Richard August Reitzenstein

Richard August Reitsenstein ( born April 2, 1861 in Breslau, † March 23, 1931 in Göttingen ) was a German classical scholar and historian of religion.

Life

Reitsenstein until his graduation in 1879, a pupil of Mary Magdalene Gymnasium in Breslau. Subsequently, he studied in Berlin under Theodor Mommsen and in 1884 received his doctorate in John Vahlen with a source-critical study of lost authors at Cato and Columella. Subsequently, he worked on behalf of Mommsen's a long time in Italian libraries. On February 24, 1888, Reitsenstein habilitated in Wroclaw with a detailed study of problems of the tradition of Alexander's campaign in Arrian. In 1889 he became an associate professor of classical philology in Rostock. From 1892 to 1893 Reitz stone was professor in Giessen and then moved to Strasbourg. The encounter with the local representatives of historical-critical exegesis, and the acquaintance with the Egyptologist Wilhelm Spiegelberg, the Reitsenstein 1898 accompanied on a study and research travel and their papyrus finds forms the foundation for Reitz stone Strasbourg manuscript collection, Reitsenstein encouraged to engage with historical and religious questions. In 1911 he was called to Freiburg im Breisgau and 1914 as the successor of Friedrich Leo to Göttingen. He was a pioneer as a representative of the History of Religions School, although he hardly dealt at this time to historical and religious themes, but almost exclusively with Latin authors. 1928 Reitz stone was given emeritus status. His successor in the chair was Eduard Fraenkel. After his death, he devoted his students on his 70th birthday on April 2, 1931 Festschrift, edited by Eduard Fraenkel and Hermann Frankel.

Since 1890, was married to Richard Reitz stone with Antonie wedge ( 1864-1934 ). The couple had a daughter and two sons: the librarian Richard Reitz Stein (1894-1982) and the philologist Erich Reitsenstein ( 1897-1976 ).

Services

The importance Reitz stone lies in the fertilization of the Hellenistic mystery religions of the New Testament exegesis and the study of ancient and syncretism of Gnosticism, its origin since 1916 he derived from his Poimandres (1904 ) from Egypt, an Iranian redeemer myth. He has also pointed out in the aftermath of Semitists Mark Lidzbarski the importance of the Mandaean traditions for understanding the Gospel of John, and especially the explanation of John's baptism as well as the early Christian Taufrituals. These pulses has added later especially the theologian Rudolf Bultmann. Furthermore Reitsenstein drew attention to the parallelism of Hellenistic Philosophenviten and travel novels with the apocryphal literature. Finally, he influenced the research on Theognis instrumental, whose work he regarded as graded for content Kommersbuch.