'Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen' (
November 30 1817–
November 1,
1903) was a
German classical scholar,
historian,
jurist,
journalist,
politician,
archaeologist[1] and
writer[2], generally regarded as the greatest
classicist of the
19th century. His work regarding
Roman history is still of fundamental importance for contemporary research. He received the
Nobel Prize in Literature in
1902, and was also a prominent German politician, as a member of the Prussian and German parliaments. His works on
Roman law and on the
law of obligations had a significant impact on the German
civil code (
BGB).
Life
Mommsen was born in
Garding in
Schleswig as a son of a poor minister. He grew up in
Oldesloe and studied at home, thought he attended gymnasium in
Altona for four years. He studied Greek and Latin and received his diploma in 1837, graduating as a doctor of Roman law. As he could not afford to study at one of the more prestigious German universities, he enrolled at the university of Kiel.
Mommsen studied
jurisprudence at the
University of Kiel (
Holstein) from
1838 to
1843. Thanks to a Danish grant, he was able to visit
France and
Italy to study preserved classical Roman inscriptions. During the
revolution of 1848 he suported monarchists and worked as a war correspondent (journalist) in Danish at that time
Rendsburg, supporting the
annexation of Schleswig-Holstein by his country and constitutional reform. He became a professor of
law in the same year at the
University of Leipzig. When Mommsen protested the new constitution of
Saxony in
1851, he had to resign. However, the next year he obtained a professorship in Roman law at the University of Zurich and spent a couple of years in exile. In
1854 he became a profesor of law at the University of
Breslau where he met
Jakob Bernays. Mommsen became a research professor at the
Berlin Academy of Sciences in
1857. He later helped to create and manage the German Archaeological Institute in Rome.
In
1858 Mommsen was appointed a member of the Academy of Sciences in Berlin, and he also became professor of Roman History at the
University of Berlin in
1861, where he held lectures up to
1887. Mommsen received high recognition for his scientific achievements: the medal
Pour le Mérite in
1868, honorary citizenship of
Rome, and the
Nobel prize for literature in
1902 for his main work ''Römische Geschichte'' (''Roman History''). He is one of the very few
non-fiction writers to receive the Nobel prize in literature. Mommsen had sixteen children with his wife Marie (daughter of the editor
Karl Reimer from Leipzig), some of whom died in childhood. Two of his great-grandsons,
Hans and
Wolfgang, are prominent German historians.
Mommsen worked hard. He rose at five and began to work in his library. Whenever he went out, he took one of his books along to read, and contemporaries often found him reading whilst walking in the streets.
1880 Fire
Not all of Mommsen's library was completely destroyed by the fire; the ''Roman History v4'' was damaged but preserved
[3]
On 2 am
July 7,
1880 a fire occurred in the upper floor workroom-library of Mommsen's house at Marchstraße 6 in
Berlin.
[4][5][6]. Several old
manuscripts were burnt to ashes, including Manuscript 0.4.36 which was on loan from the library of
Trinity College, Cambridge;
[7] There is information that the Manuscript of Jordanes from
Heidelberg University library was burnt.
[8] Two other important manuscripts, from
Brussels and
Halle, were also destroyed.
[9]
Scholarly works
Theodor Mommsen in 1881
Mommsen published over 1,500 works, and effectively established a new framework for the systematic study of
Roman history. He pioneered
epigraphy, the study of
inscriptions in material artifacts. Although the unfinished ''
History of Rome'' has been widely considered as his main work, the work most relevant today is perhaps the ''
Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum'', a collection of Roman inscriptions he contributed to the
Berlin Academy.
★ ''Roman Provinces under the Empire'',
1884
★ ''
History of Rome'': Mommsen's most famous work appeared in three volumes between 1854 and 1856, and exposed Roman history up to the end of the
Roman republic and the rule of
Julius Caesar, whom Mommsen portrayed as a gifted statesman. He closely compared political issues and terminology, especially of the late
Republic, to political developments in the 19th century (
nation-state,
democracy). It is counted among the great classics of historical works. Mommsen never wrote a continuation of his Roman history to incorporate the
imperial period. Notes taken during his lectures on the Roman Empire between 1863 and 1886 were published (in
1992) under the title ''A History of Rome Under the Emperors''. In
1885 a presentation of the Roman provinces in the imperial period appeared as volume 5 of ''Roman History'' (''The Provinces of the Roman Empire from Caesar to Diocletian''). There was no volume 4. The work has also received some criticism, accusing him of "journalism", and in 1931
Egon Friedell argued that in his hands "
Crassus becomes a
speculator in the manner of
Louis Philippe, the brothers
Gracchus are
Socialist leaders, and the
Gallians are
Indians, etc."
