German philologist and educational reformer (1815–1876)
Hermann Köchly
Hermann August Theodor Köchly (born Leipzig, 5 August 1815; died Trieste, 3 December 1876) was a German philologist and educational reformer.
Biography
He studied at Leipzig, taught at the Saalfeld Progymnasium (1837) and at the DresdenKreuzschule (1840). In February 1849, Köchly was elected to the lower house of the Kingdom of Saxony, but that same year was forced to flee to Brussels on account of his participation in the May insurrection. He was appointed professor of classical philology at Zürich in 1851, and at Heidelberg in 1864. He was a member of the Reichstag from 1871 to 1873 and attached himself to the Progressive Party.
Köchly's grave in Heidelberg
Works
Educational reform
Ueber das Princip des Gymnasialunterrichts der Gegenwart (Principals for gymnasial instruction for modern times, 1845)
Zur Gymnasialreform (Reforming gymnasiums, 1846)
The scheme set forth in these pamphlets stressed the natural sciences, and, in Latin and Greek, urged emphasis on content rather than on grammar and style, and the gradual abolition of speaking and writing those languages. The plan was adopted in Saxony almost immediately.
Grecian epics
Critical essays on Quintus Smyrnæus (Leipzig, 1830)
Einleitung in Cäsars Kommentarien über den gallischen Krieg (Gotha, 1857)
Onosandri de imperatoris officio Liber (Leipzig, 1860)
Others' works
An edition of Arrian's Anabasis (1861)
Editions of Euripides and Iphigenia in Taurien (1863)
An edition of Medea (1867)
He did translations, especially of Caesar, Aeschylus, etc. A collection of his smaller works is found in his Opuscula academica (Leipzig, 1853–56), Akademische Vorträge und Reden (Zürich, 1856) and Opuscula philologica (Leipzig 1881–82).
Further reading
Hug, Hermann Köchly (Basle, 1878)
Böckel, Hermann Köchly, ein Bild seines Lebens und seiner Persönlichkeit (Heidelberg, 1904)
