Theodor Mommsen Nobel Prize in Literature 1902

in Leipzig, and Salomon, together with English people to laugh at. But it’s im- his brother-in-law Karl Reimer, ran the possible to understand the girls and publishing house “Weidmannsche Bu- their Zurich German; inscriptions are chhandlung.” The two publishers had rare and good friends are far rarer still. asked him, after a lecture, to write a Enough: We don’t have to be happy.” history of Rome; they signed a contract And so it remained: Mommsen never for the book with him in 1850. felt at home in Zurich. A lonely figure, Mommsen came to Zurich for the his passionate temperament led him to summer term in 1852 and boarded, pass harsh, even wounding, judgments. together with four other lodgers, with For his colleagues at the University – the family Holzhab, bookbinders, at German and Swiss alike – Mommsen Strehlgasse 29. His rooms were spa- had little but contempt. They seemed to cious, but with a northerly aspect, him to be malicious to one another, and Nobel Prize in Literature 1902 "The greatest so he saw little sunlight. Since 1933, servile towards the uncrowned king of living master of the art of historical writing, the house has borne a commemora- Zurich, Alfred Escher. Socially, he felt with special reference to his monumental tive plaque recalling Mommsen’s stay himself surrounded by a “rabble.” But work, A history of Rome" there. The greatest advantage of the

location was its proximity to the Uni- * 30 November 1817 in Garding Mommsen’s particular favorite versity, which, until 1864, was located (Schleswig-Holstein) was Julius Caesar, whom he in the “Hinteramt” near the August- † 1 November 1903 in Berlin-Charlottenburg regarded to be perfect as both a inerkirche. The Fröschengraben, later person and a politician. 1852–1854 Professor of Roman Law at the transformed into the Bahnhofstrasse, University of Zurich ran in front of the building. It was his exploration of Roman law he enjoyed spending time with a couple and its sources that brought Mommsen of friends in the Café Littéraire on the Caesar and to his real area of interest, ancient his- Weinplatz, which later had to make way tory. He had already spent several years for the Hotel Storchen. Swiss German in Italy, collecting and studying Latin Mommsen’s place of work was rela- Liberal in his thinking, Mommsen was inscriptions in the territory of the King- tively modest in scale: The University accused of involvement in the May up- dom of Naples. This time left him with a then consisted of 22 full professors and rising in Saxony in 1849 and dismissed life-long taste for macaroni, then hardly about 160 students, compared to over from his position as professor of law known north of the Alps, which he had 800 students in Leipzig. He had some at the University of Leipzig in 1851. In sent to him regularly from Italy. How- ten students, to whom he was not par- the same year, the University of Zurich ever good his knowledge of Latin and ticularly devoted; he did not like lec- offered him the chair for Roman law. Greek was, though, Mommsen could turing but was obliged to teach for ten Mommsen’s move to Switzerland in- not warm to Swiss German. Three hours a week each semester. He com- volved two citizens of Zurich who be- weeks after his arrival in Zurich, he plained to a German friend: “The most longed to his circle of friends in Leipzig: wrote to a friend in Rome: “Here, there ambitious students here go into indus- the brothers Caspar and Salomon Hirzel. are beautiful mountains, clear water, try and politics. That may be right and Caspar was the Swiss Consul General an excellent silk industry, and even proper, but German academic­ pride

