Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff to Wolfang Schadewaldt on the Classic Calder,
William M Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Winter 1975; 16, 4; ProQuest pg. 451

IN MEMORIAM WOLFGANG SCHADEWALDT 

Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff to 
Wolfgang Schadewaldt on the Classic 

William M. Calder III 

EACH OF Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff's (1848-1931) 
great students extended a narrow part of the teacher's uni­
versal genius. One may look metaphorically at books. Aristo­

teles und Athen yielded Felix Jacoby, Griechische Verskunst Paul Maas, 
Hellenistische Dichtung Rudolf Pfeiffer, the Aeschylus books Ed. 
Fraenkel, and the three Homer books Wolfgang Schadewaldt (1900-
1974).1 In the preface to his Berlin dissertation2 Schadewaldt thanked 
three scholars "deren Vorbild immer von neuem Richtung wies: 
Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Tycho von Wilamowitz­
Moellendorff und mein Lehrer Werner Jaeger." The book began 
from disagreement with Wilamowitz's Roman friend and G6ttingen 
colleague, Friedrich Leo.3 Its director was Wilamowitz's successor, 
Werner Jaeger (1888-1961).' On 22 December 1928 to honor his 
eightieth birthday, Schadewaldt dedicated "Der Aufbau des Pindari-

1 HIn meinen Arbeiten habe ich versucht. neue Zugange zumal zur griechischen Tra­
godie, Geschichtsschreibung, Lyrik und vor aHem zu Homer zu eroffnen": Wolfgang 
Schadewaldt, Hellas und Hesperien: Gesammelte Schriften zur Antike und zur neueren Literatur 
in zwei Biinden, edd. Klaus Bartels, Reinhard Thurow und Ernst Zinn, lIs (ZUrich/Stuttgart 
1970) 781 [henceforth: HuH]; cf W. Schadewaldt, Von Homers Welt und Werk: Aufsiitze und 
Auslegungen zur homerischen Frage3 (Stuttgart 1959) 28-29,36; Iliasstudien3 (Darmstadt 1966) 
iv. For a bibliography of writings about Schadewaldt see HuH lIZ 848. 

2 W. Schadewaldt, Monolog und Selbstgespriich: Untersuchungen zur Formgeschichte der 
griechischen Tragodie (Berlin 1926; repro 1966) iii. 

3 Friedrich Leo, HDer Monolog im Drama: Ein Beitrag zur griechisch-romischen Poetik," 
AbhGott NF 10.5 (Berlin 1908). The extensive valuable correspondence between Wilamowitz 
and Leo has been lost except for the letter of 8 May 1878 written by Wilamowitz from 
Greifswald to inform Leo of his engagement, published by F. and D. Hiller von Gaer­
tringen, Mommsen und Wilamowitz: Briefwechsel1872-1903 (Berlin 1935) 534-35 with com­
mentary at 565-66. Wilamowitz always addressed Leo with Sie. Du was restricted to 
Kaibel, Diels and Robert. For F. Leo see especially Ed. Fraenkel, apud Friedrich Leo, 
Ausgewiihlte kleine Schriften, ed. Ed. Fraenkel, I (Rome 1960) xiii-xliii, and for Wilamowitz's 
words at his grave Erinnerungen2 243-44. A biography is lacking. 

• For Schadewaldt on Jaeger see HuH IJ2 707-30. 

451 



452 WILAMOWITZ TO SCHADEWALDT ON THE CLASSIC 

schen Epinikion" to Wilamowitz Hin Dankbarkeit und Verehrung."5 
In 1946 he wrote his Die Heimkehr des Odysseus6 in imitation of Wila­
mowitz's book of the same title, both inspired by the returning vet­
erans of two wars. There was another reason for Schadewaldt's 
attraction to the book. On the one-hundredth birthday of Wilamo­
witz, Schadewaldt delivered at the Berlin Academy a brief impas­
sioned memorial address7 that still deserves close attention. He once 
at the request of Wolfgang Schmid wrote down a memorable 
apophthegm of Wilamowitz, heard in student days, on philological 
method.8 Besides its intrinsic importance the fragment is a rare 
example of Wilamowitz's spoken style, which I have often heard 
imitated by those who knew him well. I append an English version 
here: 

Why, this pri:{ed 'philological method'? There simply isn't any­
any more than a method to catch fish. The whale is harpooned; 
the herring caught in a net; minnows are trapped;9 the salmon 
speared; trout caught on a fly. Where do you find the method to 
catch fish? And hunting? I suppose there is something like method 
there? Why, ladies and gentlemen, there is a difference between 
hunting lions and catching fleas ! 

