Classen studied classics at Göttingen and Hamburg.[1] His academic teachers include Ernst Zinn and Bruno Snell in Hamburg and Kurt Latte in Göttingen. After being promoted to Dr. phil. in 1952 he took the first and second state examination in 1952 and 1956, respectively. He attained the B. Litt. at the University of Oxford in 1956[1] and worked as a lecturer of classics at the University of Ibadan for three years. After his return to Germany (in 1959) he worked as a lecturer at the Göttingen university, completing his Habilitation in 1961.
From 1966 on Classen held classics chairs at three universities: In 1966 he was called to one of the two newly instituted chair of classics at the Technische Universität Berlin. From there he went to Würzburg in 1969, until going to Göttingen in 1973 where he stayed the remainder of his career until his death in 2013.
As a classicist, Classen had an exceptional international reputation. He was invited as visiting professor to the University of Texas at Austin (1967/68) and as visiting member to the Institute for Advanced Study (1975). He also was visiting professor in Changchun (1992), Tartu (1994 and 1996), Rome (1995 and 1997) and visiting fellow at All Souls College, Oxford (1980) and Merton College, Oxford (1995).[1] In 2000, the University of Tartu awarded him the honorary degree of Dr. phil.
His main scientific interests included Ancient Historiography, Greek and Roman Rhetorics, Roman Satire, Humanism and the History of Classical Scholarship. He was the author and editor of several monographs and essays on those subjects, his works being published in German, English, Serbian and Estonian.
Classen died on 29 September 2013, aged 85. He was survived by his wife Roswitha and their three sons.[1]
Untersuchungen zu Platons Jagdbildern. Hamburg 1951. Revised edition, Berlin 1960
Sprachliche Deutung als Triebkraft platonischen und sokratischen Philosophierens. Munich 1959
Sophistik. Darmstadt 1976
Die Stadt im Spiegel der Descriptiones und Laudes urbium in der antiken und mittelalterlichen Literatur bis zum Ende des zwölften Jahrhunderts. Hildesheim/New York 1980
