Eduard Johnson

Eduard Johnson
Born(1840-02-16)February 16, 1840
Freiberg, Germany
DiedSeptember 7, 1903(1903-09-07) (aged 63)
Sachsgrün, Germany
Occupationslocal historian, teacher, classicist, nonfiction author

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.

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

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 . Auflage Koch, Dresden und Leipzig 1902 (in German and Ancient Greek). Second edition [with "many additions" according to the Foreword].
    • 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.)
    • English translation: Do You Speak Attic Greek? (2025 English Edition) , Aristophanic Cloud Publishing, 2025. ISBN 979-8-90030-048-1.
  • Georg Capellanus: Sprechen Sie Lateinisch? Moderne Konversation in lateinischer Sprache. 13th edition, Ferd. Dümmler, Bonn 1966 (in German and Latin).
    • 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. Volume 12, 1891, pp. 175–177.
  • E. Johnson: Urkundliches über den ersten Kartoffel-Feldbau in Sachsen. In: Neues Archiv für sächsische Geschichte. Volume 23, 1902, pp. 150–155.

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. (in German; paywalled)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Hager, Ronny (2023-09-23). "Biographisches Kalenderblatt (204)" (PDF). Stadtanzeiger: Amts- und Mitteilungsblatt der Großen Kreisstadt Oelsnitz/Vogtl. (in German). No. 9. Retrieved 2025-10-04. Note: This page is a brief biography of Johnson listed in a local city newsletter in Oelsnitz, Germany. On Oct. 19, 2023, Ronny Hager also wrote a (paywalled) article about Johnson in the Freie Presse, a local newspaper covering southwestern Saxony, Germany.
  2. ^ a b c "Grabstein Prof. Dr. Eduard Johnson". friedhof-plauen.de (in German). 2021-03-01. Retrieved 2025-10-04. Note: This is an informational page about Johnson on the Plauen Cemetery web site, with biographical details, photos, and a scan of a contemporary newspaper article (in German).
  3. ^ a b Slednikov, Alexey (2025). "Georgium Capellanum Cum Russis Colloqui". Melissa (in Latin) (246): 3–5. Retrieved 2025-09-04. Note: This is a brief biographical sketch of Johnson, published in a Latin-language academic journal named Melissa. This article's footnotes contain a list of six recent newspaper articles (in German) about Johnson.
  4. ^ a b Joannides, E. (2025) [1902]. Do You Speak Attic Greek? (2025 English Edition) [Sprechen Sie Attisch?] (in English and Ancient Greek). Aristophanic Cloud Publishing. ISBN 979-8-90030-048-1. Note: This is Johnson's Attic Greek phrasebook.
  5. ^ Capellanus, Georg (1890). Sprechen sie Lateinisch? : Moderne conversation in lateinischer Sprache (in German and Latin) (1st ed.). C.A. Koch. Note: This is Johnson's Latin/German phrasebook.
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