La classicità rifiutata. Filologi classici (ed) ebrei nella Germania tra Otto- e Novecento

Despite their desire to play an active role in German Kultur in accordance with the principles of Mendelssohn’s Haskalah (18th sec.), Jewish scholars were prevented or hindered to teach as Professors in German Universities. This is especially true in the history of German classical philology, which can be phased over three periods: a) a first phase almost coinciding with the first eighty years of the 19th cent., when only conversion to Christianity made possible the access of Jewish Classicists into German Universities; b) a second phase starting with Treitschke’s beliner Antisemitismusstreit (1879/1881), when racist attitude hindered access into German Universities of scholars of Jewish ancestry, even if they had been converted to Christianity; c) a third phase coinciding with the years of Weimar Republic, when unconverted Jewish Classicists began to be accepted as Professors in German Universities. This latter phase was abruptly interrupted by the rise of Nazism, and the consequent tragedy of the Shoah. Within this historical frame, the author examines some prominent German classicists of Jewish ancestry, and the role they played in the history of classical studie