Adolf Birch-Hirschfeld (1 October 1849, in

Kiel Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...

– 11 January 1917, in Gautzsch) was a German

medievalist The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

and Romance scholar. He was a brother of pathologist

Felix Victor Birch-Hirschfeld Felix Victor Birch-Hirschfeld (2 May 1842 – 19 November 1899) was a German pathologist who was a native of Kluvensieck bei Rendsburg. Biography In 1867 he received his medical doctorate from the University of Leipzig, where he studied under C ...

. He studied

philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...

at the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...

as a pupil of

Adolf Ebert Georg Karl Wilhelm Adolf Ebert (1 June 1820, in Kassel – 1 July 1890, in Leipzig) was a Romance philologist and literary historian. He was an author of literary studies as well as a publisher of periodicals, including the ''Jahrbuch für Romanis ...

and Friedrich Karl Theodor Zarncke. He received his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

in 1878, and for several years conducted research in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. In 1884 he became a professor of

modern languages A modern language is any human language that is currently in use as a native language. The term is used in language education to distinguish between languages which are used for day-to-day communication (such as French and German) and dead clas ...

at the

University of Giessen University of Giessen, official name Justus Liebig University Giessen (), is a large public research university in Giessen, Hesse, Germany. It is one of the oldest institutions of higher education in the German-speaking world. It is named afte ...

, and in 1891 returned to Leipzig as a professor of

Romance philology Romance studies or Romance philology (; ; ; ; ; ; ) is an academic discipline that covers the study of the languages, literatures, and cultures of areas that speak Romance languages. Romance studies departments usually include the study of Spa ...

Selected works

* ''Die Sage vom Gral; ihre Entwicklung und dichterische Ausbildung in Frankreich und Deutschland im 12. und 13. Jahrhundert'', 1877 – The story of the

Grail The Holy Grail (, , , ) is a treasure that serves as an important motif in Arthurian literature. Various traditions describe the Holy Grail as a cup, dish, or stone with miraculous healing powers, sometimes providing eternal youth or sustenanc ...

; its development and poetic formation in France and Germany in the 12th and 13th centuries. * ''Über die den provenzalischen Troubadours des zwölften und dreizehnten Jahrhunderts bekannten epischen Stoffe'', 1878 – On the

Provençal Provençal may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Provence, a region of France ** Provençal dialect, a dialect of the Occitan language, spoken in the southeast of France ** ''Provençal'', meaning the whole Occitan language * Provenca ...

troubadours of the 12th and 13th centuries. * ''Geschichte der französischen Litteratur seit Anfang des XVI. Jahrhunderts'', 1889 – History of French literature since the beginning of the 16th century. * ''Geschichte der französischen litteratur von den ältesten zeiten bis zur gegenwart'' (with

Hermann Suchier Hermann Suchier (11 December 1848, in Carlshafen – 3 July 1914, in Halle an der Saale) was a German Romance philologist of Huguenot ancestry. He is known for his studies on the history of the French language and the literary history of the ...

, 1900) – History of French literature from the earliest times to the present. * ''Das fünfte Buch des Pantagruel und sein Verhältnis zu den authentischen Büchern des Romans'', 1901 – The fifth book of

Pantagruel ''The Five Books of the Lives and Deeds of Gargantua and Pantagruel'' (), often shortened to ''Gargantua and Pantagruel'' or the (''Five Books''), is a pentalogy of novels written in the 16th century by François Rabelais. It tells the adventu ...

and its relationship to the authentic books of the novel. * ''Zum Gedächtnis an Richard Wülker'', 1910 – In memory of

Richard Paul Wülker Richard Paul Wülker, until 1884 surname spelled as Wülcker (29 July 1845, in Frankfurt – 8 August 1910, in Leipzig) was a German Anglist. He studied German and English philology at the universities of Berlin and Leipzig, and following milita ...

.Most widely held works about Adolf Birch-Hirschfeld
WorldCat Identities

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Birch-Hirschfeld, Adolf 1849 births 1917 deaths Writers from Kiel Leipzig University alumni Academic staff of Leipzig University Academic staff of the University of Giessen German medievalists Romance philologists