Victor Klemperer

Victor Klemperer (1881–1960) was a German Romance scholar, literary historian, and writer. After studying philosophy, Romance languages and literature, and German studies, he became a professor at the Technical University of Dresden in 1920; in 1935 he was dismissed because of his Jewish background. During the Nazi era, he kept diaries and later wrote “LTI: Lingua Tertii Imperii,” an analysis of the language of National Socialism, published in 1947. His other works include studies of French literature and “Curriculum Vitae.” His diaries from 1933 to 1945 began appearing in print in 1995. Klemperer was also a member of the East German Volkskammer and of the Academy of Sciences. He received the GDR National Prize in 1952 and was posthumously awarded the Geschwister Scholl Prize in 1995.