Karl Deichgräber


Karl Marienus Deichgräber was a German classical philologist. Deichgräber was a member of the Nazi Party.

Biography

Karl Deichgräber studied at the Gymnasium Ulricianum in Aurich until 1922. From that date, he studied classical philology, as well as other subjects, at the University of Göttingen, and then at Humboldt University of Berlin and University of Münster, where the philologist Hermann Schöne encouraged Deichgräber to concentrate on the history of medicine. In 1928, Deichgräber earned his doctorate at Münster with a thesis on medical schools during the time of Ancient Greece. Upon returning to Berlin, he habilitated in 1931, with research of books I and III of the Epidemics by Hippocrates. In 1935 he was summoned to the University of Marburg as a professor specializing in Hellenistic Greece. Three years later he succeeded Max Pohlenz at the University of Göttingen. From 1939 to 1945 he also served there as Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy. He rejected requests from Graz, Würzburg and Frankfurt. In 1938, he joined the Nazi Party.
On 25 January 1946, Deichgräber was removed from office, which he felt throughout his life as deeply unfair. In 1951, he was partially reinstated as "professor of retraining", but only in 1957 did he receive his old position as professor of classical philology, after succeeding emeritus professor Kurt Latte, who had been expelled by the Nazis, but had returned to Göttingen. From then on, Deichgräber taught at Göttingen until he retired in April 1968. He was succeeded by Klaus Nickau.

Selected works