Moritz Haupt (
July 27, 1808 -
February 5, 1874), was a
German philologist.
He was born at
Zittau, in
Lusatia. His early education was mainly conducted by his father,
Ernst Friedrich Haupt, burgomaster of Zittau, a man of learning who took pleasure in translating German
hymns or
Goethe's poems into
Latin, and whose memoranda were employed by
G. Freytag in his
Bilder aus der deutschen Vergangenheit. From the Zittau
gymnasium, where he spent the five years 1821-1826, Haupt moved to the
University of Leipzig intending to study
theology; but his own inclinatinos and the influence of Professor G. Hermann soon turned him in the direction of classical philology.
On the close of his university course (1830) he returned to his father's house, and the next seven years were devoted to study, not only of
Greek, Latin and
German, but of
Old French, Provençal and
Bohemian. His friendship with
Karl Lachmann, formed at Berlin, had great effect on his intellectual development. In September 1837 he "habilitated" at Leipzig as
Privatdozent, and his first lectures, dealing with such diverse subjects as
Catullus and the
Nibelungenlied, indicated the two main strands of his interest. A new chair of German language and literature was founded for his benefit, and he became professor extraordinarius (1841) and then professor ordinarius (1843). In 1842 he married
Louise Hermann, the daughter of his master and colleague.
Having taken part in 1849 with
Otto Jahn and
Theodor Mommsen in a political agitation for the maintenance of the imperial constitution, Haupt was deprived of his professorship by a decree of
April 22, 1855. Two years later, however, he was called to succeed Lachmann at the university of Berlin and at the same time the Berlin academy, which had made him a corresponding member in 1841, elected him an ordinary member. For twenty-one years he was prominent among the scholars of the
Prussian capital, making his presence felt, not only by the prestige of his erudition and the clearness of his intellect, but by the tirelessness of his energy and the ardent fearlessness of his temperament. He died of heart disease.
Haupt's critical work is distinguished by a combination of the most painstaking investigation with bold conjecture. While in his lectures and speeches he was frequently carried away by the excitement of the moment, and made sharp and questionable attacks on his opponents, in his writings he exhibits great self-control. The results of many of his researches are lost, because he would not publish what fell short of his own high ideal of excellence. To the progress of classical scholarship he contributed by
Quaestiones Catullianae (1837), and editions of
Ovid's Halieutica and the
Cynegetica of Gratius and Nemesianus (1838), of
Catullus, Tibullus and
Propertius (3rd ccl., 1868), of
Horace (3rd ed, 1871) and of
Virgil (2nd ccl., 1873).
As early as
1836, with
Hoffmann von Fallersleben, he started the
Altdeutsche Blätter, which in 1841 gave place to the
Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum, of which he continued editor till his death.
Hartmann von Aue's Erec (1839) and his
Lieder,
Klage and
Der arme Heinrich (1842), Rudolf von Ems's
Guter Gerhard (1840) and
Konrad von Würzburg's Engelhard (1844) are the principal German works which he edited. To form a collection of the French songs of the
16th century was one of his favourite schemes, hut a little volume published after his death,
Französische Volkslieder (1877), is the only monument of his labours in that direction. Three volumes of his
Opuscula were published at Leipzig (1875-1877).
rss feed