Karl Vietor, Professor of German, Dies; His Work Hailed by Colleagues

Funeral services were held yesterday for Karl Vietor, 58, Kuno Francke Professor of German Art and Culture. He died Thursday at the New England Medical Center in Boston after a long illness.

Vietor was world renowned as a Goethe scholar as well as an authority on modern German literature and on the Baroque period. His "Problems of German Baroque Literature" is the definitive work on the subject.

In addition to his greatness as a scholar, Vietor was universally admired as a teacher as well. His interest in his students combined with his superb command of the German language made him the favorite teacher in the German Department, Stuart P. Atkins, associate professor of German, commented.

Vietor came to the College in 1935 after teaching in Germany for 13 years at the universities of Frankfurt and Giessen. He became a United States citizen in 1944.

His works on Goethe, "The Young Goethe," "Goethe the Thinker," and "Goethe the Poet," have also been acclaimed as "a magnificent guide to his life and works."

Howard Mumford Jones, Professor of English, said last night that "his death deprives Harvard of one of those great figures which make the institution an international university. His wide command of the literatures of Europe was blended with a real knowledge of American culture. Leaving Germany for conscience's sake, he dedicated his life to the best American university ideals."

Memorial services will be held in Appleton Chapel at 2 p.m. Tuesday