continued to do research for a few years. He died on May 9, 1911 after a long illness at the age of 58.

Schneider's research focus was ancient military history, especially with regard to tactics and siege technology . He studied the writings of the Corpus Caesarianum and supported his friend, the Caesar researcher Heinrich Meusel , in the edition of Caesar's De bello Gallico (1894). Schneider's annotated editions of De bello Africo and De bello Alexandrino appeared in 1884 and 1905, respectively; they saw a second edition in 1962.

In his retirement, Schneider mainly dealt with the reconstruction of the ancient guns. Together with the technical historian Major General Erwin Schramm , he published several studies in which he combined philological textual criticism with technical knowledge. Its results were lively discussed in the professional world and challenged in detail, but represented an important step forward for their time. Schneider's three-volume edition Greek Poliorketists (1908–1912) and his monograph Die Artillerie des Mittelalters (1910) were reprinted in 1970 and 1985, respectively.

Fonts (selection)

• The second part of the Wartburg War and its relation to Lohengrin . Mühlberg 1875 (dissertation)
• Ilerda. A contribution to Roman war history . Berlin 1886
• Bellum Alexandrinum . Berlin 1888. 2nd edition 1962
• Legion and Phalanx. Tactical Investigations . Berlin 1893
• C. Iulii Caesaris belli Gallici libri VII. A. Hirtii liber VIII. Edited for school use by H. Meusel. With an appendix: The Roman War System in Caesar's Time by R. Schneider . Berlin 1894
• Bellum Africanum. Edited and explained . Berlin 1905. 2nd edition 1962
• Guns on handwritten pictures . Metz 1907
• Anonymi de rebus bellicis liber. Text and explanations . Berlin 1908
• The ancient artillery of the Saalburg. Explanations of Schramm's reconstructions . Homburg 1908. 2nd edition, Berlin 1910. 3rd edition 1913
• Greek polio orcetician. Edited and translated with the handwritten images in 3 volumes, Berlin 1908–1912. Reprint Göttingen 1970
• The artillery of the Middle Ages. Depicted according to the information provided by contemporaries . Berlin 1910. Reprint Aalen 1985
• Guns. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume VII, 1, Stuttgart 1910, Col. 1297-1322.

literature

• Heinrich Meusel: Rudolf Schneider . In: Annual report on the progress of classical antiquity . 41st year 1913, 164th volume. Nekrologe (= Biographical Yearbook for Classical Studies . 35th year, pp. 99-104)

Web links

Wikisource: Rudolf Schneider  - Sources and full texts

• Rudolf Schneider's personnel sheet in the personnel file of the BIL expert body in the archive database of the Library for Research on Educational History (BBF)