Otto Harnack

Rudolf Gottfried Otto Harnack (23 November 1857, in Erlangen – 22 March 1914, near Besigheim) was a German literary historian, best known for his writings on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Biography He studied history and philology at the universities of Dorpat and Göttingen, receiving his doctorate at the latter institution in 1880. After graduation, he worked as a schoolteacher in Dorpat (from 1882), a school director in Wenden (from 1887), an employee of the Preussische Jahrbücher in Berlin (from 1889) and as a journalist in Rome (from 1891). In 1896 he was named a professor of history and literature at the Technische Hochschule in Darmstadt, then in 1905 relocated to the Technical College of Stuttgart as a professor of literature and aesthetics. On 22 March 1914 he committed suicide.

He was the son of theologian Theodosius Harnack, the brother of theologian Adolf von Harnack, mathematician Carl Gustav Axel Harnack and pharmacologist Erich Harnack. He was the father of screenwriter Falk Harnack and jurist Arvid Harnack. Also, he made contributions as an editor to Karl Heinemann's multi-volume Goethes Werke.