Carl Wilhelm Göttling

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Carl Wilhelm Göttling (January 19, 1793&hdash;January 20, 1869), German classical scholar, was born at Jena.

He studied at the universities of Jena and Berlin, took part in the war against France in 1814, and finally settled down in 1828 as professor at the university of his native town, where he continued to reside till his death. In his early years Göttling devoted himself to German literature, and published two works on the Nibelungen: Uber des Geschichtliche im Nibelungenliede (1814) and Nibelungen und Gibelinen (1817).

The greater part of his life, however, was devoted to the study of classical literature, especially the elucidation of Greek authors. The contents of his Gesammelte Abhandlungen aus dem klassischen Altertum (1851-1863) and Opuscula Academica (published in 1869 after his death) sufficiently indicate the varied nature of his studies. He edited the Techne (grammatical manual) of Theodosius of Alexandria (1822), Aristotle's Politics (1824), and Economics (1830) and Hesiod (1831; 3rd ed. by J Flach, 1878).

Mention may also be made of his Allgemeine Lehre vom Accent der griechischen Sprache (1835), enlarged from a smaller work, which was translated into English (1831) as the Elements of Greek Accentuation; and of his Correspondence with Goethe (published 1880).

See memoirs by C Nipperdey, his colleague at Jena (1869), G Lothholz (Stargard, 1876), K Fischer (preface to the Opuscula Academica), and Conrad Bursian in Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, ix.