Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, An Unpublished Autobiography Calder,
William M Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Winter 1971; 12, 4; ProQuest pg. 561

Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, 
An Unpublished Autobiography 

William M. Calder III 

I 

KARL REINHARDT in what may charitably be called a hurried 
sketch of Wilamowitz' life observes:1 "His departure from 
pforta (sic) in September 1867 ... became for him a religious 

experience, a solemn vow, that never for a moment deserted him and 
that in his most difficult hours strode comforting before him." This is 
true. Wilamowitz believed that some mysterious higher power­
which he usually called his "Daimon"-had led him to pforte. It 
spoke first through the lips of a private tutor. His beloved mother, 
Ulrike, approved and encouraged the oracle. Ulrich, to the life-long 
disgust of his brutish father, unlike Hugo and Tello, would not attend 
the cavalry school at Brandenburg. Easter 1862, the thirteen-year-old 
boy, accompanied by his mother-she writes of her sorrow at Kosen 
the first night away from him-entered the cloister walls. Ecce Porta 
Coeli! In the five and one half years that followed, a miracle occurred. 
His teachers there, as he would later write, awakened the slumbering 
soul, taught it first to fly, those bearers of the divine power of that 
Eros that is the mediator between gods and men. He devoted himself 
(in the etymological sense) "with fire and love" to a goddess whom he 
called Wissenschaft. 

The price was to abandon his past and consign himself to a future 
that embarrassed and revolted his family. Who may be credited with 
the conversion? If any single man, it is the Rector of Pforte, Karl Lud­
wig Peter (1808-93), in whose home Ulrich lived while a pupil and 
whom he until his death revered as a saint. He dedicated his disserta-

1 Karl Reinhardt, apud H. Heimpel, T. Heuss and B. Reifenberg, Die grossen Deutschen 5 

(Berlin 1957) 416. On this same page the name of Wilamowitz' school is thrice misspelled. 
He is said to have spent seven years there. His last work at school is said to have been a 
comparison of the Edda with the Nibelungenlied. His retort to Nietzsche's Geburt der Tragoe­
die is called his erstling. Friedrich Leo, who did not attend Bonn until autumn 1871, is put 
with Diels, Kaibel and Robert as one of his closest Bonn student friends of 1867. And the 
name of Otto ]ahn has managed to be omitted. Nur eine Stichprobe! 

561 



562 ULRICH VON WILAMOWITZ-MOELLENDORFF 

tion to him rather than to his parents in 1870. At the age of forty-four, 
shortly after Peter's death, he writes on 23 September 1893 to his 
teacher's son, Hermann Wilhelm Gottlob Peter (1837-1914), the 
Rector of Meissen, "I shall for all time look upon him only with the 
piety of a child; and the years have taught me to love him more and 
more. If I could believe myself capable of fully understanding him­
which I cannot-I should not be able to express it." Such an expres­
sion of affection is almost unparalleled in Wilamowitz' private and 
public writings. I know of only three other persons who could have 
extracted it from him. Rumpf once called Dorpfeld Schlie mann's 
greatest discovery. Wilamowitz certainly was Peter's. Mommsen's in­
tolerance for Peter's work must have distressed his son-in-law. Peter 
on the other hand once magnanimously advised Ulrich's mother to 
give the boy Mommsen's History as a Christmas present. 

Success at school was phenomenal and must reflect an inner satis­
faction. One need not speak of his academic brilliance. He excelled in 
dramatics and became more or less what we should call a senior pre­
fect. Inevitably Bonn, but for Jahn, the Pforte 'Old Boy', was aca­
demically a disappointment. Wilamowitz was too well prepared and 
no longer the darling of his teachers. He writes a revealing metaphor 
to his mother from Bonn on 4 December 1867, less than three months 
after his graduation from Pforte: "there is such a colossal difference, 
while here one is a drop in the sea, there one was the foam that rides 
on the wave." He lives on letters from Pforte friends. 

Any documents illuminating Wilamowitz' crucial pforte years are 
of highest importance, for here the destiny of a genius was forged. 
The principal published source is the remarkable chapter of his 
Erinnerungen.2 There is also his obituary, written by himself, for the 
school alumni bulletin.3 Unpublished letters exist. In June 1970 in the 
library of the Pforte I discovered several documents, one of which I 
publish here with translation and selected commentary, largely exe­
getical, occasionally textual. A brief general appraisal ends the paper. 
It is a six-page, hand-written autobiography that introduces his 
valedictory essay, "In wieweit befriedigen die Schliisse der erhaltenen 
griechischen Trauerspiele? Ein asthetischer Versuch." The manu­
script is dated 9 September 1867, and was written, therefore, when its 

2 See Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Erinnerungen 1848-19141 (Leipzig 1929) 62-
83 (henceforth: Erinnerungenl ). 

3 See Ecce der Landesschule zur Pforte (Naumberg 1931) 8-11 (henceforth: Ecce). 



WILLIAM M. CALDER III 563 

author was eighteen years old.' By this time, one may add, he had 
read critically all extant Greek tragedies, including Rhesus. The callig­
raphy is still that of a school-boy, large and legible, thoroughly un­
like that of 1869.5 Either he had not yet adopted or was forbidden to 

use the peculiar orthography of Jakob Grimm, which was to fascinate 
him for at least the next decade.6 

lowe especial thanks to the Librarian of the pforte and to Dorothea 
Freifrau Hiller von Gaertringen geb. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, 
who together made publication possible. Freifrau Hiller has also lent 
and given to me some 700 letters from Wilamowitz' early period. 
seldom has a scholar met with such generosity. The quotations in the 
text and notes are from these letters.7 Frau Luise Therese Cicilie von 
der Hude, geb. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, has generously shared 
many memories and provided me with the typescript of "Chronik 
der Familie des Freiherrn von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff," begun by 
her father, Hugo Freiherr von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Ulrich's 
eldest brother and the heir of Arnold. 

II 

TEXT 

Verwahren8 muss ich im Voraus mich dagegen, dass etwa jener 
tiber diesen Zeilen befindliche Titel 9 mehr besage, als meine ausseren 

4 I shall not soon forget the excitement of the first reading in that same ancient library, 
before the same books, at the same table, where some 100 years before the brilliant pupil 
read and labored. The pictures of his teachers still hung there, Peter, Koberstein, Corssen. 

