Burkhard Gotthelf Struve

Burkhard Gotthelf Struve (26 May 1671 - 25 May 1738) was a scholarly German librarian who became a polymath-historian based, for most of his academic career, at the University of Jena. Life Struve was born in Weimar, his mother's second son. His father, who also had a family from a previous marriage, was a lawyer and at the time of his birth a Privy counciller (Hofrat) at the court in Weimar, Georg Adam Struve. The father had held a teaching professorship at Jena since 1672, and the son received his early schooling privately, some of it at home. When he was just 16 Burkhard Gotthelf Struve enrolled at the University of Jena where he learned about philosophy, politics, history and jurisprudence. His teachers included , and , although sources stress that he had been a bibliophile from an early age, and where he did not agree with his teachers he would undertake his own research, so that in many matters he was self-educated even in respect of his time at university. After Jena he spent a period at Helmstedt, learning from the charismatic Heinrich Meibom. Subsequently, he studied briefly at the Viadrina University at Frankfurt, before returning to Jena in 1690. At home there was further discussion about the direction of his future career. Early in 1691 he moved to Halle where he worked in a law firm, but the work did not suit him and he returned home at Easter. Meanwhile, his elder brother was building a career at The Hague as a Chemist and Alchemist, working for wealthy individuals, and invited Burkhard to join him as an assistant. In The Hague he was able to buy a number of rare books, but then he fell seriously ill and had to leave his brother and return home to Jena. The search for a career resumed, punctuated by bouts of serious illness and, in 1692, the death of his father. His alchemist brother found himself in trouble, accused of dishonesty and imprisoned. Struve was obliged to sell his by-now valuable book collection and sacrifice his paternal inheritance in order to ensure his elder brother's freedom.