Hermann Alexander Diels

Hermann Alexander Diels ( born May 18, 1848 in Wiesbaden-Biebrich/Nassau, † June 4, 1922 in Berlin- Dahlem ) was a German classical scholar, historian of philosophy and religious studies.

Life

Youth

Born and raised in Wiesbaden as the son of an elementary school teacher and station master Ludwig Diels (* August 8, 1820, † June 2, 1872 ) and his wife Emma born Rossel (* August 18, 1817, † October 29, 1885 ) developed Diels early a keen interest in natural sciences, but its further promotion exceeded the modest resources of the family. As a result, he turned to the completion of the high school to the study of classical philology to.

Study

Supported by his uncle Charles Rossel (teachers, later secretary of the Society for Ancient Studies Nassau in Wiesbaden, * December 10, 1815; † July 2, 1872 ) Diels began in April 1867 his altphilologisches studies in Berlin, but moved in 1868 to Bonn, where he eventually earned his doctorate in December 1870 with Hermann Usener under the title De historia Galen philosopha. Here he made the acquaintance of Robert Carl and especially Ulrich von Wilamowitz- Moellendorff with which it henceforth became close friends.

On July 8, 1871 Diels passed the teacher's exam and worked from October 1872 to 1877 as a teacher in Flensburg and Hamburg - a profession he also then still another 5 years exercised in Berlin until 1882.

Scientific career

At the initiative of Eduard Zeller Diels returned back to Berlin in 1877 to 1 October to take a job as an editor of the Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca ( the Academy project a complete edition of the ancient Greek commentaries on Aristotle ) there. In July 1881 his election was in class and the plenary of the Prussian Academy of Sciences. A year later he received a professorship at the Friedrich Wilhelm University and finished his work as a senior teacher to the royal school. In 1886 he became a full professor. This was followed by the 1891-92 Dean's Office and finally 1905-06 the office of rector. In the follow- Theodor Mommsen he was in 1895 secretary of the philosophical- historical class of the Academy, and held this position until 1920, the year of his retirement.

Following a lecture tour of Scandinavia Diels died on 4 June 1922 in Berlin -Dahlem from a heart attack. His grave is located in Berlin's Dahlem cemetery.

Family

On July 17, 1873 he married Berta Dübell (* 1847, † June 15, 1919 ). With her ​​Diels had three sons:

  • Ludwig Diels ( botanist; * September 24, 1874, † November 30, 1945 )
  • Otto Diels (chemist and Nobel Prize winner in 1950, * January 23, 1876, † March 7, 1954 )
  • Paul Diels ( Slawist; * December 28, 1882, † February 19, 1963 )

Work

In the works Diels three works occupy an outstanding position: The Doxographi Graeci (1879 ), the Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca ( 1882-1909 ) and The fragments of the Presocratics (1903 ).

Having already got his PhD thesis on the theme of ancient doxographies in context, Diels led to excitation Usener continued this work at the end of the 1877 award-winning of the Prussian Academy of Sciences and in 1879 published Doxographi Graeci stood. With this work, the first time the writings of doxographers were placed in a text-critical order, and thus laid the tradition of Greek philosophy in processed and comprehensible form of research.

This work was probably that woke Zellers interest and prompted him to bring the young scientist to work on the Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca to Berlin. In the following period, from 1882 until the publication of the last volume in 1909, Diels took over the publication of the Commentaria and successful completion of this project is an important part of its scientific merit dar. He himself edited this comment of Simplicius.

But his influential work was probably The fragments of the Presocratics (1903 ). In them, he presented for the first time doxographies, stock quotes and forgeries (each accompanied by a German translation ) clearly against each other, and thus enabled a sharper look at the differences between Plato and Aristotle on the one hand and the pre-Socratics other. Only through this book by Diels, the term pre-Socratics was really popular, with Diels - when including philosophers who have lived according to Socrates - apparently not ( as later historians of philosophy, it did) a strictly chronological classification intended, but rather a designation of all those philosophers undertook that can be seen by Socrates and the Platonic school separately. The work is divided into Part A with early seals, prose as well as the tradition of the Seven Sages, and part B, which deals with the pre-Socratic philosophers in the strict, including historical sense. From 1934 (5th edition ) Walther Kranz concerned the publication of the fragments. Therefore, the citation: (name of the philosopher ), Diels / Kranz (or DK ), number of philosophers in the fragments, fragment - Category (A to reports Antique writers, B for direct quotations or C), fragment number, ( verse number if necessary ). So, for example, Parmenides DK 28 B 3 for the third fragment from Parmenides ' didactic poem.

In addition, Diels published a number of writings, among others, to the ancient technology and medicine, and religion to scientific questions. He initiated in 1907 the Corpus Medicorum Graecorum / Latinorum.

Honors

Writings (selection )

Bibliography: Hermann Diels: Small writings on the history of ancient philosophy. Edited by Walter Burkert. Wiss. Book Company, Darmstadt 1969, pp. XIV -XXVI

Selection of scientific journals

  • Doxographi Graeci / coll, rec. , Prolegomenis indicibusque instruxit Hermannus Diels. Reprint of the 4th edition of 1965: de Gruyter, Berlin 1979, ISBN 3-11-001373-8
  • The fragments of the Presocratics. 3 vols, reprint of 6th revised edition of 1951/52. Weidmann, Zurich 1996, edited by Walter Kranz, ISBN 3-296-12201- X, ISBN 3-296-12202-8 and ISBN 3-296-12203 - 6
  • Parmenides didactic poem. Reprint of the first edition of 1897 (edited by Jonathan Barnes, Rafael Ferber, Livio Rossetti ): Academia Verlag, 2003, ISBN 3-89665-217-6
  • Ancient Technology: 7 lectures. Second, expanded edition, Teubner, Leipzig and Berlin 1920
  • The manuscripts of the ancient physicians. Unchanged, photomechanical reprint of the edition of 1905-07, Zentralantiquariat the GDR, Leipzig 1970
  • Contributions to the Occident and the Orient Zuckungsliteratur. Unchanged, photo mechanical reproduction, Zentralantiquariat the GDR, Leipzig 1970

Letter editions

  • Maximilian Braun ( ed.): Philology and philosophy. The letters of Hermann Diels to Theodor and Heinrich Gomperzes ( 1871-1922 ). Weidmann, Hildesheim 1995. ISBN 3-615-00172-9
  • Maximilian Braun ( ed.): " Dear Prince ". The correspondence between Hermann Diels and Ulrich von Wilamowitz - Moellendorff ( 1869-1921 ). Weidmann, Hildesheim 1995. ISBN 3-615-00173-7
  • Dietrich Ehlers (ed.): correspondence. Hermann Diels, Hermann Usener, Eduard Zeller. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin. 2 vols 1992. ISBN 3-05-001124-6

Lecture

  • John Saltzwedel (ed.): Hermann Diels: "Greek philosophy ". Lecture notes from the winter semester 1897 /98. Steiner, Stuttgart, 2009. ISBN 978-3-515-09609-6
Biebrich (Wiesbaden) Duchy of Nassau Dahlem (Berlin) Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff Classical antiquity Dean (education) Cemetery Dahlem Simplicius of Cilicia Athens Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies American Academy of Arts and Sciences Accademia dei Lincei American Philosophical Society Philadelphia Otto Kern Neue Deutsche Biographie Integrated Authority File Thesaurus Linguae Latinae Eduard Norden Manu Leumann Charles Brink
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