Friedrich Klingner (7 July 1894 – 26 January 1968) was a German Classical Philologist. He worked at increasingly senior levels as a university professor, successively at the universities of Hamburg (1925–1930), Leipzig (1930–1947) and Munich (1947–1963). Viewed by admirers as one of the leading latinists of his generation, he advanced the study of Latin literature, producing important studies of Sallust, Virgil, Horace and Tibullus which continue to engage scholars. Biography Friedrich Klingner was born into a Protestant family in Dresden, where he also attended school. Albrecht Klingner (1865–1939), his father, worked as a teacher. His paternal grandfather had been a master shoemaker. Friedrich Klingner's mother, born Martha Pönitz (1865–1941), was also the child of a teacher. He began his university studies in Classical Philology at Tübingen in 1914 but was obliged to abandon this course after one term because of the outbreak of the First World War. He was involved in the fighting, but was able to resume his studies at Berlin where his teachers included Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Eduard Norden and Paul Friedländer. He was influenced, in particular, by Friedländer. When Friedländer took a promotion which involved a switch to the University of Marburg, Klingner followed him there. It was at Marburg that in the space of just three years he passed his state teaching exams and received both his doctorate (1921) and habilitation (1923). His doctoral dissertation was published in the Philologische Untersuchungen series: it concerned The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius. In 1923 he returned to Berlin where he took appointments as a research assistant and librarian. He became part of the circle around Werner Jaeger, and came to know, among others, Otto Regenbogen, who became a friend. After only two years in Berlin, and still aged only 31, Klingner accepted a full professorship at the newly established University of Hamburg. The teaching chair in classical philology had fallen vacant with the early death of the first incumbent, Otto Plasberg. Klingner remained at Hamburg till 1930. In 1930 he moved to Leipzig where he succeeded Richard Heinze (who had died) and whose seat as a member of the Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities he also took over. He taught at Leipzig till 1947, which means he was there throughout the twelve Hitler years. The new government took power in January 1933 and rapidly transformed the country into a one-party dictatorship. In November 1933 Friedrich Klingner was