Biography
He was born at Zittau, in Lusatia. His early education was mainly conducted by his father, Ernst Friedrich Haupt, burgomaster of Zittau, a man of learning who took pleasure in translating German hymns or Goethe's poems into Latin, and whose memoranda were employed by Gustav Freytag in his Bilder aus der deutschen Vergangenheit. From the Zittau gymnasium, where he spent the five years 1821-1826, Haupt moved to the University of Leipzig intending to study theology; but his own inclinations and the influence of Professor Gottfried Hermann soon turned him in the direction of classical philology.
On the close of his university course (1830) he returned to his father's house, and the next seven years were devoted to study, not only of Greek, Latin and German, but of Old French, Provençal and Bohemian. His friendship with Karl Lachmann, formed at Berlin, had great effect on his intellectual development. In September 1837 he qualified at Leipzig as Privatdozent, and his first lectures, dealing with such diverse subjects as Catullus and the Nibelungenlied, indicated the two main strands of his interest. A new chair of German language and literature was founded for his benefit, and he became professor extraordinarius (1841) and then professor ordinarius (1843). In 1842 he married Louise Hermann, the daughter of his master and colleague.
Having taken part in 1849 with Otto Jahn and Theodor Mommsen in a political agitation for the maintenance of the imperial constitution, Haupt was deprived of his professorship by a decree of April 22, 1851. Two years later, however, he was called to succeed Lachmann at the University of Berlin and at the same time the Berlin Academy, which had made him a corresponding member in 1841, elected him an ordinary member. In 1861 he became perpetual secretary of the Academy. For 21 years, he was prominent among the scholars of the Prussian capital, making his presence felt, not only by the prestige of his erudition and the clearness of his intellect, but by the tirelessness of his energy and the ardent fearlessness of his temperament. His service to both classical and German philology was rendered chiefly as an editor of texts. He died of heart disease.
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