Theodor Spira

Theodor Otto Adam Hans Spira (born January 12, 1885 in Worms , † November 25, 1961 in Kronberg im Taunus ) was a German Anglicist . He was a professor at the Albertus University in Königsberg and at the University of Frankfurt .

Life

Spira studied German , English and Romance languages at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen and at the University of Geneva . Spira was a student of Wilhelm Horn during his time in Giessen. In 1912 he was pouring in with the work The English phonetic development by French grammarian testimonies doctorate . This was followed by research at the University of Heidelberg , the Humboldt University in Berlin and at the University of Cambridge . In 1922 he completed his habilitation in Giessen on Shelley's intellectual historical significance .

From 1921 to 1925 he was a private lecturer at the University of Giessen. Through the Prussian minister of education Carl Heinrich Becker , Spira became a full professor in Königsberg in 1925 as part of the democratic renewal program of the "Grenzlanduniversitäten" ( University of Kiel , University of Breslau , University of Königsberg). By the Nazis Spira was established in 1940 because of his political and religious beliefs (he was synodal the professing church) removed from his Konigsberg chair.

Spira, who, as a staunch Christian, had not belonged to any Nazi organization, converted to Catholicism after the Second World War , as he accused the Protestant church of having too great a connivance with the Nazi rulers. Spira he was very committed to the ecumenical movement . From 1945 to 1947 he was a ministerial advisor and head of the church department in the Hessian Ministry of Culture . There Spira was jointly responsible for the settlement with Israel . He was a friend and interlocutor of the Jewish religious philosopher Martin Buber . In August 1947 he was appointed full professor of English and head of the America Institute at the University of Frankfurt.

1956/57 Spira was chairman of the German Society for America Research . He was also a member of the editorial board of the American Studies Yearbook .

Spira was married to Klara, née Klammt, and had four children. His son Andreas (1929-2004) was a well-known classical philologist .

Fonts (selection)

• The English sound development according to French grammar certificates (= sources and research on the language and cultural history of the Germanic peoples , 115). Strasbourg 1912.
• Shelley's intellectual historical significance . Giessen 1923.
• Shakespeare's sonnets in the context of his work . Koenigsberg 1929.

literature

• Theodor Spira - 75 years old . In: Die Neueren Sprachen , 1960, pp. 147–148.
• Helmut Viebrock, Willi Erzgräber (Ed.): Festschrift for the 75th birthday of Theodor Spira . Winter, Heidelberg 1961.
• Helmut Viebrock: Obituary - Theodor Spira . In: Anglia - Journal for English Philology , Volume 79, 1961, pp. 249-252.
• Hellmut Bock: In memoriam: Theodor Spira (1885–1961) . In: Yearbook for American Studies , Volume VI, 1962, p. 5.
• Theodor Spira in memory . In: Die Neueren Sprachen (1962), pp. 185–187.
• Frank-Rutger Hausmann: English and American Studies in the “Third Reich” . Vittorio Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 2003, p. 510.

Web links

• Literature by and about Theodor Spira in the catalog of the German National Library