Wilhelm Kroll

For the metallurgist, see William Justin Kroll.

Wilhelm Kroll

Wilhelm Kroll (October 7, 1869 – April 21, 1939) was a German classic philologist (klassischer Philologe).

Kroll was born in the town of Frankenstein in the Prussian Province of Silesia. Having studied in Breslau (and Berlin), he obtained his Ph.D. in 1891. Afterwards he worked towards his secondary degree (the German "habilitation") at Breslau university, which he obtained in 1894. In 1899 he moved to the University of Greifswald for a chair in classics. Afterwards he went on to Münster in 1906 and returned to Breslau in 1913, where he was offered the chair of his former colleague Franz Skutsch.

After having worked as a Breslau professor für more than 20 years Kroll retired in 1935. As his follower he supported the appointment of Hans Drexler, an active Nazi who was prohibited from teaching after WW2. Kroll moved to Berlin in 1937. He sought the anonymity of the big city because of his anti-Nazi reputation. He died in 1939 in Berlin, aged 69.

Kroll was an internationally renowned classicist, owing to his research and, even more, his editorial work on a number of important publications, the biggest of which was the Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft. Kroll directed this encyclopedia from 1906 until his death, combining the work of classical scholars from all over Europe and the United States.

Literary works

• An editor of the "Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft" (since 1906; after August Pauly, Georg Wissowa)
• Geschichte der klassischen Philologie. 1908;
  2. verb. Aufl. Vereinig. wissenschaftl. Verl., Berlin und Leipzig 1919 (Sammlung Göschen, 367)
• C. Valerius Catullus. 1922;
  7. Aufl. Teubner, Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-519-24001-7
• Studien zum Verständnis der römischen Literatur. Metzler, Stuttgart 1924
  Nachdruck Garland, New York und London 1978, ISBN 0-8240-2972-0
• Die Kultur der ciceronischen Zeit. 2 Teile. Dieterich, Leipzig 1933
  Nachdruck Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1975, ISBN 3-534-01542-8
• Rhetorik, 1937

Critical editions

• Vettii Valentis Anthologiarum Libri, Guilelmus Kroll, Weidman, Berlin, 1908.
• Matheseos Libri VIII, 2 vols., ed. W. Kroll, F. Skutsch and K. Ziegler, Teubner, Stuttgart, 1897-1913.
• Historia Alexandri Magni, ed. W. Kroll, vol. 1. Weidmann, Berlin, 1926.

See also

• Cicero
• August Pauly
• Wilhelm Siegmund Teuffel
• Vettius Valens
• Georg Wissowa

References

• Udo W. Scholz: Die Breslauer klassische Philologie und die Realenzyklopädie der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft. In: Jahrbuch der Schlesischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Breslau, Bd. 62–64 (2001–2003), S. 311–326, esp. S. 320–322.
• Peter Wirth: Kroll, Wilhelm. In: Neue deutsche Biographie. Vol. 13 (1982), p. 73.

External links

• Wilhelm Kroll in the German National Library catalogue