[1] He began his university studies in Classical Philology at Tübingen in 1914 but was obliged to abandon this course after one term because of the outbreak of the First World War.

He was involved in the fighting, but was able to resume his studies at Berlin where his teachers included Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Eduard Norden and Paul Friedländer.

[3] In 1930 he moved to Leipzig where he succeeded Richard Heinze (who had died) and whose seat as a member of the Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities he also took over.

The full horrors of National Socialist government had yet to unfold, but as they did, and more particularly after 1945, those who had signed the declaration suffered varying levels of reputational damage.

[5] Leipzig was liberated in 1944 by US forces, but US occupation of the region was not envisaged in the agreements that the allied governments had already established, and in July 1944 the Americans withdrew and the Soviets moved in.

In 1947, however, with the drift of future political developments becoming increasingly clear, Friedrich Klingner received and accepted an invitation to move again, this time to the University of Munich (in the American occupation zone).

Along with Hans Drexler (though the two were working independently of one another) he refuted the thesis that the historical writings of Sallust were simply partisan presentations on behalf of one particular political party.

In 1930 he turned his focus to the life-time output of Virgil, identifying a structural unity in a body of work that was many decades in the making.

Klingner published works by the lyric poet Horace after painstaking analysis of the manuscripts, contributing insights and clarifications in a new critical edition which, half a century after his death, continues to command wide respect.