Name Karl Witte Education Leipzig University | Books Essays on Dante | |
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Died March 6, 1883, Halle, Germany | ||
Johann Heinrich Friedrich Karl Witte (born July 1, 1800 in Lochau (now part of Schkopau); died March 6, 1883 in Halle) was a German jurist and scholar of Dante Alighieri.
Biography
Witte was the son of pastor Karl Heinrich Gottfried Witte who encouraged a fairly intense program of learning. When Karl Witte was nine, he spoke German, French, Italian, Latin, and Greek, and on April 10, 1814, at the age of 13, he became a doctor of philosophy at the University of Giessen in Germany. As a result, Witte was listed in The Guinness Book of World Records as the "youngest doctorate", a record that still stands; however, The Guinness Book of World Records lists his age as 12.
Witte was the subject of a book written by his father: The Education of Karl Witte: Or, The Training of the Child. This book attracted criticism and soon fell into oblivion in Germany. However, the education principles he suggested in this 200 year old book are still echoing in today's child education, such as
In China, the book became a bestseller at the beginning of the 21st century. Millions of Chinese hope that their children would become a genius by using Witte's book. The name "Karl Witte" was changed to "Carl Weter" when translated from Japanese.
He achieved his reputation as a Dante scholar in 1823 with his essay "The Art of Misunderstanding Dante".