6 Cf GRBS 11 (1970) p1.5 (4 December 1869). The change in two years is remarkable. This 
early handwriting is reminiscent of Tycho's in 1909. 

6 Cf Erinnerungen2 130, probably a retort to the sneer of Erwin Rohde, Afterphilologie 
(Leipzig 1872) 5 n.= K. Griinder, Der Streit um Nietz:sches "Gcburt dcr Tragoedie": Die Schrif­
ten von E. Rohde, R. Wagner, U. v. Wilamowitz:-Mollendorff(Hildesheim 1969) 68 n. 

7 I am grateful especially for the elucidation of difficult passages in the German text to 
Dr Wolfgang Buchwald (Munich), Dr Christa Dill (Goethe Lexicon, Berlin, D.D.R.), Dr 
Elfriede Knauer (West Berlin), Dr Wolfgang Schindler (Winckelmann Institut, Berlin, 
D.D.R.), who has also provided three photographs [PLATES 10, 11 and 12], and Professor Dr 
Joachim Wohlleben (West Berlin). I am grateful to the American Council of Learned So­
cieties for a stipendium (1971) that enabled me to complete work on the text. My student, 
Herr Karl Schlebusch, made an able first transcription of the text for me. Professor W. J. 
Slater has beneficially read my manuscript. 

S Wilamowitz seems in fact to have written verwarnen; but mich proves he meant, if he 
did not write, verwahren. 

9 The title, as I recall, is simply Mein Leben. 



564 ULRICH VON WILAMOWITZ-MOELLENDORFF 

Lebensumstande, denn theils kann ein in seiner Entwicklung be­
griffner, unreifer Jungling noch nicht auf die kurze durchlebte 
Spanne Zeit mit sichtendem und die Fehlgriffe beurtheilendem 
Blicke zUrUckschauen, geschweige denn mit sicherem Tacte das Be­
deutende und doch nicht Verletzende hervorheben, theils bin ich 
nicht im mindesten gewillt, mein Gemuths- und Seelenleben, mein 
Urtheil, das ich mir denn doch uber manches gebildet habe, ein fur 
aIle Male durch die Schrift fixiert in die Hande von solchen kommen 
zu lassen, fur welche es entweder nicht bestimmt, oder verletzend 
sein k6nnte. 

Am 22ten December 1848 bin ich, Ulrich Friedrich Wichard von 
Wilamowitz-M611endorff geboren, und zwar Mittags Schlag zw6lf,lo 
und das eines Freitags, so dass ich Geister sehen kann,ll was mir frei­
lich bisher noch nicht passiert ist. Urn die Constellation meiner Ge­
burtsstunde habe ich mich bisher nicht bekummert. Ich muss wohl 
grosse Lust gehabt haben, auf diesen Erdball zu spazieren, denn ich 
kam iiberaus unerwartet, auch ohne irgend einen arztlichen Beistand, 
doch ausserst fidel an. Ich soIl sehr wohl genahrt gewesen sein und 
wenig geschrieen haben; beides hat sich freilich geandert, dagegen 
habe ich noch die Neigungen recht zu lachen und mir Geschichten 
einzupragen, wodurch ich schon als kleines Kind Anstoss erregt habe. 
1m Obrigen weiss ich von meinen ersten Jahren herzlich wenig, und 
[p.2] das ist auch naturlich. Mein Geburtsort ist namlich das Gut 
meines Vaters, Markowitz,12 zu Deutsch Garbenheim benamset. In 
den noch heut verrufnen13 Waldern Kujaviens belegen (sic), hat es 
mit seinen Nachbarfluren das gemeinsam, dass es keinen Wald 
hat,H denn kaum irgendwo ist solcher Holzmangel als im Netz-

10 Wilamowitz imitates the opening of Goethe's autobiography. See Goethes Werke, 
herausgegeben im Auftrage der Grossherzogin Sophie von Sachsen, Abt.1.26 (Weimar 1889) 
11: "Am 28. August 1749, mittags mit dem Glockenschlage zwolf,kam ich in Frankfurt am 
Main auf die Welt. Die Konstellation war glucklich." The imitation is meant to be humor­
ous as its context shows. 

11 Rather because he was born at noon (the hour of Pan) than on a Friday he can see 
ghosts (cf 'Mittagsgespenst'): see Jungbauer apud E. Hoffmann-Krayer and Hanns Biich­
told-Staubli, HandwOrurbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens 7 (Berlin/Leipzig 1934-35) 398ff S.V. 

MITTAG. 

12 See PLATE 10. The residence erected by Arnold in 1840 was destroyed by the Poles in 
August 1939 (Familien Chronik). GRBS 11 (1970) 140 must be corrected. Its origin is self-evi­
dent. The grounds are now a village park. 

13 "Notorious," presumably, because they once harbored Polish partisans. 
14 But an hour's walk away deep in the forest at Wymyslowice is the family burial 



WILLIAM M. CALDER ill 565 

district (sic), welcher circa 80 0 Meiln gross allenfalls doch die Bedeu­
tung hatte, bei der ersten Theilung Polens miterwahnt zu werden, 
zum Beispiel Ostfriesland tibertrifft er an Grosse, Fruchtbarkeit und 
Bedeutung fur die preussische Geschichte. Das ist richtig, abgelegen 
sind wir noch von der grossen, durch die Eisenbahnnetze verbreite­
ten, so genannten Civilisation; wie aber das Klima kaum rauher ist als 
im Saalthal (sic), wenigstens sicher ebensoguten Weizen, Raps und 
auch aIle Obstsorten erzeugt, die hier gedeihen-selbst Wein wird 
dort gekeltert-so ist Markowitz auch so gut ein Ort polnischer 
Wirthschaft,15 als ich selbst ein Pole bin. Jedenfalls lebten16 wir dort, 
wenn auch comfortable, so doch ohne grosse Geselligkeit; und ich 
kann bei dem gleichmassigen Strome des Lebens, der damals fur 
mich floss, mich nur weniger Momente entsinnen. Umgang mit 
Gleichaltrigen fehlte mir vollig, da schon die mildesten Reinlich­
keitsrucksichten jede Annahrung zu der Dorfjugend verwehrtenP 
Also war ich theils auf mich selbst, theils auf Erwachsene, deren 
mancher allerdings mit der freundlichsten Herablassung sich meiner 
annahmen, angewiesen. Wir sind unser vier Bruder; je zwei zu zwei 
geordnet ;18 namlich zwischen dem zweiten und dem dritten, als wie 
mir, ist ein bedeutenderer Altersunterschied, sonst immer drej19 
Jahre. So fugte es sich, dass ich, da meine beiden altern Bruder schon 
ausser dem Hause waren, die schwere Last, der altere zu sein [p.3] auf 
mich nahm, zugleich aber in den Ferien meiner Bruder mir zu Ge­
mtithe gefuhrt wurde, eigentlich sei ich rtoch recht klein. Das that 
aber begreiflicherweise der allgemeinen Seligkeit keinen Eintrag. Ich 
glaube wohl, dass selten ein Kind bis zu seinem neunten Jahre eine so 

