Rhodes Scholars mourn Professor Sir Fritz Caspari (1914-2010)
It is with great sadness that we announce the death in London on 1 December of Professor Sir Fritz Caspari (Germany & St John's 1933), a distinguished scholar of intellectual history and post-war German diplomat - the last-surviving of pre-war German Rhodes Scholars, greatly admired and much loved in the Rhodes community and far beyond.
Fritz Caspari was born on 21 March 1914, before the outbreak of World War I, and, as an undergraduate at Heidelberg University, was elected to a Rhodes Scholarship in December 1932. He read economics and then modern history at St John's College, Oxford, 1933-36, and then taught at Southwestern College in Tennessee in 1936-37. From 1937 to 1939, he taught and completed a doctorate at Hamburg University. Returning to the US in 1939, he taught and worked as a librarian in colleges and universities there from 1939 to 1954. In 1944, he married Elita Galdos Walker, and they had two sons and two daughters.
In 1954, Dr Caspari returned to Germany to join the Foreign Service of the Federal Republic of Germany. His service included periods in the German embassies in London and at the United Nations. In 1969, he was appointed deputy head of the Office of the President of the Federal Republic of Germany and then served as German Ambassador to Portugal, 1974-79, helping in the democratisation of Portugal after the revolution.
Throughout, he retained his strong interest in the history of thought, and from 1955 served as Honorary Professor of English Intellectual History at the University of Cologne.
Elected an Honorary Fellow of St John's College, Oxford, in 1972, Professor Caspari was knighted by the Queen in 1972 (KCVO), was awarded the Grand Cross of the German Order of Merit in 1974, and was honoured with Portuguese and other decorations.
Fritz Caspari was greatly admired and much loved in the Rhodes community. In 1938, he served on the last selection committee for the Rhodes Scholarships from Germany before World War II, and in 1969, served on the first selection committee for the re-instituted Rhodes Scholarships from Germany after the war.
Sir Fritz was warmly remembered at the largest ever gathering of German Rhodes Scholars at a Rhodes dinner in Munich last Friday night - for a report of this, please click here. He was also warmly mentioned at a reception at Rhodes House in September to mark the 40th anniversary of the re-institution of the German Rhodes Scholarships - a reception he had wished to attend, but been prevented by illness from attending. For a report of it, please click here.
In February 2010, Professor Caspari greatly enjoyed meeting with two current Rhodes Scholars, Katharina Uhl and Lisa Herzog, at his London home. The text of their interview with him is available here.
Sir Fritz was also interviewed on video in September and extracts from this interview, supplemented with an interview with his son Conrad, have been edited into a video tribute to his remarkable life. It appears below.
A tribute to Professor Sir Fritz Caspari (21 March 1914 - 1 December 2010) also appears here.
A service of thanksgiving for the life of Sir Fritz Caspari was held at St Mary's Church, Compton, near Petersfield, West Sussex, on Monday 20 December 2010 at 11.30 a.m.
The service included readings from Sir Thomas More (who was central to Sir Fritz's work on Renaissance humanism from the 1930s until his death) and Goethe, and a prayer of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (who, like Fritz Caspari, was an irreconcilable opponent of the Nazi regime in Germany, and who was executed in 1945).
Among the mourners was the German Ambassador to London, His Excellency Georg Boomgaarden, who laid a wreath of flowers in tribute to Sir Fritz on behalf of Germany.
Addresses were given by Sir Fritz's son, Conrad Caspari, a granddaughter, Maya Caspari, and by the Warden of Rhodes House, Dr Donald Markwell.
For the eulogy by Dr Markwell, please click here. For Maya Caspari's tribute, please click here. For the address by Conrad Caspari, please click here.
Sir Fritz was buried in the churchyard of St Mary's, Compton, where his wife, Elita Walker Caspari, and elder son, Hans Michael Caspari (1945-1980), are also buried.
An obituary of Sir Fritz appeared in The Times on 3 January 2011.
For an obituary of Sir Fritz in The Telegraph (online 25 January 2011), click here.
This video, based on interviews in September 2010 with Sir Fritz Caspari and his son, Conrad Caspari, reflects aspects of Sir Fritz's remarkable life:
Video produced by Angel Sharp Media.
