Karl Vossler (6.9.1872 Hohenheim – 18.5.1949 Munich)

The son of an agricultural scientist, Vossler studied German and Romance philology in Tübingen, Geneva, Rome, Strasbourg, and Heidelberg. After receiving his doctorate in 1897 and his habilitation (postdoctoral lecturing qualification) in 1900, both in Heidelberg, he took over the chair of Romance studies in Würzburg in 1909. From 1911 onward, he taught classes at the University of Munich.

Humanistically educated and humanistically minded, Vossler was an early vocal opponent of National Socialism and antisemitism and he supported the Weimar Republic and its symbols. In 1926, at the so-called translocation jubilee commemorating the relocation of the University from Landshut to Munich 100 years earlier, he, in his capacity as rector, had the Republic's flags raised on the university buildings and made the case for including Jewish associations in the celebrations. His efforts were to no avail, however, due to concerted resistance on the part of the other fraternities. At the celebration of the founding of the Third Reich in January 1927, Vossler insisted on the participation of Jewish associations, which prompted the color-wearing fraternities to boycott the event. As the intended keynote speaker also canceled, Vossler himself gave a bold speech against the political myths and platitudes of the ethnic-chauvinist and National Socialist youth and called the universities' commitment to the republic a necessity.

He was removed from his post as full professor on the grounds of ‘political unreliability‘ on October 1, 1937. In the eyes of the National Socialist German Lecturers League, he was an ideological opponent of Nazi ideology and an exponent of "the alliance between democracy and papism" (Böhm, p. 586).

As rector, Vossler collaborated on the reconstruction of the university from March to August 1946. Until his death, he lived in Munich, where a street is named for him.