ground: see PLATE 11. There too, Luise von der Hude recalls, was the forest theater which 
Wilamowitz made and where he often acted with the children. 

lIi The phrase is pejorative and colonialistic. Wilamowitz means that Markowitz and he 
are Prussian. In fact he was one-eighth Polish, and his great-grandfather could not speak 
German (Luise von der Hude). 

18 He first wrote leben and then added the t. 
17 This was typical for German colonialism. A colleague recalls that as a boy in the so­

called Sudetenland of the 1930's he was forbidden to play with Czechs on the same 
grounds. Cf Erinnerungen2 49, where Hugo and Tello bring lice home. 

18 The brothers and their dates (Familien Chronik) are: Hugo, b. 18 June 1840, d. 21 Aug­
ust 1905 following a heart-attack while riding at Kobelnik; Tello, h. 15 March 1843, d. 2 
July 1903 at Weimar from a heart-attack; Ulrich, b. 22 December 1848 (he never allowed 
birthday presents because Christmas was so near: Freifrau Hiller), d. 25 September 1931 at 
Berlin; and Georg, b. 23 April 1852, d. 2 July 1910 at Frankfurt/Main, where he was an art 
dealer, from a heart-attack. 

18 An earlier {wei seems to have been corrected. 



566 ULRICH VON WILAMOWITZ-MOELLENDORFF 

durchaus treffiiche Erziehung geniesst, wie ich, Dank meiner theu­
eren Mutter,20 das Gluck gehabt habe. Selbst von der Dienstboten 
schmutzigen Einflussen fern gehalten, nach Neigung entwickelt, ohne 
mit albernem Abplappern von Gebeten und schlechten s.g. geist­
lichen lieblichen Liedern, wovon das Kind nichts versteht, nichts ver­
stehen kann, das also nur verwirrend wirken kann, geplagt zu wer­
den, erzog mich meine Mutter, deren Name ich trage (sie heisst 
Ulrike) und ihr am ahnlichsten bin, ganz allein, ohne zu comman­
dieren und zu himmeln,21 wohl aber indem sie mich lehrte Gott und 
den Menschen zu gefallen zu streben.22 Bald hatte ich Lesen und 
Schreiben begriffen, las nun die Bucher, die ich erhielt, meist ge­
schichtliche, ihr vor; also hernach die schwierigen Aufgaben des 
Bruchrechnens und der Regel de tri 23 kam, erkannte ich zuerst die 
Schwere der Wissenschaft! Mein altester Bruder,24 damals Secun­
daner in Bromberg, that sich gar wichtig, meine Arbeiten zu control­
lieren. Schliesslich kam ein Hauslehrer. Der erste25 war ... das 
Original eines Genrebildes in Trewendts 26 Volkskalender, betitelt 
Himmer noch Candidat." Nach vier Wochen war er fort. Dann kam 
grade das Gegentheil, ein junger Mensch, auch cando theol. welcher 
sich gut mit dem rebellischen katholischen Pfaff en 27 und noch besser 

10 See Erinnerungen l 58: "Der eigentliche Unterricht begann damit, dass ich lesen, 
schreiben, rechnen bei der Mutter lernte, aber das war nur schoner als spielen." See PLATE 
13. I owe the photograph, the only extant one of Ulrike, to Freifrau Hiller. E. Thummer 
well detects the influence of Tac. Dial. 28.6ff (cf Agr. 4, Germ. 20). Wilamowitz had recently 
read the dialogue privately with Rector Peter. 

Il Dr W. Buchwald observes: "ein bemerkenswerter Wortgebrauch (statt: anhimmeln, 
verhimmeln), der in Grimms Dt. Wb. IV.2 (1877) s.v. fehlt." 

III See Erinnerungenl 57: "Religionsiibung gab es im Hause eigentlich nicht." On lieblichen 
Dr W. Buchwald comments: "ironisch gesagt, vgl. Erinnerungen l 82; ich erinnere mich auch 
einer Stelle, die etwa lautet 'solange die Schule den Kindem die Steine des Katechismus 
und das Holz der Kirchenlieder statt der Friichte des Evangeliums bietet .. :, aber ich 
kann es nicht finden." Throughout his life he never attended church regularly (Freifrau 
Hiller). 

sa Dr Buchwald observes: "Regel de tri (letzteres italienisch): der sog. Dreisatz, zur 
Losung einfacher Rechenaufgaben in der Schule benutzt." 

It Hugo's letters to "Ulli" reveal throughout an affectionate and fatherly interest. On 
various occasions he intervened with Arnold, whom Ulrich detested and who thought 
little of him. Ulrich's remarks here are meant to be humorous and good-natured. 

16 Something unpleasant occurred. In a contemporary letter Ulrike refers to "einem 
Lehrer, der aber nicht tiichtig ist." Cf Erinnerungenl 58: "Mit den ersten Hauslehrern ward 
es nichts Rechtes." 

It Eduard Trewendt of Breslau (Wroclaw), a contemporary printer, apparently supplied 
popular calendars to the colonials. 