At Tiibingen on 10 June 1974, one of his last public appearances, 
Schadewaldt reminisced about the greatest man among many great 
men he had known. He stressed the uncanny learning and memory, 
the fierceness of his character,10 and confided an important insight 
that «Wilamowitz was a third general, a third ac-tor and-a third 
pastor (Pfarrer)." He said also that Wilamowitz had only written one 
book, his Staat und Gesellschaft der Griechen. All the others were inter­
pretation. And he made the brilliant suggestion that one reason for 

6 W. Schadewaldt, "Der Aufbau des Pindarischen Epinikion," Schriften der KOnigsberger 
Gelehrten Gesellschaft 5.3 (Halle 1928). Wilamowitz is cited on almost every page. For criti­
cism of Schadewaldt's book see David C. Young, "Pindaric Criticism," apud William M. 
Calder III and Jacob Stem, Pindaros und Bakchylides (Wege der Forschung 134, Darmstadt 
1970) 60-64. 

8 See Von Homers Welt und Werk3 375-412. 
7 HuH IIs 698-99= Gymnasium 56 (1949) 80-81. 
8 HuH III 606-07. E. C. Kopff compares A. E. Housman, Classical Papers III (Cambridge 

1972) 1059. 
• The original is "Der Butt wird getreten," which means nothing to modem readers. 
10 Cf. HuH III 699: "Wilamowitz war eine grosse Natur, und eben wie die Natur so 

wenig abzuleiten wie einzuordnen: herb, mannlich, stark, nicht fOrmlich, doch gepragt 
und zu schlichter Wiirde fahig. Kleinliches kannte er nicht." 



WILLIAM M. CALDER 1II 453 

the friendship with Kaibel was to prove that a musician could be his 
friend, an apology for the enmity with Nietzsche. Kaibel ought in 
part to be interpreted as a Nietzsche substitute. That Nietzsche had 
argued the birth of tragedy from the spirit of music had been a red 
flag to the man who never learned to play an instrument nor taught 
his children toY 

Wilamowitz's enthusiastic support of Schadewaldt at an early stage 
was decisive for his later career. In a review of the Berlin dissertation 
at DLZ 47 (1926) 851-54 (= KS I 464-66), Wilamowitz proclaimed:12 

<CHier ... begriissen wir das Auftreten eines wirklichen Forschers 
noch freudiger als ein gutes Buch." He had read Monolog during the 
summer of 1926 while writing "in einem Zuge" Die Heimkehr des 
Odysseus. He ended that book13 with an excited endorsement of 
Schadewaldt's work.!4 This was the other reason why Schadewaldt 
later took Wilamowitz's title for a study of his own. 

Once again the aged Wilamowitz was to refer to Schadewaldt in 
print. Unthinking readers criticize the haste and dogmatism of 
Wilamowitz's last books. In 1918 he was 70.15 He did not know that he 
would live to be almost 83. The post-1918 books are written in a 
desperate effort to transmit and preserve knowledge that could never 
be reduplicated. Preoccupation with the history of Greek religion had 
led Wilamowitz to Hesiod, Theogony. Glaube der Hellenen had long 
been planned. Schadewaldt had suggested in 1927, while still Dozent 
at Berlin, that he and Wilamowitz read the Erga together. "That 
happened, and it came to light how much the poem needed and de­
served attention. Therefore, I put everything aside and did what was 
required. "16 

Schadewaldt left Berlin to become Ordinarius at Konigsberg in 
1928. During 1929-34 he was at Freiburg im Breisgau. Between 1928 

