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Steinschneider—Stellenbosch
War. At Schleswig he so distinguished himself that Wrangel, the commander-in-chief, told him that he had “decided the battle.” He distinguished himself again at Düppel, and Prince William himself decorated him with the order pour le mérite on parade. For his campaign journals and letters see supplement to Militär Wochenblatt for 1878. On returning he was entrusted with the difficult command of the troops at Brandenburg during the sitting of a democratic popular convention at that place, and after this with the control of some troops that were known to be affected by the prevalent spirit of revolution. At the time of the Olmütz-Bronnzell incident of 1850 he was employed as military governor of Cassel, and in 1851, becoming colonel commandant of the cadet school of Berlin, he at once set about the reformation of the prevailing system of instruction, the defects of which he had openly condemned as early as 1820. Though more than fifty years of age, he now learned Latin and English in order to be a more competent instructor. In 1854, after forty-one years of active service, he was promoted major-general. At Magdeburg, as at Berlin, his reforming zeal made him many enemies, and in October of this year he sustained a loss which almost unhinged his mind in the death of his youngest and only surviving child, a girl of twenty-six. From Magdeburg he was removed to the command of a guard brigade at Berlin (1857), and thence almost immediately to a divisional command in the I. Corps. Early in 1858 he was promoted lieutenant-general, and for the five years that he held this command he devoted himself particularly to acquiring knowledge of the cavalry arm. About 1863, learning that von Bonin, his senior by date, but his junior in age and length of service, was about to be appointed to command the I. Corps, he meditated retirement, but the authorities at the same time as they appointed Bonin made Steinmetz commander of the II. Corps, and shortly afterwards, when the crown prince of Prussia took over this post, commander of the V. Corps at Posen. Shortly after this his wife died. He was promoted general of infantry in 1864, and led the V. Corps to the war against Austria in 1866. This was the chance of his lifetime. His skilful and resolute leadership was displayed in his three battles, won on three successive days, of Nachod, Skalitz and Schweinschadel (see Seven Weeks’ War), and opened the way through the mountains in spite of the defeat of Steinmetz’s rival Bonin at Trautenau. In 1867, in his loneliness, the “Lion of Nachod,” as he was popularly called, contracted a second marriage with Elise von Krosigk (who after his death married Count Brühl). He was now, for the first time in his life, a fairly wealthy man, having been awarded a money grant for his brilliant services in 1866. About this time he was elected a member of the North German Confederation parliament.
At the outbreak of the war of 1870 Steinmetz was appointed to command one of the three armies assembled on the Rhine, the others being led by Prince Frederick Charles and the crown prince. It was not long before serious differences arose between Steinmetz and Prince Frederick Charles. The former, embittered by a lifelong struggle against the influences of wealth and position, and perhaps somewhat grisé by his successes in 1866, considered an order to clear the roads for the prince’s army as an attempt to crowd a humbler comrade out of the fighting line, and various incidents added day by day to his growing resentment until at last on the field of Gravelotte (see Metz and Franco-German War for an account of these quarrels) he lost his temper and wasted his troops. After this there was no alternative but to relieve him of the command of the I. Army and to send him home as governor-general of the V. and VI. Army Corps districts. In April 1871 he was retired at his own request, but his great services were not forgotten when victory had softened animosities, and he was promoted general field-marshal, given a pension of 2000 thalers and made a member of the upper chamber. In the spirit of loyalty which had guided his whole career as a soldier he made no attempt to justify his conduct in 1870 either against the criticisms of the general staff history or against unofficial attacks. His life in retirement was quiet and happy, and he retained his bodily health to the last. He died at Bad Landeck on the 2nd of August 1877. The 37th Fusiliers of the German army bear his name as part of their regimental title.
See supplement of Militär Wochenblatt (1877 and 1878).
Steinschneider, Moritz (1816–1907), Jewish bibliographer, was born in Moravia in 1816. He was the most accomplished bibliographer in the realm of Hebrew literature. His greatest work was his Catalogue of the Hebrew Collection of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, (1852–1860). In this masterly work he settled many questions as to the locality, date and authorship of early printed books, and provided a vast mass of biographical materials. His Jewish Literature (published in German in Ersch and Gruber in 1850, in English in 1857, and in Hebrew in 1899) is a complete survey of its subject. Steinschneider prepared many other catalogues (Leiden, Munich, Hamburg and Berlin). He wrote much on Arabic literature, and was the author of bibliographies on a great variety of subjects. Among them may be named bibliographies of Jewish mathematicians and travellers. His most extensive work after his Bodleian Catalogue was his treatise on Hebrew translations in the middle ages (Die hebräischen Übersetzungen des Mittelalters, 2 vols., 1893). Much of his work appeared in his periodical Hebräische Bibliographie (1859–1882). He died in Berlin in 1907.
((I. A.))
Steinthal, Heymann (1823–1899), German philosopher and philologist, was born at Gröbzig in Anhalt on the 16th of May 1823. He read philosophy and philology at the university of Berlin, where he graduated in 1850. From 1852 to 1855 he studied Chinese (language and literature) in Paris, and in 1863 became extraordinary professor of philology at Berlin. In his philosophic theories he sympathized with Moritz Lazarus, in conjunction with whom he founded in 1859 the Zeitschrift fur Völkerpsychologie und Sprachwissenschaft. Like Lazarus and the Herbartian school in general, he attached supreme value to psychology, and especially to the psychology of society, the study of which, combined with comparative philology, alone could give trustworthy results. In philology he was an admirer and disciple of Wilhelm von Humboldt, on whose methods he wrote several books.
His principal works are Der Ursprung der Sprache im Zusammenhang mit den lelzten Fragen alles Wissens (1851; 4th ed., 1888); Klassification der Sprachen (1850); Charakteristik der hauptsächlichen Typen des Sprachbaues (1860); Fie Entwickelung der Schrift (1852); Grammatik, Logik, Psychologie, ihre Prinzipien, &c. (1885; Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft bei den Griechen und Römern (1863; 2nd ed., 1889–1891); Die Mande-Negersprachen, psychologisch und phonetisch betrachtet (1867); Abriss der Sprachwissenschaft (2nd ed., 1881); Allgemeine Ethik (1880); Zu Bibel und Religionsphilosophie (1890 and 1895). His books on von Humboldt appeared in 1848, 1864 and 1867, and in 1884 he published an edition of his works.
Stele, the Greek name (στήλη) for a pillar or vertical slab of stone or marble, sometimes decorated with bas-reliefs and bearing inscriptions, and generally terminated with a cresting (ἐπίθημα) enriched with the anthemion plant. In later times the stele was crowned with a small pediment. The Way of the Tombs at Athens was lined with stelae, some of them in memory of prominent citizens.
Stellenbosch, a town of the Cape province, South Africa, 31 m. by rail E. of Cape Town. Pop. (1904), 7573, of whom 2497 were whites. It lies 360 ft. above the sea in a pleasant upland valley on the Atlantic slope of the coast range, and is, next to the capital, the oldest settlement in the province, having been founded by order of Commandant Simon van der Stell in 1681 and named after him and his wife, whose maiden name was Bosch. The streets are lined with magnificent oaks, while many of the houses with heavy, thatched gables date from the 17th century. Stellenbosch is the headquarters of the Cape branch of the Dutch Reformed Church, and is also an important educational centre. The chief buildings, besides the churches, are the Dutch theological seminary, Victoria College, Bloemhof girls’ school, agricultural college and school of mines, laboratory and school of science and the S.A. conservatorium of music. The surrounding district is largely devoted to viticulture and