17 The family clearly was not philo-catholic. Catholicism was synonymous with Polish 



WILLIAM M. CALDER III 567 

mit dessen Weinen 28 abzufinden wusste,29 aber nach einem Jahr sich 
auch von uns fortfand.30 Wir befinden uns jetzt im Sommer 1857, der 
in so fern von Bedeutung flir mich ward, als damals ich die Welt ein 
wenig sah, namentlich zuerst Berge.31 Eine Krankheit meines zwei­
ten Bruders brachte es namlich mit sieh, dass wir ein Paar Wochen in 
Kreuznach zubrachten.32 [pA] Da sah ich auch den Rhein im Voriiber­
fahren;33 obwohl doch noch recht jung, ist mir doch der Eindruck 
von jener schonen Gegend geblieben, und damals schon splirte ich 
instinctives Verlangen, in Bonn mich der Wissenschaft zu widmen.34 

Gleich nach meiner Rlickkehr warf mich ein ausserst heftiges Nerven­
fieber 35 so weit nieder, dass lange Zeit mein Leben aufgegeben war; 
ich [mich] auch kaum in Jahresfrist mich erholte. Mittlerweile hatte 
ich einen dritten Lehrer erhalten,36 welcher mich allerdings bis zu 
meiner Aufnahme in Pforte vorbereitete, mich in manchem auch 
liber das Mass eines Knaben erhob-an dessen Unterricht ich aber 
doch nur mit Aerger zurlickdenke. Das37 lag mehr in dem Ton 
unsres Hauses, in dem Wunsch meiner Mutter, dass ich durch den 
steten Umgang mit Erwachsenen auf Lektlire, auch solche, die ich 
noch nicht verstand, hingeflihrt ward. Es war dies mir segensreich. So 
lernte ich Shakespeare durch Vorlesen-denn die jammervollen 
Rlicksichten schwachnerviger Prliderie38 galten nichts-bereits als 

nationalism and could not be encouraged. For the Catholic church at Markowitz see PLATE 
12. Luise von der Hude recalls that until the thirties there was a monastery attached to the 
church: cf Erinnerungen2 33-34. 

28 Presumably "wine" rather than "whining." 
28 Dr W. Buchwald notes: "welcher sich ... abzufinden wuBte: wohl nach Goethe, 

Faust 3714f ich weiB mich trefflich mit der Polizei, doch mit dem Blutbann schlecht mich 
abzufinden. " 

30 A neologism on the analogy of sich fortstehlen and opposite to sich einfinden (Dr Christa 
Dill). 

31 See Erinnerungen2 52-53. 
32 The mother, children and Charlotte (see nA1 infra) went to Kreuznach. Ulrike met no 

one there and devoted herself to "the children and nature." While she was away, Arnold 
destroyed her cherished flower-garden (Luise von del' Hude). 

33 They travelled down the Rhein by steamer to Bonn (Erinnerungen2 53). 
34 He is alleged (aged eight) to have said: "hier werde ich einmal Professor der Ge­

schichte" (ibid.)! 
35 The nineteenth-century word for typhus (Dr Christa Dill). At Erinnerungen2 52 he uses 

the modern term. 
al See Erinnerungen2 60-61. 

37 That is, the fact that "I think back in anger." 
as Wilamowitz never had patience with prudery: see Reinhardt, op.cit. (supra n.l) 419: 



568 ULRICH VON WILAMOWITZ-MOELLENDORFF 

Knabe zu Hause kennen, und ward in die Vorhofe manches Dichter­
tempels eingefiihrt. Vossens Homer39 kannte ich in und auswendig40 

schon als zehnjahriges Kind; mit Leidenschaft las ich also spater das 
Original; freute mich die Erkenntnis der Volkspoesie zu erlangen­
und nichts arget mich so, als z.B. in der obersten Klasse die treffiichste, 
natiirlichste Poesie zu buchstabieren, und "in dem Lanzenkrachen, 
und Schilderdrohnen nichts als Jonismen und Dorismen zu horen. "41 

Auch auf unsre deutsche Heldensage wie auf die Edda kam ich bald; 
doch ist mir die rechte Erkenntnis erst als ich reifer ward aufgegang­
en; es liegt dies zum Theil an der saubern Sitte kaum von Wuotan, 
Frouwa und Paltar, von Briinhild, Dietrich und Hilde,42 wohl aber 
von Jupiter, Venus und Aeneas-auch nicht von Zeus, Aphrodite und 
Achilleus-zu horen! 

Meinem Leben in der Heimat mag eins zu fehlen scheinen, eine 
Schwester.43 In gewisser Weise mag dies richtig sein, doch hat meine 
Mutter stets junge Madchen im Hause gehabt, welche ihr die Wirth­
schaft im Hause erleichterten; die erste44 von die[p.5]sen war es na­
mentlich, welche ich stets meine Pflegeschwester nenne. Ihr verdanke 

"Er will die Griechen nackt. Nicht weniger heftig ist scin Kampf gegen die ·Pruderie'." 
Dr W. Buchwald well compares Wilamowitz's Aristopluines Lysistrate (Berlin 1927) 7-8. 

31 Cf. Erinnerungenl 59: "und was nie aus meinerHand kam, derHomervon Voss, so daB 
er mir ganz geHiufig war, ehe ich einen griechischen Buchstaben kennenlernte." 

to He puns on the meanings by heart and inside out (Dr Christa Dill). 
41 Dr W. Buchwald observes: "Zitat aus Franz v. Gaudy (die Stelle habe ich trotz man­

chern Suchen in seinem Werk, zusammen etwa 1800 normale Seiten, nicht finden konnen, 
auch nicht in der Erzahlung 'Schiilerliebe', deren erster Teil in Schulpforte spie1t), vgl. 
Wilamowitz, 'Der Unterricht im Griechischen', in Die Reform des IWheren Schulwesens in 
Preufien, ed. W. Lexis (Halle 1902) 163=Kleine Schriften VI (Berlin 1972) 98: 'verwundern 
werden wir uns nicht, wenn derse1be Unterricht, der Meineke zum Textkritiker machte, 
ein Diehtergemiit wie Franz v. Gaudy anwiderte, weil die Heroenkampfe von Aolismen 
und Dorismen iibertont wurden'.-Jonismen, nieht Aolismen, diirfte das Richtige sein, 
denn als Wilamowitz die Vita schrieb, lag die Lektiire der Werke des ehemaligen pfortner 
Schiilers (gestorben 1840) fUr ihn noch nicht lange zuriick." Perhaps the citation was orally 
transmitted from a letter or statement and told the young Wilamowitz by, e.g., Kober­
stein or Corssen. 