11 The last is attested by Schwester Hildegard von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff. 
11 KS I 464. 
13 U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Die Heimkehr des Odysseus (Berlin 1927) 197-201, 

esp.I99. 
11 It was typical of Wilamowitz's enthusiasm to allow irrelevant material that excited 

him to intrude into the subject at hand. Schadewaldt on tragedy had little to do with 
Homer's Odyssey. But neither in Winter Semester 1907/08 had Menander with "Greek 
Literary History in the Attic Period." The Cairo papyrus had just been published and 
Wilamowitz had worked through it: see Ed. Fraenkel, apud Leo, KS I xxxii n.l. 

15 For his despair at his seventieth birthday see GRBS 12 (1971) 570 n.60. 

18 U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Hesiodos Erga (Berlin 1928; repro 1962) 1. 



454 WILAMOWITZ TO SCHADEW ALDT ON THE CLASSIC 

and 1931 a certain amount of correspondence between the two schol­
ars occurred. Enemy action later destroyed Schadewaldt's library at 
Berlin and all his cherished Wilamowitz letters. One card had so 
impressed him that he had memorized it and later was able to re­
constitute the text. On 10 June 1974 he entrusted me with his version 
and the task of publishing it. 

Whitsuntide 1930 Werner Jaeger (aged 42), since 1921 holder of 
Wilamowitz's Berlin chair,17 directed a conference (Fachtagung) at 
Naumburg on the subject "Das Problem des Klassischen und die 
Antike."18 Eight lectures were delivered and discussed: Johannes 
Stroux (Manifestations of the Classic in Antiquity); Wolfgang Schade­
waldt (Concept and Essence of the Ancient Classic); Paul Friedlander 
(Pre- and Post-Classic); Ed. Fraenkel (The Classical Poetry of the 
Romans); Bernhard Schweitzer (On the Classical in Ancient Art); 
Ed. Schmidt (Classicism and Classic in Ancient Art); Matthias Gelzer 
(Does a Classical Form Exist in Political Development?); and H. 
Kuhn ('Classic' as an Historical Concept). The whole conference was 
decidedly un-Anglo-Saxon in tone. Sterling Dow once remarked of it 
to me: "It is not a problem; it is a Problem"-pronouncing the latter 
noun in the German manner. Jaeger in his summary of the proceed­
ings19 allots special praise to Schadewaldt's contribution.20 Before Dr 
Alfred Giesecke of B. G. Teubner invited Jaeger to allow him to 
publish the addresses in a single volume, Jaeger had asked Schade­
waldt, alone of the contributors, to publish his lecture in the Haus­
organ, Die Antike.21 The article appeared dedicated to "den Konigs­
berger Freunden" at Die Antike 6 (1930) 265-83, the first contribution 
in the last number of the year. Offprints would be available possibly 
in December 1930; and Schadewaldt immediately mailed one to 
Wilamowitz at Westend. What follows is Wilamowitz's extraordinary 

17 For Jaeger as Wilamowitz's successor see HuH II2 713-14. 

18 Werner Jaeger (ed.), Das Problem des Klassischen und die Antike (Leipzig/Berlin 1931, 
repro Darmstadt 1961). For an English summary see T. B. L. Webster, CR 45 (1931) 203-<l4. 

19 Jaeger, Problem vii-x. 
20 Ibid. ix: "theoretisch am scharfsten ausgepragten Standpunkt Schadewaldts." 
21 Jaeger founded the journal in 1925: see Die Antike 1 (1925) 1-4. He edited it until 1937 

when three contributors to the Naumburg Conference. W. Schadewaldt, B. Schweitzer and 
J. Stroux succeeded him: see Die Antike 13 (1937) 77-78, pages that reward attention. The 
journal survived until 1944. We need not discuss the interesting phenomenon of the 'Third 
Humanism': see Horst Riidiger, "Der Dritte Humanismus," apud Hans Oppermann, 
Humanismus (Wege der Forschung 17, Darmstadt 1970) 206-23. 



