List of Classical Philologists at the University of Zurich

The list of Classical Philologists at the University of Zurich includes all Classical Philologists who were or are active as university lecturers at the Classical Philological Seminar of the University of Zurich .

The list generally includes full, non-scheduled, visiting and honorary professors as well as private lecturers . In justified exceptional cases, other lecturers can also be accepted.

After the university was founded in 1833, the subject of Classical Philology was initially only represented by associate professors; the first full professor was Hermann Köchly , who founded the Philological-Pedagogical Seminar in 1861. Since 1864, a chair for Sanskrit and comparative linguistic research has been added to the Ordinaries of Classical Philology, which has been renamed many times with the changing occupation and which today bears the teaching description “Comparative Indo-European Linguistics with special emphasis on Greek, Latin and Ancient Indian”.

The first column shows the name of the person and their life data, the second column shows entry into the university, and the third column shows their departure. Column four lists the highest position achieved at the University of Zurich. At other universities, the corresponding lecturer may have made an even more extensive scientific career. The next column names special features, the career path or other information relating to the university or the seminar. The last column shows pictures of the lecturers, which is currently difficult due to the image rights.

scientist	from	to	Functions	Remarks	image
Johann Caspar von Orelli (1787–1849)	1833	1849	Associate professor	First professor at the university when it was founded; created large critical editions of Horace and Cicero and collected inscriptions
Johann Georg Baiter (1801–1877)	1833	1849	Associate professor	Privatdozent, associate professor in the same year; Text critic and “right-hand man” Orellis, at the same time senior teacher at the Zurich high school
Hermann Sauppe (1809-1893)	1833	1845	Associate professor	Privatdozent, from 1838 associate professor, edited the Oratores Attici with Baiter ; moved to the Wilhelm-Ernst-Gymnasium in Weimar as director , and later to Göttingen as a full professor
Anton Salomon Vögelin (1804–1880)	1833	1867	Associate professor	Privatdozent, from 1852 associate professor for classical philology
August Wilhelm Winkelmann (1810–1875)	1833	1844	Private lecturer
Heinrich Schweizer-Sidler (1815-1894)	1841	1889	Full professor	Private lecturer, associate professor in 1849; 1864 full professor for Sanskrit and comparative linguistic research
Johannes Frei (1821–1900)	1849	1867	Associate professor	Teacher at the Zurich grammar school, part-time associate professor for classical philology
Hermann Köchly (1815–1876)	1850	1864	Full professor	High school teacher, political refugee from Saxony; first full professor of classical philology in Zurich, specialist in Greek epics and military writers; dealt with Heinrich Düntzer and Adolf Kirchhoff about the Odyssey ; went to Heidelberg in 1864
Conrad Bursian (1830-1883)	1864	1869	Full professor	Successor to Köchly, philologist and archaeologist; in his later time in Jena and Munich, biographer and bibliographer ( history of classical philology in Germany , 1883; annual report on the progress of classical antiquity , from 1873)
Gustav Uhlig (1838–1914)	1864	1872	Associate professor	Privatdozent, 1869 associate professor for classical philology; Specialist in Greek grammarians; moved to Heidelberg
Arnold Hug (1832–1895)	1867	1886	Full professor	Private lecturer; appointed as his successor after Bursian's departure
Eduard Wölfflin (1831–1908)	1866	1875	Full professor	Privatdozent, at the same time high school teacher in Zurich, 1869 associate professor, 1871 personal professor for classical philology and literary history; moved to Erlangen, later Munich, where he the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae justified
Gottfried Kinkel (1844-1891)	1867	1891	Private lecturer
Otto Benndorf (1838–1907)	1869	1871	Full professor	associate professor, full professor for archeology and classical philology from 1870; moved to Prague, and later Vienna, where he developed the Austrian Archaeological Institute founded
Adolf Kaegi (1849–1923)	1875	1914	Full professor	Privatdozent, from 1883 associate professor at Schweizer-Sidler; 1893 his actual successor as professor of Sanskrit, Indo-European and classical philology; Author of the Greek school grammar