[10]
★ ''Roman Chronology to the Time of Caesar'' (1858) written with his brother
August Mommsen.
★ ''Roman Constitutional Law'' (1871-1888). This systematic treatment of
Roman constitutional law in three volumes has been of importance for research on ancient history.
★ ''Roman Criminal Law'' (1899)
★ ''Monumentum Ancyranum''
★ ''
Iordanis Romana et Getica'' (1882) was Mommsen's critical edition of
Jordanes' ''The Origin and Deeds of the Goths'' and has subsequently come to be generally known simply as ''
Getica''.
★ More than 1,500 further studies and treatises on single issues.
A bibliography of over 1,000 of his works is given by Zangemeister in ''Mommsen als Schriftsteller'' (1887; continued by Jacobs, 1905).
Mommsen as editor and organiser
While he was secretary of the Historical-Philological Class at the
Berlin Academy (1874-1895), Mommsen organised countless scientific projects, mostly editions of original sources.
''Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum''
At the beginning of his scientific career, Mommsen already envisioned a collection of all known ancient Latin inscriptions when he published the inscriptions of the
Neapolitan Kingdom (
1852). He received additional impetus and training from
Bartolomeo Borghesi of
San Marino. The complete ''
Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum'' would consist of sixteen volumes. Fifteen of them appeared in Mommsen's lifetime and he wrote five of them himself. The basic principle of the edition (contrary to previous collections) was the method of autopsy (which in Greek means literally "to see for oneself"), according to which all copies (i.e., modern transcriptions) of inscriptions were to be checked and compared to the original.
Further editions and research projects
Mommsen also published the fundamental collections in Roman law: the ''
Corpus Iuris Civilis'' and the ''
Codex Theodosianus''. Furthermore, he played an important role in the publication of the ''
Monumenta Germaniae Historica'', the edition of the texts of the
Church Fathers, the
Limes research and countless other projects.
Mommsen as politician
Mommsen was a delegate to the
Prussian
Landtag in 1863-1866 and again in 1873-1879, and delegate to the
Reichstag in 1881-1884, at first for the liberal
German Progress Party (''Deutsche Fortschrittspartei''), later for the
National Liberal Party, and finally for the Secessionists. He was very concerned with questions about scientific and educational policies and held national positions. Disappointed with the politics of the empire, regarding whose future he was quite pessimistic, in the end he advised collaboration between Liberals and Social Democrats.
In 1881 Mommsen strongly disagreed with
Bismarck about social policies in 1881. He used strong words and narrowly avoided prosecution. In 1879 his colleague
Heinrich von Treitschke (the so-called 'Berliner
Antisemitismusstreit') begun a political campaign against Jews and Mommsen criticized him sharply in public. On the other hand, he insisted on
assimilation of them, as he disagreed with their cultural or religious independence.
Mommsen was violent supporter of German nationalism, maintaining a militant attitude towards the
Slavic nations. He appealed to
German speaking inhabitants of
Austria-Hungary to "Be hard. The
Czech skull cannot absorb knowledge, but even it is accessible to
blows."
[11]
Trivia
★ Mommsen was both the oldest person to receive the
Nobel Prize in Literature and the first-born laureate; born in 1817, he won the second Nobel ever awarded at the age of eighty-five. The next oldest laureate in Literature is
Paul Heyse, born in 1830, who won the Nobel in
1910.
★ Fellow Nobel Laureate (1925)
Bernard Shaw cited Mommsen's interpretation of the last First Consul of the Republic, Julius Caesar, as one of the inspirations for his 1898 (1905 on
Broadway) play, ''
Caesar and Cleopatra''.
