Ernst Ludwig von Leutsch

Ernst Ludwig of Leutsch ( born August 16, 1808 in Frankfurt am Main, † July 28, 1887 in Göttingen ) was a German classical scholar, who worked as a lecturer and professor in Göttingen. He is best known as a longtime editor of the journal Philologus.

Life

Ernst von Leutsch was born in 1808 in Frankfurt am Main, where his father was Friedrich August of Leutsch Royal Saxon envoy at the Prince Primate Karl Theodor von Dalberg. Even before the abdication of the Dalberg family Leutsch returned to Dresden, where Ernst von Leutsch attended high school. Later the family moved to Celle via Leipzig, where father Leutsch entered as Oberappellationsgerichtsrat in the Hanoverian civil service; from 1817 until his death he was vice-president of the Royal Upper Appeal. After graduation examination Ernst moved from Leutsch 1827, the University of Göttingen to study Classical Philology. Among his academic teachers were Georg Ludolf Dissen, Christoph Wilhelm Mitscherlich and Karl Otfried Müller. With fellow students August Geffers, Karl Ludwig Friedrich Wilhelm Schneidewin Grotefend and connected it to the end of life deep friendship. They met in their studies regularly philological meetings in which Professor Müller participated occasionally. The county took in 1828 with the purpose of pushing Adolf Emperius to the modern methods of textual criticism from school Gottfried Hermann. For meetings in his circle of friends also Leutschs dissertation Thebaidis cyclicae emerged reliquiae, with whom he was in 1830 a doctorate. Then went Leutsch for a year to Berlin to further his studies in August Boeckh.

After his return Leutsch habilitated in May 1831 in Göttingen and was appointed Privatdozent. His habilitation thesis, which he defended in 1833, earned him the appointment as assessor of the Philological Faculty. On May 2, 1837 after just five years as a lecturer, Leutsch was appointed associate professor and rose shortly after the death of dissent on the board member of the Philological Seminary.

1837 was the year in which the " Göttingen Seven" protested against the abolition of the Hanoverian constitution and lost their chairs because of their oaths refusal. Leutsch was not one of them, but wrote with five other professors a public protest against the Constitution and repeal the servile majority of the academic faculty. In addition to his colleagues Müller and Schneidewin the philosopher Heinrich Ritter and the lawyers Wilhelm Theodor herb and Heinrich Thöl him stood aside. This commitment cost the six lecturers some standing with the university administration, but had on their respective careers, no negative effect.

After the death miller of the Marburg professor Friedrich Karl Hermann was appointed in 1842 to Göttingen. This achieved by applying pressure to the Hanoverian state government that Leutsch and Schneidewin were appointed by his side to full professors at the University of Göttingen. With its new budget, the newly appointed professors could during the holidays in 1842 for a trip to Normandy. Here they could sift through a manuscript of Cicero 's De oratore and establish contacts with French philologist as Letronne and Boissonade.

To Schneidewin Leutsch had a very intimate relationship. So the death of colleagues in 1856 was a severe blow to him. In addition to the guidance of the seminar was Leutsch also the concern for the family of the deceased. In his time as a seminar leader, he was also appointed councilor of the Kingdom of Hanover. In the year of its 50th anniversary Doctor (1880 ) Leutsch received the title of Privy Governing Council. 1883 Leutsch became Professor Emeritus; his successor was appointed Ulrich von Wilamowitz - Moellendorff from Greifswald.

The last years of his life were marred by progressive blindness, the Leutsch led to dictate his letters and works. Only after a third eye surgery in March 1887, he gained his sight to such an extent again that he could write letters themselves. In this year its 50th anniversary professor and the 150 - year celebration of the Georg-August -Universität Göttingen fell. In the summer, on July 28 Leutsch died at the age of 78 years by a stroke. Since he had no children, the Göttingen University was determined in his will for the sole heir of his legacy. However, the university administration decided to distribute a large part of the heritage of the blood first-degree relatives of the deceased and claimed for himself only the extensive private library of the scholar.

Services

Leutschs greatest merit for the professional world, the editors of the magazine Philologus, which he had acquired in 1856 as successor to his late colleague Schneidewin was. He thought this only ten vintages old journal to enlarge and developed an extensive correspondence with colleagues from all over Europe to attract contributors. Thus, although the magazine won a wide range of articles, but took off in his professional standards and lagged behind in quality journals such as the Rhine Museum or the Hermes.

Ulrich von Wilamowitz- Moellendorff wrote in his memoirs, 1848-1914 (Berlin 1928, p 204): " The hope that the Philologus die with him, unfortunately not fulfilled. A magazine gets when she comes down the content by the librarians who do not let a tear off series. However, this has the advantage that it can easily stand out again as a new can establish itself. "

In addition to the Philologus as an institution for specialist scientific work he founded in 1868 the Philological indicators for reporting on developments and achievements, as well as a review body in the field of classical philology. This supplement of Philologus grew rapidly in scope, but his appearance was canceled after Leutschs death.

Criticism of Leutsch as academic teachers and researchers

Leutsch saw himself primarily as an academic teacher and published for that reason relatively few writings. Despite this self-understanding its low eloquence and his selection of the read ancient writers were frequently criticized. He cleared Pindar, Aristophanes, Thucydides, Livy and Tacitus a much space in his lectures that for the other representatives and periods of Greek and Roman literature had little time and the events are often emptied the semester end. His rivalry with Mr Hermann Sauppe, who wrote a much better Latin than Leutsch and spoke, the atmosphere affected the seminar. Leutsch tended to statarischen Translate smaller sections and so did not provide views of larger text complexes.