All Scholars

PÖKEL, Friedrich Wilhelm

  • Date of Birth: October 9, 1819
  • Born City: Pasewalk
  • Born State/Country: poemrania (now Poland)
  • Parents: Wilhelm Christian, Gymnasium teacher, & Krüger P.
  • Date of Death: February 24, 1897
  • Death City: Prenslau
  • Death State/Country: Germany
  • Married: Anna Dorothee Sophie Bochow.
  • Education:

    Stargard Gymnasium, 1820-37; Study in Berlin, 1837-41; Teaching license, 1841; Ph.D., Tübingen, 1842
  • Dissertation:

    "De Euripides Vita" (Tübingen, 1842).
  • Professional Experience:

    Probationary teacher, Stargard Gymnasium, 1841-2; teacher, 1842-7; teacher, Prenzlau Gymnasium, 1847-53;  collaborator, full-time regular teacher, 1853-79; senior teacher, 1879-84. 
  • Publications:

    Bemerkungen zur Odyssee (Prezlau, 1861); Griechische Sprachlehre für Schulen, with K.W. Krüger, 4 vols. (Leipzig & Würzburg: Krüger, 1862-75) Herodotou histories apodexis (Berlin: Krüger, 1875); Register zu K.W. Krüger’s griechischer Sprachlehre für Schulen, mit ergänzenden Erklärungen (Leipzig: Krüger, 1877); Verzeichniss der Abiturienten des Gymnasiums und der Realschule I.Ordnung zu Prenzlau, 1818-1878 (Prenzlau, 1878); Über die Dialekte, vorzugsweise den epischen und ionischen, 1. Formlehre (Leipzig: Kruger, 1879); Homerische und Herodotische Formlehre von K.W. Krüger. Das Recht zu einer englischen und französischen Uebersetzung dieses Werkes behalten die Erben des Verfassers sich vor (ed.) (Leipzig: Krüger, 1879); Herodot, Ἱστορίης ἀπόδεξις. Mit erklärenden Anmerkungen von K. W. Krüger. 3. Heft (Buch 5–6) (orig. Berlin 1856. 2nd ed with notes by W. Pökel. Leipzig: Krüger, 1875); Philologisches Schriftsteller-Lexikon (Leipzig: Krüger, 1882; repr. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1966, 1974); Kleinere griechische Sprachlehre with K.W. Krüger (Leipzig: Kruger, 1884); K.W. Krügers Lebensabriss (Leipzig: K.W. Krüger, 1885); Thoukydidou  Ξυγγραφή with K. W. Krüger (Berlin: Krüger 1858-85); Xenophon’s Anabasis 7th ed. (Leipzig: Krüger, 1889). “Bemerkungen zu Aristophanes,” NJP 58 (1888) 245-66 = JKPh 34 (1888) 245–266; “Zur Odyssee [ε 342. 358–360],” NJP  62 (1892) 62 = JKPh 38 (1892) 826; “Zur Odyssee [γ 263–272],” NJP 63 (1893) = JKPh 39 (1893) 112; “Zur Odyssee [β 30–31],” NJP 63 = JKPh 39 (1893) 120; “Miscelle [Mitteilung eines griechischen Gedichts August Naucks aus seiner Prenzlauer Zeit (1852/53)],” NJP 63 *1893) = JKPh 39 (1893) 144.
  • Notes:

     Wilhelm Pökel grew up in a family of secondary-school teachers and devoted his life to the Gymnasium. In the year after his birth in Pasewalk, the family moved to Stargard, where his father became school inspector and preacher. Pökel studied classical philology at Berlin and obtained his teaching license before returning to his alma mater. While teaching at Stargard, he managed to obtain a doctorate from Tübingen. In 1847 he moved to Prenzlau where he remained until his retirement.  

             His scholarly record is small except for his Lebenswerk, an annotated history of classical scholarship, Philologisches Schriftsteller-Lexikon, first published in 1882 and continually revised and expanded, dedicated to British scholars William Veitch (1794-1885) and Andrew Clark (1847-1936). The work catalogued the work of approximately 3000 classicists and is of considerable value a century and a half later. Following the death of his father-in-law, Karl Wilhelm Krüger (1796–1874), Pökel revised his Greek school texts and wrote his biography. Otherwise, he published Pökel retired two years later and wrote critical articles on Homer and Aristophanes.
  • Sources:

     “Geschichte des Gymnasiums zu Prenzlau von 1543 – 1893,” Festschrift zur Feier des 350 jährigen Bestehens der Anstalt. (Prenzlau 1893) 281; Jürgen Theil, Prenzlauer Stadtlexikon und Geschichte in Daten (Prenzlau, 2005); W. A. Schröder, “Zur Biographie des Prenzlauer Gymnasiallehrers Wilhelm Pökel,” Mitteilungen des Uckermärkischen Geschichtsvereins zu Prenzlau 18 (2012) 50–60.  
  • Author: Ward Briggs