Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker

Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker (4 November 1784 – 17 December 1868), German philologist and archaeologist, was born at Grünberg, Hesse-Darmstadt. Having studied classical philology at the University of Giessen, he was appointed (1803) master in the high school, an office which he combined with that of lecturer at the university. In 1806 he journeyed to Italy, and was for more than a year private tutor at Rome in the family of Wilhelm von Humboldt, wh... more

Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker (4 November 1784 – 17 December 1868), German philologist and archaeologist, was born at Grünberg, Hesse-Darmstadt. Having studied classical philology at the University of Giessen, he was appointed (1803) master in the high school, an office which he combined with that of lecturer at the university. In 1806 he journeyed to Italy, and was for more than a year private tutor at Rome in the family of Wilhelm von Humboldt, who became his friend and correspondent. Welcker returned to Giessen in 1808, and resuming his school-teaching and university lectures was in the following year appointed the first professor of Greek literature and archaeology at that or any German university. After serving as a volunteer in the campaign of 1814 he went to Copenhagen to edit the posthumous papers of the Danish archaeologist Georg Zoega (1755-1809), and published his biography, Zoegas Leben (Stutt. 1819). His liberalism in politics having brought him into conflict with the... less