41 See Erinnerungen l 59. Wilamowitz abandoned Altgermanistik only with regret and 
from necessity: see GRBS 11 (1970) 146-47. 

U Cf. Erinnerungenl 49: "es fehIre die Schwester, dem Hause die Tochter." Wilamo­
witz either did not know of-which seems improbable-or ignores a sister (Marie Mar­
garetha, 16-24 November 1847) who died in infancy. Freifrau Hiller remarks that Ulrich 
was the "Ersatztochter." 

U Presumably "Charlotte" of the letters, who eloped with the third tutor (Erinnerungenl 
61), rather to Ulrich's disgust. Although he clearly loved her as a child, he will not mention 
her name here or at ErinnerungenZ 43. 



WILLIAM M. CALDER III 569 

ich besonders das Gltick meiner Kindheit; sie ersetzte mir vollig zu­
gleich die altre und die gleichaltrige Schwester. 

Mittlerweile war ich dreizehn Jahr alt geworden; die Zeit der 
Kindheit soUte aufhoren. Da ward denn uber die Schule berathen, der 
ich tibergeben werden sallte; meine Neigung zur Wissenschaft war 
gewachsen, fast unbewusst. Mit Freuden, und eigentlich aus eigner 
Wahl griff ich also nach dem hingeworfenen Gedanken an Pforte.45 
Bald war es entschieden!46 Ostern 1862 trat ich in die Gemeinschaft 
der pforte ein. rch kam als Extraneer in das Haus des Herrn Rector 
Peter. War meine Jugend bisher auch ausserst glticklich gewesen, so 
musste fur mich der Eintritt unter viele Altersgenossen, mit denen 
ich in engster Vereinigung leben soUte, manche Gefahr bringen.47 

Desto glticklicher traf es sich, dass ich in eine Familie kam, wo ich so 
wohl einen festen Halt, als die mir von Haus aus nothige liebevolle 
Behandlung fand. Ich glaube es diesem Umstande vornehmlich mit 
zuschreiben zu durfen, dass ich mich so bald in pforte vollig ein­
wohnte, eine zweite Heimat erhielt; wie ich denn auch aus besondrer 
Gute bis zu meinem nunmehrigen Abgang habe in jenem Hause 
bleiben durfen. Es ist nicht Undankbarkeit, wenn ich mit zuschreiben 
sage, es ist nur Aufrichtigkeit. Denn da ich in der Classe sehr leicht 
fortkam, ausserdem umganglich genug war urn ein gutes Verhaltnis 
zu meinen Mitschulern zu erhalten, so muss ten auch diese Umstande 
wesentlich dazu beitragen, mir den Aufenthalt nicht nur leicht 
sondern angenehm zu machen. Was soIl ich weiter von dies en 5-!­
Jahr sagen 148 "Eines jeden Tages hab'ich mich gefreut, einen jeden 
Tag49 [ ... J meine pflicht gethan, wie sie mein Gewissen sie (sic) mir 

45 The original suggestion came from the third tutor, who had himself been tutored by 
a Pforte alumnus: see Erinnerungen2 61. The alumnus was one Goszrau (Pfortner Stammbuch 
9077): see Ecce p.8. 

46 His father agreed because the cost of Schulpforte was so much less than that of Bran­
denburg: see Erinnerungen 2 61. 

47 Cf Erinnerungen2 62: "Aus der Einsamkeit unter eine Menge von 1ilteren und gleich­
altrigen Knaben versetzt, hatte ich es nicht ganz leicht, gab Anlass zu Hanseleien und 
machte das Heimweh durch." 

U He quotes Goethe's Egmont from memory: see Goethes Werke (supra n.lO), Abt. 1.8 
(Weimar 1889) 300 (Dr Christa Dill). Wilamowitz played the title-role in the school pro­
duction (Erinnerungen2 60) and both quotations are from this role. Dr Dill draws attention 
to the anti-Catholic character of the play. This would have confirmed Wilamowitz' pre­
dispositions and indicates the ideology of pforte. The class list shows that there was no Jew 
or Catholic in Wilamowitz' class. 

49 "an jedem Tage mit rascher Wirkung" (Goethe). Then there is an omission. 



570 ULRICH VON WILAMOWITZ-MOELLENDORFF 

vorschrieb.50 Ich hare auf, hier zu leben, aber ich habe gelebt."51 So 
sprach ich einst, an dem seligsten Tage meines Lebens, am Fastnachts­
tage 1867,52 mag ich53 auchjetzt so sprechen. Wohl hab'ich manchen 
Knabenstreich vollfuhrt.54 Wer that es nicht? Ich bereue wenig 
davon.55 "Sind uns die kurzen, [p.6] bunten Lumpen zu missgonnen, 
die ein jugendlicher Muth und eine angefrischte Phantasie urn 
unsres56 Lebens arme Blosse hangen mag?" Ich habe die Wissen­
schaft nicht vergessen. Ich scheue es mich nicht auszusprechen, ich 
habe ihr mich mit Feuer und Liebe ergeben; ich blickte weiter, uber 
des Schulers Granzen hinaus; ich hoffe der beigefugte asthetische 
Versuch57 wird darur Zeugniss ablegen. Ich will ein Junger der Wis­
senschaft werden, freiwillig, scheel angesehen von Verwandten,58 
Nahestehenden, verstossen aus den vermeintlich59 hoheren Kreisen, 
in welche die Geburt mich gestellt hat. Wohl-es wird gehen, ich 
folge ungehemmtem Drange, verehrte Manner, die sich freundlich 
fur mich interessieren, und wahre Freunde werden mir ubervoll alles 
etwa verlorne ersetzen. Also vorwarts60 

50 "wie mein Gewissen mir sie zeigte" (Goethe). Wilamowitz then omits a sentence. 
51 "Ich hike auf zu leben; aber ich habe gelebt" (Goethe). Wilamowitz has added an ad­

verb to make the citation more Ii propos. 
62 On Fastnachtstag 1868 at Bonn his thoughts are at Pforte and he writes to his mother 

at Markowitz (12 February 1868): "ich mag jetzt nicht viel an Pforte denken, da ist Fast­
nachtsspiel, nun hoffentlich werden sie nicht ihren Egmont vermissen." He later wrote of 
himself for posthumous publication (Ecce p.9): "Als er Fastnacht 1867 den Egmont spielte 
und am Schulfeste die lateinischen Verse vortrug, hatte er das Gefiihl. dass ihm das Leben 
Augenblicke jenes Gliickes. zu den en man spricht: 'Verweile doch, Du bist so schon!', 
nicht wieder schenken wiirde." 

