About
Victor Klemperer, born in 1881 in Landsberg an der Warthe, was a German philologist and Romance scholar. From a Jewish family, he converted to Protestantism. Professor of Romance philology at the Technical University of Dresden, he was dismissed in 1935 under the Nuremberg Laws. During the Nazi period, he kept a secret diary documenting persecution and the manipulation of language by the regime. After the war, he joined the East German communist party and taught at several universities. His major work, LTI, analyzes the language of the Third Reich. He died in 1960 in Dresden.
* 1881-10-09 — † 1960-02-11
Major works
- LTI – Lingua Tertii Imperii: Notizbuch eines Philologen (1947)essay
- Tagebücher 1933–1945 (Ich will Zeugnis ablegen bis zum letzten) (1995)diary
Key milestones
- 1935Dismissed from his professorship in Dresden under the Nuremberg Laws.
- 1945Survived the bombing of Dresden by removing his yellow star.
- 1950Member of the GDR People's Chamber from 1950 to 1958.
Themes
Language and powerNazi persecutionEveryday resistanceMemory and testimonyJewish identity
Sources: tu-dresden.de · collections.ushmm.org · catdir.loc.gov