Wilhelm Hoerschelmann

Wilhelm Hoerschelmann

Wilhelm Hoerschelmann (born March 25, 1849 in Oberpahlen ; † November 17, 1895 in Dorpat ) was a Baltic German classical philologist and theologian who had been a professor at the University of Dorpat since 1875 .

Life

Wilhelm Hoerschelmann came from an old family of pastors and scholars in Livonia. His father Emil Hoerschelmann (1810-1854), a pastor in Oberpahlen, died early, so that Hoerschelmann grew up with his uncle in Werro in Estonia. Hoerschelmann attended secondary school there and in Reval .

After graduation (1867) Hoerschelmann studied philology and theology at the University of Dorpat. In the fourth semester, he won the university's award assignment. He continued his studies in Tübingen and Göttingen . Here he was particularly influenced by the orientalist Theodor Benfey , the archaeologist Curt Wachsmuth and the philologist Hermann Sauppe . In 1873 Hoerschelmann returned to Dorpat for a short time to take his exam there.

He then deepened his studies at the University of Leipzig with Friedrich Ritschl , who decisively shaped and promoted Hoerschelmann's scientific career. With the award paper , which he had submitted to the Göttingen Academy of Sciences last year , he received his doctorate in 1874 and qualified as a professor shortly afterwards . Hoerschelmann's research focus was (through Ritschl's influence) the Greek metrics and grammarians as well as the Roman poets. In addition to his work as a private lecturer at the University of Leipzig, he also taught at the Russian philological seminar that Ritschl directed.

As early as 1875, at the age of 26, Hoerschelmann was appointed to the University of Dorpat on Ritschl's recommendation, where he worked as an extraordinary professor of classical philology and head of the philological seminar. After he had passed the Magister exam in Dorpat (1876) and had received his doctorate again (1877), he was appointed full professor. From 1884 to 1886 he was dean of the philological faculty. In 1888 he was appointed to the Real Council of State.

In the twenty years he worked in Dorpat, Hoerschelmann gave the university a new boost for philology studies: he reformed the seminar and introduced modern, methodically oriented training courses for students. His younger colleague Ludwig Mendelssohn , who had already studied with him and was appointed to Dorpat in 1876, supported him in this.

Hoerschelmann put his own scientific production on hold in Dorpat. Not only was he busy with his teaching and administration tasks, he also suffered from poor eyesight and heart failure. Through the efforts of the curator Mikhail Nikolajewitsch Kapustin to completely Russianify the University of Dorpat, Hoerschelmann, like his other German colleagues, was pushed back further and further. Nevertheless, he did not try to get a transfer to another university. He died of a heart attack in 1895 at the age of 46.

Hoerschelmann's family moved to Munich after his death. His children include the physicist and translator Harald von Hoerschelmann (1878–1941) and the painter Rolf von Hoerschelmann (1885–1947). Wilhelm Hoerschelmann's estate is in the Bavarian State Library in Munich .

literature

• Ludwig Mendelssohn: Wilhelm Hoerschelmann . In: Biographisches Jahrbuch für Altertumskunde 20, 1897, pp. 151–156 (with list of publications)
• Roderich von Engelhardt: The German University of Dorpat in its intellectual historical significance . Franz Kluge Reval 1933 (reprint 1969). Pp. 352-354.

Web links

• Overview of the courses of Wilhelm Hoerschelmann at the University of Leipzig (summer semester 1874 to winter semester 1875)
• Baltic Historical Commission (ed.): Entry on Wilhelm Hoerschelmann. In: BBLD - Baltic Biographical Lexicon digital
• Estate in the Bavarian State Library