Hirzel, Bernhard

Hirzel, Bernhard a Swiss theologian and Orientalist, was born at Zurich in 1807. He was for many years pastor of a small parish at Pfaiffikon. Most of his life he devoted to the study of the Oriental and Sanskrit languages. In the ecclesiastical revolt of Sept. 6, 1839, he led the peasants to the city of Zurich, on which incident he wrote a book entitled Mein Antheil a. d. Bewegung d. oten Sept. (Ziir. 1839). He died in Paris June, 1847. Among his works, his translation of the dramas of Kalisada, Sakuntala (Zurich, 1838), and of Solomon's Song: Das Lied d. Lieder (ibid. 1840), and the Hebrew poem Gesicht d. Todesboten u. d. Erdkreis (ibid. 1844), are best known. — Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Géneralé 24, 801; Brockhaus, Conv. Lex. 7, 946.