Theodor Kock

18 November 1820 – 4 June 1901

German Classicist; studied Classics from 1838-1842 in Breslau, Halle, and Berlin; received his Ph.D. from the University of Breslau in 1842. Worked as teacher at high schools (Gymnasien) in Posen and Elbing. In 1854, he became principal of the high school (Gymnasium) in Guben; later, he served in similar position in Stolp, Memel, at the Johanneum in Hamburg, and from 1866-1882, when he retired, at the Luisenstädter Gymnasium in Berlin. He spent the last two decades of his life in Weimar. Kock's collection of all surviving fragments of ancient Greek comedy (Comicorum Atticorum Fragmenta, 3 vols., 1880-1888) became a standard work that is only now being replaced by the Poetae Comici Graeci, edd. Rudolf Kassel and Colin Austin (so far 8 vols, 1981-2001). Biographical Source: Peter Wirth: Kock, Theodor. In: Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). Band 12, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1980, S. 286.