Uvo Hölscher

Uvo Hölscher (8 March 1914 - 31 December 1996) was a German classical philologist.[1]

Uvo Hölscher
Born8 March 1914
Halle, Germany
Died31 December 1996 Munich, Germany
Alma materMunich
Frankfurt a/M.
Occupationclassical philologist
university professor
writer
Spouse(s)Dorothea Hölscher-Lohmeyer (1913-2008)
ChildrenTonio
Lucian
Parent(s)Gustav Hölscher (1877-1955)
Borghild Gjessing (1882-1930)

Life

Uvo Hölscher was born, the younger of his parents' two recorded sons, in Halle. His father, Gustav Hölscher was a theologian.[2] His mother, born Borghild Gjessing, was the daughter of a school director from Oslo.[2] His grandfather, Wilhelm Hölscher, was also a theologian.[3]

Uvo Hölscher attended secondary schools in Marburg and Bonn. He moved on to Tübingen and Munich universities where he studied natural sciences and cultural sciences, then progressing to Frankfurt where he studied classical philology, enthused in particular by the lecturer Karl Reinhardt.[4] It was at Reinhardt's regular Saturday morning gatherings that he met Max Kommerell[5] and his student contemporary Dorothea Lohmeyer, whom in 1940 he married.[6] In 1937 he received his doctorate for a dissertation on "The Philosophy of Empedocles", supervised for the work by Reinhardt. The next day he was conscripted for his military service. He nevertheless managed to receive his habilitation in 1944, during a brief vacation with Bruno Snell in Hamburg. However, his dissertation, which concerned the use of the Ekkyklema machine in Greek drama,[7] was not published and he was obliged to provide the party with a statement that he would never apply to become a professor. After the war ended he was imprisoned under conditions that became particularly harsh after he tried to escape.

He was released in 1946 and his habilitation was re-awarded, this time at Munich where for a time he was the sole representative of his discipline at the university, till he was joined by Friedrich Klingner and Rudolf Pfeiffer. After a period in England, in 1954 Hölscher was appointed a professor at the recently launched Free University of Berlin. He transferred to Heidelberg in 1962 and then, in 1970, returned as a professor to Munich.

Hölscher's work followed the trajectory set by his mentor, Karl Reinhardt. His work covered early Greek epic poetry, especially that of Homer, and Pre-Socratic philosophy. His best known book is a justification for classical philology, "Die Chance des Unbehagens - Zur Situation der klassischen Studien" (1965). His formulation of the "adjacent stranger" is often cited when describing the relationship between the modern age and antiquity. His most important work is "Die Odyssee - Epos zwischen Märchen und Roman" (1988).[8]

Memberships and honours

Output (selection)
  • Die Odyssee. Epos zwischen Märchen und Roman. 3. Auflage. Beck, München 1990, ISBN 3-406-33390-7.
  • Die Chance des Unbehagens. 3 Essais zur Situation der klassischen Studien. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1965.
  • Das nächste Fremde. Von Texten der griechischen Frühzeit und ihrem Reflex in der Moderne. Beck, München 1994, ISBN 3-406-38505-2 (collected essays, also including a biography of Hölscher).
  • Strömungen der deutschen Gräzistik in den Zwanziger Jahren. In: Hellmut Flashar (compiler-editor): Altertumswissenschaft in den 20er Jahren. Steiner, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-515-06569-5.

References
  1. "Gestorben: Uvo Hölscher". Der Spiegel (online). 6 January 1997. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
  2. Georg Christian Macholz (1972). "Hölscher, Gustav: evangelischer Theologe, * 17.6.1877 Norden (Ostfriesland), † 16.9.1955 Heidelberg". Neue Deutsche Biographie. Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, München. p. 334. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
  3. Martin Tielke. "Hermann Wilhelm Heinrich Hölscher" (PDF). Ostfriesische Landschaftliche Verlags- und Vertriebsgesellschaft mbH, Aurich. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
  4. Jürgen Busche (7 October 1988). "Athene lieben, Poseidon fürchten". Die Zeit (online). Retrieved 10 September 2017.
  5. Christian Weber (29 April 2011). Die Jean Paul-Rezeption im Dialog mit Reinhardt und Otto (1930-1934). Max Kommerell: Eine intellektuelle Biographie. Walter de Gruyter. p. 74. ISBN 978-3-11-023753-5.
  6. Christoph König (2003). Internationales Germanistenlexikon 1800 - 1950. Walter de Gruyter. p. 769. ISBN 978-3-11-015485-6.
  7. Uvo Hölscher; Manfred Kraus (compiler of the schedule of Hölscher's written output ) (1994). Verzeichnis der Schriften von Uvo Hölscher 1939-1994. Das nächste Fremde: von Texten der griechischen Frühzeit und ihrem Reflex in der Moderne. C.H.Beck. p. 401. ISBN 978-3-406-38505-6.
  8. Uvo Hölscher (2000). Die Odyssee: Epos zwischen Märchen und Roman. C.H.Beck. ISBN 978-3-406-45942-9.
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