Johannes Stroux

Life and work

Stroux was born in Hagenau in Alsace, which at this time belonged to the German Empire. He studied in Strassburg and Goettingen. In 1914 he became professor at the university of Basel (Switzerland), 1922 in Kiel, 1923 in Jena and 1924 in Munich. In 1935 he moved to Berlin as successor of Eduard Norden. In 1937 he became a member of the Prussian Academy of Science. From 1945 to 1947 he acted as rector of the Berlin University, the later Humboldt-University. Stroux replaced his predecessor Eduard Spranger as acting rector in October 1945, when control of the university was shifted from the municipal administration of Berlin (Magistrat) to the newly created East-German educational administration (DZV), which was itself controlled by the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SMAD). On 29. January 1945 Stroux reopened the Berlin university, which was closed because of war damages on buildings, necessary reorganizations and denazification, which was demanded be the Allies. He acted as elected rector until 1947.

From 1945 to 1951 Stroux was president of the Berlin Academy of Science (before 1946 called Preussische Akademie der Wissenschaften, then Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin).

Organization of Science

In different positions Stroux was a part of the international long-term project Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (TLL), the most comprehensive dictionary of the Latin language as well as other similar projects. From 1934–1949 Stroux was president of the commission of the German academies for the TLL.

Stroux became 1939 representative of the German academies for the Union Académique Internationale (UAI) and was in same year elected as vicepresident of the UAI.

Political Activity

As one of vicepresidents of the East-German Kulturbund Stroux became a member of the parliament of the GDR, the People's Chamber.

Scientific Work

Stroux published scientific works in the field of Latin language and literature, Roman law, papyrology and epigraphy. One of his most successful works was a book with the title summum ius summum iniuria. It was about the introduction of the concept of equity into Roman Law from Greece through the school of rhetoric.

From 1929 until 1954 on he edited the de:Philologus, an academic journal for classical philology, existing from 1848 until today. In this journal Stroux published also many of his own articles. In the 20th he was one of the editors of the journal Gnomon and later editor of the more popular journal de:Die Antike.

Scientific networking

In the intellectual discussion circle Berliner Mittwochsgesellschaft (1863–1944), member since 1937, he met with scientists like Werner Heisenberg, Ferdinand Sauerbruch, Eugen Fischer and Eduard Spranger and also with some of the people, who planned to overthrow the NS-regime in the 20 July plot of 1944: Johannes Popitz, Ulrich von Hassell, Jens Jessen and General Ludwig Beck.

Memberships and Merits

In 1950 Stroux was awarded the National Prize of East Germany. and the Order of Polonia Restituta, 1954 the Patriotic Order of Merit of the GDR. He was elected as member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (1929) and 1930 elected as corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute, the Academia dei Lincei in Rome and the Kungl. Humanistiska Vetenskapssamfundet Lund. 1937 he became member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences and the Strassburger wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft, 1954 member of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

Major Works