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Erich Klostermann

Erich Klostermann(14 February 1870 – 18 September 1963) was a German scholar of theNew Testament,patristics,andclassical philology.He was particularly known for his New Testament commentaries on the gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke. He published editions of works of theChurch FathersEusebiusandOrigen.

Gravestone of Erich Klostermann and his wife Melania (née Smugge) atSt. Laurentius zu Halle[de]Protestant cemetery

Biography

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Erich Klostermann was born inKielin 1870. His father was the Protestant theologian and Old Testament scholarAugust Klostermann,a professor atKiel University.Erich also studied at Kiel, and he received his doctorate in 1892 from the Department of Philology with a dissertation on theBook of Ecclesiastes(De libri Coheleth versione Alexandrina). He visited Italy for research, but then returned to Germany to further study both theology andOriental studies.After his doctorate he met withAdolf von Harnack,the most distinguished scholar of patristics of the era, who was able to persuade him to join the Church Fathers Commission of thePrussian Academy of Sciencesin Berlin. He worked under both Harnack and historianTheodor Mommsen.In Berlin, he published a series of writings onOrigen of AlexandriaandEusebius of Caesarea,as well as translations of their work. These texts were in the seriesDie Griechischen Christlichen Schriftsteller[de](The Greek Christian Writers of the First Three Centuries). The Berlin Theological Faculty awarded him an honorarylicentiate.He completed hishabilitationin 1901, and the University of Kiel offered him a position as a lecturer (but not on a tenure track). In 1905,Hans Lietzmannrecruited him to work on theHandbuch zum Neuen Testament(Handbook of the New Testament). He wrote commentaries onMark(1907),Matthew(1909), andLuke(1919). These commentaries were well-regarded and praised, and stayed in print for some time after Klostermann's death.[1]

In 1907 he was appointed as an associate professor of New Testament and early Christian literature at Kiel. In 1911, he received an honorary doctorate from theUniversity of Jena.He also finally gained a job as a full professor in 1911, at Kaiser-Wilhelm-Universität (the modernUniversity of Strasbourg) in Strassburg,Alsace–Lorraine.DuringWorld War Ihe served as a hospital chaplain in addition to his professorship in Strasbourg. For his work, he received theRed Cross Medaland theIron Cross,Second Class. At the end of the war in 1918, Alsace was returned to France, and all the German professors were expelled from Strassburg (now Strasbourg). In 1919, he took a job atUniversity of Münster,and in 1923, he moved to theUniversity of Königsbergto teach there.[1][2]In 1927 he was appointed a corresponding member of thePrussian Academy of Sciences.[3]

In 1928, he once again received a full professorship position, this time atMartin Luther University Halle-WittenberginHalle (Saale).At Halle he resumed his work on the commentaries, and focused on Origen's commentary on Matthew, taking advantage of the university's extensive collection of patristics which he became the main curator of. After Harnack's death, in 1931 Klostermann became co-editor ofTexte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur[de](Texts and Studies on the History of Early Christian Literature). Klostermann took emeritus status in 1936. In his retirement, he undertook a new edition of theHomilies of Macarius-Symeon,but he was unable to complete it. After the fall of the Nazi government and subsequent de-Nazification efforts in 1945 removing various compromised staff members, Klostermann was reactivated from retirement to teach again. He continued teaching at Halle until 1954.[2]

Personal life

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In his personal life, Klostermann married Melania Smugge in 1902. The couple had 2 sons and 1 daughter.[1]

Politically, Klostermann was generally involved innational-conservativeparties. In 1911 he was a member of theFree Conservative Party(FKP) and was a co-founder of a rightist local party in Alsace. After 1918 he joinedDer Stahlhelm,a league of German war veterans. From 1918 to 1928 he was a member of the monarchistGerman National People's Party(DVNP) that sought to return to something like the 1871–1918 German Empire's political structure.[2]He also briefly worked with theNational Socialist People's Welfare(NSV) before 1933.[4]While much of the DVNP was eventually co-opted by theNazi Party(NSDAP), Klostermann was not; he publicly refused to join the NSDAP and financially supported Jewish colleagues who were dismissed from their university jobs after the Nazi rise to power. After 1945, he became a member of theChristian Democratic Union(CDU), a center-right party.[2]

Klostermann's wife Melania died in 1952. Erich Klostermann died in 1963, and was buried in theSt. Laurentius zu Halle[de]Protestant cemetery.

Selected works

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References

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  1. ^abcKurt Aland(1980),"Klostermann, Erich",Neue Deutsche Biographie(in German), vol. 12, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 124–125;(full text online)
  2. ^abcd"Erich Klostermann"(in German). Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg.
  3. ^"Erich Klostermann"(in German). Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
  4. ^Waibel, Harry(2011).Diener vieler Herren: Ehemalige NS-Funktionäre in der SBZ/DDR.Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. pp. 168–169.ISBN978-3-631-63542-1.

Further reading

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  • Christian Stephan: Die stumme Fakultät. Biographische Beiträge zur Geschichte der Theologischen Fakultät der Universität Halle, pp. 127–129
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