Georg Friedrich Grotefend
Georg Friedrich Grotefend ( born June 9, 1775 in Hann Munden, . † December 15, 1853 in Hannover ) was a German linguist and archaeologist. He began with the decipherment of cuneiform.
Life and work
Georg Friedrich Grotefend was a brother of General Superintendent Johann Gregor Grotefend (1766-1837), father of the historian Karl Ludwig Grotefend (1807-1874) and grandfather of the archivist and chronologists Grotefend Hermann ( 1845-1931 ).
Grotefend visited up to the age of 16, the Latin school of his native city, after which the Pädagogium in Ilfeld. From 1795 he studied philology and theology in Göttingen. During his studies he was in 1797 Collaborator at the Gymnasium in Göttingen (now Max - Planck -Gymnasium ). In 1803 he came as vice-rector at the Municipal Gymnasium ( now Lessing -Gymnasium ) in Frankfurt am Main, which he was vice-principal from 1806 to 1821. 1812 to 1814 he was also professor of classical literature at the Lyceum Carolinum, a company founded in Frankfurt by Grand Duke Karl Theodor von Dalberg State University held. In 1819 he was among the founders of the Society for Germany's senior History class to return the Monumenta Historica Germaniae. In 1821 he was finally headmaster of the lyceum in Hanover.
In Grimm's estate there are ten letters Grotefends to Jacob Grimm from the period 1818-1821, they relate to an exchange of views on the Gothic language.
In 1802, he succeeded within a matter of weeks in 1621 discovered and deciphered copied Persian inscription of Behistun in Iran. The starting point was a bet where he took the position that it is possible to decipher a completely unknown writing system from itself. Special merits Grotefend acquired by the decipherment of the cuneiform inscriptions of Persepolis, the Carsten Niebuhr had copied onto his big Arabia travel. This was followed by work on Babylonian and Assyrian cuneiform inscriptions.
As a teacher of Greek Grotefend knew the names of the Persian kings. He appointed ten characters of the Persian cuneiform by emanated from that form of names that they had in the Avesta (1802 ). He noted that the kings in the inscription present him neither Cyrus I could be Cambyses I. Moreover, since both names with the same sound began, the first character was different, however. In addition, it could also not have to be Cyrus and Artaxerxes I, as the first name too short, and the second was too long. It remained Darius and Xerxes I. This was confirmed by the fact that in the inscription of the son the father had the title of king, but not vice versa. The services Grotefends initially remained only a small circle of scholars around the Göttingen Society of Sciences announced. It was not until 1893 Wilhelm Meyer was in the message body of the Company as the major documents out - but on the basis of copies that he found in the archives of the society. Grotefend first drew attention to its literary fraud in the preface to Wagenfeld excerpt from Sanchuniathon Prehistory of the Phoenicians (Hannover 1836).
Georg Friedrich Grotefend 1849 went into retirement and died on 15 December 1853 in Hanover. He is buried in the garden in Hanover Cemetery (Mary Street ).
In his native town of Hann. Munden, in Frankfurt- corner home in Hamburg- Iserbrook, in Hildesheim, Göttingen and Hanover streets were named after him. The gymnasium of his native town of Hann. Munden carries since 1976 the name Grotefend -Gymnasium Munden. A Göttingen plaque commemorates him.
Writings
- Rudiments of German prosody. (Casting 1815)
- Latin grammar. 2 vols (Frankfurt am Main 1823-1824 )
- New posts to explain the Persepolitan cuneiform. (Hannover 1837)
- Rudimenta linguae umbricae. 8 booklets (Hannover 1835-1838 )
- Rudimentary linguae oscae. (Hannover 1839)
- For the geography and history of Old Italy. 5 booklets (Hannover 1840-1842 )