Ludwig G.K. Lemcke

* 25.12.1816 in Brandenburg an der Havel; ✝ 21.09.1884 in Giessen

Romance-languages Scholar, Literary historian

Biography

Having attended the Brunswick Grammar School, Lemcke studied from 1836 onwards philosophy, classical and modern philology and history (this latter under Leopold von Ranke) in Berlin. He broke off his studies after three years without a degree, whereupon he got to work as a translator, grammar school teacher and author of scholarly works about the literary history of English and the Romance languages. In 1867 he became Professor for Romance Philology at the University of Gießen, a position which he kept until just before his death in 1884.

During the years of his academic teaching Lemcke published only a handful of works, not original by and large, and mostly in the Jahrbuch für romanische und englische Literatur, of which he became editor in 1866. Twelve more volumes appeared until 1871, it was not until 1874 that Lemcke continued publication under the title of Jahrbuch für romanische und englische Sprache und Literatur. Thenceforth, in line with its editor’s special interests, the series concentrated on purely philological matters, such as the history of grammar, dialect research and textual criticism.  The three volume Handbuch der spanischen Litteratur (1855-56) is regarded as his major work. In 1864 Lemcke opened the Marburg celebrations for Shakespeare’s 300^th birthday with the subsequently published lecture ‘Shakspeare in seinem Verhältnisse zu Deutschland’.

Treatises

• Shakspeare in seinem Verhältnisse zu Deutschland. Leipzig, 1864.
• ‘Zur englischen Literatur des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts’, Jahrbuch für romanische und englische Literatur, 12 (1871). Pp. 73-90.

Literature

Primary Literature

• Handbuch der spanischen Litteratur. 3 vols. Leipzig, 1855-56.

Secondary Literature

• K., M.: ‘Ludwig Lemcke’, Shakespeare-Jahrbuch, 21 (1886). Pp. 302-303.
• Kalkhoff, Alexander: Romanische Philologie im 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhundert. Tübingen, 2010.
• Schröder, Edward: ‘Lemcke, Ludwig’. In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, 51 (1906). Pp. 639-642 [Online Version]. Url: www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd116896116.html.

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