All Scholars

K.F. Hermann studied under Georg Friedrich Creuzer (1771-1858) at Heidelberg and Gottlieb Hermann (1772-1848) at Leipzig. At Heidelberg he taught art and archaeology, but his appointment at Marburg classical philology. When he succeeded Karl Otfried Müller (1797-1840) at Göttingen he was professor of philology and archaeology, took over the philological seminar and founded a pedagogical seminar in 1843. 

       Herrman had gifts as a text critic, which he brought to bear on his revision of the manuscripts of the scholia to Persius and Juvenal, arguing that the best (often earliest) scholia can aid in textual correction. He wrote on Aristophanes and published an annotated edition of Lucian's On Historiography. In the field of Latin literature, H. not only completed the annotated edition of Martianus Capella begun by U. F. Kopp (1836) and through stylistic analysis coupled with manuscript authority he proved the authenticity of the correspondence between Cicero and M. Brutus (1844-47). He produced a critical edition of the scholia of Persius, Juvenal, and Sulpicia (1854). His most important contribution as an editor is his recension of the text of Plato in six volumes (1852-5). 

        While still under the age of 30, Hermann produced the first of his multi-volume Lehrbuch der griechischen Antiquitäten. A study of Greek culture including legal, religious, social, the work employed recent archaeological and epigraphical discoveries combined with Hermann’s prodigious knowledge of literary sources and keen perception. He showed that the structures of  courts, constitutions, economies, and popular assemblies along with religious practices and social conventions were not adopted uniformly across all of Greece but were adapted by each community to suit their needs. Though he continually revised and expanded his work, he did not live to see the publication of the fourth edition. He did produce a second and third part, he created the "Textbook of Greek Liturgical Antiquities" (1846) and the "Textbook of Greek Private Antiquities, Including Legal Antiquities" (1852). Hermann's own research in this field, which makes this handbook so valuable, encompassed Laconian antiquities, criminal law, law and legislation in general and Attic law in particular, Greek chronology, as well as Greek cult and Greek history. An improved edition of W. A. ​​Becker's "Charicle s" (1854) rounds off this part of his work. 

          Hermann is significant for looking beyond the realm of pure text criticism in which he was trained, to encompass the entire field of classical studies to reach a broader critical understanding of an author. In the words of Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorf, Hermann and his colleague F.W. Schneidewin (1810-56): “the two men…may be said to have upheld the Göttingen tradition in their aversion to the exclusive pursuit of textual criticism.”  Only eight years after his Lehrbuch, Hermann’s two-volume Life of Plato was the first attempt to understand the full development of Plato’s thought. Built on the introduction and arrangement of F. Schleiermacher’s (1768-1834) translation of the Platonic corpus (1804-10), Hermann adapted Schleiermacher’s three-part development: early socratic dialogues; dialogues of indirect investigation, and expository or constructive dialogues. Schleirmacher worked on the basis of theme, not chronology, but in History and System of Platonic Philosophy I (1839) Hermann moved chronologically from the early socratic work to the theory of forms. His work greatly influenced the American Platonist Paul Shoey (1857-1934).

        With these writings on the Roman satirists, as well as those on Greek philosophy, especially Plato, H. significantly influenced the subsequent course of research. His “Cultural History of the Greeks and Romans” (published posthumously by his student C. G. Schmidt in 1857 f.) provides a comprehensive overview of the ancient world. His Lehrbuch went to many editions and was widely used after his premature death. His most notable student was the regional historian and medievalist Karl Gustav Schmidt (1829-92), but other notables included Hermann Usener (1834-1905), and Basil Gildersleeve (1831-1924).