Wilhelm Schubart (philologist)

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Wilhelm Schubart (born October 21, 1873 in Liegnitz , † August 9, 1960 in Halle ) was a German classical philologist , ancient historian and papyrologist .

Life

Schubart, the son of a Saxon consistorial councilor, studied ancient history, classical philology and philosophy at the universities of Tübingen , Halle , Berlin and Wroclaw from 1892 to 1897 . After the state examination and doctorate with Ulrich Wilcken on the subject of Quaestiones de rebus militaribus, quales fuerint in regno Lagidarum in 1897, he worked as assistant director in the service of the Royal Museums in Berlin . His habilitation took place in 1900, the dissertation was also recognized as a habilitation achievement. From 1900 Schubart worked in the Berlin papyrus collection and made a name for himself as co-editor of the Berlin Classic Texts (1904–1907). As head of the papyrus collection from 1912 to 1937 he gained a great reputation through his collecting and deciphering activities: in 1912 he was appointed professor, from 1925 to 1934 he was a co-editor of the Gnomon editorial team and in 1920 received an honorary doctorate from the Law Faculty of the University of Frankfurt on the Main . From 1933 he taught as an honorary professor of ancient history at Berlin University. After the National Socialists came to power in 1937, he resigned from his professorship and headed the papyrus collection. After his apartment in Berlin-Lichterfelde and the library were destroyed in a bomb attack towards the end of the Second World War , Schubart and his wife moved to live with relatives in Zwickau.

After the end of the war, Schubart was appointed to the Chair of Ancient History at the University of Leipzig in 1946 . After his retirement in 1952, at the age of 78, he moved to his wife Gertrud Schubart-Fikentscher in Halle, where she taught as a professor for German legal history and civil law. After years of care by his wife, Schubart died in Halle on August 9, 1960 at the age of 86.

Schubart was a full member of the Saxon Academy of Sciences , corresponding member of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin , the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen , the British Academy and the Austrian Academy of Sciences , honorary member of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies , foreign member of Royal Society of Science and Education in Gothenburg , founding member and honorary president of the Comité Internationale de Papyrologie of the Association International de Papyrologues . The government of the German Democratic Republic awarded him the honorary title of Outstanding People's Scientist .

meaning

Schubart's greatest achievements are in the field of papyrology, which he enriched through his work as head of the Berlin papyrus collection, as editor of new discoveries and as a profound expert on ancient books. His work The Book with the Greeks and Romans (Berlin 1907. Berlin ²1921. Heidelberg ³1962, edited by Eberhard Paul) provides a concise, clear and innovative introduction to the topic. His introduction to papyrus studies (Berlin 1918. Reprinted Berlin 1980) stood in the shadow of the six years earlier published Grundzüge und Chrestomathie der Papyruskunde by Ludwig Mitteis and Ulrich Wilcken . Historical research also emerged from Schubart's papyrological activity: In the books A Millennium on the Nile (Berlin 1912. Berlin ²1923) and Egypt from Alexander the Great to Mohammed (Berlin 1922) he vividly describes Greek, Roman and early Byzantine life in Egypt. Numerous smaller writings on various topics from antiquity to modern times appeared in an anthology under the title Faith and Education in the Changing Times (Munich 1947).

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Members of the SAW: Wilhelm Schubart. Saxon Academy of Sciences, accessed December 1, 2016 .

Web links