Heinrich Schliemann: Encyclopedia II - Heinrich Schliemann - Childhood

Heinrich Schliemann - Childhood

Heinrich was born at Neubukow, in Mecklenburg-Schwerin, to Ernst Schliemann, a poor Protestant minister, and Luise Therese Sophie. He was one of a large family. In 1831, when he was 9, his mother died. There is no question that this was a traumatic event for him. Later in life he seemed attracted to women named Sophie.

He went to live with his uncle, Friederich Schliemann, perhaps because of an educational opportunity. He enrolled in the Gymnasium at Neustrelitz at age 11. His attendance was paid for by his father.

He was at the Gymnasium for at least a year. Later he claimed that, as a boy, his interest in history was encouraged by his father, who, he said, had schooled him in the tales of The Iliad and The Odyssey and had given him a copy of Ludwig Jerrer's Illustrated History of the World for Christmas, 1829. Schliemann also later claimed that at the age of eight he declared he would one day excavate the city of Troy.

It is unknown whether his childhood interest in and connection with the classics continued during his time at the Gymnasium, but it is likely that he would have been further exposed to Homer. It may be that he had just enough of a classical education to endow him with a yearning for it when it was snatched from him; he was transfered to the vocational school, or Realschule, after his father was accused of embezzling church funds, and had to quit the vocational school in 1836, when his father had no funds to pay for it.

This established the fundamental character of his later life. He wanted to return to the educated life, to reacquire all the things of which he was deprived in childhood. In his archaeological career, there was always a dichotomy between the educated professionals and Schliemann. Heinrich developed a certain tendency to pose as something he was not. Moreover, the experiences of his father gave him a sympathy to means that were not always legal or aboveboard.

After leaving Realschule, Heinrich became a grocer's apprentice at age fourteen, for Herr Holtz's grocery in Furstenburg. He labored in the grocery for five years, reading voraciously whenever he had a spare moment. In 1841 Schliemann fled to Hamburg and became a cabin boy on the Dorothea, a steamer bound for Venezuela. After twelve days at sea the ship foundered in a gale, and the survivors washed up on the shores of Holland.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Childhood", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki