Walter Jens und Bruno Snell: Zu einer fingierten Begegnung

Abstract

Walter Jens later often recounted that he wanted to study Classics in June/July 1941 and, due to the hostile attitude of the Nazi regime towards the humanistic grammar school, asked the Hamburg Greek scholar Bruno Snell whether it still made sense to study this subject. Snell, whom Jens claims to have greeted with „Guten Tag“ instead of the „Heil Hitler“ demanded at the time, replied: „But of course, on the condition that we lose the war, but we will.“ On the contrary, it was shown that the episode is implausible due to the global political situation at the time (the predominance of the Hitlerreich) and Jens’ political development and was later invented by Jens.