Rudolf Till

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Rudolf Till (born April 8, 1911 in Freystadt ; † June 6, 1979 in Buckenhof ) was a German classical philologist .

Life

He completed his studies of Latin , Greek and history in Breslau and Munich in 1933 with the state examination. Shortly before, he had joined the NSDAP , the NSDStB and the SA . In 1934 he was in Munich with the thesis The language of Cato doctorate and then worked as an assistant. In order to do his habilitation, he went to Marburg in 1936, which he did there with the text Die Redenfragmente des M. Porcius Cato , and in the same year got a position as a private lecturer , but then moved to the University of Berlin. The efforts of the Munich dean Walther Wüst to appoint Till as a substitute for a professorship were successful in 1937, but the appointment as professor was initially prevented by the faculty representatives. Instead, the faculty wanted the renowned classical philologist Friedrich Klingner to succeed the vacant chair.

After Wüst had sought Till's admission to the SS Ahnenerbe since 1937 and he had become head of the Research Center for Classical Philology and Classical Studies of the SS Ahnenerbe in February 1938 , Wüst asked Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler for support in March 1938 , and so on in March Till received a scheduled extraordinary professorship for classical philology and the vacant chair of his doctoral supervisor Johannes Stroux . For this appointment, Till was even willing to join the SS , where he became Obersturmführer in 1940 . However, this membership was only an "honorary SS membership", as it was determined in 1948 in the denazification proceedings before the Munich Chamber of Justice. It was not until 1947, two years after Till's dismissal, that Friedrich Klingner was to be appointed to the Munich chair.

Till was drafted into an air news company in Kolberg in August 1941, where he served as an assistant instructor until November 1942. He worked again at the University of Munich until September 1943, but was then used again in the military until the end of the war. Despite his membership in Nazi organizations, Till is said to never have represented doctrinal views in his seminars and lectures and, as in his publications, also mentioned and quoted internationally known and Jewish scholars with respect. In his research, Till generally avoided direct references to National Socialist ideology.

After the end of the war, Till was released by order of the occupying power. He was initially a teacher, from 1949 head of teaching at the Birklehof boarding school in Hinterzarten and was appointed professor for reuse . In 1958 he was appointed full professor and professor at the University of Erlangen . In 1976 Till retired.

It was rumored among his Erlangen students in the 1960s that Rudolf Till had maintained a certain closeness to Heinrich Himmler , but no further details were known; and such things did not come to light during the student revolt around 1968. It was not until 2006, 27 years after Rudolf Till's death, that details of the background to his academic career in the Third Reich became known when Elisabeth Kraus published the work "The University of Munich in the Third Reich".

Fonts (selection)

  • The language of Cato . Dieterich, Leipzig 1935 (also dissertation, Munich 1934)
  • The speech fragments of M. Porcius Cato . Marburg 1937 (plus habilitation thesis, Marburg 1936)
  • Handwritten studies on Tacitus Agricola and Germania: With e. Photocopy d. Codex Aesinas . Ahnenerbe-Stiftung Verlag, Berlin 1943.
  • Roman elegists: Tibullus, Properz, Ovid, Copa . Kerle, Heidelberg 1957.
  • The life of Julius Agricola / Tacitus . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1961.
  • Historiarum libri / Cornelius Tacitus . Kerle, Heidelberg 1963.
  • Introduction to the life and work of Tacitus . Klett, Stuttgart 1968.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . 2003, p. 626. (online at: books.google.de )
  2. ↑ a b c E. Kraus, H.-M. Körner: The University of Munich in the Third Reich. 2006, p. 216 ff. (Online at: books.google.de )
  3. ↑ Gnomon. Critical journal for all of classical antiquity . 1936, volume 12, p. 672.
  4. ^ Michael H. Kater: The "Ahnenerbe" of the SS 1935-1945: A contribution to the cultural policy of the Third Reich . Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2006, ISBN 3-486-57950-9 , p. 457. (online at: books.google.de )
  5. ↑ Gnomon. Critical journal for all of classical antiquity . 1938, Volume 14, p. 400.
  6. ↑ Maximilian Schreiber: Classical Studies in National Socialism. Classical Philology at the Ludwig Maximilians University. In: Elisabeth Kraus (Ed.): The University of Munich in the Third Reich. Essays. Part I, Herbert Utz Verlag, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-8316-0640-4 , p. 246.
  7. ↑ Maximilian Schreiber: Classical Studies in National Socialism. Classical Philology at the Ludwig Maximilians University. In: Elisabeth Kraus (Ed.): The University of Munich in the Third Reich. Essays. Part I, Herbert Utz Verlag, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-8316-0640-4 , pp. 243-244.
  8. ↑ Maximilian Schreiber: Classical Studies in National Socialism. Classical Philology at the Ludwig Maximilians University. In: Elisabeth Kraus (Ed.): The University of Munich in the Third Reich. Essays. Part I , Herbert Utz Verlag, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-8316-0640-4 , p. 234.
  9. ↑ Gnomon. Critical journal for all of classical antiquity . 1959, volume 31, p. 96.
  10. ↑ From December 1, 1958: Directory of people and lectures WS 1970/71, p. 56 ff.
personal data
SURNAME Till, Rudolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Till, Werner Richard Rudolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German classical philologist
DATE OF BIRTH April 8, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Freystadt
DATE OF DEATH June 6, 1979
Place of death Buckenhof