Carl Joachim Classen

Carl Joachim Classen
Born August 15, 1928
Hamburg, Germany
Died September 29, 2013 (aged 85)
Citizenship Germany
Fields Classics
Institutions Berlin Institute of Technology, University of Würzburg, University of Göttingen
Alma mater University of Göttingen, University of Oxford University of Hamburg

Carl Joachim Classen (15 August 1928 - 29 September 2013) was a German classical scholar.

Biography

Classen studied classics at Göttingen and Hamburg. His academic teachers include Ernst Zinn and Bruno Snell in Hamburg and Kurt Latte in Göttingen. After being promoted to Dr. phil. in 1952 he took the first and second state examination in 1952 and 1956, respectively. He attained the B. Litt. at the University of Oxford in 1956 and worked as a lecturer of classics at the University of Ibadan for three years. After his return to Germany (in 1959) he worked as a lecturer at the Göttingen university, completing his Habilitation in 1961.

From 1966 on Classen held classics chairs at three universities: In 1966 he was called to one of the two newly instituted chair of classics at the Berlin Institute of Technology (Technische Universität Berlin). From there he went to Würzburg in 1969, until going to Göttingen in 1973 where he stayed the remainder of his career until his death in 2013.

As a classicist, Classen has an exceptional international reputation. He was invited as visiting professor to the University of Texas at Austin (1967/68) and as visiting member to the Institute for Advanced Study (1975). He also was visiting professor in Changchun (1992), Tartu (1994 and 1996), Rome (1995 and 1997) and visiting member at the All Souls College, Oxford (1980) an the Merton College, Oxford (1995). In 2000, the University of Tartu awarded him the honorary degree of Dr. phil.

His main scientific interests include Ancient Historiography, Greek and Roman Rhetorics, Roman Satire, Humanism and the History of Classical Scholarship. He is the author and editor of several monographs and essays on those subjects, his works being published in German, English, Serbian and Estonian.

Major writings

External links