literary critic literary scholar philologist author
Ernst Robert Curtius was born on April 14, 1886 in Thann, Alsace (now France), into a north German family; Ernst Curtius, his grandfather, and Georg Curtius, his great-uncle, were both notable scholars. His family moved to Strasbourg after his father Friedrich Curtius was appointed president of the Lutheran Protestant Church of Augsburg Confession of Alsace and Lorraine.
Curtius received his Abitur from the Strasbourg Protestant gymnasium. He studied philology and philosophy in Strasbourg (doctorate in 1910), Berlin, and Heidelberg.
Ernst began teaching at the University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany in 1914, then he was a professor there from 1929 till 1951. Between 1920 and 1924 he was a professor at the University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany. Thereafter he worked as a professor at the University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany in 1924-1928.
