Karl Lachmann

Karl Konrad Friedrich Wilhelm Lachmann ( born March 4, 1793 in Braunschweig, † March 13, 1851 in Berlin) was a German medievalist and philologist germanistischer, who worked as a lecturer and professor at the University of Berlin. His method of historical- critical edition of ancient texts became the model for the modern textual criticism.

Life

Karl Lachmann was born on March 4, 1793 in Brunswick, the son of the preacher Carl Ludolf Friedrich Lachmann and received his first training in the local Catharineum. He devoted himself since 1809 classic in Leipzig, then in Göttingen under Georg Friedrich Benecke also Germanic studies, habilitated in 1815 in Göttingen, but resigned soon afterwards as a volunteer foot hunter in Duderstadt in the military service one. Lachmann participated in any militant actions under the reign of a hundred days and resigned after a short stay in Paris in the late 1815 the service.

In 1816 he was collaborator on Friedrichswerder Gymnasium Berlin and Privatdozent at the university there, still took over in the summer of the same year the post of senior teacher at the Friedrichs- College at Konigsberg in 1818 and an associate professor at the local university. He became an associate in 1825, 1827 Associate Professor of Latin and German philology in Berlin and in 1830 a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences. His successor in the chair of philology was Moriz Haupt.

A close friend Lachmann was with Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. He was a member of the Masonic Lodge Brunswick Carl for winning column.

Lachmann died on 13 March 1851 in Berlin. He was buried in the Trinity Cemetery II Berlin, where he has a memorial grave to this day.

Creation

Lachmann is next Benecke the founder of the historical- critical edition practice; creating texts, he led back of subjective discretion to fixed standards, not only in the field of classical - as was common otherwise - but also the old German literature. Lachmann's editions of the Middle High German poet Hartmann von Aue, Wolfram von Eschenbach and Walther von der Vogelweide are considered classics of Germanic Edition story. Lachmann's method it was going to classify the dependencies between the different tradition carriers into a kind of family tree, and create on this basis, the supposed original text of each work. (see text-critical method)

In the field of classical literature, especially his "Reflections on Homer's Iliad; (1837 ) emphasized, in which the Iliad is divided into individual songs, and its ground-breaking edition of Lucretius (1850), then the issues of Propertius (1816 ), Tibullus (1829 ), Catullus (1829 ), the New Testament (1831 ), Genesis (1834 ), Terentianus Maurus (1836 ), Gaius (1841 ), Babrius (1845 ), Avianus (1845 ), the Roman surveyor ( with flower, Th Mommsen, Rudorff, 1848-52 ), of Lucilius ( from his estate ed v. Vahlen, 1876) and the essays " Observationes criticae " (1815 ), " De choricis systematis tragicorum Graecorum " (1819 ), " De mensura tragoediarum " (1822 ) and others. ; also he gave the " Philological essays " of his friend Klenze out (1839 ). To date, as well known as controversial in Latin linguistics is named after him Lachmann law that says in its traditional formulation that Latin verbs that end in voiced plosive, stretched root vowel before (possibly later phonetically altered ) -to suffix of past participle have passive, ie transient actus, Tectus to tegere and Casus to cadere (but factus to facere and messus to metere ).

From its Germanic writings we call in the first place his work on the Nibelungenlied, which were admittedly very disputed in part and must be regarded as outdated today: the treatise "On the original form of the poem of the Nibelung Noth " (1816 ) and the issue of " the Nibelunge Noth and action " (1826; notes and readings to 1837). In addition, the anniversary of the invention of printing, compiled deluxe edition "Twenty old songs of the Nibelungen " (1840 ) should be mentioned; This edition contains only the Lachmann declared genuine songs. In addition, he edited: " select from the High German poets of the 13th Century" (1820 ), " Specimina linguae francicae " (1825), Walther von der Vogelweide (1827 ), Hartmann's " Iwein " (with Benecke, 1827), Wolfram von Eschenbach ( 1833), Hartmann's " Gregory " (1838 ), Ulrich von Lichtenstein ( with Th v. Karajan, 1841) and has published essays: "On the body of a German poets of the 12th and 13th century" ( 1829), " About Old High German accent and versification " (1831 ), which he was the real founder of the German metric; " About the Hildebrandslied " ( 1833), "On singing and speaking " ( 1833), "On the input of the Parzival " (1835 ) and others

We owe him a translation of Shakespeare's Sonnets (1820 ) and Macbeth (1829 ) and a critical edition of all the works of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing ( 1838-40, 13 volumes ). From his estate M. Haupt published some older minstrel manufactured by Lachmann ( "The minnesong Spring", 1857).

