Peter von der Mühll

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Peter von der Mühll (1885–1970), Swiss classical philologist, professor and rector at the University of Basel.

Peter von der Mühll (born August 1, 1885 in Basel ; † October 13, 1970 there ) was a Swiss classical philologist .

Life

Peter von der Mühll (1885–1970), classical philologist. Grave in the Wolfgottesacker cemetery, Basel
Grave in the Wolfgottesacker cemetery , Basel

Peter von der Mühll came from the Von der Mühll family , a widely ramified Swiss family. His father was the businessman Fritz von der Mühll (1855–1935), his mother Helene nee. Vischer (1861-1957). His older brother Friedrich von der Mühll (1883–1942) became a high school teacher, his sister Henriette von der Mühll married the archaeologist Arnold von Salis .

Peter von der Mühll attended grammar school on Münsterplatz in Basel, where his teacher Hans Theodor Plüss encouraged him to study classical philology. During the course of his studies, von der Mühll changed his place of study several times: He began at the University of Basel , then moved to Geneva and Göttingen , where he was influenced by the philologists Eduard Schwartz , Friedrich Leo and Jacob Wackernagel . At her suggestion (and that of his fellow student Tycho von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff ), he spent a semester at the Berlin University with Hermann Diels and Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff .

He completed his exams and doctorate in 1909 in Göttingen. His doctoral supervisor was Eduard Schwartz. Subsequently, von der Mühll undertook longer educational trips to Paris and Italy. After his return, he received his habilitation at the University of Zurich , where he held lectures as a private lecturer. In 1917, at the age of 32, von der Mühll was appointed to one of the three chairs for Classical Philology at the University of Basel, which he held until his retirement in 1952. He turned down several appointments at other universities, including the one at Berlin University in 1925. In 1942 he was elected rector of the University of Basel.

His estate is in the Basel University Library .

Services

Peter von der Mühll was of great importance as an academic teacher, researcher and science organizer. He was a member of the supervisory authority of the Humanist Gymnasium, the Swiss Thesaurus Commission, and in 1944 initiated the founding of the Museum Helveticum magazine .

In addition to his involvement in teaching and scientific organization, von der Mühll hardly got his own publication. Nevertheless, he enriched science with substantial contributions. Bernhard Wyss published his scattered small writings in 1976 .

With his dissertation De Aristotelis Ethicorum Eudemiorum auctoritate (1909) von der Mühll made a fundamental contribution to research: he proved that the Eudemian ethics was written by Aristotle himself, not by his students, as the communis opinio had been since Leonhard Spengel . With his treatise, von der Mühll triggered a research debate in which, among others, the Berlin professor Werner Jaeger took his side. Since then, Aristotle's authorship has been considered certain.

Von der Mühll also presented fundamental writings on Homeric poetry. In 1940 he wrote the extensive article on the Odyssey in the Realencyclopedia of Classical Classical Studies , and in 1952 a Critical Hypomnema on the Iliad .

literature

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personal data
SURNAME Mühll, Peter from the
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Von der Mühll, Peter; Vonder Mühll, Peter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss classical philologist
DATE OF BIRTH August 1, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Basel
DATE OF DEATH October 13, 1970
Place of death Basel