Background
Pape was born in Berlin and educated in Culm, where his father was stationed as an officer
Pape was born in Berlin and educated in Culm, where his father was stationed as an officer
He studied theology and classical philology at the Humboldt University of Berlin.
He is known today primarily as the author of his Griechisch-Deutsches Handwörterbuch, first published in 1842 and frequently reprinted in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Under the influence of scholars such as August Boeckh and Karl Lachmann, he turned primarily to the study of philology. After graduating in 1828, he became a teaching assistant at the Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster in Berlin, one of the oldest high schools in Germany.
He gained his doctorate in Halle with a dissertation entitled Lectiones Varronianae, and was appointed a teacher at the Gymnasium in 1830.
He spent the rest of his career there until his death in 1854 from a spinal disease.
