Personal life

He was born in Fluberg

Fluberg

Fluberg is a village, a parish and a former municipality, now part of the municipality of Søndre Land in Oppland, Norway.-History:Fluberg municipality was created January 1, 1914 when it was separated from Søndre Land. Fluberg had a population of 2.027 at this point. On January 1, 1962 the...

 as a son of physician Joachim Frederik Weisse and his wife Grethe Fleischer. His grandfather had migrated to Norway from Brandenburg

Brandenburg

Brandenburg is one of the sixteen federal-states of Germany. It lies in the east of the country and is one of the new federal states that were re-created in 1990 upon the reunification of the former West Germany and East Germany. The capital is Potsdam...

. The family moved to Trondhjem

Trondheim

Trondheim , historically, Nidaros and Trondhjem, is a city and municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. With a population of 173,486, it is the third most populous municipality and city in the country, although the fourth largest metropolitan area. It is the administrative centre of...

 in 1833.

He married his own cousin Maja Stang (1843–1916) in July 1863 in Fredrikshald

Halden

is a both a town and a municipality in Østfold county, Norway. The seat of the municipality, Halden is a border town located at the Tista river delta on the Iddefjord, the southernmost border crossing between Norway and Sweden.-History:...

. She was an aunt of engineer Olaf Stang

Olaf Stang

Olaf Stang was a Norwegian engineer.He was born in Kristiania. He was a second cousin once removed of Axel Heiberg Stang and Thomas Stang, and one of his aunts married Johan Peter Weisse....

, and a third cousin of engineer Theodor Stang

Theodor Stang

Theodor Stang was a Norwegian engineer.He was born in Vang i Valdres as a son of vicar Thomas Stang . He was a nephew of Frederik Stang, a first cousin of Emil Stang and a first cousin once removed of Fredrik Stang and Emil Stang, Jr.....

 and politician Emil Stang

Emil Stang

Emil Stang was a Norwegian jurist and politician. He became Prime Minister of Norway and was the first chairman of the Conservative Party....

. In May 1893 one of their daughters married politician Gabriel Gabrielsen Holtsmark

Gabriel Gabrielsen Holtsmark

Gabriel Gabrielsen Holtsmark was a Norwegian educator, physicist and actuary.-Personal life:He was born in Asker as a son of farmer and mayor Bent Holtsmark and his wife Anne Elisabeth Gabrielsen. He was a brother of Bernt, Torger and Wilhelm Holtsmark...

. Through them, Weisse was the maternal grandfather of professor Johan Peter Holtsmark

Johan Peter Holtsmark

Johan Peter Holtsmark was a Norwegian physicist, who studied spectral line broadening and electron scattering. In 1929, while at the Norwegian Institute of Technology , Holtsmark established acoustics research laboratories, focusing on architectural acoustics and sound insulation...

, professor Anne Holtsmark

Anne Holtsmark

Anne Elisabeth Holtsmark was a Norwegian philologist.-Personal life:She was born in Kristiania, the second of five children of Gabriel Gabrielsen Holtsmark and Margrete Weisse , and grew up in Kristiania and Ås...

 and painter Karen Holtsmark

Karen Holtsmark

-Personal life:She was born in Ås as a daughter of educator and physicist Gabriel Gabrielsen Holtsmark and his wife Margrete Weisse . She was a maternal granddaughter of philologist Johan Peter Weisse, and a paternal granddaughter of agriculturalist and politician Bent Holtsmark...

.

Career

He took his examen artium

Examen artium

Examen artium was the name of the academic certification conferred in Denmark and Norway, qualifying the student for admission to university studies. Examen artium was originally introduced as the entrance exam of the University of Copenhagen in 1630...

 at Trondhjem Cathedral School in 1850. He read languages such as Norse, Anglo-Saxon, Gothic

Gothic language

Gothic is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. It is known primarily from the Codex Argenteus, a 6th-century copy of a 4th-century Bible translation, and is the only East Germanic language with a sizable Text corpus...

, Old Danish, Old Swedish

Old Swedish

Old Swedish is the name for two separate stages of the Swedish language that were spoken in the Middle Ages: Early Old Swedish , spoken from around 1225 until 1375, and Late Old Swedish , spoken from 1375 until 1526.Old Swedish developed from Old East Norse, the eastern dialect of Old Norse...

, Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

, Latin, Russian

Russian language

Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...

 and Cuneiform script

Cuneiform script

Cuneiform script )) is one of the earliest known forms of written expression. Emerging in Sumer around the 30th century BC, with predecessors reaching into the late 4th millennium , cuneiform writing began as a system of pictographs...

 already at that time, as witnessed by his diary Litterær Dagbog. He started studying philology in 1851. From 1853 to 1855 he had to stay in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 because of health issues, but he studied the city vividly. He was a part of a Nordic intellectual group here, which included Julius Middelthun

Julius Middelthun

Julius Middelthun was a Norwegian sculptor born in Kongsberg, son of a coin engraver. As a young man he trained as a goldsmith before moving to Copenhagen to study with Bissen. His ten years there were followed by eight years in Rome, after which time he returned to Norway...

, Christoffer Borch, Georg Forchhammer

Johannes Nicolai Georg Forchhammer

Johannes Nicolai Georg Forchhammer was a Danish philologist.He was born in Copenhagen as a son of Johan Georg Forchhammer. He was a nephew of August Friedrich Wilhelm Forchhammer. He finished his secondary education in 1843, and completed the cand.philol. degree in 1848. He took the magistratus...

 and Niels Ravnkilde. He finally graduated from the Royal Frederick University

University of Oslo

The University of Oslo , formerly The Royal Frederick University , is the oldest and largest university in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. The university was founded in 1811 and was modelled after the recently established University of Berlin...

 with the cand.philol. degree in 1858.

In October 1858 he was hired as co-editor (together with Nicolai Mejdell

Nicolai Mejdell

Christian Henrik Nicolai Mejdell was a Norwegian mining engineer.He was born in Vang, Hedmark. He took his mining examination in 1843. He worked as manager of Selbu Copper Works and Kongsberg Silver Works, and from 1865 he was the mine superindendent for all of South-Eastern Norway...

) of the newspaper Christiania-Posten

Christiania-Posten

Christiania-Posten was a short-lived newspaper in Oslo, Norway.It was established on 17 May 1848 by Carl Arntzen and Ludvig Vibe, who both edited it until 1853. Ludvig Kristensen Daa then took over, and the newspaper's allegiance subsequently changed from conservative to liberal...

. He is remembered for writing political and satirical commentary, and a 25-piece series between July 1859 and January 1860 on Italian history and society, marking himself as a supporter of Camillo Cavour. In early 1861 Weisse was hired as teacher at Trondhjem Cathedral School. He stayed here until September 1865, when he changed to Fredrikshalds lærde og realskole. From June 1874 to April 1875 he worked at Christiania Cathedral School, and from April 1875 he was an inspector at Aars og Voss skole. In November and December 1875 he held trial lectures for the position as professor at the Royal Frederick University, and he was appointed on 23 December in competition with Jan Johanssen. He was a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters

The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway.-History:The University of Oslo was established in 1811. The idea of a learned society in Christiania surfaced for the first time in 1841. The city of Throndhjem had no university, but had a learned...

 from 1879. He continued as professor until his death, and also held numerous popular

Popular science

Popular science, sometimes called literature of science, is interpretation of science intended for a general audience. While science journalism focuses on recent scientific developments, popular science is broad-ranging, often written by scientists as well as journalists, and is presented in many...

 lectures. His obituary in Dagbladet

Dagbladet

Dagbladet is Norway's second largest tabloid newspaper, and the third largest newspaper overall with a circulation of 105,255 copies in 2009, 18,128 papers less than in 2008. The editor in chief is Lars Helle....

read that Weisse wanted to "form men and not mere objects for examination".

He contributed "significantly" to Marius Nygaard

Marius Nygaard (academic)

Marius Nygaard was a Norwegian educator and linguist.-Personal life:He was born in Bergen as a son of shipmaster and merchant Mads Christensen Nygaard and Maren Behrens . On the maternal side he was a first cousin of Johan Diederich Behrens.Nygaard married Elise Martin in August 1863 in Bergen...

's textbooks on Old Norse, first published in 1871. In 1871, Weisse released his own Latin grammar, Latinsk Grammatik til Skolebrug, but it was considered too difficult for school students, and was out-competed by Emil Schreiner

Emil Schreiner

Emil Theodor Schreiner was a Norwegian philologist and educator.-Biography:Schreiner was born in Christiania in 1831. He was the son of merchant Peter Heinrich Schreiner and Andrea Wiborg...

's Latinsk Sproglære. The dominating Latin-Norwegian dictionary was later released by Schreiner, Nygaard and Johanssen. Schreiner sat on the committee that hired Weisse as professor in 1875.

Weisse died from a stroke

Stroke

A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...

 in March 1886. He was buried at Vår Frelsers gravlund

Vår Frelsers gravlund

Vår Frelsers gravlund is a cemetery in Oslo, Norway, located north of Hammersborg in Gamle Aker district. It was created in 1808 as a result of the great famine and cholera epidemic of the Napoleonic Wars. Its grounds were extended in 1911. The cemetery has been full since 1952...

.