Luise Haessler (

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at th ...

, Wisconsin, 20 September 1866 -

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

, 8 July 1955) was the first Chairman of the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

department at Brooklyn College. Upon her retirement, the Luise Haessler Scholarship was founded by her colleagues to recognize, each year, a graduating student who had done outstanding work in German.

Life and career

Luise Haessler received her early schooling in Milwaukee, where she was born. She earned an A.B. degree from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

in 1906, and her Ph.D from the same institution in 1934. Her dissertation on "Old High German Biteilen and Biskerien" was published in 1935 by the

Linguistic Society of America The Linguistic Society of America (LSA) is a learned society for the field of linguistics. Founded in New York City in 1924, the LSA works to promote the scientific study of language. The society publishes three scholarly journals: ''Language'', ...

, as

Language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...

Dissertation no. 19. She began her academic career as a teacher of German at

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also adm ...

, where she remained from 1907-1930. Dr. Haessler joined the faculty of Brooklyn College when it was founded in 1930, serving as the first Chairman of the German Department. She remained in that position until her retirement in 1937. After her retirement, she continued to live in New York City, pursuing her interests in music and in language. (She became a member of the

American Oriental Society The American Oriental Society was chartered under the laws of Massachusetts on September 7, 1842. It is one of the oldest learned societies in America, and is the oldest devoted to a particular field of scholarship. The Society encourages basi ...

due to her interest in the

Chinese language Chinese (, especially when referring to written Chinese) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in Greater China. About 1.3 billion people (or approximately 16% of the ...

.) She died at St. Luke's Hospital in 1955 and was buried in the family plot in Milwaukee. The political activist

Carl Haessler Carl Haessler (1888–1972) was an American political activist, conscription resister, newspaper editor, and trade union organizer. He is best remembered as an imprisoned conscientious objector during World War I and as the longtime head of the Fed ...

was her nephew.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Haessler, Luise 1866 births 1955 deaths Women linguists Brooklyn College faculty Professors of German in the United States University of Chicago alumni Hunter College faculty People from Milwaukee American people of German descent