Ernst Meyer (historian)

Ernst Meyer (born February 21, 1898 in Pinneberg , † November 18, 1975 in Zurich ) was a German ancient historian .

After attending school at the grammar school in Altona and doing military service from 1915 to 1918, Meyer studied classical studies from 1919 at the universities of Hamburg , Kiel and Göttingen . In 1923 he received his doctorate in Göttingen under Ulrich Kahrstedt and, thanks to the energetic support of Felix Jacoby, completed his habilitation one year later at the University of Kiel. Both the dissertation and the 90-page habilitation thesis dealt with the Greek history of Hellenism .

After the travel grant of the German Archaeological Institute , which was awarded to him for 1924/25, he became Johannes Hasebroek's successor in 1927, first extraordinary, and from 1947 then full professor of ancient history and epigraphy at the University of Zurich . He retired in 1968, but continued to teach as an honorary professor.

Meyer dealt in a special way with the topography of ancient Greece , ancient forms of government, especially the Roman state, and Switzerland in antiquity . He wrote several monographs, essays and hundreds of articles, especially on ancient Greek topography in Paulys Realencyclopadie der classical antiquity (RE) and the little Pauly . Meyer was also a translator of ancient authors such as Pausanias and modern specialist literature into German .

The scientific part of his estate is now in the University Archives of Zurich .

Fonts (selection)

• About the knowledge of antiquity about Switzerland in pre-Roman times. Leemann, Zurich 1934.
• Outlines of the history of the Roman Empire. Leemann, Zurich 1935.
• Peloponnesian walks. Niehaus, Zurich 1939. Reprinted by Hakkert, Amsterdam 1991, ISBN 90-256-0995-3 .
• Switzerland in antiquity. Francke, Bern 1946
• Roman state and state thought. Artemis, Zurich 1948, 5th edition 1990 ( Erasmus library , later in Die Altertumswwissenschaft ).
• New Peloponnesian migrations. Francke, Bern 1957.
• Introduction to Latin epigraphy. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1973, 3rd edition 1991 ( The archeology. Introductions ).

literature

• Franz Georg Maier:  Meyer, Ernst. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-428-00198-2 , p. 333 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Beat Näf : Meyer, Ernst. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Beat Näf: Meyer, Ernst. In: Peter Kuhlmann , Helmuth Schneider (Hrsg.): History of the ancient sciences. Biographical Lexicon (= The New Pauly . Supplements. Volume 6). Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2012, ISBN 978-3-476-02033-8 , Sp. 821 f.

Web links

• Literature by and about Ernst Meyer in the catalog of the German National Library
• Entry on Ernst Meyer in Kalliope
• Marcel Brengard: Ernst Meyer and the Great War