Hermann Karl Usener (October 23, 1834 – October 21, 1905) was a German scholar in the fields of
philologyPhilology considers both form and meaning in linguistic expression, combining linguistics and literary studies.Classical philology is the philology of the Greek, Latin and Sanskrit languages...
and
comparative religionComparative religion is a field of religious study that analyzes the similarities and differences of themes, myths, rituals and concepts among the world's religions...
.
He became professor at the
University of BonnThe University of Bonn is a public research university located in Bonn, Germany. Founded in 1818 the University of Bonn is today one of the leading universities in Germany. The University of Bonn offers a large number of undergraduate and graduate programs in a range of subjects. Its library holds...
. The
Bonn School of classical philology was led by Usener with Franz Buecheler.
He was born at
WeilburgWeilburg is, with just under 14,000 inhabitants, the third biggest town in Limburg-Weilburg district in Hesse, Germany, after Limburg an der Lahn and Bad Camberg.- Location :...
and educated at its Gymnasium. From 1853 he studied at
HeidelbergHeidelberg is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. As of 2008, over 145,000 people live within the city's area. Heidelberg is a unitary authority...
,
MunichMunich is the capital city of Bavaria, Germany. It is located on the River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps. Munich is the third largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg...
,
GöttingenGöttingen is a college town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Göttingen. The Leine river runs through the town. In 2006 the population was 129,686.-General information:...
and
BonnBonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 20 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990...
. In 1858 he had a teaching position at the Joachimsthalschen Gymnasium in Berlin.
His works include:
- Analecta Theophrastea (1858 dissertation at Bonn)
- Alexandri Aphrodisiensis problematorum lib.
Hermann Karl Usener (October 23, 1834 – October 21, 1905) was a German scholar in the fields of
philologyPhilology considers both form and meaning in linguistic expression, combining linguistics and literary studies.Classical philology is the philology of the Greek, Latin and Sanskrit languages...
and
comparative religionComparative religion is a field of religious study that analyzes the similarities and differences of themes, myths, rituals and concepts among the world's religions...
.
Life
He became professor at the
University of BonnThe University of Bonn is a public research university located in Bonn, Germany. Founded in 1818 the University of Bonn is today one of the leading universities in Germany. The University of Bonn offers a large number of undergraduate and graduate programs in a range of subjects. Its library holds...
. The
Bonn School of classical philology was led by Usener with Franz Buecheler.
He was born at
WeilburgWeilburg is, with just under 14,000 inhabitants, the third biggest town in Limburg-Weilburg district in Hesse, Germany, after Limburg an der Lahn and Bad Camberg.- Location :...
and educated at its Gymnasium. From 1853 he studied at
HeidelbergHeidelberg is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. As of 2008, over 145,000 people live within the city's area. Heidelberg is a unitary authority...
,
MunichMunich is the capital city of Bavaria, Germany. It is located on the River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps. Munich is the third largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg...
,
GöttingenGöttingen is a college town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Göttingen. The Leine river runs through the town. In 2006 the population was 129,686.-General information:...
and
BonnBonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 20 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990...
. In 1858 he had a teaching position at the Joachimsthalschen Gymnasium in Berlin.
Works
His works include:
- Analecta Theophrastea (1858 dissertation at Bonn)
- Alexandri Aphrodisiensis problematorum lib. III. et IV. (1859)
- Scholia in Lucani bellum civile (1869)
- Anecdoton Holderi (1877)
- Legenden der heiligen Pelagia (1879)
- De Stephano Alexandrino (1880)
- Philologie und Geschichtswissenschaft (1882)
- Jacob Bernays, Gesammelte Abhandlungen (1885) editor
- Acta S. Marinae et S. Christophori (1886)
- Epicurea (1887)
- Altgriechischer Versbau (1887)
- Götternamen: Versuch einer Lehre von der Religiösen Begriffsbildung (1896)
- Religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen (1889)
- Die Sintfluthsagen untersucht (1899)
- Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Dionysius of Halicarnassus was a Greek historian and teacher of rhetoric, who flourished during the reign of Caesar Augustus.-Life:...
edition, begun 1904, with Ludwig RadermacherLudwig Radermacher was a German-Austrian classical philologist who was a native of Siegburg.In 1891 he earned his doctorate at the University of Bonn, where he was a student of Hermann Usener . Following graduation he remained in Bonn, where he assisted Usener with the works of Dionysius of...
- Vorträge und Aufsätze, 1907.
Influence
A large-scale thinker, he was influential in areas such as concept formation in religion, as well as in scholarship and through his students. One such was
Friedrich NietzscheFriedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th- century German philosopher and classical philologist. He wrote critical texts on religion, morality, contemporary culture, philosophy and science, using a distinctive German-language style and displaying a fondness for metaphor, irony and...
: after initial support, Usener wrote him off as a scholar after
The Birth of TragedyThe Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music is a 19th-century work of dramatic theory by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. It was reissued in 1886 as The Birth of Tragedy, Or: Hellenism and Pessimism ...
was published. In the work
Götternamen in 1896, he introduced the concept of a
momentary god. This phrase entered the English language and popular culture, as the name for deities who seem to exist only for a specific purpose, time and place.
His students included Hermann Diels,
Paul NatorpPaul Gerhard Natorp was a German neo-Kantian philosopher, and educationalist, of the Marburg school. He was known as an authority on Plato.Natorp was born in Düsseldorf....
,
Hans LietzmannHans Lietzmann was a German theologian and church historian who was a native of Düsseldorf.He initially studied in Jena, and continued his education in Bonn, where he was a student of Hermann Usener...
,
Albrecht DieterichAlbrecht Dieterich was a German classical philologist and religious scholar who was a native of Hersfeld.He studied at the Universities of Leipzig and Bonn, where at the latter he was a student of Hermann Usener , who in 1899 became Dieterich's father-in-law...
, Richard Reitzenstein, and
Aby WarburgAbraham Moritz Warburg, known as Aby Warburg, was an art historian and cultural theorist who founded the Warburg Institute. The subject of his research was the legacy of the Classical world in the most varied areas of western culture through to the Renaissance...
.
Ulrich von Wilamowitz-MoellendorffEnno Friedrich Wichard Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff was a German Classical Philologist. Wilamowitz, as he is known in scholarly circles, was a renowned authority on Ancient Greece and its literature.- Youth :...
, the leading German classical scholar of the following generation, studied at Bonn 1867-9; but tended to disagree with Usener. Their correspondence has been published.
External links
http://www.philosophenlexikon.de/usener.htm BBK page