Wilhelm August Eduard Johnson (February 16, 1840 â September 7, 1903) was a German classicist, teacher, journalist and local historian. He used the pseudonyms E. Joannides and Georg Capellanus.
Although the name "Johnson" appears to be an English name, it is not. The original form of the family name was apparently "Joh(a)nsson".
After attending primary school and the Gymnasium (college preparatory school) in his home town of Freiberg, Germany, Johnson studied philosophy and philology at the university in Leipzig, with the intention of becoming a teacher at an advanced secondary school. He passed the state exam and earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree.
In 1864, he began his probationary year of teaching at the Plauen Gymnasium. He taught Latin, Greek, German and History. In 1865 he finished his probationary year and earned a fixed employment position at the school.
While employed as a teacher, he published philosophical works on the problem of Sensualism and made extensive investigations into the history of the Vogtland in Saxony, Germany. After his transfer to the Chemnitz Gymnasium in 1881, he used his free time for excursions to the Vogtland. As a historian he published several reports on the history of notable individuals and castles in the Vogtland. Between 1896 and 1903 he published over 162 articles under the title Vogtländische Altertümer (Vogtland Antiquities).
Johnson worried about the waning influence of Ancient Greek and Latin. He pseudonymously published two books cataloguing colloquial phrases and vocabulary in order to promote the active use of Greek and Latin in everyday life. These were bilingual phrasebooks in Attic Greek/German and Latin/German.
Journalism was Johnson's other passion. He served as part-time editor of the newspaper ', until finally in 1895 he resigned his position as teacher and became the head editor. At this time the Vogtländische Anzeiger was the most popular newspaper in the Vogtland.
Eduard Johnson died after a heart attack during an expedition in , west of the village of , which is today the community of Triebel/Vogtl. On that spot, a small stone monument was erected in his honor in 2007, and a plaque added in 2008.
An older monument to Johnson had previously existed on that spot. It was erected on July 6, 1941, However, that older monument was later lost due to the expansion of the inner-German border zone between East and West Germany.
The Plauen Central Cemetery has a page describing Johnson's headstone (in German), along with a photo of Johnson, a photo of the dedication ceremony for his monument, a scan of a contemporary newspaper article (in German) and a few other photos.