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Friedrich Münzer (22 April 1868 – 20 October 1942) was a German
classical scholar Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...
noted for the development of prosopography, particularly for his demonstrations of how family relationships in
ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 B ...
connected to political struggles. He died in
Theresienstadt concentration camp Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia ( German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresienstadt served as a waystation to the extermination ca ...
.


Biography

He was born at Oppeln,
Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...
(now
Opole Opole (; german: Oppeln ; szl, Ôpole) ; * Silesian: ** Silesian PLS alphabet: ''Ôpole'' ** Steuer's Silesian alphabet: ''Uopole'' * Silesian German: ''Uppeln'' * Czech: ''Opolí'' * Latin: ''Oppelia'', ''Oppolia'', ''Opulia'' is a city loc ...
, Poland), into a
Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
merchant family, went to
Leipzig University Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December ...
and then in 1887 to
Berlin University Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...
, where he wrote his
thesis A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: ...
''De Gente Valeria'' under the supervision of
Otto Hirschfeld Otto Hirschfeld (March 16, 1843 – March 27, 1922) was a German epigraphist and professor of ancient history who was a native of Königsberg. In 1863 received a doctorate from the University of Königsberg, and in 1869 became a professor at the ...
. In 1893 he traveled to
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
, where
Georg Wissowa Georg Otto August Wissowa (17 June 1859 – 11 May 1931) was a German classical philologist born in Neudorf, near Breslau. Education and career Wissowa studied classical philology under August Reifferscheid at the University of Bresla ...
recruited him to write biographical articles for the '' Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft''. From there he went to
Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
and participated in excavations on the
Acropolis An acropolis was the settlement of an upper part of an ancient Greek city, especially a citadel, and frequently a hill with precipitous sides, mainly chosen for purposes of defense. The term is typically used to refer to the Acropolis of Athens, ...
. He also met Clara Engels there; they were married two years later, on 4 September 1897. Meanwhile, Münzer had been appointed as an unsalaried lecturer at
University of Basel The University of Basel (Latin: ''Universitas Basiliensis'', German: ''Universität Basel'') is a university in Basel, Switzerland. Founded on 4 April 1460, it is Switzerland's oldest university and among the world's oldest surviving universit ...
in 1896; he and Clara were supported by their parents and his article-writing. (When applying for the job, he reported himself as a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church; three years earlier his CV had said he was of Jewish faith.) He was promoted to the second chair in classical
philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...
in 1902. In 1912 he accepted a post at
Königsberg Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was name ...
, which made him an official in the German
civil service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...
. Clara died in the
Spanish flu The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was ...
pandemic on 15 December 1918; and in 1921, the widower took up a post at the
University of Münster The University of Münster (german: Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, WWU) is a public research university located in the city of Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. With more than 43,000 students and over 120 fields of stud ...
. His greatest work, ''Römische Adelsparteien und Adelsfamilien'' (Roman noble parties and noble families") had appeared in 1920 and brought him fame for the first time. He was appointed a
dean Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean Titles * ...
at the university in 1923, and in 1924 married a widow,
Clara Lunke Clara may refer to: Organizations * CLARA, Latin American academic computer network organization * Clara.Net, a European ISP * Consolidated Land and Rail Australia, a property development consortium People * Clara (given name), a feminine giv ...
''née'' Ploeger, becoming a stepfather to two teenagers.


