Johannes Classen (November 21, 1805,

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

– August 31, 1891, Hamburg) was a German educator and

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 ...

. Classen was educated at the

Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums The ''Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums'' ( ''Academic School of the Johanneum'', short: Johanneum) is a Gymnasium (or Grammar School ) in Hamburg, Germany. It is Hamburg's oldest school and was founded in 1529 by Johannes Bugenhagen. The school's f ...

. He studied

philology 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 ...

at the

University of Leipzig 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 Decemb ...

, afterwards continuing his education at

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

, where he was a student of

Barthold Georg Niebuhr Barthold Georg Niebuhr (27 August 1776 – 2 January 1831) was a Danish–German statesman, banker, and historian who became Germany's leading historian of Ancient Rome and a founding father of modern scholarly historiography. By 1810 Niebuhr wa ...

. From 1827 he lived in the home of Niebuhr, whose son Marcus was tutored by Classen. After the death of Niebuhr on January 2, 1831 and of his wife nine days later, Classen took care of his former teacher's three children. In 1829 he received his habilitation at

, and in 1832 served as an assistant at the Joachimsthalsche Gymnasium in Berlin. During the following year he became a professor at the Katharineum zu Lübeck. In 1853 he was appointed director of the municipal gymnasium (secondary school) in

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

, returning in 1864 to Hamburg, where he served as director of the "Johanneum" school till his retirement in 1874. Classen's most extensive literary effort was an eight-volume publication on the works of

Thucydides Thucydides (; grc, , }; BC) was an Athenian historian and general. His '' History of the Peloponnesian War'' recounts the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of " scienti ...

(''Thukydides'', 1862–1889). He was also author of an 1859 biography on

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...

humanist Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "human ...

Jacob Micyllus Jacob Micyllus,In Antiquity Micyllus was the poor cobbler of Lucian's ''Gallus'' (6 April 1503 – 28 January 1558) was a German Renaissance humanist and teacher, who conducted the city's Latin school in Frankfurt and held a chair at the Univ ...

.ADB: Classen, Johannes
at Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie

References

* This article is based on a translation of an equivalent article at the German Wikipedia, whose sources include
Classen, Johannes
at : Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). Band 3, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1957, , S. 264. {{DEFAULTSORT:Classen, Johannes 1805 births 1891 deaths Heads of schools in Germany German classical philologists University of Bonn alumni People educated at the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums