27 Facts About Theodor Mommsen

Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen was a German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician and archaeologist.

Theodor Mommsen is widely regarded as one of the greatest classicists of the 19th century.

Theodor Mommsen's work regarding Roman history is still of fundamental importance for contemporary research.

Theodor Mommsen received the 1902 Nobel Prize in Literature for being "the greatest living master of the art of historical writing, with special reference to his monumental work, A History of Rome", after having been nominated by 18 members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences.

Theodor Mommsen was a prominent German politician, as a member of the Prussian and German parliaments.

Theodor Mommsen studied mostly at home, though he attended the Gymnasium Christianeum in Altona for four years.

Theodor Mommsen studied Greek and Latin and received his diploma in 1837.

Theodor Mommsen studied jurisprudence at Kiel from 1838 to 1843, finishing his studies with the degree of Doctor of Roman Law.

Thanks to a royal Danish grant, Theodor Mommsen was able to visit France and Italy to study preserved classical Roman inscriptions.

Theodor Mommsen became a research professor at the Berlin Academy of Sciences in 1857.

Theodor Mommsen later helped to create and manage the German Archaeological Institute in Rome.

In 1858 Theodor Mommsen was appointed a member of the Academy of Sciences in Berlin, and he became professor of Roman History at the University of Berlin in 1861, where he held lectures up to 1887.

Theodor Mommsen received high recognition for his academic achievements: foreign membership of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1859, the Prussian medal Pour le Merite in 1868, honorary citizenship of Rome, elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1870, and the Nobel prize in literature in 1902 for his main work Romische Geschichte.

Theodor Mommsen was an indefatigable worker who rose at five to do research in his library.

Theodor Mommsen had sixteen children with his wife Marie.

Theodor Mommsen published over 1,500 works, and effectively established a new framework for the systematic study of Roman history.

Theodor Mommsen pioneered epigraphy, the study of inscriptions in material artifacts.

At the beginning of his career, when he published the inscriptions of the Neapolitan Kingdom, Theodor Mommsen already had in mind a collection of all known ancient Latin inscriptions.

Theodor Mommsen received additional impetus and training from Bartolomeo Borghesi of San Marino.

Theodor Mommsen published the fundamental collections in Roman law: the Corpus Iuris Civilis and the Codex Theodosianus.

Theodor Mommsen was a delegate to the Prussian House of Representatives from 1863 to 1866 and again from 1873 to 1879, and delegate to the Reichstag from 1881 to 1884, at first for the liberal German Progress Party, later for the National Liberal Party, and finally for the Secessionists.

Theodor Mommsen was very concerned with questions about academic and educational policies and held national positions.

Theodor Mommsen strongly disagreed with Otto von Bismarck about social policies in 1881, advising collaboration between Liberals and Social Democrats and using such strong language that he narrowly avoided prosecution.

Theodor Mommsen strongly opposed antisemitism and wrote a harsh pamphlet in which he denounced von Treitschke's views.

Theodor Mommsen viewed a solution to antisemitism in voluntary cultural assimilation, suggesting that the Jews could follow the example of the people of Schleswig-Holstein, Hanover and other German states, which gave up some of their special customs when integrating in Prussia.

Theodor Mommsen was a vehement spokesman for German nationalism, maintaining a militant attitude towards the Slavic nations, to the point of advocating the use of violence against them.

Theodor Mommsen's birthplace Garding in the west of Schleswig styles itself "Mommsen-Stadt Garding".