Friedrich Neumann (2 March 1889 – 12 December 1978) was a German philologist who specialized in

Germanic studies Germanic philology is the philological study of the Germanic languages, particularly from a comparative or historical perspective. The beginnings of research into the Germanic languages began in the 16th century, with the discovery of literary te ...

Biography

Friedrich Neumann was born

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in North Hesse, northern Hesse, in Central Germany (geography), central Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel (region), Kassel and the d ...

, Germany on 2 March 1889. From 1907 to 1913, Neumann studied

classical philology Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek and Roman literature and their original languages, ...

German literature German literature () comprises those literature, literary texts written in the German language. This includes literature written in Germany, Austria, the German parts of Switzerland and Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, South Tyrol in Italy ...

and

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

at the universities of

Marburg Marburg (; ) is a college town, university town in the States of Germany, German federal state () of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf Districts of Germany, district (). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has ...

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

and

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

. He received his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

at Göttingen in 1914. Neumann volunteered for service in the

German Army The German Army (, 'army') is the land component of the armed forces of Federal Republic of Germany, Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German together with the German Navy, ''Marine'' (G ...

during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, and served on the Western Front. Neumann completed 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 philology at Göttingen in 1921. He subsequently served as a professor 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 ...

. Since 1927, Neumann was Professor of German Philology at the University of Göttingen. Among his students were , and Gottfried Höfer. At Göttingen, Neumann served as Rector from 1933 to 1938, and Vice Rector from 1938 to 1945. He was a member of the

Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities The Göttingen Academy of Sciences (name since 2023 : )Note that the German ''Wissenschaft'' has a wider meaning than the English "Science", and includes Social sciences and Humanities. is the oldest continuously existing institution among the eig ...

from 1943 to 1945. A member of the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

, Neumann was fired from the University of Göttingen and expelled from the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities in 1945. He was subsequently rehabilitated, and retired from the University with a pension in 1954. Neumann was awarded the

Brothers Grimm Prize of the University of Marburg Brothers Grimm Prize of the University of Marburg is a literary prize of Hesse. Winners * 1943 Karl Helm * 1950 Georg Baeseke * 1952 Erik Rooth * 1954 Hermann Teuchert * 1957 Gesenius G. Kloeke * 1959 Luis Hammerich * 1961 Emil Öhmann * 19 ...

in 1971. He died in Göttingen on 12 December 1978.

Sources

* 1889 births 1978 deaths German Army personnel of World War I Germanic studies scholars German Germanists Writers from Kassel University of Göttingen alumni Academic staff of the University of Göttingen Academic staff of Leipzig University 20th-century German philologists {{Germany-linguist-stub

Biography

See also

Sources