Normal Middle High German

Lachmann is also considered the inventor of the so-called normalized Middle High German or Middle High German normal. This is an artificial, developed by the German 19th-century form of language, which tries to unify the differences between the regional and diachronic very richly varied forms of writing of medieval northern and central German literature. The Normal Middle High German is mainly based on the courtly writing language of the Hohenstaufen period, which was in turn strongly influenced by the Swabian / Alemannic and Franconian Middle High German. The Normal Middle High German facilitated laity and German students understanding of these ancient texts.

For linguistic research, these subsequent unification, however, prove to be disadvantageous. Since almost all new editions of medieval literature have appeared in this "normalized" form a large part of the older secondary literature is based on the edited texts. This regional and diachronic differences were often ignored or given too little attention. Especially linguist with a teleological view of history of the German language were thus tempted to recognize a single standard German in the Middle Ages. The modern German is therefore forced to completely evaluate the medieval literature in its linguistic aspect new or tedious to work out whether certain works are based former secondary literature on the original spelling, or on the normal Middle High German.

Discount

Remnants of the largely lost in the 2nd World War the estate lie in the Berlin State Library - Prussian Cultural Heritage (SBB -PK ).

Lachmann had medieval manuscripts, of which today has at least fragments of Willehalm of Ulrich of the Türlin and the Nibelungenlied, the Berlin State Library.

Works

His "little magazines" were by Karl Viktor Müllenhoff and John Vahlen (Berlin 1876, 2 volumes) published.

Treatises

• Reflections on Homer's Iliad. Memoirs of the Berlin Academy in 1837, 1841 and 1843; collected with additions of principal, Berlin 1847; 3rd edition 1874
• Observationes criticae. Götting. 1815
• De choricis systematis tragicorum Graecorum. Berlin 1819
• De mensura tragoediarum. das. 1822 and a

• About the original form of the poem of the Nibelung Noth Dümmler, Berlin 1816 ( digitized and full text in German Text Archive )
• About the body of a German poets of the 12th and 13th centuries. 1829
• About Old High German accent and versification. 1831
• About the Hildebrandslied. 1833
• About singing and speaking. 1833
• Over the entrance of Parzival. 1835

Editions

• Lucretius Berlin 1850; Vol. 1: Text, 4th edition 1871; 2 Bd: Commentary, 4th ed 1882
• Propertius Leipzig, 1816; new ed, Berlin 1829
• Tibullus Berlin 1829
• Catullus Berlin 1829, 3rd edition 1874
• New Testament smaller ed, Berlin 1831, 3rd edition 1846; greater with Philipp Buttmann, Berlin 1842-1850, 2 volumes
• Genesios Bonn 1834
• Terentianus Maurus Berlin 1836
• Gaius Bonn in 1841 and Berlin in 1842
• Babrius 1845 Berlin
• Avianus Berlin 1845
• Roman surveyor with Friedrich Bluhme, Theodor Mommsen, Adolf Friedrich August Rudorff, Berlin 1848-52, 2 volumes
• Lucilius ed from his estate. v. Vahlen, Berlin 1876

• The Nibelunge Noth and the action. Berlin 1826, 5th ed 1878; 10th impression of the text, in 1881; Notes and readings to 1837
• Twenty old songs of the Nibelung. Berlin 1840
• Selection from the High German poets of the 13th century. Berlin 1820
• Specimina linguae francicae. Berlin 1825
• Walther von der Vogelweide. Berlin 1827; 5th edition of Müllenhoff, 1875
• Hartmann von Aue, Iwein. with Benecke, Berlin 1827; 4th Edition, 1877
• Wolfram von Eschenbach, Berlin 1833, 4th edition 1879, 5th edition by Moriz Haupt and Charles Müllenhoff worried by Karl Weinhold, Berlin 1891
• Hartmann von Aue, Gregorius Berlin 1838
• Ulrich von Lichtenstein. With Th v. Karajan, Berlin 1841
• From his estate M. Haupt published some older minstrel manufactured by Lachmann: Des minnesong spring. Leipzig 1857

• Critical edition of Lessing's complete works. Leipzig 1838-40, 13 volumes; new edition of Malt tooth, 1853-57, 12 volumes, and later edited by Franz Muncker
• He also gave the Philological essays. his friend Klenze out. Berlin 1839

Translations

• Shakespeare: Sonnets (Berlin 1820)
• Shakespeare: Macbeth (Berlin 1829)