Hermann Kleinknecht

The title of this article is ambiguous. For the artist of the same name, see Hermann Kleinknecht (artist)

Hermann Martin Kleinknecht (born January 12, 1901 in Marbach am Neckar ; † March 13, 1960 in Münster ) was a German classical philologist who worked as a professor at the Universities of Rostock (1944–1951), Berlin (HU, 1951–1953) and Münster (1953-1960) worked.

Life

Hermann Kleinknecht, the son of the high school director Ludwig Kleinknecht (1876–1917), attended elementary school and the Progymnasium in Öhringen and then the Evangelical seminars in Maulbronn and Blaubeuren . In 1925 he passed his school leaving examination in Blaubeuren. He then studied classical philology, history and archeology at the University of Tübingen and at the Berlin University . After receiving his doctorate in Tübingen (1929) and the teaching qualification examination (1931), he worked as an assistant teacher, and from 1931 as a trainee teacher at the Karls-Gymnasium Stuttgart . After the second state examination in Stuttgart (1932) he held Greek language courses as a lecturer at the University of Tübingen. Since 1934 he worked in parallel as an assistant teacher in Tübingen.

In 1935, Kleinknecht moved to the University of Halle , where he was initially an assistant, and from 1937 a senior assistant at the Institute for Classical Studies. After his habilitation (1939) he took the chair of Erich Reitzenstein .

At the Second World War Kleinknecht first took part as a radio operator (1940-41). In 1941 he was entrusted with the representation of the chair for Greek Philology at the University of Leipzig and released from military service. In 1943 he moved to the University of Rostock , where he was appointed a regular associate professor in 1944. From 1944 on, Kleinknecht was again obliged to serve in the war. After the end of the war and brief imprisonment, he worked as a teacher in Ellwangen in Baden-Württemberg.

Although Kleinknecht had joined various Nazi organizations during the National Socialist era (member of the National Socialist Teachers' Association since 1933 , of the National Socialist People's Welfare since 1934 , block administrator there since 1939, SA candidate in 1933 ), he was classified as "political" by the Soviet military administration in the denazification process relieved "classified. In 1947 he was appointed professor and director of the Institute for Classical Studies. The Philosophical Faculty elected him Vice Dean for 1947/48 and 1949/51, and Dean for 1948/49.

In 1951, Kleinknecht became professor at the Humboldt University in Berlin, where he was Wolfgang Schadewaldt's successor. From Berlin he went to the University of Münster in 1953 . There he worked until his death in 1960 as the third professor alongside Franz Beckmann and Richard Harder , as well as dean of the Philosophical Faculty and co-director of the Institute for Classical Philology.

Kleinknecht's research focus was the Greek religious history of the imperial era and late antiquity, especially early Christianity. As a specialist in this field, he became a research assistant at the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin in 1951 , where he was responsible for the history of religion in late antiquity.

literature

• Otto Weinreich : Farewell to a humanist. On the death of Hermann Kleinknecht . In: Selected Writings. Volume 3 . Amsterdam 1979. p. 442
• Henrik Eberle: The Martin Luther University in the time of National Socialism. Mdv, Halle 2002, ISBN 3-89812-150-X , p. 379f

Web links

• Literature by and about Hermann Kleinknecht in the catalog of the German National Library
• Literature about Hermann Kleinknecht in the state bibliography MV
• Entry on Hermann Kleinknecht in the Catalogus Professorum Halensis
• Entry on Hermann Kleinknecht in the Catalogus Professorum Rostochiensium

Individual evidence

1. ^ Jobst D. Herzig, Catharina Trost: The University of Rostock 1945-1946. Denazification and reopening . Rostock 2008. p. 67 ( digitized version )