Konrad Duden
Konrad Alexander Friedrich Duden was a German philologist and teacher. He founded the well-known German language dictionary bearing his name, Duden.
Life
Duden was born in Lackhausen, Rhineland. After receiving his Abitur in 1846 in Wesel, Duden studied history, Germanistics, and classical philology at Bonn. There he joined the Wingolfsbund student organization and took part in the political activities of the student societies during the revolutionary year 1848.He broke off his training phase in Soest and took a position as a home tutor in Genoa, Italy. There he met the daughter of the German Consul, Adeline Jakob, whom he married in 1861 and with whom he had six children.
In 1859 he returned to Germany and worked as a teacher and rose to the position of Director of the Archigymnasium in Soest. In 1869 he was appointed Gymnasium director in Schleiz and in 1876 became director of the Royal Gymnasium in Hersfeld. It was here he published his most important work, the "Complete Orthographic Dictionary of the German Language".
In 1905, he retired to Wiesbaden/Sonnenberg. He died in 1911 in Sonnenberg and was buried in the family grave in Bad Hersfeld.