Victor Bérard

Victor Bérard as a member of the Jura department in 1920

Victor Bérard (born August 10, 1864 in Morez , † November 13, 1931 in Paris ) was a French ancient historian , classical philologist and politician .

Victor Bérard studied history from 1884 to 1887 at the École normal supérieure in Paris . He was then a member of the École française d'Athènes until 1890 . In 1894 he received his doctorate in Paris with the work De l'origine des cultes arcadiens . Two years later he became Maître de conférences , i.e. a permanent university professor, at the École des hautes études , where he taught historical geography until 1908 . At the same time he taught the subject until 1914 at the École Navale . From 1908 to 1931 he headed the Department of Historical Geography at the École pratique des hautes études . Henri Seyrig was one of his students .

Scientifically, Bérard was particularly concerned with the historical geography of the Mediterranean region . His research on Homer's Odyssey was particularly shaped by geographic issues. Inspired by the research results of Heinrich Schliemann , Bérard stated that Homer traced the sea ​​routes of his time used by the Phoenicians in the Odyssey quite precisely. Thus, according to Bérard's research, the work was not purely fictitious. On two sailing trips of his own, Bérard tried to recreate the knowledge of the Phoenicians. He not only documented these journeys in text form, but also photographically through Frédéric Boissonnas . From today's point of view, his approaches are considered outdated, but also original. In the debate about the localization of Atlantis , he was one of the first researchers to propose a theory that Atlantis should be localized in North Africa .

Bérard was also politically active. In January 1898 he was among the signatories of a petition calling for the verdict in the Dreyfus affair to be revised . From 1904 to 1911 he was Secretary General of the Revue de Paris , where he was responsible for contributions to French foreign policy. As an active politician, he represented his home region, the Jura department , as a senator from 1920 to 1931 . From 1921 to 1929 he was chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee and the Education Committee. He also dealt scientifically with politics and modern history. In publications he dealt with the development of the Ottoman Empire and the foreign policy of Germany and France.

Bérard's son Armand Bérard was a diplomat and French ambassador to the United Nations .

Fonts

• La Turquie et l'hellénisme contemporain. La Macédoine: Hellènes. Bulgares. Valaques. Albanais. Austria. Serbs. Alcan, Paris 1893 ( digitized ).
• with Martin Melkonian: La Politique du Sultan. Les massacres des Arméniens 1894–1896. Les Marches du Temps, 1897.
• L'Angleterre et l'impérialisme. Armand Colin, Paris 1900 ( digitized version , digitized version of the English translation from 1906 ).
• Les affaires de crète. Armand Colin, Paris 1902 ( digitized version ).
• Les Phéniciens et l'Odyssée. Armand Colin, Paris 1902 ( digitized volume 1 , volume 2 ).
• The Russian empire and czarism. D. Nutt, London 1905 ( digitized version ).
• La France et Guillaume II. Armand Colin, Paris 1907 ( digitized version ).
• La Révolution Turque. Armand Colin, Paris 1909 ( digitized ).
• Revolutions de la Perse. Les provinces, les peuples et le gouvernement du roi des rois. Armand Colin, Paris 1910 ( digitized ).
• La Mort de Stamboul. 1913.
• Un mensonge de la science allemande. Les "Prolégomènes à Homère" by Frédéric-Auguste Wolf. 2nd Edition. Hachette et Cie, Paris 1917 ( digitized version ).
• Les traités de 1915 et de 1916. Discours à la réunion de la Serbie victorieuse tenue au Grand Amphithéatre de la Sorbonne le 16 janvier 1919. Blanchong, Paris 1919 ( digitized ).
• Les navigations d'Ulysse. Armand Colin, Paris 1927–1929.
  • I. Ithaque et la Grèce des Achéens.
  • II. Pénélope et les barons des îles.
  • III. Calypso et la mer de l'Atlantide.
  • IV. Nausicaa et le retour d'Ulysse.
• La Résurrection d'Homère. Bernard Grasset, 1930.
  • I.Au temps des héros.
  • II. Le drame epique.
• L'Odyssée d'Homère. Etude et analyze. Mellotee, Paris 1931.
• In the sillage d'Ulysse. Album odysséen. Armand Colin, Paris 1933.

literature

• Angelika Lozar: Bérard, Victor. In: Peter Kuhlmann , Helmuth Schneider (Hrsg.): History of the ancient sciences. Biographical Lexicon (= The New Pauly . Supplements. Volume 6). Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2012, ISBN 978-3-476-02033-8 , column 80 f.

Web links

• Tabular CV (French)