All Scholars

GERCKE, Karl Friedrich August Alfred

  • Karl Friedrich August Alfred Gercke
  • Date of Birth: March 20, 1860
  • Born City: Hannover
  • Born State/Country: Germany
  • Parents: Otto, a civil architect, & Charlotte Wilma's G.
  • Date of Death: January 26, 1922
  • Death City: Breslau
  • Death State/Country: Poland
  • Married: Anna Albrecht, 1896
  • Education:

    Study at Bonn, 1880-3; Ph.D., 1885; Berlin 1883-4; phil. habil Berlin, 1890.
  • Dissertation:

    Chrysippea particulam priorem (Berlin; 1885; publ. Leipzig: Teubner, 1885).
  • Professional Experience:

    Teacher, Luisengymnasium (Berlin), 1886-8; private lecturer, Göttingen, 1890-3; provisional prof., Königsberg, 1893-5; prof. extra., Griefswald, 1895-6; prof., 1896-1909; rector 1908-9; prof., Breslau, 1909-21; rector, 1920-1.
  • Publications:

    Seneca-Studien (Leipzig: Teubner,1895; repr. Griefswald: Olms, 1971); “Alexandrinische Studien I, II, RhM 42 (1887) 262-75; 44 (1889) 127-50, 240-57; “Über d. Ursprung d. aristotel. Kategorien,” AGPh 4 (1891) 424-41; “Der δεύτερος λόγος des Lucas und die Apostelgeschichte,” Hermes 29 (1894) 375-92; Theophrastus, Περί πυρὸς (Greifswald: Kunike, 1896); Platons Gorgias (Berlin: Weidmann, 1897); Griechische Literaturgeschichte mit Berücksichtigung der Geschichte der Wissenschaften (Leipzig: Göschen, 1898, 3rd ed., 1911); “Sokrates bei Plato,” NJA 1 (1898) 585-94; De quibusdam Laerti Diogenis auctoribus (Greifswald: Kunike, 1899); Studia Annaeana. (Greifswald: Kunike, 1900); “Die Analyse als Grundlage d. höheren Kritik,” NJA 7 (1901) 1-22, 81-112; Abriss der griechischen Lautlehre(Berlin: Widmannsche Buchhandlung, 1902, 1905; repr. Kessinger, 2010); “Die Überlieferung des Diogenes Laertios,” Hermes 37 (1902) 401-34; Telegonie u. Odyssee, NJA 15 (1905) 319-33; “Die Einnahme von Oichalia,” NJA 15 (1905) 400-09; “Zur Geschichte des ältesten griech. Alphabets,” Hermes 41 (1906) 540-61; Einleitung in die Altertumswissenschaft with Eduard Norden 3 vols. (Leipzig Teubner, 2nd vol, 1912-14; 3rd. 1932; 4th 1930-3; repr. Charleston, SC, 2009) Die Entstehung der Aeneis. Berlin: Weidmann, 1913); L. Annaei Senecai Naturalium quaestionum libros VIII (Stuttgart: Teubner, 1914; repr. 1970); “Eine Niederlage des Sokrates,” NJA 41 (1919) 145-91.
  • Notes:

    Alfred Gercke studied under some of the most eminent classicists of his day. At Bonn he studied under Hermann Usener (1834-1905), who supervised his dissertation, and Franz Buecheler (1837-1908) and at Berlin the archaeologist Reinhard Kekulé (1839-1911), Hermann Diels (1848-1922) and at Göttingen Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff (1848-1931), under whom he made his habilitation. 

          After his early textual work on the fragments of Chrysippus and Theocritus, he wrote widely on Seneca and Greek philosophy. He pioneered the study of Seneca’s Natural Questions and edited the Teubner text of Seneca, but his work on Homer and Virgil were not successful. Gercke is best known for his collaboration with his former Greifswald colleague Eduard Norden (1868-1941) on the encyclopedia of antiquity, Einleitung in die Altertumswissenschaft, today known generally as “Gercke-Norden.” Together the men enlisted the experts from various fields of ancient study to contribute entries on their specialties. Norden instigated the project and assigned many of the entries for the first edition (1908-12) then enlisted Gercke, who took a similar role in the second edition (1912). Though he worked on a third edition, it was only published posthumously (1927). 
  • Sources:

    B. Prehn, BBJ 44 (1924) 161-92; DBJ 4 (1922); Gerhard Baader, NDB 6 (1964) 258.
  • Author: Ward Briggs