Georg Otto August Wissowa (17 June 1859 – 11 May 1931) was a German

classical philologist Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature Latin literature includes the essays, histories, poems, plays, and ot ...

born in Neudorf, near Breslau.

Education and career

Wissowa studied classical philology under August Reifferscheid at the

University of Breslau A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

from 1876 to 1880, then furthered his studies in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

under

Heinrich Brunn Heinrich Brunn, since 1882 Ritter von Brunn (23 January 1822, Wörlitz – 23 July 1894, Josephstal near Schliersee, Upper Bavaria) was a German archaeologist. He was known for taking a scientific approach in his investigations of classical Gree ...

, a leading authority on Roman antiquities. Having obtained his habilitation at the University of Breslau in 1882, he received a travel scholarship from the

German Archaeological Institute The German Archaeological Institute (german: Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, ''DAI'') is a research institute in the field of archaeology (and other related fields). The DAI is a "federal agency" under the Federal Foreign Office of Germany ...

and went to Italy for a year. After that he taught as ''Privatdozent'' in Breslau from 1883 to 1886, when he accepted a chair at the

University of Marburg The Philipps University of Marburg (german: Philipps-Universität Marburg) was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Protestant university in the wor ...

(as ''professor extraordinarius'') where he was awarded a full professorship in 1890. In 1895 he relocated to Halle as a successor to

Heinrich Keil Theodor Heinrich Gottfried Keil (25 May 1822, Gressow – 27 August 1894, Friedrichroda) was a German classical philologist. He was a son-in-law to educator Friedrich August Eckstein (1810–1885). He studied classical philology at the Univer ...

. After suffering two severe strokes in 1923, he was retired in 1924.

Works

Georg Wissowa is remembered today for re-edition of '' Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft'', an encyclopedia of classical studies initially started by August Friedrich Pauly (1796–1845) in 1837. Around 1890, Wissowa began the new edition, an ambitious project that he anticipated would take ten years to finish. However, it wouldn't be until the 1970s that the last of its 83 volumes was published. He was the author of a significant work on ancient Roman religion, titled ''Religion und Kultus der Römer'' (1902), which appeared also in a second revised edition (1912),Digital version of Georg Wissowa, ''Religion und Kultus der Römer'' (zweite Auflage, 1912)
@

Archive.org The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

. a book in which he explored the development of Roman religion, and in the process, provided a comprehensive description of its deities and religious practices. Wissowa also published a revision of Ludwig Friedländer's moral history of Rome called ''Darstellungen aus der Sittengeschichte Roms'', worked on

Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (12 February 1845, in Göttingen – 9 March 1923, in Dresden) was a German classical scholar. He specialized in studies of Greek and Roman mythology. He received his education at the Universities of Göttingen and Lei ...

's encyclopedia of

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

and

Roman mythology Roman mythology is the body of myths of ancient Rome as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans. One of a wide variety of genres of Roman folklore, ''Roman mythology'' may also refer to the modern study of these representa ...

, ''Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie''" and edited the second edition of

Joachim Marquardt Karl Joachim Marquardt (19 April 1812 – 30 November 1882) was a German historian and writer on Roman antiquities. In his later life he was Rector of the Ernestine Gymnasium, Gotha. Biography Marquardt was born at Danzig.

's "''Römische Staatsverwaltung'', vol. III. (1885).

References

Biography of Georg Wissowa
@ Bookrags.com. *

External links

Deutsche Wikisource
Bibliography of Georg Wissowa. {{DEFAULTSORT:Wissowa, Georg Historians of antiquity 20th-century German historians University of Marburg faculty University of Halle faculty University of Breslau alumni German classical philologists 1859 births 1931 deaths German male non-fiction writers 19th-century German historians