08 He inverts for rhythm and parallelism (Dr Christa Dill). 
54 Clearly he had been reproved for some boyish prank and his sensitive nature could 

not forget the reproach. There are some embarrassed allusions in the correspondence with 
his mother. and cf Erinnerungen2 62: "Von Obertretungen der Schulordnung und den ent­
sprechenden Strafen, auch solchen, die ich als ungerecht schwer ertrug, rede ich ebenso­
wenig wie von Erfolgen." 

55 Again he cites Egmont, op.cit. (supra n.48) 219 (Professor Dr Joachim Wohlleben). 
68 unsers (Goethe). 
67 I hope eventually to edit this MS (134 pp.), which, by his own admission, was the kernel 

of Herakles. One learns how early many of his ideas were formed, and his debt to German 
humanism (Lessing, Goethe, Schiller) is pedantically documented while later it will only 
be implied. 

68 Especially his father, who never forgave him: see Erinnerungent 59,84. 
61 Few of his relatives would have approved this adverb. 
410 Wilamowitz cites Eur. HF 674-77. Later he would translate (Herakles 112.213): 

Allzeit will ich zu holdem Vereine 
Chari ten laden und Musen: 



WILLIAM M. CALDER III 571 

Ou 7TCXVCO/L(U 'T<XC XapLTcxc 

ns I I 
.LY10VCCXtc CVYKCXTCXP.ELYVVC, 

t '" I r I TJOLCTCXV CV",VYLCXV. 

p.~ ~c.[JTJv P.ET' ap.ovctcxc, 

, \ "'" ,/.. I " CXEL ° EV CTE't'CXVOLCW E L'7V. 

III 

TRANSLATION 61 

I must protectS myself in advance against the possibility that the 
title,9 found above these lines, may signify more than the external 
circumstances of my life, partly because an immature youth who is 
still developing cannot yet look back at the short span of time through 
which he has lived with a glance that sifts and criticizes mistakes, not 
to speak of drawing out with sure tact what has meaning and yet does 
not pain; and partly because I have not wanted to allow my inner and 
spiritual life, my judgement, that I have in fact formed for myself on 
many matters, fixed once and for all through writing, to come into 

Ohne die Kunst kein Leben, 
Immer kranze mein Haupt der Efeu. 

The verses became a sacred vow which guided and comforted him throughout his life ("Es 
war und ist ein Gellibde fUrs Leben"). In 1889, when he was forty years old, he fulfilled the 
promise of his boyhood and dedicated his "first great book" to "AI mae Matri Portae" (see 
Brinnerungen2 62; Bin/eittlng2 vii). At the base of the dedicatory page stood the same verses. 
In the blackest hours of his seventieth birthday (22 December 1918), he wrote in despair 
"I have had to experience the self-destruction, the self-castration of my people." There re­
mains only "to die out." One consolation exists. "But the kingdom of eternal forms which 
Plato has opened is indestructible; and we serve it with our Scholarship. Into its pure ether 
the spectres of putrefaction do not penetrate. Hate and Envy are said too to remain outside 
its divine pale. Under the sign of Plato I shall struggle so long as I have breath. What the 
boy promised on leaving his beloved mother, Pforte, he will hold to: ov 7Tavcop.at etc." See 
Platon 12 (Berlin 1920) vi, where he substitutes Eur. HF 678-79 for 676--77. I should further 
hazard that the mystic reverence in which he held these lines led him to prefer Herakles as 
the tragedy which he would elucidate so profoundly. There is a hint in the preface to the 
first edition (=Binleitung2 vii): HEr tut es heut [sc. fulfils that vow], indem er das Drama, aus 
dem er damals das Motto nahm, erlautert und ein Buch veroffentlicht, das vor all em so 
griinen aber von den Musen begeisterten Jlinglingen, wie er damals einer war, das Ver­
standnis der Tragodie erschliefien soIL" The decision to publish the whole in his fortieth 
year was no coincidence. Wilamowitz had read Apollodorus and wrote that geniuses, like 
Goethe, Plato (and himself?), developed until the fortieth year (Einleitung2 18). 

61 The repeated small reference numbers 8-60 within this translation refer respectively 
ro the notes attached to the German text supra. 



572 ULRICH VON WILAMOWITZ-MOELLENDORFF 

the hands of such for whom it either is not intended or could be pain­
ful. 

On the 22nd of December 1848, I, Ulrich Friedrich Wichard von 
Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, was born, and exactly at noon, the stroke 
of twelve, and that of a Friday,lO so that I can see ghosts,l1 something 
which to be sure has not yet happened to me. With the constellation 
at the moment of my birth I have up to now not troubled myself. 
Surely I must have had great desire to walk on this globe; for I ar­
rived utterly unexpectedly, further without any medical help what­
soever, nonetheless extraordinarily happy. I am said to have been well 
fed and to have cried little. Both of course changed. On the other hand 
I still have the facility to laugh heartily and to remember stories, 
whereby-even as a small child-I raised eyebrows. In general I 
know blessed little of my first years, and that is also natural. My 
birthplace is in fact the estate of my Father, Markowitz,12 in German 
called Garbenheim. Situated in the forests of Kujavia, still notorious 
today,13 it shares with its neighboring fields the fact that it has no 
forests;14 for scarcely anywhere is there such a lack of wood as in the 
district of the Netze. About 80 square miles in size, at all events this 
still was important enough to be mentioned at the first division of 
Poland. It exceeds for example Ostfriesland in size, fertility, and im­
portance for Prussian history. It is true, we are isolated still from 
the great "Civilization so-called" which has been spread about 
through the network of railways. But since the climate is scarcely 
rawer than that in the Saal valley, and at any rate produces surely 
just as good wheat, rape, and even all the kinds of fruit that grow here 
-even wine is pressed there-so Markowitz is just as much a place of 
"Polack industry"15 as I myself am a Pole. In any case we lived16 
there, though comfortably, yet without a great social life; and I can re­
call only a few moments in the even current of the life that flowed for 
me there. Association with contemporaries was utterly lacking to 

me; for even the most elementary considerations of cleanliness for­
bade any intercourse with the village childrenP As a result I was left 
partly to myself, partly to adults, many of whom to be sure cared for 
me with the friendliest condescension. Weare four brothers arranged 
in two pairs.18 That is between the second and third-that's me­
there is a more important difference in age. Otherwise always three19 
years. So it came about that I, because both my elder brothers were 
already out of the house, took upon myself the difficult task of being 



