Eduard Fraenkel

Lore & Background

Eduard Fraenkel was born on 17 March 1888 in Berlin to a Jewish family that had assimilated and prospered. His father was a wine merchant. Fraenkel was related to two philologists: his cousin Ernst Fraenkel and his father's uncle Ludwig Traube. At around age ten, he contracted osteomyelitis, which left his right arm deformed. He attended the Askanisches Gymnasium, where his teacher Otto Gruppe inspired his interest in classical antiquity. Fraenkel initially studied law at the University of Berlin due to antisemitic hiring conventions, but after a visit to Rome in 1907, he changed his degree to classical philology. He transferred to the University of Göttingen in 1909 and was awarded a doctorate in 1912 for a thesis on Roman comedy.

Reader's Guide

Fraenkel's significance lies in his contributions to the study of Roman comedy and Greek tragedy, as well as his impact on teaching at Oxford. His 1922 monograph Plautinisches im Plautus argued that Plautus was a more innovative playwright than previously thought, shifting scholarly focus away from viewing his plays merely as derivatives of lost Greek comedies. His three-volume commentary on Aeschylus's Agamemnon (1950) was praised by classicist H. J. Rose as perhaps the most erudite commentary on any Greek play. At Oxford, Fraenkel introduced weekly seminars on classical texts, a feature of European academic life rare at the university, which influenced many undergraduates. His seminars on the Agamemnon were the subject of a poem by Iris Murdoch. In 2018, following a petition by the student body, Corpus Christi College renamed a room that had been named after Fraenkel due to allegations of sexual harassment against him. Summarising his contributions, Hellenist Hugh Lloyd-Jones described him as one of the most learned classical scholars of his time.

Did You Know?

• Fraenkel's right arm was deformed after he contracted osteomyelitis at around age ten.
• He changed his degree from law to classical philology after a visit to Rome in 1907.
• His seminars on the Agamemnon were the subject of a poem by novelist and philosopher Iris Murdoch.
• Fraenkel died of natural causes on 5 February 1970, just hours after his wife Ruth's death.

Scholarship and Major Works

Fraenkel built his scholarly reputation on a foundation of deep engagement with both Roman and Greek literature, producing works that reshaped how his discipline understood its central figures. His 1922 monograph on Plautus, grown from his doctoral research, argued forcefully that the Roman comedian was a far more original and inventive dramatist than earlier critics had credited, a claim that fundamentally altered the trajectory of Roman comedy studies. Decades later, in 1950, he delivered a three-volume commentary on Aeschylus's Agamemnon that the classicist H. J. Rose hailed as perhaps the most learned treatment any Greek play had ever received. After stepping down from his Oxford chair in 1953, he turned his attention to the Roman poet Horace, publishing a dedicated monograph in 1957. The Hellenist Hugh Lloyd-Jones later summed up Fraenkel's standing by calling him a scholar of the highest learning in his generation, a judgment rooted in his extraordinary command of diverse sub-fields across the entire classical tradition.

Formative Years and the Path to Classics

Born in Berlin in 1888 into a prosperous, assimilated Jewish family, Fraenkel grew up surrounded by intellectual influence: his mother's brother was a Social Democratic politician and legal publisher, while his father's uncle was a co-founder of palaeography. A bout of osteomyelitis around age ten left his right arm permanently deformed, yet it did not derail his academic ambitions. At the Askanisches Gymnasium, a teacher named Otto Gruppe sparked his fascination with antiquity. Despite this pull, he initially enrolled at the University of Berlin to study law, a pragmatic choice given the antisemitic barriers that would have blocked a Jewish scholar from a German teaching post. He attended lectures by the great Hellenist Wilamowitz-Moellendorff on his own initiative. A trip to Rome in late 1907 crystallised his resolve, and he formally switched to classical philology. In 1909 he moved to Göttingen to work under the Latinist Friedrich Leo and the linguist Wackernagel, earning his doctorate in 1912 with a thesis on Roman comedy.

Persecution and Flight to Britain

Fraenkel's comfortable academic life in Germany shattered almost overnight in 1933. After the Nazi seizure of power, the April Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service stripped Jewish academics of their university positions, and his Freiburg chair was among those revoked. He remained in Germany through the rest of that year, enduring escalating discrimination with no prospect of reinstatement. In 1934, an invitation from Oxford's Classics faculty and the scholar Gilbert Murray brought him to Christ Church College. When that arrangement could not be extended, a Bevan Fellowship at Trinity College, Cambridge, offered a temporary refuge, and with the help of the Latinist Donald Robertson, Fraenkel and his family relocated to England. He was planning a lecture tour across the United States to secure a permanent post when the Corpus Christi Professorship of Latin at Oxford fell vacant following Albert Curtis Clark's resignation. Backed by numerous British classicists, including a future Vice-Chancellor, Fraenkel applied for the chair and was ultimately installed there in 1935, beginning an eighteen-year tenure that would define his later career.

Teaching, Legacy, and Complicated Memory

Beyond his publications, Fraenkel left perhaps his most lasting imprint through his teaching. At Oxford he ran a weekly seminar on classical texts, a mode of close, sustained engagement with primary sources that was characteristic of continental European academic culture but largely absent from the Oxford system. The intellectual formation of numerous undergraduates was shaped by these sessions. His seminars on the Agamemnon were so memorable that the novelist and philosopher Iris Murdoch composed a poem inspired by them. Yet Fraenkel's memory at Corpus Christi has not remained unchallenged. In 2018, following a petition from the student body, the college voted to rename a room that had carried his name, a decision prompted by allegations of sexual harassment. This episode complicated an otherwise celebrated legacy. His personal life also carried its own sorrows: his son Albert died during the difficult Göttingen years, and his wife Ruth, herself a classical scholar, abandoned her own career to support his. Their other children included the mathematician Edward Fraenkel.

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