All Scholars

At Freiburg, Kapp became friends with Tycho von Wilamowitz-Moellendorf (1885-1914), the son of the great Hellenist Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff (1848-1931). Tycho was at work on his study, The Dramatic Technique of Sophocles when both young men joined the German effort at the front. In October 1914, Wilamowitz-Moellendorff was killed in battle. Kapp survived the front and with the war over, he edited and saw his friend’s book through to publication in 1917. Kapp arrived at Munich where his Doktorvater Eduard Schwartz (1858-1940), himself a student of Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorf at Greifswald, was teaching. In 1920, after completing his Habilitation, Kapp succeeded Rudolf Pfeiffer (1889-1979) as Ordinarius at the recently established Hamburg University, soon to be joined in 1931 by Bruno Snell (1896-1986). 

Although Kapp himself was not vulnerable under the 1933 Gesetz zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums (Law on the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service), there was insufficient evidence that his wife was not Jewish and Kapp was obliged to retire in October 1937.

            Kapp’s true home was the lecture room, to which he devoted most of his scholarly effort. His lectures were engaging and informative and above all, impressive in their breadth and clarity. He did not publish very much. His dissertation and habilitation papers establish the central role that Aristotle’s logic would play in his career. He became the German authority on aristotle’s logic and contributed the article on “Syllogism” to the Pauly-Wissowa. He then turned to Plato’s theory of ideas. A reading of Cicero led him to a new theory on Saturnian verse. 

After a short stay in England, Kapp and his family emigrated to the US in 1939. He was given a lectureship at Columbia for the duration of World War II. At Columbia he published the work by which he is remembered, Greek Foundations of Traditional Logic, which was well received and ensured his professorship in 1948. After the war, Kapp longed to return to Germany and sought help from his former colleague Snell. In 1947 he was reinstated to the faculty at Hamburg though Columbia had tried to keep him by promoting him to full professor. Unfortunately, the wartime Ordinarius (1939-45), Ulrich Knoche (1902-68), had been denazified in 1949 and Kapp was obliged to relinquish the chair to Knoche in 1950. Kapp continued to lecture and prolong his friendship with Snell, even contributing to his Festschrift. Following his retirement, he moved to Munich where he lived another two decades.