www.nobelpreis.uzh.ch/en_mommsen.html Theodor Mommsen – Nobel Prize in Literature 1902 1/4 finds it very hard to put up with third to celebrate the great poet’s birthday. Und in der Lebenswende place.” The professor’s discontented at- In this poem, Mommsen looked with As my life changes titude did not go unnoticed in Zurich. emotion to his forthcoming wedding. Segn' ich mit Herz und Hand A colleague in the Antiquarian Society Through marriage to Marie Reimer, the I bless, with heart and hand, remarked: “It’s a pity – the man is like a daughter of his Leipzig publisher and Das Land der fleißigen Hände, razor-sharp knife and needs handling niece of Salomon Hirzel, he was now The land of busy hands, with great care.” also related to his friends, “Auntie Net- Das schöne fremde Land, Mommsen found himself able to tli” in Laufen and “Uncle Sali” – Salo- The beautiful, foreign land, publish his insights on “Switzerland in mon Hirzel. Marie Reimer had been on the Roman era” as a New Year’s text for a visit to Zurich in the summer of 1852. Die Berge, die ich erklommen, the Antiquarian Society in 1854, the first Walks on the Zurichberg and a stay The mountains I climbed, account of this topic of any academic Alpros' und Genzian, value. He carried on a long and friendly Alpine roses and gentians, Mommsen was awarded the correspondence with Ferdinand Keller, Die Seen, drin ich geschwommen, Nobel Prize in 1902 at the great the President of the Society. The lakes I swam in, age of 85, just eleven months In “Switzerland in the Roman Und manchen rechten Mann. before his death. era,” Mommsen formulated his un- And many a good man. derstanding of “proper historical re- search” as follows: “It seeks for peaks on the Rigi had awakened their love. Die Heimat wieder eigen, and perspectives, and from the right Marie was a devoted wife, who found Back in my own land, point and with good timing, it can fulfillment in the management of his Grüß' ich mit frommer Scheu; look down on the immutable laws of large household. She bore 16 children, My greeting is modest and shy; necessity, which stand forever fast as 12 of whom survived their parents. Ich darf vor mich zeigen, the Alps, and on the many passions of I can claim men, which wreath them like clouds, Rheinfall, den 28. August 1854 Ich blieb ihr mutig treu. without changing them.” Rheinfall, 28 August 1854 I stayed valiantly true to her. Mommsen had indeed often climbed in the Alps. From Zurich, he undertook An meiner Heimat Schwelle Aus der Fremde guten Stunden frequent, extensive mountain tours. On the threshold of my own land Of the good times in a In the end, Theodor Mommsen did Glänzen im Abendstrahl foreign land, not find it so easy to bid farewell to Today, for the last time, Bleibt mir die eine nach, the city, and above all to his beloved Schneeberg und grüne Welle One remains with me, Swiss mountains. But in 1854, after two Snowy mountains and Wo Dich ich dort gefunden years in Zurich, he was appointed to waves of green When I found you there a position in Breslau, then in Prussia. Mir heut' zum letzten Mal. Am blausten Sonnentag. As a parting gift to his friends, he had Gleam in the evening light. On the bluest of sunny days. a portrait done by the Zurich lithogra- pher Carl Friedrich Irminger. Es winken aus fernen Weiten Das Herz in der Brust, das warme, In the village of Laufen at the From afar off The warm heart in your breast Rheinfall lived a sister of Salomon Alpen im Nebelraum, Bewahrt, was es gewann; Hirzel of Leipzig, who was married The Alps flicker through the clouds Guards what it has won; to the local pastor, Johann Heinrich Dran hängen vergangene Zeiten O nimm mich in die Arme, Pfenninger. There, Mommsen, a great Times past cling to them O, take me in your arms, admirer of Goethe, wrote a reconcil- Gleichwie ein schwindender Traum. O Liebe, nimm mich an! iatory poem, dated 28 August 1852, Like a fading dream. O, take me, love!

