Hermann Julius Strasburger
1909 - 1985

Hermann Julius Strasburger was born in Bonn on June 21, 1909, the son of Prof. Dr. Julius Strasburger and Marie-Edith Strasburger, née Nothnagel. He had three siblings: Marie Anna Dorothea Strasburger, married name de Liagre Böhl (1905-1996), Eduard Hermann Strasburger (1907-1945) and Gerhard Oskar Paul Strasburger (1912-1993). Julius Strasburger's father had a Protestant father, Professor Eduard Strasburger (1844-1912). His mother was Alexandrine von Wertheim (1847-1902). Her father, the banker Julius Wertheim, was born in Warsaw and had converted from Judaism to Protestantism in 1844. Her mother Johanna Dorothea Flamm, also born in Warsaw and the daughter of Dawid and Zofia Flamm, had also converted.

The family moved from Breslau to Frankfurt on the Main in 1913 because his father had taken over the management of the Therapeutikum and the medical outpatient clinic in the city hospital. In 1914, Julius Strasburger also became Professor of Internal Medicine at the newly founded University of Frankfurt on the Main. Julius Strasburger's family lived at Miquel street 44, later renamed Siesmayer street, in Frankfurt's Westend district.

Hermann J. Strasburger only married after the Second World War, in December 1949, to Dr. Gisela Pfleiderer (1929-2014), who later became a classical philologist. They had a daughter named Dorothea.

Hermann J. Strasburger wrote in a curriculum vitae written in 1931, which is kept in the University Archives Frankfurt on the Main:

"Ich bin evangelischer Konfession und preußischer Staatsangehörigkeit. In Frankfurt a. M. besuchte ich die Liebig-Oberrealschule, das Lessing-Gymnasium und seit Ostern 1920 das Reformrealgymnasium Musterschule, das ich Ostern 1927 mit dem Zeugnis der Reife verliess. Ich studierte 5 Semester an der Universität Frankfurt a.M., 3 Semester in München, 1 Semester in Innsbruck und zwar Geschichte, insbesondere Alte Geschichte, und klassische Philologie." (I am of Protestant denomination and Prussian nationality. In Frankfurt on the Main I attended the Liebig-Oberrealschule, the Lessing-Gymnasium and, from Easter 1920, the Reformrealgymnasium Musterschule, which I left at Easter 1927 with a school-leaving certificate. I studied 5 semesters at the University of Frankfurt on the Main., 3 semesters in Munich, 1 semester in Innsbruck, namely history, especially ancient history, and classical philology.)

He received his doctorate from the University of Frankfurt on the Main in 1931 with the thesis "Concordia Ordinum, eine Untersuchung zur Politik Ciceros" (Concordia Ordinum, a study of Cicero's politics). His doctoral supervisor Prof. Dr. Matthias Gelzer (1886-1974), full professor of ancient history at Frankfurt University from 1919 to 1955, wrote in his review of this dissertation that he rated it as very good:

"Ich halte die Arbeit für ein erfreuliches specimen eruditionis. Der Verfasser hat sich durch eindringliche Cicerolektüre lebendige Anschauungen von den damaligen politischen Zuständen gewonnen und sich so in die Lage versetzt, förderlich davon zu handeln. Auch die neue wissenschaftliche Literatur ist kritisch verwertet." (I consider the work to be a pleasing specimen eruditionis. The author has gained a lively view of the political conditions of the time through a penetrating reading of Cicero and has thus put himself in a position to deal with them favorably. The new scientific literature has also been critically utilized.)

Hermann J. Strasburger had been a lecturer in ancient history at the University of Freiburg (in Breisgau) since 1932. However, in July 1934, his teaching position was revoked and he was banned from teaching as a so-called "Mischling second grade" due to his father's Jewish ancestry. In November 1936, he was also definitively banned from habilitating at the University of Frankfurt on the Main. He was only able to publish a few historical articles, such as "Nobiles" and "Optimates" in the famous Realenzyklopädie der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft.

In May 1940, he had to join the Wehrmacht, was sent to the Eastern Front at the end of 1942 and suffered a serious wound there in April 1943, so that he returned as a "Schwerkriegsbeschädigter" (severely war-disabled person). Hermann J. Strasburger was only released from the military hospital in May 1945. In 1946, he habilitated at the University of Heidelberg, where he worked as an assistant at the Department of Ancient History and as a private lecturer before returning to the University of Frankfurt on the Main in 1948. He first taught as a private lecturer in Ancient History, from 1949 as an adjunct professor and finally from 1955 as Professor of Ancient History in Frankfurt on the Main. He thus became the successor to his doctoral supervisor Matthias Gelzer. From October 1963 to September 1977, he taught as a full professor of Ancient History at the University of Freiburg (im Breisgau).

