Wilhelm Kroll

Wilhelm Kroll ( born October 7, 1869 in Frankenstein / Silesia, † April 21, 1939 in Berlin) was a German philologist Classic, was a professor at the universities of Greifswald ( 1899-1906 ), Münster ( 1906-1913 ) and Breslau (1913 -1935 ) worked. He is especially known for his studies on Roman literature and culture. As the editor of various magazines and in particular the revision of Realencyclopädie of classical archeology ( from 1906 until his death ) his name is still remembered today.

Life

Wilhelm Kroll was the son of the District Court Council Wilhelm Kroll. After graduating from high school John Breslau he studied from 1887 Classical Philology at the Silesian Friedrich Wilhelm University in Breslau. In 1888 he moved for two semesters at the Friedrich- Wilhelms- University of Berlin, where Hermann Diels and Carl Robert influenced him. When he returned to Breslau in 1891 with a thesis on Symmachus Dr. phil. PhD, Kroll went on a study trip to Venice and Rome to gather in the local libraries material for his habilitation thesis. He then furthered his studies for two semesters at the Rheinische Friedrich- Wilhelms-Universität Bonn at Hermann Usener, Franz Bücheler and Georg Loeschcke. In that year, he won the Academy Award of the Prussian Academy of Sciences for the processing of the writings of the Neoplatonist Damascius.

In Breslau Kroll habilitated on April 21, 1894 with a thesis on the Chaldean oracles. For lecturers appointed, he also joined full-time in the teaching profession. For the summer semester 1899 he was appointed as full professor at the University of Greifswald and successor Edward North. From Greifswald he undertook research trips to England and France. From the summer semester 1906 to the winter semester 1912/1913 he was a full professor at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, before he accepted a position at his home University of Breslau, where he succeeded his friend Franz Skutsch. In Breslau Kroll remained until his retirement in 1935, interrupted by a visiting scholar in the U.S. ( at the Institute for Advanced Study, Winter Term 1930/31 ) and the UK (1935 ). 1922/23, he was rector of the university, in 1927/28 Dean of the Faculty. In early 1937 he moved to Berlin, where he died at the age of 70 two years later.

Kroll since 1900 was married to Kate Wegener, the daughter of the high school director Philipp Wegener ( 1848-1918 ). The couple had three sons and a daughter Edith ( * 1902), the archaeologists Reinhard Herbig married in 1924.

Honors

• Honorary Doctor of Law Faculty of the University of Breslau
• Regular member of the German Archaeological Institute (1934 )
• Corresponding Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences ( 1935)
• Honorary Doctor of the University of Oxford ( 1936)
• Honorary Doctor of the University of Cambridge (1938 )
• President of the Silesian Society for patriotic culture (1927-1934)

Importance

Kroll has worked in many fields of classical philology. So he wrote comments on the Roman writers Cicero and Catullus, and a work on the culture of the Ciceronian period. He gave several periodicals (annual reports on the progress of classical antiquity Sciences, 1898-1913, and Glotta ), worked on the history of Roman literature of Wilhelm Siegmund Teuffel and wrote a work on the history of classical philology. He also dealt with the Latin language, with ancient astronomy and astrology and the late ancient philosophy and history of religion.

However, his greatest achievement was the editor of the new edition of Pauly's Realencyclopädie of classical archeology, which he had taken over in 1906 by Georg Wissowa. He was responsible, in part, supported by Kurt Witte and Karl means house, the multi-volume reference work for over thirty years until his death, but was unable to complete, although he tried to speed through the introduction of a beginning with the letter R second row the appearance of the course. Kroll self-written articles for the company since 1899, including major review article as didactic poem (1925 ) and Rhetoric ( 1940).

Writings

• De oraculis Chaldaicis ( = Wroclaw philological treatises. 7.1 ). Koebner, Breslau 1894; Reprint Olms, Hildesheim, 1986, ISBN 3-487-00229-9.
• Ancient superstition. ET - Anst. and Dr. A.-G., Hamburg 1897 ( digitized )
• History of classical philology ( = Sammlung Goschen. 367). 1908; 2 verb. United ed. Scientific. ET, Berlin and Leipzig, 1919.
• C. Valerius Catullus. 1922; 7th edition Teubner, Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-519-24001-7.
• Studies to understand the Roman literature. Metzler, Stuttgart 1924; Reproduction Garland, New York and London, 1978, ISBN 0-8240-2972-0.
• The culture of the Ciceronian period. 2 parts. Dieterich, Leipzig 1933; Reprint University Press, Darmstadt 1975, ISBN 3-534-01542-8.