Heinrich Joseph Wetzer

Heinrich Joseph Wetzer ( born March 19, 1801 in Anzefahr, in Hesse- Kassel, † November 5, 1853 in Freiburg ) was a German Orientalist, in addition Benedict Welte as co-editor of the first edition of the lexicon Wetzer and Welte 's - church encyclopedia, or Encyclopedia Catholic theology and its auxiliary sciences occurred for which he developed the nomenclature and which he edited.

Wetzer studied theology and oriental languages ​​at the universities of Marburg (1820-1823), of Tübingen (1823 ) and Freiburg (1824 ) and graduated as a doctor of theology and philosophy in Freiburg in 1824. His studies of Arabic, Persian and Syrian he continued at the University of Paris under Silvestre de Sacy and the Orientalists Étienne Marc Quatremère for eighteen months. He discovered at the Royal Library of Paris, an Arabic manuscript containing the history of the Coptic Christians in Egypt from its origin until the fourteenth century.

From 1825, he conducted research on the conflict between Arianism and the Catholic Church in the fourth century. From this research, however, only a small portion was completed and in 1827 under the title " restitutio verae chronologiae rerum ex controversiis Arianis, inde usque ad annum from anno 325 350 exortarum ... " published in 1827 in Frankfurt.

In 1828 he became an associate professor, in 1830 professor of Oriental philology at the Albert -Ludwigs- University of Freiburg. In 1844, he anonymously published the work "The University of Freiburg to its origin ... ". His interest in maintaining the Catholic character of Freiburg, which should be established as a Catholic university and further developed, led to the rejection by Protestant professors, in 1846 the majority of the chairs occupied and excluded him from all academic offices. In 1850 he was appointed principal librarian of the university library.