Everything about Ulrich Von Wilamowitz-moellendorff totally explained
Enno Friedrich Wichard Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff (
22 December 1848 –
25 September 1931) was a
German Classical Philologist. Wilamowitz, as he's known in scholarly circles, was a renowned authority on Ancient Greece and its literature.
Life
Youth
Wilamowitz-Moellendorff was born in
Markowitz (Markowice), a small village near
Hohensalza (Inowrocław),
Province of Posen, to a
Germanized family of distant
Polish ancestry. His father, a Prussian
Junker, was Arnold Wilamowitz, of
Szlachta origin and using the
Ogończyk Coat of Arms, while his mother was Ulrika, née Calbo. The couple settled in a small manor confiscated from a local noble in 1836. The Prussian part of their name, von Moellendorf, was acquired in 1813, when Prussian field marshal
Wichard Joachim Heinrich von Möllendorf adopted Ulrich's ancestors. Wilamowitz, a third child, grew up in
East Prussia.
In 1867 Wilamowitz passed his
Abitur at the renowned boarding school at
Schulpforta.
Studies
Until 1869 Wilamowitz studied
Classical Philology at the
University of Bonn. His teachers,
Otto Jahn and
Hermann Usener, had a formative influence on him. Willamowitz's relationship with Usener was strained. He developed a lifelong rivalry with his fellow student
Friedrich Nietzsche and a close friendship with his contemporary
Hermann Diels. Together with Diels, he moved to
Berlin in 1869, where he graduated as a
Doctor of Philosophy cum laude in 1870. After voluntary service in the
Franco-Prussian War, he embarked on a study tour to
Italy and
Greece.
Conflict with Nietzsche and Wagner
Before he even gained a professorial title, Wilamowitz was a main protagonist in a scholarly dispute about Nietzsche's
Birth of Tragedy that attracted much attention. In 1872-73, he published two unusually aggressive polemics (
German:
"Zukunftsphilologie", ie
"Philology of the future"), which strongly attacked Nietzsche (then Professor at the
University of Basel) and Professor
Erwin Rohde (
University of Kiel).
Richard Wagner, whose views on art had influenced Nietzsche and Rohde, reacted by publishing an
open letter and Rohde wrote a damning response. The issue at stake was the depreciation of
Euripides, on whom Nietzsche blamed the destruction of
Greek tragedy. Wilamowitz saw the methods of his adversaries as an attack on the basic tenets of scientific thought, unmasking them as enemies of the
scientific method. His polemic was considered as Classical philology's reply to Nietzsche's challenge.
At the age of 80 when Wilamowitz wrote his memoirs, he saw the conflict with Nietzsche less passionately, but didn't retract the essential points of his critique. He stated that he hadn't fully realised at the time that Nietzsche wasn't interested in scientific understanding but rather in Wagner's musical drama, but also that he was nevertheless right to take position against Nietzsche's "
rape of historical facts and all historical method"..
Greifswald
In 1875 he gained a professorial title for his study
Analecta Euripidea. In the same year he gave his first public academic lecture in Berlin. In 1876 he was employed as
Ordinarius (full professor) for Classical Philology at
Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität at
Greifswald. During this period, he also married Maria Mommsen, the eldest daughter of
Theodor Mommsen, and published
Homeric Studies (
Homerische Studien).
Göttingen
In 1883, he took a further professorial position at
Georg-August-Universität in
Göttingen. Here, he continued to teach Classical Philology but also gave replacement lectures in
Ancient History. His influence ensured the employment of his Greifswald colleague,
Julius Wellhausen, in Göttingen. In 1891, he became vice-chancellor of the university and was appointed a member of Göttingen's Royal Academy of Sciences one year later. When Wilamowitz left Göttingen, he was succeeded by Georg Kaibel, a close associate from his student days and his successor at Greifswald.
