Kurt Treu (15 September 1928 – 6 June 1991) was a German classical philologist and papyrologist noted for his scholarly work on early Christian Greek papyri. Born in Karja on the Baltic island of Saaremaa (then part of Estonia), he was the son of a Baltic‑German pastor. During World II his family was displaced and, after the war, he completed his secondary education in Dingelstädt, Thuringia, before enrolling at the University of Jena, where he studied classical philology and English literature.
After receiving his diploma in 1952, Treu worked as a research assistant for the Commission for Late Antique Religious History of the Berlin Academy of Sciences while pursuing his doctorate, which he obtained in 1956 with a dissertation on the Greek author Synesios Dion. He achieved his habilitation in 1963 at the Humboldt University of Berlin.
Treu’s academic career was largely tied to the East German research institutions. He served as managing editor of the series Greek Christian Writers of the First Centuries and the series Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur (Texts and Studies on the History of Early Christian Literature). Political constraints in the German Democratic Republic limited the proportion of his time that could be devoted to these editorial duties.
His most influential contributions lie in papyrology and the study of early Christian literature. Treu published extensively on Greek literary papyri of Christian content, notably editing the multi‑volume Greek Literary Papyri of Christian Content II, a project completed shortly before his death and published posthumously in 1993. He also edited fourteen volumes of the Archiv für Papyrusforschung (Archive for Papyrus Research) between 1969 and 1989. His habilitation thesis, Die griechischen Handschriften des Neuen Testaments in der UdSSR (1966), received considerable international attention.
In addition to his scholarly editions, Treu translated a range of Greek poets and authors, including Alciphron, Menander, Aelian, Herodas, and the Deipnosophistae of Athenaeus, often collaborating with his wife, the classicist Ursula Treu. Their joint anthology Süßer als Liebe ist nichts. Gedanken und Gefühle griechischer Frauen (1988) presented selections of Greek women’s thoughts and feelings.
Political changes following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 opened new opportunities for Treu, but he died unexpectedly on 6 June 1991 in Vienna before he could resume many of his planned projects, including the re‑issuance of the Texte und Untersuchungen series.
Kurt Treu is remembered for his meticulous editorial work, his contributions to the understanding of early Christian Greek papyri, and his role in advancing papyrological scholarship in the German‑speaking academic world.