WILLIAM M. CALDER III 455 

reply.22 I reproduce exactly the copy given me by Schadewaldt on 
10 June 1974. 

Ohne Datum23 

Lieber Herr Kollege [24 
Immer wenn ich 'Die Antike'25 lese, geht mir ein Muhl­

rad im Kopfe herum, aber Mehl mahlt das Rad nicht, fur 
mich nicht.-Ich habe eine Vorstellung davon, was klas­
sische Physik ist, und klassische Musik gibt es auch. 
Aber sonst ?-Die englische Literatur ist reich genug, 
gibt es da Klassik? 1st Shakespeare klassisch? Bei So­
phokles wurde gerade seine Anomalia empfunden, wie 
Plutarch berichtet.26 Ich habe mit dem Wort 'klassisch', 
das mir ein Greuel27 ist, nie etwas anfangen konnen, und 
so erwarte ich auch nicht, das andere es tun. 

Aber nichts fur ungut, wie der Berliner sagt, oder 
zu meiner Zeit gesagt hat, die vorbei ist. 

Ihr Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff 
depontanus28 

TRANSLATION 

Dear Colleague: 
No date 

Whenever I read "Die Antike" a millstone goes round and 
round in my head. But the stone grinds no meal. For me it 

22 Ca 7 June 1931 Wilamowirz collapsed in the Berlin heat and for a time his son Her­
mann wrote his letters for him. The last preserved letter of substance known to me is to 

James Loeb, dated 28 April 1931: see Illinois Classical Studies 2 (1976). 
23 December 1930 or January 1931. 
2. Wilamowitz would have written without exclamation point Hochgeehrter Herr College. 
25 See n.21 supra. Cf "Mir wird von aIle dem so dumm, I As ging' mir ein MUhlrad im 

Kopf herum," Faust 1.1946-47. 
26 Pluto Mor. 45B. A rebuke surely; see Die Antike 6 (1930) 276=Problem 25: "Sophokles 

ist der Vollender der klassischen Form der Tragodie ... So vermag sich bei Sophokles die 
Sprache kUhn und straff zu entfalten, ihrer selbst gewiss, gefUgig und sprungbereit, ein­
zigartig in Wortwahl, Fiigung und Wortstellung, dabei ohne bewussre Caprice, ein natur­
hafres Organ fUr Rede des Heros wie des niederen Mannes." 

27 Cf HuH II2 699: "Hier zeigt sich dann freilich das Wunderbare, dass der grosse ges­
chichtliche Realist des Altertums, dem, wie er noch in seinen letzten Jahren einmal 
schrieb, das Wort 'klassisch' ein 'Greuel' war, rein aus dem Instinkt des gesunden Gefiihls 
in seiner Seele praktisch dann doch wieder das Grosse in seiner Grosse hingestellt hat. Es 
war in ihm eben beides, der 'kiihle Kopf' und die 'heisse Liebe', beianander." 

28 See Pauli Festus 66.5-6 Lindsay: "Depontani senes appellabantur, qui sexagenarii de 
ponte deiciebantur." See J. G. Frazer on Ovid, Fasti 5.621-23 and Th. Birt, "Pontifex und 
Sexagenarii de Ponte," RhM 75 (1926) 115-26, a contemporary account of the matter. 



456 WILAMOWITZ TO SCHADEW ALDT ON THE CLASSIC 

doesn't. I have an idea what classical physics is, and classical 
music exists too. But what else? English literature is rich 
enough-does 'classic' exist there? Is Shakespeare classic? 
Why with Sophocles his 'anomalies' were discovered, as 
Plutarch reports. I have never been able to make a start 
with the word 'classic', which is an abomination to me, and 
so I also do not expect that others do so. 

But no harm intended as the Berliner says, or said in my 
time, which is over. 