Berlin
In 1897, with the support of his friend Diels, Wilamowitz was offered a position at the Royal
Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität at Berlin, as successor to
Ernst Curtius. He stayed until his retirement in 1921. In 1915 he was appointed chancellor of the university for one year. Together with Diels, he founded the Berlin Institute for Ancient Studies (
Institut für Altertumskunde) in 1897. His public lectures on subjects of
Classical antiquity, which took place twice a week, attracted large audiences.
Teaching activities and memberships
In 1891, Wilamowitz was elected a corresponding member of the
Prussian Academy of Sciences and he was a full member as of 1899. In 1902 he took the academy's presidency. As a member of the Göttingen academy, he strongly encouraged the publication of the
Thesaurus Linguae Latinae. From 1897 he also worked as a member to the academy's Commission for
Patristics. In 1894 he was elected full member of the
German Archaeological Institute. He also was editor of the series
Philologische Untersuchungen from 1880 to 1925.
Further, Wilamowitz taught as a guest lecturer in
Oxford (1908) and
Uppsala (1912), was a corresponding member of the
Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters (1909) and the Scientific Society of
Lund (1921).
Inscriptiones Graecae
During his presidency of the Prussian Academy, Wilamowitz achieved the continuation of
August Böckh's and
Adolf Kirchhoff's publication series, the
Inscriptiones Graecae. Wilamowitz had a formative influence on the further development of that project, which he directed until his death.
World War I
Wilamowitz was an initiator of the memorandum
Erklärung der Hochschullehrer des Deutschen Reiches ("Declaration by the University Teachers of the German Reich"), in which 3,016 signatories supported German participation in the
First World War. Shortly after, he also signed the
Manifesto of the Ninety-Three, from which he distanced himself later. In 1914, his son, Tycho von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, who was also active as a Classical Philologist, fell in the battle of
Ivangorod. The memorandum appeared a few days later.
Family
In 1878 he married
Maria Mommsen, the oldest daughter of the famous
Ancient historian,
Theodor Mommsen, whom he actively assisted in the completion of his
Roman History. Wilamowitz spent his last years in reclusion, suffering from severe kidney problems. He died in Berlin on September 25, 1931, having been in a coma for a short time. He is buried in his native village, along with his wife Maria (1855 – 1936) and their only son, Tycho.
Achievements
Wilamowitz is one of the central figures of 19th and 20th century Classical Philology. As a great authority of the literature and history of
Ancient Greece, Wilamowitz took a stance against traditional methodology and
textual criticism. As a representative of Postclassicism, he concentrated less on
literary history but rather aimed to extract biographical information on the respective authors from the preserved texts. Thus, he employed historical perspectives to serve philology. Apart from his seminal general works (
Greek Literature from Antiquity,
Hellenistic Poetry), he published numerous detailed studies of
Euripides,
Homer,
Aeschylus,
Pindar and
Aristotle. As a scientific organiser, he was also responsible for the publication of important standard-setting source material publications, such as
Inscriptiones Graecae.
He also passionately supported the preservation of Classical education in the German school system.
Notable pupils of his include
Felix Jacoby,
Karl Mittelhaus,
Wolfgang Schadewaldt,
Eduard Fraenkel,
Werner Jaeger,
Johannes Geffcken,
Paul Maas,
Eduard Schwartz,
Gilbert Murray and
Johannes Sykutris.
In recent decades, the American scholar,
William M. Calder III, has been publishing a series of important documents about and by Wilamowitz, including much of his correspondence with Diels,
Eduard Norden,
Mommsen,
Paul Wendland and others.
Awards
Works
Griechische Literatur des Altertums
Einleitung in die griechische Tragödie
Homerische Untersuchungen (1884)
Die Ilias und Homer (1916)
Hellenistische Dichtung (1924)
Erinnerungen 1848-1914. Verlag von K. F. Koehler, Leipzig 1928. (Memoirs)
Literature
Michael Armstrong, Wolfgang Buchwald, William M. Calder III.: Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff bibliography 1867−1990. Weidmann, Hildesheim u. a. 1991, ISBN 3-615-00062-5Further Information
Get more info on 'Ulrich Von Wilamowitz-moellendorff'.
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