Friedrich Karl Theodor Zarncke (7 July 182515 October 1891),

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

, was born in Zahrensdorf, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, the son of a country pastor. He was educated at the

Rostock Rostock (), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (german: link=no, Hanse- und Universitätsstadt Rostock), is the largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the state, ...

gymnasium, and studied (1844–1847) at the universities of

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

and

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

. In 1848 he was employed in arranging the valuable library of Old German literature of Freiherr Karl Hartwig von Meusebach (1781–1847), and superintending its removal from Baumgartenbrück, near

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream o ...

, to the

Royal Library at Berlin The Berlin State Library (german: Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin; officially abbreviated as ''SBB'', colloquially ''Stabi'') is a universal library in Berlin, Germany and a property of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. It is one of the lar ...

. This work cites: *''Zur Erinnerung an den Heimgang von Dr Friedrich Zarncke'' (1891) * Franz Vogt in ''Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie'' * Eduard Zarncke in ''Biographisches Jahrbuch für Altertumswissenschaft'' (1895) * E. Sievers in '' Allgemeine deutsche Biographie'' In 1850 he founded the ''Literarisches Centralblatt für Deutschland'' in Leipzig. In 1852 he established himself as '' privatdozent'' at

Leipzig University Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December ...

. In 1858 he was appointed full professor.

Works

He published an edition of Sebastian Brant's '' Narrenschiff'' (1854), a treatise ''Zur Nibelungenfrage'' (1854), followed by an edition of the ''

Nibelungenlied The ( gmh, Der Nibelunge liet or ), translated as ''The Song of the Nibelungs'', is an epic poem written around 1200 in Middle High German. Its anonymous poet was likely from the region of Passau. The is based on an oral tradition of Germani ...

'' (1856, 12th ed. 1887), and ''Beiträge zur Erläuterung und Geschichte des Nibelungenliedes'' (1857). He wrote a series of noteworthy studies on medieval literature, most of which were published in the reports (''Berichte'') of the Saxon Society of Sciences. Among them were those on *the

Old High German Old High German (OHG; german: Althochdeutsch (Ahd.)) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally covering the period from around 750 to 1050. There is no standardised or supra-regional form of German at this period, and Old High ...

poem ''

Muspilli ''Muspilli'' is an Old High German poem known in incomplete form (103 lines) from a ninth-century Bavarian manuscript. Its subject is the fate of the soul immediately after death and at the Last Judgment. Many aspects of the interpretation of the ...

'' (1866) *''Gesang vom heiligen Georg'' (1874) *the legend of the ''Priester Johannes'' (1874) *''Der Graltempel'' (1876) *the ''Annolied'' (1887) Among his other works were: *a treatise on Christian Reuter (1884) *a treatise on the portraits of

Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as tr ...

(1884) *''Die urkundlichen Quellen zur Geschichte der Universität Leipzig'' (a treatise on the history of

, 1857) *''Die deutschen Universitäten im Mittelalter'' (1857) *''

Kleine Schriften ' is a German phrase ("short writings" or "minor works"; la, Opuscula) often used as a title for a collection of articles and essays written by a single scholar over the course of a career. "Collected Papers" is an English equivalent. These short ...

'' (1897)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zarncke, Friedrich Karl Theodor 1825 births 1891 deaths People from Ludwigslust-Parchim People from the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin German Lutherans German philologists 19th-century Lutherans