Johannes Classen (November 21, 1805,

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

– August 31, 1891, Hamburg) was a German educator and classical philologist. Classen was educated at the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums. He studied

philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...

at the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (), 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 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...

, afterwards continuing his education at

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

, where he was a student of Barthold Georg Niebuhr. 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 am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

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

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

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

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

Jacob Micyllus.ADB: Classen, Johannes
at

Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB; ) is one of the most important and comprehensive biographical reference works in the German language. It was published by the Historical Commission of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences between 1875 and 1912 in 56 volumes, printed in Lei ...

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