Konrad Duden was a well-known German philologist, who was the founder of the German language. His vocabulary bears his own name and is very popular with all the learners of the German language.
Education
Till 1846 he was visiting a gymnasium in Wesel that later was renamed in Konrad-Duden-Gymnasium.
Having studied only 4 semesters at the University of Bonn he gave up his studies ( probably because of financial reasons) and started to work as a home teacher in Frankfurt am Main and in the city of Genoa, Italy. 6 years later in 1854 he returned and was allowed to pass his final university examination. The same year he gain his doctorate with a dissertation „De Sophoclis Antigona“ at the University of Marburg.
Career
After coming back from Italy he started to work as a teacher and later as a school headmaster of an Archigymnasium in Soest. In 1869 he was called to Schleiz as a principle of a Gymnasium, and in 1876 became director of the Royal Gymnasium in Hersfeld. It was here he published his most important work, the "Complete Orthographic Dictionary of the German Language" (Vollständiges Orthographisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache). In 1871 he published his book "„Zur deutschen Rechtschreibung“ about the rules of the German language. First in 1901 at the conference in Berlin representatives of German provinces and of Austria-Hungary decided to proclaim the common rules of German orthography relying on Duden vocabulary. In 1902 German Bundesrat proclaimed the rules of German orthography invented by Duden mandatory for all the German provinces, Austria-Hungary and Switzerland.
Politics
When he was studying at the University of Bonn he joined the Wingolfsbund student organization and took part in the political activities of the student societies during the revolutionary year 1848.