Rudolf Hercher (; 11 January 182126 March 1878) was a German classical philologist, who worked as a Grammar school teacher in Rudolstadt (1847–1859) and Berlin (1861–1878). He is especially known for his textual criticism of diverse Greek authors. Life Rudolf Hercher was born in Rudolstadt to the grammar schoolmaster and later financial advisor Johann Andreas Hercher. He attended grammar school in his home city from 1830 until 1838, where he especially came under the influence of the Latin teacher Lobegott Samuel Obbarius and of the Greek teacher Christian Lorenz Sommer. Before tertiary education, he deepened his education even further, according to his father's wish with a year in the senior class of the Grammar school. He particularly focussed further on German literature, drawing, and English. In the Summer semester of 1839, Hercher moved to Leipzig University, where he studied for three years alongside Gottfried Hermann and Moriz Haupt. In 1842 he went for two further semesters at Humboldt University of Berlin, where the celebrated textual critic, Karl Lachmann instructed him. After gaining his doctorate at Friedrich Schiller University of Jena (1844) Hercher became house teacher to Hartwig Julius Ludwig von Both, member of the Oldenburg bundestag, later in the same year. After a year, he quit this position and traveled for many months to relatives in Manchester and London; after a short stay in Rudolstadt, he worked from Easter till Autumn 1846 as house teacher to an Irish family in Dublin. Subsequently, he travelled for a month in London and in the Netherlands. After his summer teaching position of 1846 was over, Hercher was offered a position as a Collaborator at the Grammar school in Rudolstadt in December of the same year, which he took up in 1847. After seven years of employment he became a schoolmaster in 1854. In the following years, Hercher repeatedly received the opportunity to go on long sabbaticals: He spent further months in Paris and went to Italy for a year in 1859; this stay was extended for a further year because of an eye illness. He owed a call to the local Joachimsthalsches Gymnasium in Berlin to his friendship with Immanuel Bekker and Gustav Parthey (1798–1872), which he took up in Autumn of 1861. Soon thereafter he was enrolled as a Member of the German Archaeological Institute in Rome, entering its central governance in 1865. He undertook further sabbaticals to Ithaca and Corfu (1863)