Eduard Johnson

Wilhelm August Eduard Johnson (February 16, 1840 – September 7, 1903) was a German classicist, teacher, journalist and local historian. He used the pseudonyms E. Joannides and Georg Capellanus.

Eduard Johnson
Born	(1840-02-16)February 16, 1840 Freiberg, Germany
Died	September 7, 1903(1903-09-07) (aged 63) Sachsgrün, Germany
Occupation(s)	local historian, teacher, classicist, nonfiction author

Although the name "Johnson" appears to be an English name, it is not. The original form of the family name was apparently "Joh(a)nsson".^[1]

Early life and education

Monument to Eduard Johnson near Sachsgrün, Saxony, Germany, in what used to be the inner-German border zone

Heritage-protected grave marker for Eduard Johnson in Cemetery II in the Central Cemetery in Plauen, Germany.

After attending primary school and the Gymnasium (college preparatory school) in his home town of Freiberg, Germany, Johnson studied philosophy and philology at the university in Leipzig, with the intention of becoming a teacher at an advanced secondary school. He passed the state exam and earned a Doctor of Philosopy degree.

Career

In 1864, he began his probationary year of teaching at the Plauen Gymnasium. He taught Latin, Greek, German and History. In 1865 he finished his probationary year and earned a fixed employment position at the school.^[1]

While employed as a teacher, he published philosophical works on the problem of Sensualism and made extensive investigations into the history of the Vogtland in Saxony, Germany. After his transfer to the Chemnitz Gymnasium in 1881, he used his free time for excursions to the Vogtland. As a historian he published several reports on the history of notable individuals and castles in the Vogtland. Between 1896 and 1903 he published over 162 articles under the title Vogtländische Altertümer (Vogtland Antiquities).^[2][3]

Johnson worried about the waning influence of Ancient Greek and Latin.^[4] He pseudonymously published two books cataloguing colloquial phrases and vocabulary in order to promote the active use of Greek and Latin in everyday life. These were bilingual phrasebooks in Attic Greek/German and Latin/German.^[4][5]

Journalism was Johnson's other passion. He served as part-time editor of the newspaper Vogtländische Anzeiger und Tageblatt, until finally in 1895 he resigned his position as teacher and became the head editor. At this time the Vogtländische Anzeiger was the most popular newspaper in the Vogtland.^[1]

Death and legacy

Eduard Johnson died after a heart attack during an expedition in Fuchspöhl, west of the village of Sachsgrün, which is today the community of Triebel/Vogtl. On that spot, a small stone monument was erected in his honor in 2007, and a plaque added in 2008.^[1][2]

An older monument to Johnson had previously existed on that spot. It was erected on July 6, 1941, However, that older monument was later lost due to the expansion of the inner-German border zone between East and West Germany.^[1][2]

The Plauen Central Cemetery has a page describing Johnson's headstone (in German), along with a photo of Johnson, a photo of the dedication ceremony for his monument, a scan of a contemporary newspaper article (in German) and a few other photos.

Works

• E. Joannides: Sprechen Sie Attisch? Moderne Konversation in altgriechischer Umgangssprache nach den besten attischen Autoren. Koch, Leipzig 1889, Eduard Johnson is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive. Second edition [with "many additions" according to the Foreward] Auflage Koch, Dresden und Leipzig 1902.
  • New edition revised, edited and expanded by Helmut Schareika: Ἆρ’ ἀττικίζεις; – Sprechen Sie Attisch? Moderne Konversation in altgriechischer Umgangssprache, Buske, Hamburg 2012, ISBN 978-3875486377
  • Italian translation: Parlare greco oggi: Conversazione moderna in greco antico, a cura di Enrico Renna e Claudio Ferone, Fratelli Ariello editori, Napoli 1998. (No ISBN.)
• Georg Capellanus: Sprechen Sie Lateinisch? Moderne Konversation in lateinischer Sprache. Koch, Leipzig 1890. 17. Auflage: Dümmler, Bonn 1999, ISBN 978-3-427-47056-4. PDF at Scribd
  • Famous Book review (in German) of Sprechen Sie Lateinisch by Kurt Tucholsky, first published in Vossische Zeitung on June 23, 1925.
  • Russian translation: Говорите ли Вы на латыни? / Георг Капеллан; пер. И. Р. Гимадеева, И. С. Селиванова; под ред. А. И. Солопова. — М.: Издательство книжной лавки «Листва», 2021. — 164 с. ISBN 978-5-6043461-6-7
  • English translation: Latin Can Be Fun (Facetiae Latinae): A Modern Conversational Guide (Sermo Hodiernus Antique Redditus). Translated by Peter Needham. London, Souvenir Press Ltd., 1977. ISBN 978-1566199919
• Eduard Johnson: Geschichtliches über Burgstein im Vogtland und seine Umgebung. Wieprecht, Plauen 1897. Reprint: Vogtländischer Heimatverlag Neupert, Plauen 1990, ISBN 3-929039-03-6.
• Eduard Johnson: Zur Lebensgeschichte des Kabinettsministers Detlev Grafen Einsiedel. In: Neues Archiv für sächsische Geschichte. Band 12, 1891, S. 175–177; Eduard Johnson is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive.
• E. Johnson: Urkundliches über den ersten Kartoffel-Feldbau in Sachsen. In: Neues Archiv für sächsische Geschichte. Band 23, 1902, S. 150–155; Eduard Johnson is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive.

Further reading

• Alexey Slednikov's article in Melissa contains a footnote listing six newspaper articles (in German) about Johnson. Slednikov's article itself is available via Academia.edu, however, none of the mentioned six newspaper articles are available online.^[3]
• Schmidt, Roland. "Gymnasiallehrer, Journalist und Heimatforscher: Vor 175 Jahren wurde Prof. Dr. Eduard Johnson geboren." Vogtland-Anzeiger, March 17, 2015, p. 42. (In German, not available online.)
• Hager, Ronny. "Vogtland: Forscher holen Multitalent ans Licht." Freie Presse, Oct 19, 2023. link (In German, paywalled.)