★ The playwright
Heiner Müller wrote a 'performance text' entitled ''
Mommsen's Block'' (1993), inspired by the publication of Mommsen's fragmentary notes on the later Roman empire and by the
East German government's decision to replace a statue of
Karl Marx outside the
Humboldt University of Berlin with one of Mommsen.
[12]
★ There is a
Gymnasium (academic high school) named for Mommsen in his hometown of
Bad Odesloe, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.
References
1. http://www.nndb.com/people/618/000107297/
2. Nobel Prize in Literature#List of Nobel Laureates in Literature
3. Archiv der BBAW, 47/1 fol. 6; in "Phönix aus der Asche" http://www.mgh-bibliothek.de/etc/dokumente/a130801.pdf; page 57
4. Title: Phönix aus der Asche : Theodor Mommsen und die
Monumenta Germaniae Historica; Authors: Arno Mentzel-Reuters Mark Mersiowsky Peter Orth Olaf B. Rader; Published: München und Berlin 2005; URL: http://www.mgh-bibliothek.de/etc/dokumente/a130801.pdf; page 53
5. Vossische Zeitung 12/7/1880 (Nr. 192) in column "Lokales"
6. Contemporery Map
7. quote: Another manuscript is beyond recall; namely, 0.4.36, which was borrowed by Professor Theodor Mommsen and perished in the lamentable fire at his house in 1880. It was not, apparently, an indispensable or even a very important authority for the texts (Jordanes, the Antonine Itinerary, etc.) which it contained, and other copies of its archetype are yet in being: still, the loss of it is very regrettable ; M R James' The Western Manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge: a Descriptive Catalogue; http://rabbit.trin.cam.ac.uk/James/Jamespref.html
8. Quote: Der größte Verlust war eine frühmittelalterliche Jordanes-Handschrift aus der Heidelberger Univer-sitätsbibliothek. Url:http://www.mgh-bibliothek.de/etc/dokumente/a130801.pdf; page 53
9. vor allem zwei aus Brüssel und Halle entlehnte Handschriften
10. Kuusankosken kaupunginkirjasto, Finland.
11. http://media.hoover.org/documents/0817944915_146.pdf
12. Heiner Müller, ''Mommsen's Block''. In ''A Heiner Müller Reader: Plays | Poetry | Prose''. Ed. and trans. Carl Weber. PAJ Books Ser. Baltimore and London: The John Hopkins University Press, 2001. ISBN 0801865786. p.122-129.
Literature
★
Wilhelm Weber, ''Theodor Mommsen'' (1929)
★
W. Warde Fowler, ''Theodor Mommsen: His Life and Work'' (1909)
★ Mommsen, Theodor: ''Römische Geschichte''. 8 Volumes. dtv, München 2001. ISBN 3-423-59055-6
★ Heuß, Alfred: ''Theodor Mommsen und das 19. Jahrhundert''. Kiel 1956; reprinted Stuttgart 1996. ISBN 3-515-06966-6
★ Wickert, Lothar: ''Theodor Mommsen''. 4 volumes. Frankfurt/Main, 1959?1980.
★ Rebenich, Stefan: ''Theodor Mommsen: eine Biographie''. Beck, München 2002. ISBN 3-406-49295-9
★ Josef Wiesehöfer (ed.), ''Theodor Mommsen: Gelehrter, Politiker und Literat,'' unter Mitarbeit von Henning Börm. Stuttgart, 2005. (see
review)
★ Anthony Grafton - ''Roman Monument'' (''History Today'' September 2006)
External links
★
Nobel Prize bio
★
The Nobel Prize Bio on Mommsen
★
A Mommsen biography
★
Theodor Mommsen biography from the Mommsen family website
★
Theodor Mommsen History of Rome
★
★
''Römische Geschichte'' (Roman History) at German Project Gutenberg: E-Text of Vol. 1 -
5 & 8 (vol. 6 & 7 do not exist) in German.
★ http://www.mgh-bibliothek.de/etc/dokumente/a130801.pdf. Phönix 'aus der Asche' Theodor Mommsen und die Monumenta Germaniae Historica
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