WILLIAM M. CALDER III 573 

the elder. On the other hand during ITly brothers' holidays it was 
made dear to me that essentially I was still really small. But that 
didn't diminish the general joy in any comprehensible way. I quite 
believe that rarely has a child up to his ninth year enjoyed so thoroughly 
fine an education as I have had the good fortune to have, thanks to my 
dear Mother.20 Kept far froITl the filthy influence of servants, 
developed according to my inclination, without being plagued with 
foolish pratdings of prayers and bad so-called "lovely spiritual airs," 
of which the child understands nothing, can understand nothing, that 
therefore can only confuse, I was educated by my Mother, whose 
name I bear (her name is Ulrike), and to her I am most similar. She 
did it utterly alone, without ordering and exalting,21 but while teach­
ing me to strive to please God and men.22 Soon I had grasped reading 
and writing, read now aloud to her the books which I received, mostly 
historical. When afterwards the difficult tasks of fractions and of mix­
ture and speed problems 23 came, I first learned the difficulties of 
Wissenschaft! My eldest brother,24 at the time a junior in Bromberg, 
assumed an important air and controlled my studies. At last a tutor 
came.25 The first was ... the original of a genre-picture in Trewendt's26 
Popular Calendar, entitled: "The Eternal Student." After four weeks 
he was out. Then came exactly the opposite, a young man, also a theo­
logical student, who knew well how to make the best of the rebellious 
Catholic priest27 and still better of his wine.28 .29 But after a year he 
too left us.30 We are now in the summer of 1857, which was of impor­
tance to me in so far that then I saw the world a bit, more precisely for 
the first time-mountains.31 That is, an illness of my second brother 
resulted in our spending a couple of weeks at Kreuznach.32 Then I 
also saw the Rhine as we crossed over it.33 Although I was still very 
young, nonetheless the impression of that beautiful area has stayed 
with me; and, even at that time, I sensed an instinctive desire to de­
vote myself to scholarship in Bonn.34 Right after my return a particu­
larly virulent typhus 35 struck me down so much that for a long time 
my life was given up. I barely recovered within a year. 

Meanwhile I had obtained a third teacher,36 who now prepared me 
until my acceptance at Pforte. In many things too he raised me above 
the level of a child-but still I think back on this education with 
anger. This37 lay more in the tone of our house, in the wish of my 
Mother that through constant association with adults I be guided to 
readings, even such things as I did not yet understand. This was bene-



574 ULRICH VON WILAMOWITZ-MOELLENDORFF 

ficial to me. Thus I came to know Shakespeare through reading aloud, 
already as a child at home-for the miserable objections of spineless 
prudery38 mattered nothing-and I was introduced into the fore­
courts of many a poet's temple. Already as a ten-year-old child, I 
knew Voss' Homer39 inside and out.40 With passion, therefore, I later 
read the original; I rejoiced in gaining knowledge of folk-poetry, and 
nothing angered me so, as for example, in the highest class to spell out 
literally the most admirable and natural poetry and Hin the cracking 
of lances and crashing of shields to hear nothing but lonisms and 
Doricisms."41 Soon I came also to our German Heroic Saga as well as 
to the Edda. Yet true knowledge opened up to me first when I was 
more mature. In part this was the fault of prudish tradition scarcely 
to hear anything ofWuotan, Frouwa and Paltar, ofBriinhild, Dietrich 
and Hilde,42 nor of Zeus, Aphrodite and Achilleus, but rather of 
Jupiter, Venus and Aeneas! 

In my life at home one thing may seem to be lacking, a sister.43 
In certain ways this may be right. Yet my Mother constantly had 
young girls in the house, who helped lighten her housework. The 
first 44 of these it was whom I always call my step-sister. I am particu­
larly grateful to her for the happiness of my childhood. For me she 
compensated fully at once for an elder sister and for one of my own 
age. 

Meanwhile I had become thirteen years old. The time of childhood 
was supposed to be over. For then thought had to be taken about the 
school to which I was to be handed over. My inclination to scholar­
ship had grown, almost unrealized. With joy and really from per­
sonal choice, therefore, I seized upon the suggestion of Pforte.45 

Soon it was decided.46 Easter 1862 I entered into the community of 
Pforte. I came as day-boy into the house of the headmaster, Peter. If 
my youth up to now had been extraordinarily happy, so the introduc­
tion among many contemporaries with whom I was to live in closest 
association had to bring many a danger.47 All the more fortunate it 
turned out that I came into a family where I discovered both strong 
support and the loving care that was necessary to me from home on. 
I believe that I ought especially to attribute to this circumstance the 
fact that I so soon felt fully at home in Pforte, gained a second native 
land, inasmuch as I through extraordinary kindness have been 
allowed to remain in that home until my present departure. It is not 
thanklessness if I say Hattribute," it is only honesty. For because I got 



WILLIAM M. CALDER m 575 

on very easily in the class and, moreover, was sociable enough to pre­
serve a good relationship to my fellow students, so these circum­
stances also must have contributed substantially not only to making 
my stay easy but pleasant as well. What am 1 to say further of these 
5! years ?48 "Every single day 1 have enjoyed myself, every single 
d ay49 have done my duty as my conscience prescribed it to me.50 I 
cease to live here, but 1 have lived."51 Thus 1 spoke once on the most 
joyous day of my life, on the Tuesday before Lent 1867 ;52 may 153 
now too speak so. Surely 1 have done a good deal of mischief. 54 Who 
doesn't? 1 little regret it. 55 "Are the brief mottled rags to be be­
grudged which a youthful spirit and a lively imagination may hang 
about our56 poor life ?" 1 have not forgotten Scholarship. 1 do not hesi­
tate to proclaim that 1 have surrendered myself to her with fire and 
love. I looked further out, beyond the frontiers of the pupil. I hope the 
attached aesthetic essaYS' will be set down as witness thereof. 1 want 
to become a youth of Scholarship, of my own free will, looked ask­
ance upon by relatives,58 close acquaintances, rejected from the 
allegedly59 high circles in which birth has placed me. Good. It will be 
so. 1 follow irresistible impulses; revered men, who have friendly in­
terest in me, and true friends will fully compensate for anything that 
is lost. Therefore forwards :60 

