Friedrich Spiro

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Friedrich Spiro (born December 28, 1863 in Berlin , † September 13, 1940 in Basel ) was a German classical philologist and musicologist .

Life

Friedrich Julius Spiro, the son of the manufacturer Paul Spiro and Agnes born. Landsberg, showed linguistic and musical talent at an early age. He received piano lessons from Heinrich Ehrlich and attended the Luisenstädtische Gymnasium , where he passed his school leaving examination on March 6, 1880. He then studied classical philology, initially at Berlin University (summer semester 1880 – summer semester 1881), where he was particularly influenced by the philologist and archaeologist Carl Robert . Perhaps on his advice, Spiro moved to the University of Greifswald in the winter semester of 1881/82 , where Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff was then active. Spiro dedicated his later philological work to him and Robert. In the winter semester 1883/84 (after Wilamowitz had moved to Göttingen ) Spiro returned to Berlin and wrote his doctoral thesis on the Phönissen des Euripides , with which he was awarded a doctorate on July 15, 1884. phil. received his doctorate .

From October 1, 1884 to October 1, 1885, Spiro did his military service, not with the Prussian Army, but with the Royal Bavarian Infantry Body Regiment in Munich . After his release, Spiro prepared in Berlin for the teaching examination, which he passed on November 16, 1886. However, he did not enter the school service, but initially remained a private scholar and freelance musician. He published academic articles on questions of philology and music history.

In 1891 Spiro moved to Rome, where he met and married the violinist Assia Rombro (* 1873). Spiro continued his scientific work in Rome (his research focus was the writer Pausanias ), but especially immersed himself in music. He regularly wrote articles on Roman and German musical life for the magazine of the International Music Society . On October 1, 1904, Spiro got a job as organist at the Imperial German Embassy Chapel in Rome, which he gave up at Easter 1914. From October 1, 1914, Spiro taught voluntarily at the German School in Rome .

With the outbreak of World War I , the situation for the Spiro couple gradually became precarious, as Spiro was still a German citizen. When Italy was about to enter the war on the Entente side , Spiro and his wife left Rome and moved to Berlin. From April 18, 1915, Spiro taught as an assistant teacher at the Hohenzollern High School in Berlin-Schöneberg . On April 1, 1916, he was able to work in the higher education service in Prussia and was transferred to the municipal high school in Fürstenwalde / Spree as a senior teacher . On May 1, 1924 Spiro was put into temporary retirement, and on April 1, 1929 into regular retirement. During these years Friedrich Spiro also belonged to the Graeca , a reading group under the direction of Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff.

During the National Socialist era , the Spiro couple were classified as “non-Aryans” because of their Jewish origins and had to endure all the humiliations of the regime. They only decided to emigrate after the Reichspogromnacht in 1938: They emigrated to Switzerland in 1939, where Friedrich Spiro's brother, the chemist Karl Spiro (1867–1932), had lived since 1919. Friedrich Spiro died in Basel on September 13, 1940.

Spiro's academic work encompasses various areas of classical philology and musicology. His most important work was the three-volume hand edition (editio minor) of Pausanias, which was published in 1903 by Teubner-Verlag. It was based on a careful study of the (Spiro accessible) manuscripts, the older editions as well as the archaeological and philological research of recent years. In his review of the edition, the philologist Heinrich Schenkl particularly praised the careful and conservative text layout and the meticulous and economical apparatus. Spiro's hand edition of Pausanias claimed its own place alongside the large Pausanias edition by Hermann Hitzig and Hugo Blümner (3 volumes in 6 parts, Berlin / Leipzig 1896–1910) with extensive commentary and was reprinted in the 1960s.

Fonts (selection)

  • De Euripidis Phoenissis . Berlin 1884 (dissertation)
  • Παυσανίου Ἑλλάδος περιήγησις = Pausaniae Graeciae descriptio . 3 volumes, Leipzig 1903. Reprints Stuttgart 1959, 1964, 1967 (full text { vol. 1 , vol. 3 )
  • History of music . Leipzig 1907 ( From Nature and Spiritual World 143)
Translations
  • Pausanias: Guide through Attica . Leipzig 1894 ( Reclams Universal Library 3360)
  • Pausanias: History of the Messenian Wars . Leipzig 1896 ( Reclams Universal Library 4168). New edition 1928
  • Marcus Tullius Cicero, Selected Speeches. Volume 6: Speeches against Verres . Leipzig 1897 ( Reclams Universal Library 4013). New edition 1928
  • Demosthenes: speech on the Chersonese question and speech against Leptines . Leipzig 1901 ( Reclams Universal Library 4438)
  • Marcus Tullius Cicero: Conversations in Tusculum . Leipzig 1908 ( Reclams Universal Library 5027–5029)
  • Poems of Catullus, translated by W. Amelung, with an introduction by Fr. Spiro and some illustrations of ancient monuments . Jena 1911
  • Petron: Banquet of the Trimalchio. After W. Heinses translation with introduction and explanations . Leipzig 1928 ( Reclams Universal Library 2616)

literature

  • Aldo Corcella: Friedrich Spiro, filologo e libraio. Per una storia della S. Calvary & Co. Bari 2014 ( Paradosis 21), p. 162, note 5

Web links

Wikisource: Friedrich Spiro  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Berlin Philological Weekly . Volume 24 (1904), No. 17, Col. 517-521 ( full text ); Volume 26 (1906), No. 6, Col. 161–169 ( full text ).
personal data
SURNAME Spiro, Friedrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Spiro, Friedrich Julius (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German classical philologist and musicologist
DATE OF BIRTH December 28, 1863
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH September 13, 1940
Place of death Basel