Hugo Blümner (1844-1919)	1877	1919	Full professor	Professor of Archeology and Classical Philology; Author of the Roman Private Antiquities ( HdAw IV, 2,2, 1919)
Hermann Hitzig (1843–1918)	1886	1918	Full professor	Successor to Hug; wrote an important Pausanias commentary with Hugo Blümner ( Hitzig-Blümner , 1886–1910)
Moritz Guggenheim (1858–1908)	1886	1895	Private lecturer	High school teacher in Zurich
Otto Schulthess (1862-1939)	1892	1907	Associate professor	Private lecturer; 1902 associate professor for Greek law, epigraphy and papyrus studies; moved to Bern
Eduard Schwyzer (1874–1943)	1902	1927	Full professor	Private lecturer, 1909 associate professor at the chair for Indo-European studies; since 1912 full professor of comparative Indo-European linguistics, especially classical philology and Sanskrit, to support the seriously ill Kaegi; 1914 Kaegi's successor; moved to Bonn
Ernst Howald (1887–1967)	1913	1952	Full professor	Privatdozent, 1918 as successor to Hitzig's professor of classical philology; researched Greek and Latin poetry, ancient culture and ethics
Peter von der Mühll (1885–1970)	1913	1917	Private lecturer	moved to Basel; famous Iliad researcher
Manu Leumann (1889–1977)	1927	1959	Full professor	Successor to Schwyzer; famous Indo-Europeanist; put the focus of the chair on this subject
Walter Wili (1900–1975)	1929	1932	Private lecturer	moved to Bern
Fritz Wehrli (1902–1987)	1930	1967	Full professor	Private lecturer, adjunct professor in 1936, associate professor in 1941; 1952 as the successor of Howald's professor for classical philology, especially Greek
Franz Stoessl (1910–1988)	1939	1952	Honorary professor	Private lecturer, 1948 honorary professor; moved to Vienna, later to Graz
Ernst Risch (1911–1988)	1942 1952	1950 1981	Full professor	Privatdozent, moved to Mainz in 1950; 1952 return as adjunct professor, 1956 associate professor; from 1959 to 1981 full professor for Indo-European linguistics
Walter Rüegg (1918–2015)	1950	1961	Associate Professor	Privatdozent, 1959 titular professor for the history of the humanities with special focus on humanism; moved to Frankfurt am Main, later to Bern
Hermann Koller (1918–1992)	1952	1985	Associate Professor	Privatdozent, 1961 titular professor
Heinz Haffter (1905–1998)	1952	1970	Full professor	previously general editor of the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae; Privatdozent, associate professor in 1953 and full professor in 1959 for classical philology, especially Latin
Thomas Gelzer (1926-2010)	1964	1970	Assistant professor	Private lecturer, 1966 assistant professor; moved to Bern
Walter Burkert (1931–2015)	1969	1996	Full professor	Successor to Wehrli as a full professor of classical philology, especially Greek
Heinrich Marti (1930-2016)	1970	2000	Associate Professor	Privatdozent, 1978 titular professor, resigned in 2000
Hermann Tränkle (1930-2018)	1971	1996	Full professor	Successor to Haffter; Latin poetry specialist	[1]
Thomas Alexander Szlezák (* 1940)	1976	1983	Private lecturer	moved to Würzburg, later Tübingen
Fritz Graf (* 1944)	1981	1987	Private lecturer	moved to Basel, later Princeton and Columbia (Ohio)
Theo Wirth (* 1941)	1982	2002	Lecturer	Professor at the Cantonal School in Zurich, lecturer in didactics of ancient languages
Bernhard Zimmermann (* 1955)	1990	1993	Assistant professor	moved to Düsseldorf, later Freiburg
George Dunkel (* 1948)	1986	2014	Full professor	Risch's successor as Professor of Comparative Indo-European Linguistics; 1993 extended course description: comparative Indo-European linguistics with special consideration of Greek, Latin and ancient Indian
Christoph Riedweg (* 1957)	1992		Full professor	1992/1993 private lecturer, moved to Mainz; 1996 full professor for Classical Philology / Greek Studies; on leave from 2005 to 2012
Laura Gemelli Marciano (* 1952)	1990		Associate Professor	Assistant, 1996 private lecturer, 2006 adjunct professor
Eveline Krummen (* 1956)	1997	1999	Private lecturer	moved to Graz as a full professor in 1999
Therese Fuhrer (* 1959)	1997	2004	Ordinaria	Successor to Tränkles; moved to Freiburg, later Berlin (FU)
Virgilio Masciadri (1963-2014)	2004	2014	Private lecturer	Teacher and didactic specialist
Manuel Baumbach (* 1970)	2005	2009	Visiting professor	represented Prof. Riedweg (Greek Studies)
Ulrich Eigler (* 1959)	2005		Full professor	Successor to Therese Fuhrer
Paul Widmer (* 1967)	2014		Associate professor	Successor to George Dunkel

Web links

• Institute history and list of employees
• List of ancestors of the Zurich Indo-Europeanists with pictures
• Current employees