According to the Frankfurt on the Main section's Nachrichten-Blatt no. 4 from April 1928, Hermann Strasburger became a member of the Frankfurt section of the Alpine Club, presumably in preparation for his study trip to Tyrol. He had been recommended by the bank official Maria Broich (member since 1927) and Dr. Elias Bergmann (member since 1922). Interestingly, he was listed as "Strasdas, Hermann, stud. phil." with his parents' address at Miquel street 44 in Frankfurt in the News Bulletin No. 2 of the same year. Unfortunately, we are unable to say why his surname was given so incorrectly.

Walter Schmitthenner writes about Hermann Strasburger, who studied in Innsbruck in the summer of 1928 and reserved Thursday to Sunday for summer mountaineering:

"Die Leidenschaft für die alpine Kunst war 1925 bei einem Engadinaufenthalt mit den Eltern erwacht. Seither verging bis zum Kriegsausbruch [im September 1939] kein Jahr, in dem er nicht auf 'große Bergfahrten', wie es damals hieß, gegangen wäre, am häufigsten und liebsten mit dem Bruder Eduard und mit Albert Schweitzer (1909-1952), dem aus Köln gebürtigen Medizinier und Freund, der 1935 nach England emigrierte." (His passion for alpine art was awakened in 1925 during a stay in the Engadin with his parents. From then until the outbreak of war [in September 1939], not a year went by in which he did not go on "big mountain trips", as they were called at the time, most often and preferably with his brother Eduard and with Albert Schweitzer (1909-1952), the Cologne-born physician and friend who emigrated to England in 1935.)

In July 1930, Professors Walter Behrmann and Matthias Friedwagner recommended the admission of his sister Marie Strasburger, then a student, who also lived with her parents at Miquel street 44. A year later, Marie Strasburger, together with Max Tasche, recommended the admission of his brother Eduard H. Strasburger, then a student and also living with his parents at Miquel street 44. According to the Frankfurt on the Main section's Nachrichten-Blatt, he was actually accepted into the section in October 1931.

We do not know whether Hermann J. Strasburger took part in events organized by the Frankfurt section, as we have no corresponding sources. After the section was taken over by National Socialist functionaries and the so-called "Arierparagraf" (Aryan paragraph) was enshrined in the Frankfurt statutes in February 1934, he could not be excluded without further ado as a so-called "Mischling second grade". There is currently no evidence that Hermann J. Strasburger resigned or that he was later expelled from the section due to a lack of sources--but both are possible.

Hermann Strasburger was not allowed to habilitate in National Socialist Germany. According to a document from March 1948 in the Frankfurt University Archives, he was persecuted as a "Mischling second grade" and was therefore definitively banned from habilitating in November 1936. He was therefore only able to publish a few historical articles. He was drafted into the Wehrmacht in May 1940 and sent to the Eastern Front at the end of 1942. Hermann J. Strasburger was seriously wounded there in April 1943 and returned as a "Schwerkriegsbeschädigter" (severely war-damaged person). He was only released from the military hospital in May 1945. Hermann Strasburger eventually became Professor of Ancient History in Frankfurt on the Main and Freiburg im Breisgau. He died in Switzerland in 1985 and was buried in Freiburg (im Breisgau).

His father Julius Strasburger was forcibly retired on October 1, 1934, because of his Jewish ancestors, although he was a so-called "Frontkämpfer" (front-line fighter) in the First World War and holder of the Iron Cross I Class (awarded in December 1917) as well as a Prussian civil servant before 1914. He should therefore have been allowed to continue teaching! However, he died shortly afterwards of a heart attack. Walter Schmitthenner wrote about this:

"Niemand bezweifelte, daß der Tod des zuvor gesunden Mannes durch diese ihn tief kränkende und ihm im Grunde unverständliche Behandlung verursacht war." (No one doubted that the death of the previously healthy man was caused by this deeply offensive and basically incomprehensible treatment.)

His brother Eduard H. Strasburger was also persecuted by the National Socialists because of his Jewish ancestors as a so-called "Mischling second grade". He was therefore no longer allowed to habilitate in the German Reich after 1933, meaning that the university career he had aspired to was impossible due to the persecution. In 1938, he went to the Netherlands and worked at the Amsterdam Institute for Brain Research on the recommendation of Marielle's husband, Prof. Dr. Franz Marius Theodor de Liagre Böhl (1882-1976). He returned to Frankfurt on the Main at Easter 1940 and worked from May to September 1940 in the laboratory at the mental hospital run by Prof. Karl Kleist at the City and University of Frankfurt. In October 1940, Eduard H. Strasburger was drafted into the Wehrmacht. In 1943, he joined a medical unit and reached the rank of medical corporal. After September 1943, he fought in Italy and later on the Eastern Front. He had been missing in action since March 1945 and was finally declared dead in 1961.

Marie de Liagre Böhl was living in the Netherlands when the Wehrmacht occupied the country in May 1940. As a so-called "Mischling second grade", married to a Christian and mother of four Christian children, she was not threatened with arrest or deportation. As a result, she and her children survived the occupation unscathed. However, Herman de Liagre Böhl writes that his father, Marie's husband, Franz de Liagre Böhl, was interrogated several times by officers of the Security Service (SD). Marie de Liagre Böhl died in Milsbeek (Netherlands) in November 1996.