Nazi persecution

Münzer was generally apolitical, but politics began to catch up with him in 1933 in the form of the law that sought to dismiss
Communists Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
, "non-Aryans", and opponents of the
Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...
. Civil servants appointed before 1914 were officially exempt, but his biographers attribute his continued employment to the intercession of influential colleagues and former students. In January 1935 a new law required the removal of all lecturers and professors over the age of 65 (a move to make available more posts for
Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
sympathizers), and Münzer formally retired on 23 July 1935. His wife died in 1935 as well, and on 14 November of that year he was officially classified as Jewish, upon which many colleagues and acquaintances distanced themselves from him. Nevertheless, he continued to write biographical articles for Pauly-Wissowa, and they continued to accept them, in spite of a law forbidding Jews to publish. In 1938 a new law compelled him to adopt a Jewish middle name, and he became officially known as "the Jew Friedrich Israel Münzer". In a letter of 12 December 1938 to
Ronald Syme Sir Ronald Syme, (11 March 1903 – 4 September 1989) was a New Zealand-born historian and classicist. He was regarded as the greatest historian of ancient Rome since Theodor Mommsen and the most brilliant exponent of the history of the Roman ...
, he wrote that the changed situation "deeply depressed" him, but that he still considered himself better off than many others. Despite the urgings of some friends, he refused to emigrate. But in July 1942 he was taken by the
Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...
to the
Theresienstadt concentration camp Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia ( German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresienstadt served as a waystation to the extermination ca ...
. His adopted daughter Margerete won some privileges for him, such as the right to send and receive letters, and to receive his suitcase intact, and ultimately a release from Theresienstadt. But an epidemic of
enteritis Enteritis is inflammation of the small intestine. It is most commonly caused by food or drink contaminated with pathogenic microbes,Dugdale, David C., IIII, and George F Longretc"Enteritis" MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia, 18 October 2008. Access ...
had been sweeping through the camp, and he succumbed to it the very same day that Margerete received the notice that her father was to be released.


Works

* ''De Gente Valeria'' ("The Valeria ''gens'', Berlin Dissertation, published Oppeln, 1891) * ''Die Entstehung der Historien des Tacitus'' ("The Origin of the ''Histories'' of Tacitus", 1901) * ''Cacus der Rinddieb'' ("Cacus the cattle thief", 1911) * ''Roman Aristocratic Parties and Families'' (
The Johns Hopkins University Press The Johns Hopkins University Press (also referred to as JHU Press or JHUP) is the publishing division of Johns Hopkins University. It was founded in 1878 and is the oldest continuously running university press in the United States. The press publi ...
, 1999), Thérèse Ridley translation of the original ''Römische Adelsparteien und Adelsfamilien'' (J. B. Metzler, Stuttgart, 1920), adding sketches of the work's content and significance, and author biography: Ronald T. Ridley "Friedrich Münzer's Roman Aristocratic Parties and Families", XIX-XXXVIII; Thérèse Ridley "The Fate of a Historian", XXXIX-LVII; and a photograph of Münzer opposite the title page translation * ''Die Entstehung des römischen Principats'' ("The Origin of Imperial Rome", 1927) * thousands of biography articles in the Pauly-Wissowa ''RE'': ''nomina gentilicia'' from C to P


References

* Alfred Kneppe and
Josef Wiesehöfer Josef Wiesehöfer (born April 5, 1951 in Wickede, North Rhine-Westphalia) is a German classical scholar and current professor of Ancient history at the Department of Classics (Institut für Klassische Altertumskunde) of the University of Kiel. He i ...
, ''Friedrich Münzer: Ein Althistoriker zwischen Kaiserreich und Nationalsozialismus'', Bonn 1983. * Ronald T. Ridley, "T. R. S. Broughton and Friedrich Münzer", pp. 43–56 in Jerzy Linderski (ed.) ''Imperium Sine Fine: T. Robert S. Broughton and the Roman Republic'', Historia Einzelschriften 105 (Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart, 1996); ''in memoriam'' tome for Broughton (1900-1993) with preface by Linderski and memorial chapters (including summary of Broughton's career and publications) by G. W. Houston, then the seven substantial articles on the Republican aristocracy and prosopographic topics. Ridley's is the first of the seven. * Ernst Badian, "The Legend of the Legate who lost his luggage", ''Historia'' 42 (1993), 203–210, on C. Porcius Cato (cos. 114) and Nazi period professors (Miltner, Volkmann) who wrote most of the entries in ''RE'' on the Porci Catones and Popilli Laenates in the 1950s, possibly with unacknowledged access to Münzer's notes. * Ronald T. Ridley, "The Genesis of a turning-point: Gelzer's ''Nobilität''", ''Historia'' 35 (1986), 474-502 {{DEFAULTSORT:Munzer, Friedrich 1868 births 1942 deaths German classical scholars Prosopographers of ancient Rome German encyclopedists Jewish scholars People from Opole People from the Province of Silesia Leipzig University alumni Humboldt University of Berlin alumni University of Königsberg faculty University of Münster faculty German people who died in the Theresienstadt Ghetto German male non-fiction writers Infectious disease deaths in Czechoslovakia Infectious disease deaths in the Czech Republic