Victor Stegheman

Victor Shtegeman was born on January 17, 1902 in Aachen ; he studied classical philology, history and Egyptology at the universities of Heidelberg and Munich; Among the professors who had a special influence on Shtegeman in his student years was the Heidelberg professor of philology Franz Boll (1867-1924). Shtegeman became a candidate of sciences, having defended his thesis in 1925 on the work of Aurelius Augustine “ On the City of God ”; Three years later, the revised and updated dissertation was published in Tübingen in the form of a book entitled "Augustins Gottesstaat."

After graduation Shtegeman start working as a teacher in high school; in addition to teaching, he also continued his studies in the field of the history of religion and ancient science - at that time he paid special attention to ancient astrology. At the same time, gradually, the study of magical texts written in the Coptic language, has become increasingly important for him. In 1930, he published a paper on the Nonon Panopolitan book “ Acts of Dionysus ”, entitled “Astrology and Universal History: Research and Interpretations of Dionysics” (Astrologie und Universalgeschichte: Studien und Interpretationen zu den Dionysiaka des Nonnos von Panopolis). Already after the national socialists came to power in Germany , in 1937, Shtegeman became a doctor of sciences, having defended a dissertation at the University of Würzburg , about the doctrinal poem by Dorotheus Sidon (I century AD), preserved to this day as a collection of fragments (in Arabic translation). A year later, in 1938, he gained the position of assistant professor at the University of Würzburg .

After the start of World War II , in the last trimester of 1940, Steghemann moved to the German University in Prague (Deutsche Universität Prag or Karl-Ferdinands-Universität), where he also became an assistant professor; in 1943 he received the position of professor. In addition to Latin courses for students, he also conducted classes and seminars about the Coptic language. After the end of world war, Victor Shtegeman was expelled from the newly formed Czechoslovakia - he moved to the Grefelfing commune near Munich. There he lived, with no means of livelihood or work. Gradually, he gathered around him a circle of interested researchers and students, but soon the group dispersed. Shtegeman did not have time to complete his last work: on March 2, 1948, at the age of 46, he died after visiting his wife in a sanatorium.

In 1955, Stegemann’s work on Nikolaus von Kues: Die Kalenderverbesserung, first published in 1935, was republished by historian and philologist Bernhard Bischoff ; A new edition appeared already in the 21st century - in 2006.

List of Works

• Augustins Gottesstaat. Tübingen 1928 (Heidelberger Abhandlungen zur Philosophie und ihrer Geschichte 15)
• Beiträge zur Geschichte der Astrologie. Heft 1: Der griechische Astrologe Dorotheos von Sidon and der Arabische Astrologe Abu-ll-Ḥasan Alī ibn-Abi-rr-Riǧāl. Heidelberg 1935.
• Die Gestalt Christi in den koptischen Zaubertexten. Heidelberg 1934
• Die koptischen Zaubertexte der Sammlung Papyrus Erzherzog Rainer in Vienna. Heidelberg 1934
• Astrologie und Universalgeschichte. Studien und Interpretationen zu den Dionysiaka des Nonnos von Panopolis. Leipzig 1930
• Koptische Paläographie. Heidelberg 1936
• Die Fragmente des Dorotheos von Sidon (= Quellen und Studien zur Geschichte und Kultur des Altertums und des Mittelalters. Reihe B: Zusammengefasste Denkmälergruppen. Heft 1). 4 Lieferungen geplant. Heidelberg 1939 (Lfg. 1) und 1943 (Lfg. 2), mehr nicht erschienen (= Habilitationsschrift, Universität Würzburg, 1937)
• Gaius Julius Cäsar: Der gallische Krieg. Verdeutscht und erläutert. Leipzig 1939 (Sammlung Dieterich 26)
• Dorotheos von Sidon und das sogenante Introductorium des Sahl Ibn Bišr. Prag 1942
  • Dorotheos von Sidon: Ein Bericht über die Rekonstruktionsmöglichkeiten seines astrologischen Werkes. In: Rheinisches Museum für Philologie 91, 1942, S. 326-349
• Aus einem mittelalterlichen deutschen astronomisch-astrologischen Lehrbüchlein: Eine Untersuchung über Entstehg, Herkunft u. Nachwirkg e. Kapitels über Planetenkinder. Reichenberg 1944. Nachdruck Hildesheim 1973
• Kleine Schriften zur Sternkunde des Altertums / (Hrsg.) Franz Boll. Leipzig 1950
• Nikolaus von Kues: Die Kalenderverbesserung = De correctione kalendarii. Heidelberg 1955 (with Bernhard Bischoff)

As of 1948, was married.

• Franz Brunhölzl: Theodor Hopfner (1886–1945), Viktor Stegemann (1902–1948), Albert Rehm (1871–1949). In: Eikasmós. Band 4, 1993, S. 203-216
• Wolf B. Oerter: Der Nachlass Viktor Stegemann in Prag. In: Proceedings of the 24th International Congress of Papyrology, Helsinki, 1-7 August, 2004. Helsinki 2007, S. 827–838 (= Commentationes humanarum litterarum 122)
• Martin Sicherl: Erinnerungen an Prag (1933–1937). In: Eikasmós. Band 4, 1993, S. 85-94
  • Martin Sicherl: Die Klassische Philologie an der Prager deutschen Universität 1849-1945. In: Schriften der Sudetendeutschen Akademie der Wissenschaften und Künste. Band 20, 1999, pp. 285–337 (gekürzte Fassung in: Eikasmós. Band 14, 2003, p. 393–419)
• Kürschners deutscher Gelehrten-Kalender 1940-1941, 6th ed., Berlin, 1941, p. 840.

• Krause, Martin. Stegemann, Viktor (Neopr.) . ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu . The Coptic encyclopedia, volume 7 (1991). The appeal date is March 20, 2019.