SCHNEIDER, Helmuth 1946-

PERSONAL:

Male. Born 1946, in Bad Gandersheim, Germany. Education: Attended the universities of Tübingen and Marburg; received Ph.D., 1973; Freie Universität Berlin, postdoctoral lecturing qualification, 1986.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Fachgruppe Geschichte, Universität Kassel, Nora-Platiel-Strasse 1, Raum-Nr. 3208, 34109 Kassel, Germany. E-mail—Schneider.AG@unikassel.de.

CAREER:

Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany, scientific and university assistant, 1978-88; University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany, lecturer, 1988-89; University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany, private lecturer, 1989-91; University of Kassel, Kassel, Germany, professor of ancient history, 1991—.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Heisenberg scholarship, 1989-91.

WRITINGS:

Wirtschaft und Politik: Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der späten römischen Republik (revised version of Ph.D. dissertation), Palm und Enke (Erlangen, Germany), 1973.

(Editor) Zur Sozial-und Wirtschaftsgeschichte der späten römischen Republik, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft (Darmstadt, Germany), 1976.

Die Entstehung der römischen Militärdiktatur: Krise und Niedergang einer antiken Republik, Kiepenheuer & Witsch (Cologne, Germany), 1977.

(Editor) Sozial-und Wirtschaftsgeschichte der römischen Kaiserzeit, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft (Darmstadt, Germany), 1981.

Das griechische Technikverständnis: Von den Epen Homers bis zu den Anfängen der technologischen Fachliteratur, Wissenschaftliche Buchgelleschaft (Darmstadt, Germany), 1989.

Einführung in die antike Technikgeschichte, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft (Darmstadt, Germany), 1992.

(Editor, with Hubert Cancik) Der Neue Pauly, Enzyklopädie der Antike, [Stuttgart/Weimar], twenty volumes, 1996—, translation published as Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopedia of the Ancient World, Brill (Boston, MA), Volume 1, 2002, Volumes 2-3, 2003, Volumes 4-5, 2004, Volumes 6-20, 2005.

(Editor, with Albrecht Hoffmann) Technik und Zauber historischer Wasserkünste in Kassel: Von den Kaskaden Guernieros zu den Wasserfällen Steinhöfers, Euregio (Kassel, Germany), 2000.

Also contributor to books, including Propylen Technikgeschichte, edited by W. König, 1991; and Alte Geschichte und Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Festschrift Karl Christ, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft (Darmstadt, Germany), 1988; contributor of articles to various scholarly periodicals.

SIDELIGHTS:

Helmuth Schneider is a respected scholar of ancient history in his native Germany. In the 1970s and early 1980s, he wrote and edited several German-language books about the history of ancient Rome that have been praised by reviewers. An American Notes and Queries critic lauded Schneider's "perceptive introduction" and "judiciously selective bibliography" in Zur Sozial-und Wirschaftsgeschichte der späten römischen Republik. Also complimentary, American Historical Review contributor M. Gwyn Morgan thought that Die Entstehung der römischen Militärdiktatur: Krise und Niedergang einer antiken Republik, which was written for a nonspecialist audience, is "often more perceptive, and regularly more interesting, than the ostentatiously scholarly works" appearing on the late Roman Republic. Despite their positive reception by German-speaking audiences, only one of Schneider's works has been translated into English: Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopedia of the Ancient World.

Pauly encyclopedias have been classics in the field of antiquities since August Friedrich von Pauly began the first set in 1839. The original Pauly encyclopedia, Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, was not completed until 1980, when it numbered eighty-four volumes. An abridged version of this encyclopedia, Der Kleine Pauly, was published between 1964 and 1975; Der Neue Pauly: Enzyklopädie der Antike, the third version of the encyclopedia, is Schneider and fellow editor Hubert Cancik's contribution. Five hundred scholars wrote new articles for Brill's New Pauly, which covers both the ancient and classical world. In contrast with earlier Pauly encyclopedias, Brill's New Pauly "makes things easier for those who do not know Greek or Latin," Robert L. Fowler commented in the Times Literary Supplement. However, like the original set, Brill's New Pauly is "authoritative" and "essential" for academic classics collections, wrote Choice contributor B. Juhl.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, February, 1979, M. Gwyn Morgan, review of Die Entstehung der römischen Militärdiktatur: Krise und Niedergang einer anti-ken Republik, pp. 128-129.

American Notes and Queries, November-December, 1981, review of Sozial-und Wirtschaftsgeschichte der römischen Kaiserzeit, pp. 57-58.

Choice, July-August, 2003, B. Juhl, review of Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopedia of the Ancient World, p. 1881.

Technology and Culture, July, 1999, Michael Allen, review of Propyläen Technikgeschichte, pp. 599-606.

Times Literary Supplement, January 31, 2003, review of Brill's New Pauly, p. 12.

ONLINE

University of Kassel Web site,http://www.uni-kassel.de/ (June 14, 2004), "Prof. Dr. Helmuth Schneider."