Ludwig Herrig

* 12.05.1816 in Brunswick; ✝ 17.01.1889 in Berlin

Pedagogue, Modern Philologist

Biography

Herrig is regarded as a pioneer of Modern Philology in Germany.  After getting his high-school diploma he studied Lutheran Theology and Classical Philology until 1837 in Halle and Göttingen, where he was awarded his doctoral degree in 1838. His main interest, however, was foreign modern languages and their literature. Having begun his teaching career in Brunswick, Herrig taught in Elberfeld between 1841 and 1851, and was afterwards for the most part active as a school teacher (with professorial status) and director of studies at the Royal Cadet School in Berlin.

As early as 1846 he founded Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen, a periodical published to the present day. Further, Herrig threw his weight behind the scientific engagement with, and the professional teaching of, modern foreign languages, and in 1857 established the ‘Berliner Geselleschaft für das Studium der Neueren Sprachen und Literaturen’ (‘Herrigsche Gesellschaft’) with these aims in mind.  Herrig directed between 1860 and 1878 the ‘Berliner Seminar für die Lehrer der neueren Sprachen’ – which he had himself brought into existence.  Herrig was a committed Freemason and provided from 1869 onwards a bi-weekly report in his English-language periodical, the North German Correspondent.

Treatises

• The British classical authors. Select Specimens of the National Literature of England from G. Chaucer to the Present Time, Poetry and Prose. Brunswick, 1850. Until 1889 published in numerous revised editions, later in a wholly new version under the title British and American Classical Poems. Brunswick, 1966.
• Macbeth (= Sammlung englischer Schriftsteller mit deutschen Anmerkungen, 1). Berlin, 1853.
• The Merchant of Venice (= Sammlung englischer Schriftsteller mit deutschen Anmerkungen, 5). Berlin, 1854.

Literature

Primary Literature

• The American classical authors. Select Specimens of the Anglo-American Literature; Preceded by an Introductory Essay on its Origin and Progress; with Biographical and Critical Sketches. Brunswick, 1854.
• La France littéraire. Brunswick, 1856.

Secondary Literature

• Heitmann, Klaus: ‘Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen’, Romanische Forschungen, 100:1 (1988). Pp. 4-10.
• Scheler, Manfred: ‘Zum hundertsten Todestag Ludwig Herrigs’, Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen, 226:1 (1989). Pp. 83-85.
• Schmidt, I.: ‘Friedrich Christian Ludwig Herrig, Nekrolog’, Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen, 82 (1889). Pp. I-XXIV. Reprinted in: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB), 50 (1905). Pp. 243-248.

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