Education
He studied at the universities of Leipzig, Göttingen,Gottingen, and Bonn, where he specialized in Oriental languages, and later in Copenhagen, Paris, London, and Oxford, after which he settled in Dresden.
He studied at the universities of Leipzig, Göttingen,Gottingen, and Bonn, where he specialized in Oriental languages, and later in Copenhagen, Paris, London, and Oxford, after which he settled in Dresden.
The best-known work of Brockhaus is the Katha-saritsagata (English translation, The Ocean of the Streams of Story, 1880-1884), a collection of tales compiled by Somadeva Bhatta in the 12th century, which Brockhaus published in Sanskrit and German. The first parts appeared in 1839. In 1843 the complete German translation of the stories was published and proved of much value in the study of the origin of popular tales. In 1841 Brockhaus published Ueber den Druck sanskritischer Werke in lateinischen Buchstaben, a discussion of the reproduction of Sanskrit in the Latin alphabet. In 1845 he published the Prabodha-Candrodaya ("The Rise of the Moon of Intelligence"), a philosophical drama by Krishna Misra. Lieder des Hafis was published between 1854 and 1860. In 1863 he prepared a new edition of the Persian songs of Hafiz (a 14th-century lyric poet), accompanied by Sadi's commentaries. In 1850 he published an edition of the Vendidad Sade which included a grammar of the Zend language. In 1852 Brockhaus founded the German Asiatic Society, and in 1856 became editor of the Allgemeine EnzyklopädieEnzyklopadie.