Karl Wilhelm Göttling


Karl Wilhelm Göttling was a German philologist and classical scholar.

Biography

He was born in Jena, the son of chemist Johann Friedrich August Göttling. He attended the Wilhelm-Ernst-Gymnasium in Weimar, and then, beginning in 1811, studied philology at the universities of Jena and Berlin. He volunteered in the war against France in 1814, and after the peace continued his studies at Berlin under Friedrich August Wolf, August Boeckh and Philipp Buttmann.
From 1816, he taught classes at the gymnasium in Rudolstadt. In 1819 he became director of the Neuwied gymnasium, and in 1822 was appointed associate professor of philology at the University of Jena. At Jena he was also director of the philological seminary and university librarian, and in 1831 attained the title of full professor. He continued to reside in his home town till his death. During his academic career he participated in several study trips to Italy, Sicily, Greece, et al., and in 1852 accompanied Ludwig Preller and Hermann Theodor Hettner on a journey to Greece and Constantinople. He died in Jena, aged 75.

Work

In his early years Göttling devoted himself to German literature, and published two works on the Nibelungen: Über des Geschichtliche im Nibelungenliede and Nibelungen und Gibelinen. The greater part of his life, however, was devoted to the study of classical literature, especially the elucidation of Greek authors. The contents of his Gesammelte Abhandlungen aus dem klassischen Altertum and Opuscula Academica sufficiently indicate the varied nature of his studies.
Among his more important writings were editions of the Techne of Theodosius of Alexandria, Aristotle's Politics, and Economics, as well as editions of the poet Hesiod. In the field of Greek grammar he published Allgemeine Lehre vom Akzent der griechischen Sprache, enlarged from a smaller work, which was translated into English as the Elements of Greek Accentuation. His smaller works were for the most part combined in Gesammelte Abhandlungen aus dem klassischen Altertum and Opuscula Academica. Mention may also be made of his Correspondence with Goethe.