Friedrich Walter Lenz

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Friedrich Walter Lenz , original name Friedrich Walter Levy , (born May 2, 1896 in Berlin ; died November 15, 1969 in Austin, Texas ) was an American classical philologist of German origin.

Life

Friedrich Walter Levy, the son of a doctor, attended the Mommsen-Gymnasium from 1903 to 1913 and then studied classical philology at the Berlin University , where he was influenced by Hermann Diels , Eduard Norden and Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff . From 1917 to 1919 Lenz taught as an assistant teacher at the Mommsen Gymnasium. In 1919 he was promoted to Dr. phil. doctorate after he had filed in December 1918 the state examination. Levy then continued his studies with a scholarship from the Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft and the University of Florence .

Eduard Norden promoted Levy since his studies. So he introduced him to Wilhelm Kroll and Karl Mittelhaus , the editors of the Realenzyklopädie , who transferred various articles to Levy. In addition, Norden recommended his pupil to the Teubner publishing house and thus caused Levy to publish text editions of the Roman poets Ovid , Tibullus and Seneca . In addition to Roman literature, Levy also dealt with the rhetorician Aelius Aristides . In 1921 he married Mali Goldmann, who had received her doctorate on Plato from Ernst Cassirer . The two had two sons. On the occasion of his appointment as a Prussian civil servant (Easter 1930) Levy changed his family name to Lenz .

In the 1920s Lenz taught at various Berlin high schools. In 1930 he was given a permanent position as a teacher at the grammar school in Minden in Westphalia. After the seizure of power by the National Socialists Lenz was dismissed in May 1933 because of his Jewish ancestry and emigrated in 1936 with his family to Italy, where he on Giorgio Pasqualis seemed invitation to the University of Florence. Through the mediation of Norden and George Lincoln Hendrickson , Lenz received a position as a lecturer and research fellow at Yale University in the spring of 1939 , which enabled him and his family to emigrate to the United States . At the same time, Lenz taught as a professor at Connecticut Women's College.

In 1945 Lenz went to Southwestern University in Georgetown (Texas) as Head of the Foreign Languages ​​Department , where he worked until he retired in 1958. In 1953/1954 he was a visiting associate professor at the Classics Department of the University of Texas at Austin . He also spent his retirement at this university, where he was appointed Research Professor in 1960.

From his marriage to Dr. Amalie (Mali) Goldmann (1893–1979) had two sons: Heinz Walter Lenz (1925–2006) and Stefan Günter (Steven Guenter) Lenz (1931–1986).

Fonts (selection)

  • De Demosthenis περὶ συντάξεως oratione . Neustrelitz 1919 (dissertation)
  • P. Ovidius Naso. Opera. Vol. 3,1: Tristium libri V, Ibis, Ex ponto libri IV . Leipzig 1922
  • P. Ovidius Naso. Opera. Vol. 3.2: Fastorum libri VI, fragmenta . Leipzig 1924
  • Albii Tibulli aliorumque carminum libri tres . Leipzig 1927. Second edition, Leipzig 1937
  • Seneca: Phaedra . Leipzig 1929
  • Investigations on the aristite cholia . Berlin 1934
  • P. Ovidii Nasonis Halieutica, Fragmenta, Nux. Incerti Consolatio ad Liviam . Turin 1937. Second edition, Turin 1956
  • The Aristeides Prolegomena . Leiden 1959
  • Albii Tibulli aliorumque carminum libri tres . Leiden 1959. Second edition, Leiden 1964. Third edition, Leiden 1971
  • Ovid: cure for love . Darmstadt 1960 / Berlin 1960. Second, revised edition, Berlin 1969. Reprint Berlin 1972
  • Thomas Magister: Five speeches . Leiden 1963
  • Aristeides Studies . Berlin 1964
  • Ovid: The strategies of love . Darmstadt 1965 / Berlin 1965. Second, revised edition, Berlin 1966. Third, revised edition, Berlin 1976 (by Mali G. Lenz)
  • Tibullus: poems . Stuttgart: Reclam 1966
  • Ovid: The art of love . Darmstadt 1969 / Berlin 1969
  • Ovid: Ars amatoria / The art of love. From the Latin and retouched by Friedrich Walter Lenz . Berlin 1970
  • Opuscula Selecta . Amsterdam 1972 (with biography)
  • with Charles Allison Behr: P. Aelii Aristidis opera quae exstant omnia . Four volumes, Leiden 1976–1978

literature

Autobiographical
  • Frederick Walter Lenz: Memories of Ernst Cassirer . In: monthly books . Volume 40 (1948), pp. 401-405
  • Friedrich Walter Lenz: memories of Eduard north . In: Antiquity and the Occident . Volume 7 (1958), pp. 159-171
  • Friedrich Walter Lenz: Eduard north's achievement for the classical studies . In: Antiquity . Volume 6 (1960), pp. 245-254
Obituaries and tributes
  • Bernhard Kytzler : Friedrich Walter Lenz † . In: Gnomon . 43: 526-527 (1971)
  • Hans Werner Dirks, Kristan Kossack: No more space for Jewish officials. Dismissed the teacher at the Ratsgymnasium. In: Mindener Tageblatt of January 24, 2009, p. 11 online edition (PDF; 71 kB).
  • Hans-Werner Dirks, Kristan Kossack: Traces of Jewish Life in Minden. Publishing House for Regional History, Bielefeld 2009. ISBN 978-3-89534-775-7 , pp. 106-108.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hans Peter Obermayer: German ancient scholars in American exile: A reconstruction . Berlin 2014, p. 422 note 51.
personal data
SURNAME Lenz, Friedrich Walter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Levy, Friedrich Walter (original name); Lenz, Frederick Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American classical philologist of German origin
DATE OF BIRTH May 2, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH 15th November 1969
Place of death Austin (Texas)