www.nobelpreis.uzh.ch/en_mommsen.html Theodor Mommsen – Nobel Prize in Literature 1902 2/4 Ultimately, however, Mommsen did Theodor Mommsen died just eleven also thought that Mommsen would not not feel at home in Breslau either. His months after the award of the Nobel have appreciated such an event. In 1918 friends in Zurich received bitter letters Prize. The Faculty of Law at the Uni- the Mittelbergstrasse in Zürich-Flunt- about the backwardness of the town versity of Zurich sent a wreath of edel- ern was renamed Mommsenstrasse in and its idle students. Nor did even the weiss to the funeral at the Kaiser-Wil- his honor. Margrit Wyder long sought-for appointment in Berlin helm-Gedächtniskirche in Charlotten- Source: Margrit Wyder: Einstein und Co. – in 1858 put an end to his complaints. For burg, and was thanked warmly by the Nobelpreisträger in Zürich; Verlag NZZ libro, over a decade, Mommsen tried to get family. A commemoration planned by Zürich 2015 Illustration: Aline Telek away from the capital, seeking in vain the rectorate did not take place, as two Translation: University of Zurich for another place of work elsewhere of the three professors asked to take in Germany. With advancing age and part declared themselves not to be pro- an ever-increasing family, though, he fessionally competent to do so, and gradually adjusted to Berlin and built up a circle of faithful friends. He was active as a social-liberal politician, as Written in Zurich: Nor was Mommsen shy about using mod- a teacher at the University, and as a The History of Rome ern political expressions in his work. His highly respected member of the Prus- experiences in Switzerland were also re- sian Academy of Sciences. With his long Theodor Mommsen’s literary and historical flected: He used “Eidgenossenschaft” to white hair, Mommsen in old age was magnum opus was originally intended to describe the Italic tribal federations, and the quintessential wise old academic. have five volumes, but remained incom- ­politico-geographic entities are frequently An internationally recognized his- plete. The first three volumes appeared in referred to as “cantons.” Zurich was even torian, Mommsen was awarded the rapid succession from 1854 to 1856. They used in a direct comparison. In the first Nobel Prize in 1902, some 50 years after addressed the period from the beginnings volume of The History of Rome, he writes his time in Zurich, at the great age of 85. of Rome to 46 BCE, shortly before the zenith that the area of Latium was “little larger On account of his age, he did not receive of Julius Caesar’s power. The fourth volume, than that of the current Canton of Zurich.” the prize in person; it was accepted on that should have covered the history of the His contemporary references and stylistic his behalf by the German ambassador Empire, was never published. Mommsen brilliance were the basis for the great suc- in Stockholm. Mommsen appreciated lectured on the subject in Berlin, but he di- cess of the work. In summer 1854, when the the honor, but commented somewhat rected his energies to research rather than first volume was published and the second wryly on the eulogy presented to him: exposition. He also took the view that there volume almost finished, Mommsen re- “I couldn’t wish for a better commem- were already enough good histories of the ceived his appointment to the University of oration if I really had come to the end Roman Empire. The final, fifth volume was ­Breslau, and left Zurich. The second volume of my life.” The prize money was a published in 1885, and dealt with the de- is dedicated to two German colleagues with welcome financial reserve, for in his velopment of the provinces of the Empire. whom he had become friends at the Univer- old age he worried about the future Mommsen wrote his History of Rome sity of Zurich: the physiologist Carl Ludwig of his five unmarried daughters – one based on his vast knowledge of the ancient and the theologian Ferdinand Hitzig. daughter only was “properly provided sources, yet equally from the perspective In 1858, the young Conrad Ferdinand for,” i.e. married. While Marie, his wife, of a politically engaged citizen of the 19th Meyer asked Mommsen for permission to had never made any claim to higher ed- century; his judgments of the events of translate The History of Rome into French. ucation or an independent life, three of the time are trenchant. He thought most Mommsen agreed, but only on the condi- his daughters had careers – as teachers highly of the early republican period, and tion that a publisher be found who was or nurses – which was most unusual in described the reasons for the downfall of prepared to fund the edition. This was not bourgeois circles at the time. To do so, the Roman state. His particular favorite the case, so Meyer’s translation did not they required – and received – their was Julius Caesar, whom he regarded to eventuate. (MW) father’s permission. be perfect as both a person and a politician.

www.nobelpreis.uzh.ch/en_mommsen.html Theodor Mommsen – Nobel Prize in Literature 1902 3/4 Theodor Mommsen during his time in Zurich Mommsen taught in the original building of the University of Zurich, located (Lithography by C.F. Irminger, 1854). from 1833 to 1864 on the Augustinergasse near today’s Bahnhofstrasse. Image: Zentralbibliothek Zürich Image: Zentralbibliothek Zürich

Nobel Prize laureate Theodor Mommsen in 1903 in Berlin. Photo: Zentralbibliothek Zürich

www.nobelpreis.uzh.ch/en_mommsen.html Theodor Mommsen – Nobel Prize in Literature 1902 4/4