0 " 'v' V 7Tavcop"cu Tac .Ll..aptTac 
~K I I 
movcaLC CVYKaTap"ELYVVC, 

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, r ' ,., I 

p"7] ."CP7]v p"ET ap"OVCLac, 
> , "-" ,J. I " aEL 0 EV CTE.,...aVOLCLV EL7]V. 

IV 

What do we learn from the new autobiography that could not ob­
viously be extracted from the Erinnerungen? Wilamowitz felt himself 
a Fremdling at the Pforte. He lived at the headmaster's house and not 
with his classmates in the dormitory. He was the only boy in his class 
from the east. His need vehemently to deny being a Pole implies that 
schoolmates taunted him for being one. This alienation is increased 
in a hypersensitive nature by the conviction that his relatives, indeed 



576 ULRICH VON WILAMOWITZ-MOELLENDORFF 

his class62 and especially his father, censure and reject him. He fears 
the autobiography may come into his father's hands.63 Already at 
eighteen he knows what again and again in correspondence and con­
versation he will call the Einsamkeit meines Lebens. His genius obviously 
and unavoidably condemned him to isolation. Even one of his closest 
friends, Carl Roben, the godfather of his eldest child, he looked upon 
as a protegee rather than an equal.64 The other side of alienation was 
the compulsive adulation of his teachers, those revered men, "my 
friends," who will compensate for anything that is lost. They re­
placed his family. Not Jahn, nor Haupt, nor Bernays, nor even 
Mommsen could ever replace or surpass them.6s 

The rationalization of the alienation is the conviction that it was 
unavoidable. This is the explanation of the Wilamowitzian conception 
of his Daimon. He was educated "according to his inclination." Before 
he was eight he had learned the difficulties of Wissenschaft. Before he 
was nine he sensed an instinctive desire to devote himself to Wissen­
schaft at Bonn. By the age of thirteen his inclination to Wissenschaft 
had grown fast unbewusst. In a brief vita requesting permission to 
graduate, he thanks the impulse (Regung) that led him halb instinktiv 
to choose pfone as his school. His destiny was in hands other than his 
own. He stood on "das kleine Katheder des Betsaales" and could not 
do otherwise. This sense of destiny, itself deriving from the alienation 
natural for a genius, entailed obligation, Pjlicht, for Wilamowitz, along 
with Arbeit, a holy word. "Man is not here to be happy but to obey 

62 In May 1971 Luise von der Hude still spoke only of Marie Mommsen! 
63 The guilt persisted. Ironically and typically he was the only son at his father's death­

bed. He wrote (8 January 1888) from Gottingen to K. L. Peter: " ... denn ich muBte zu 
meinem Vater, damit doch einer seiner S6hne bei seinem Tode ware. Er war langst vom 
Alter und den Folgen seines frUheren Schlaganfalles gebrochen; der Tod war nichts­
destoweniger schwer und die Bezeichnung des Endes, die mein Bruder aus der Ferne ge­
wahlt hat, trifft nicht zu. Es ward mir schwer ... es war aber doch gut und n6tig. daB ich 
es tat." See Erinnerungen2 171. 

64 He writes from Rome to his parents at Markowitz on 7 February 1873: "Seine Disser­
tation ist von den Herren dort unbedingt anerkannt; das frem mich auch flir mich, denn 
dass aus dem Jungen etwas geworden ist, daran kann ich mir ohne Ruhmredigkeit ein 
gutes Teil beimessen." 

85 Wilamowitz writes from G6ttingen to Hermann Peter on 23 September 1893 (cf p.562 
supra): "Ich kann mich wohl meinen wissenschaftlichen Lehrmeistern gegenUber ganz 
frei aufiern, selbst Jahn und Haupt und Bernays gegenUber, wUrde mich auch nicht be­
fangen flihlen, wenn ich Mommsen behandeln sollte; aber meinen PfOrtner Lehrern uncl 
vor aHem Ihrem verewigten Herrn Vater gegenUber werde ich niemals das SchUlergefUhl 
los." One notes that Usener is not even mentioned. 



CALDER PLATE 10 

LA;\IDSCAPE, MARKOWITZ (JU;\IE 1965) 

(Photograph by Dr Wolfgang Schindler) 



PLATE 11 CALDER 

THE FOREST CEMETERY, WYMYSLOWICE (JUNE 1971) 

(Photograph by Dr Wolfgang Schindler) 



CALDER PLATE 12 

THE VILLAGE CHURCH, MARKOWITZ (JUNE 1971) 

(Photograph by Dr Wolfgang Schindler) 



PLATE 13 CALDER 

ULRIKE VON \VILAMOWITZ-MOELLE~DORFF, GEB. VO:-l CALBO (5 JV:-lE 1820-
26 JUNE 1874) 

(PllOt('grapit by courtesy of D,'rotlJea Freijrmt Hiller VOlt Gaertrillgen, 
geb. von Wilalllowitz-JVloellelldorjJl 



WILLIAM M. CALDER ill 577 

Pflicht."66 The great contribution of the early autobiography is that it 
proves how early and why the die was cast. As Lothar Wickert, the 
biographer of Mommsen, remarked of Wilamowitz' first letter to 
Bormann: "er wuBte schon damals, wer er war."67 

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY and 
FONDATION HARDT 

June, 1971 

66 See Erinnerungen2 239, a lesson he learned from his mother (Erinnerungen2 48); and 
GRBS 11 (1970) 163 with n.8l. 

67 Per litt. 31 May 1971. A version of this paper was delivered at the Center for 
Hellenic Studies on 14 October 1971, at McMaster University on 28 October 1971, and 
at the Queen's University of Belfast on 17 December 1971.