Karl Witte

Who was Karl Witte?

Johann Heinrich Friedrich Karl Witte was a German jurist and scholar of Dante Alighieri.

He was the son of pastor Karl Heinrich Gottfried Witte who encouraged a fairly intense program of learning. When Karl Witte was nine, he spoke German, French, Italian, Latin, and Greek, and on April 10, 1814, at the age of 13, he became a doctor of philosophy at the University of Giessen in Germany. As a result, Witte was listed in The Guinness Book of World Records as the "youngest doctorate", a record that still stands; however, The Guinness Book of World Records lists his age as 12.

Witte was the subject of a book written by his father: The Education of Karl Witte: Or, The Training of the Child. This book attracted criticism and soon fell into oblivion in Germany, but in China, the book became a bestseller at the beginning of the 21st century. Millions of Chinese hope that their children would become a genius by using Witte book. The name "Karl Witte" was changed to "Carl Weter" when translated from Japanese.

He achieved his reputation as a Dante scholar in 1823 with his essay "The Art of Misunderstanding Dante".