Rudolf Much (7 September 1862 – 8 March 1936) was an Austrian philologist and historian who specialized in Germanic studies. Much was Professor and Chair of Germanic Linguistic History and Germanic Antiquity at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

, during which he tutored generations of students and published a number of influential works, some of which have remained standard works up to the present day.

Biography

Rudolf Much was born in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

on 7 September 1862. He was the son of the lawyer Dr. Matthäus Much (1832–1909), who was also a prehistorian. At an early age, Much gained extensive knowledge of ancient history form his father. From 1880 he studied classical philology, German philology and Nordic philology at the

. Passing his exams with great distinction, Much gained his PhD in 1887 with the dissertation ''On the Prehistory of Germany'' (''Zur Vorgeschichte Deutschlands''), and completed his habilitation in Germanic studies in 1892–1893 with a thesis on

Germania Germania ( ; ), also more specifically called Magna Germania (English: ''Great Germania''), Germania Libera (English: ''Free Germania''), or Germanic Barbaricum to distinguish it from the Roman provinces of Germania Inferior and Germania Superio ...

. Since 1901, was Assistant Professor of Celtic and Germanic Antiquity and Scandinavian Language and

Literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

at the University of Vienna. Since, 1904, Much served as Associate Professor, and then Professor of Germanic Linguistic History and Antiquity (''Germanische Sprachgeschichte und Altertumskunde'') at the University of Vienna. In this capacity he was also tasked with lecturing on Scandinavian literature. Throughout his academic career, Much served on the committees of many scholarly committees and was the editor of several scholarly journals. He declined to be the editor of the first edition of the '' Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde'', to which he was nevertheless one of the most important contributors. Much retired from his Chair as Professor Emeritus in 1934, but continued to lecture at the University. A popular professor, Much acquired a large following of students at the University of Vienna, many of whom would later acquire prominent positions in the field. Students of Wolfram include Otto Höfler, Julius Pokorny, Walter Steinhauser, Richard Wolfram, Siegfried Gutenbrunner, Dietrich Kralik, Eberhard Kranzmayer, Lily Weiser-Aall, Gilbert Trathnigg and Robert Stumpfl. Accordingly, Much's pan-German stance and perceptions had a profound uptake and dissemination in the fields of German ethnology, German dialectology, German linguistics and, most directly, German pre-medieval studies ("Deutsche Altertumskunde") that is lasting, often in unexpressed ways via one of his many students, to the present via an unbroken chain of knowledge transmission.

Research

Much's research centered on Germanic studies. He was particularly interested in Germanic linguistics,

Germanic paganism Germanic paganism or Germanic religion refers to the traditional, culturally significant religion of the Germanic peoples. With a chronological dating, chronological range of at least one thousand years in an area covering Scandinavia, the Bri ...

, relationships between the

Germanic peoples The Germanic peoples were tribal groups who lived in Northern Europe in Classical antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. In modern scholarship, they typically include not only the Roman-era ''Germani'' who lived in both ''Germania'' and parts of ...

and Celts, the origins of Germanic peoples, and the origin of the ethnonym '' Germani''. Much believed the Germanic peoples had originated in

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

, to where their ancestors had migrated at an unknown point in time from the

Proto-Indo-European homeland The Proto-Indo-European homeland was the prehistoric homeland of the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE), meaning it was the region where the proto-language was spoken before it split into the dialects from which the earliest Indo-European langu ...

. Much was unsure of the location of the Proto-Indo-European homeland, but sympathized with theories suggesting a north-central European location. He believed ''Germani'' had originally been the name of one Germanic tribe, which had subsequently been applied by outsiders to the Germanic peoples as a whole. Much's ''Die Germania des Tacitus'' (1937), is considered the standard work on ''

'' by

Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars. Tacitus’ two major historical works, ''Annals'' ( ...

, and continues to the basis for modern research on this book.

Personal life

Much was a German nationalist. He was in contact with the Pan-German movement of Georg Ritter von Schönerer, and was a member of the Deutsche Gemeinschaft. Much converted from

Roman Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

Protestantism Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

in 1893. Much never joined a political party, as he considered that incompatible with being a scholar. Much opposed the politicization of scholarship, and for this reason, he protested vigorously against appointing Nazis to positions at the University of Vienna. His son, the physician Horand Much, was executed by the Nazis in 1943.

Selected works

*''Deutsche Stammsitze − ein Beitrag zur ältesten Geschichte Deutschlands''. Niemeyer, Halle a. S. 1892. *''Der germanische Himmelsgott''. Niemeyer, Halle a. S. 1898. *''Deutsche Stammeskunde''. Göschen, Leipzig, Berlin (u.a.) 1900. *''Der Name Germanen''. Hölder, Wien 1920. *''Die Germania des Tacitus'', erläutert von Rudolf Much; Winter, Heidelberg 1937, 3. Auflage unter Bearbeitung durch Wolfgang Lange und Herbert Jankuhn, 1967.

Citations

Literature

* * * * Rudolf Simek: ''Rudolf Much''. In: '' Deutsche Biographische Enzyklopädie''. K. G. Saur Verlag, München u.a. 1996, * Wiesinger, Peter: ''150 Jahre Germanistik in Wien, außeruniversitäre Frühgermanistik und Universitätsgermanistik''; Peter Wiesinger/Daniel Steinbach, Wien: Ed. Praesens, 2001, 246 S.,

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Much, Rudolf 1862 births 1936 deaths Austrian non-fiction writers Austrian philologists Celtic studies scholars Converts to Lutheranism from Roman Catholicism Germanic studies scholars Austrian Germanists Indo-Europeanists Linguists of Germanic languages Members of the Austrian Academy of Sciences Old Norse studies scholars University of Vienna alumni Academic staff of the University of Vienna Writers on Germanic paganism