Yours, 
Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff 

depontanus 

One understands why Wilamowitz did not attend the Naumburg 
Conference. He is not named once by any of the eight speakers nor 
by the chairman. Others more competent than I may set Wilamo­
witz's rejection of 'the classic' into the historical context of German 
intellectual history. Heinz Otto Burger's29 useful recent volume will 
simplify the task. Karl Reinhardt's famous address «Die klassische 
Philologie und das Klassische" (1942) remains fundamenta1.3o Richard 
HarderS1 wrote that for Ritschl, Rohde und Usener-the first two 
friends and benefactors of the unspeakable Nietzsche, the third of 
questionable competence-the great authors were an inviolable 
Garden of Eden. Wilamowitz entered this garden to clear and plough 
it. Schadewaldt's32 'great historical realist', while, in Harder's words, 
he destroyed classicism, built anew roads to these authors. With 
stones, papyri, monuments, with a universal knowledge of politics, 
law and daily life, he set the authors into an historical context. "He 
wanted his Greeks naked," wrote Reinhardt33 half in despair. As a 

II Heinz Otto Burger (ed.), Begriffsbestimmung der Klassik und des Klassischen (Wege der 
Forschung 220, Darmstadt 1972). No contribution of Wilamowitz appears in the volume. 

30 K. Reinhardt. Venniichtnis der Antike, ed. Carl Becker (GOttingen 1960) 334-60; re­
printed apud Burger, Begriffsbestimmung 66-97, where see especially p.80: "Ob und als was 
Wilamowitz in der Reihe deutscher Humanisten anzufiihren ware, ist eine nicht leicht zu 
beantwortende Frage." I shall draw attention here to the recent learned and intelligent 
survey by Marcello Gigante, "Dal Wilamowitz al pfeiffer, Storid della Filologia Classica," 
Parola del Passato 28 (1974) 196-224. 

11 Richard Harder, Kleine Schriften, ed. Walter Marg (Munich 1960) 469. 
81 HuH III 699. 

38 K. Reinhardt, apud H. Heimpel, T. Heuss and B. Reifenberg, Die Grossen Deutschen 5 
(Berlin 1957) 419: "Er will die Griechen nackt." 



WILLIAM M. CALDER III 457 

schoolboy he had rejected the worship of Antigone.34 He stressed the 
sameness of the Greeks not, after Winckelmann, their exclusiveness. 
The George circle ridiculed his 'plato for servantmaids'. Two famous 
passages deserve notice where the great advocate of Historismus 
denied the idea of 'classical'. This letter provides the last and most 
vigorous denial. He began the history of Greek literature35 with the 
outrageous epigram that nothing makes an author so difficult to 
understand as his apotheosis.36 Greek literature from Homer to 
the Roman Empire was equally classic from the moment it began to 
be studied historically. But his most eloquent rejection of classicism 
occurs in the introduction to a work which cost much effort and to 
which he attached considerable importance, his Griechisches Lese­
buch,37 where he justifies the learning of Greek by the young. We 
learn Greek in the last analysis to read Greek books, but: 

Greek is more than a language in which a few heroes in a distant 
beautiful springtime of the world have sung and spoken with 
melody beyond our grasp. In this light Hellas itself turns into a 
fairyland, the acropolis of Athens scarcely less than the isle of the 
Phaeacians; and Greek history turns into heroism,3s the Persian 
War no less than the battle round Ilium. But this is an artifiCial 
false light; and our boys are entitled to the truth.39 

FONDATION HARDT 

June, 1975 

34 U. von Wilamowitz-Moel1endorff, In wieweit befriedigen die SchlUsse der erhaltenen 
griechischen Trauerspiele?: fin iisthetischer Versuch, ed. William M. Calder III (Leiden 1974) 
77. 

35 U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, "Die griechische Literatur des Altertums," Die 
Kultur der Gegenwart I.viii3 , ed. Paul Hinneberg (Leipzig/Berlin 1912) 3. 

36 A rephrasing; "Nichts trUbt ein Menschenbild so stark wie die Apotheose" (Ibid.). 
37 I cite from U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Griechisches Lesebuch p2 (Berlin 1929) iv. 
38 Heroentum: something between "heroism' and "heroics' but neither. 
39 I am grateful to Schwester Hildegard von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff and the late 

Professor Dr Wolfgang Schadewaldt for permission to publish this document. I thank the 
Fondation Hardt for the leisure to write this paper.