Walther Sontheimer

Walther Sontheimer (born August 22, 1890 in Tübingen , † September 26, 1984 in Stuttgart ) was a German classical philologist and high school teacher. He worked as headmaster at the Ulm high school (1932–1938) and at the Eberhard Ludwigs high school in Stuttgart (1951–1957). His name is connected to the lexicon Der Kleine Pauly , which he published with Konrat Ziegler and Hans Gärtner from 1964 to 1975. In addition, Sontheimer wrote various text editions and Reclam translations of ancient authors.

Live and act

Walther Sontheimer was the youngest son of the businessman Ludwig Sontheimer. He attended the city's humanistic grammar school (today's Uhland grammar school ), where the repetitionist Rudolf Griesinger encouraged him to study ancient languages. From 1908, Sontheimer studied Classical Philology and French at the University of Tübingen . During his studies he became a member of the Roigel Royal Society of Tübingen . He planned to become an archaeologist. When the First World War broke out, Sontheimer interrupted his studies. He remained active until the end of the war, rose to senior lieutenant in the reserve and was awarded the Iron Cross, second class, and the honor wreath for combatants from the front.

During the war, Sontheimer met the hospital assistant Herma Dietz. In order to be able to set up a joint existence with her, Sontheimer completed his teaching degree. He passed the first humanistic service examination in 1917 and the second in 1919. After the war ended, Walther Sontheimer and Herma Dietz married. They had two daughters (Ilse, * 1921 and Gisela, * 1926) and a son, Günther-Dietz Sontheimer (1934–1992), who later became an Indologist. After initial employment in Maulbronn and Biberach, Sontheimer received his doctorate in 1922 at the University of Tübingen . His unprinted dissertation had emerged from a prize publication from 1914 and dealt with the depiction of Hannibal's Alpine crossing by Ammianus Marcellinus .

Career in the 20s and 30s

In 1923 Sontheimer was transferred to the Eberhard-Ludwigs-Gymnasium in Stuttgart as a teacher . Here his former teacher Griesinger was his colleague; he helped Sontheimer to find his way into the hierarchical structures of the school. A decisive step in Sontheimer's career was the appointment to the ministerial department of the Württemberg Ministry of Culture. As a "collegial helper" he represented the employee Dr. Leuze and reported directly to the head of the department, Theodor Bracher. In 1932 he appointed Sontheimer to head the high school in Ulm (today the Humboldt high school ).

As a grammar school director in 1933, he was faced with the task of preventing the grammar school from being downgraded to the normal form of the "high school". To cope with this task, he joined the NSDAP . After a few years he was appointed head of the seminar for trainee students in Stuttgart, where his predecessor and former colleague Rudolf Griesinger "made himself politically unpopular" . Sontheimer couldn't find an apartment in Stuttgart for a long time. During this time his family lived in Ulm, his wife's hometown. On August 26, 1940 Sontheimer was drafted for World War II, in which he took part as a captain. Theodor Bracher campaigned unsuccessfully to recall Sontheimer from the front as indispensable . Sontheimer was head of the personnel department and adjutant to his commander. He rose to major and was taken prisoner towards the end of the war, from which he returned to Stuttgart on June 30, 1945. There are poems from this period that he did not publish; he also wrote his memories of the last days of the Second World War , in which he also described his personal experience of National Socialist rule.

Post-war period: rehabilitation

After returning from captivity, Sontheimer was initially unemployed. In October 1945, when school operations at the Eberhard-Ludwigs-Gymnasium were resumed, he taught there and on December 4, 1945 he was appointed provisional headmaster. As a former "party member", however, he was "put out of use by order of the military government" on April 24, 1946 by the provisional education authority. While he was waiting for the trial chamber proceedings , Sontheimer provided for his family's livelihood by cleaning military and national content from Latin textbooks on behalf of the Ministry of Culture.

In the complaint of January 20, 1947, Sontheimer was classified as an "incriminated person". This classification was based on the assumption that he had actively emerged as a member of the NSDAP and received the seminar leader in Stuttgart because of his assessment as a reliable National Socialist. Through the statements of his former colleagues and acquaintances, especially on the part of Theodor Bracher, both allegations were dropped and Sontheimer was classified as a “fellow traveler”. For his work in the Reichsbund der Deutschen Officials he was imposed an atonement of 1200 Reichsmarks, in addition Sontheimer had to bear the costs of the proceedings and was demoted to the faculty member with a probation period of two years.

When the director of the Eberhard-Ludwigs-Gymnasium, Rudolf Griesinger, retired in 1951, Sontheimer became his successor. His most important task was to organize the new building of the school, which had been destroyed in a bomb attack in 1944. A few months after the inauguration of the new building, Sontheimer retired on July 23, 1957.

retirement

During his retirement, Sontheimer devoted himself to science. Thanks to his friendship with the Stuttgart publishing director Alfred Druckermüller , he had already been working on the Realencyclopedia of Classical Classical Studies (RE) since the 1920s , mainly as a proofreader. He wrote several articles for the encyclopedia, including the extensive keyword "month" (1933). Together with the Göttingen lecturer Hans Gärtner , Sontheimer organized the publication of Little Pauly , an updated short version of the RE. The company was led by the publisher of RE, Konrat Ziegler . From 1964 to 1975, the editors of Sontheimer and Gärtner published the five volumes of Little Pauly , in which 194 employees from all over the world were involved in addition to the editors.

In addition, from 1956 to 1972 Sontheimer published text editions by the authors Cicero , Sallust , Livius and Tacitus in the Klett Collection and in the Kröner Verlag ; he also translated for Reclam's universal library Cicero, Herodotus , Livius and Tacitus.

For his life's work, Sontheimer was awarded the title of professor and the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon on his 80th birthday . He died on September 26, 1984 at the age of 94 in Stuttgart and was buried in the Sillenbuch cemetery.

literature

• Theodor Kaßberger, Georg Bochow, Peter Mommsen: Preservation - Reflection - New Beginning: The three headmasters after the end of the war in 1945 . Publication of the school archive of the Eberhard-Ludwigs-Gymnasium and the "Association of Former Students of the Eberhard-Ludwigs-Gymnasium", Stuttgart 2009.

Web links

• Literature by Walther Sontheimer in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kaßberger / Bochow / Mommsen (2009) 58th
2. ↑ Kaßberger / Bochow / Mommsen (2009) 64th
3. ↑ Kaßberger / Bochow / Mommsen (2009) 65th
4. ↑ Konrat Ziegler, Walther Sontheimer (ed.): Der Kleine Pauly. Lexicon of antiquity. 5 volumes, Stuttgart 1964–1975; Reprint Munich 1979 (= German volume 5963).