Deutsch Intern
Chair of Comparative Philology

VGSP in Würzburg

2019 until today: Daniel Kölligan

Chair since 2019

Biography
Daniel Kölligan studied Historical-Comparative Linguistics, Philosophy, Classics and Romance Studies at the University of Cologne, where he completed his doctorate with a thesis on verbal suppletion in Greek. From 2005-2008 he was a Research Assistant at the University of Oxford and Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College. In 2015, he completed his habilitation in Cologne with a thesis on the historical grammar of Classical Armenian. Since October 2019, he is Chair of Comparative Linguistics at the Institute of Classical Studies at the Julius-Maximilians-University of Würzburg.

Publications

2014–2019: Karin Stüber

Chairholder from 2014 to 2019

Main research interests:
Nominal morphology of Indo-European and especially Celtic, syntax of Celtic languages, language change, especially grammaticalisation, syntax of verbal abstracta.

Biography
Karin Stüber began her studies in Greek linguistics and literature, Indo-European studies and history of religion in Zurich from 1989 to 1995. This was followed by doctoral studies from 1995 to 1998 at the Department of Old and Middle Irish at the National University of Ireland. Finally, she obtained a teaching license and held the Chair of Comparative Linguistics at the University of Würzburg from 2014 to 2019.

Publications 

1996 Zur dialektalen Einheit des Ostionischen. Innsbruck. ISBN 3-85124-657-8.

2002 Die primären s-Stämme des Indogermanischen. Wiesbaden. ISBN 3-89500-289-5.

2005 Schmied und Frau. Studien zur gallischen Epigraphik und Onomastik. Budapest. ISBN 963-8046-55-4.

2009 Der altirische do-Infinitiv – eine verkannte Kategorie. Bremen. ISBN 978-3-934106-69-7.

 

1989–2013: Heinrich Hettrich

Chairholder from 1989 to 2013

Main research interests
Greek, Latin and Vedic Sanskrit especially in the field of (case) syntax, German studies and Indo-European culture.

Biography
Heinrich Hettrich studied comparative Indo-European linguistics, classical philology, Indo-Iranian studies and older German studies at the University of Giessen and the University of Saarland. He completed his Master's degree there in 1971 and subsequently wrote his doctoral thesis on tense and aspect in Ancient Greek. In 1984 he habilitated in Indo-European linguistics at the University of Munich with a thesis on hypotaxis in Vedic. After teaching at the universities of Salzburg and Zurich and holding a C4 professorship in comparative linguistics at the University of Marburg, he came to Würzburg. Here he held the Chair of Comparative Linguistics from 1989 to 2014. From 1996 to 2008, he served on the board of the Indo-Germanic Society and was editor of the society's journal Kratylos.

Publications

1969–1988: Günter Neumann

Chairholder from 1969 to 1988.

Main research interests
Anatolian languages, especially Hittite

Biography
After the Second World War Neumann began his studies in Leipzig, but then moved to the University of Göttingen. In 1958 he habilitated with a thesis on the survival of Hittite and Luwian linguistic material in Hellenistic and Roman times. Neumann was appointed successively to the University of Bonn, the University of Giessen and the University of Würzburg. He remained in Würzburg until his retirement. He was elected a corresponding member in 1968 and a full member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences in 1971. Since 1988 he was a corresponding member of the Braunschweig Scientific Society.

Publications

1969–1971: Hermann Mittelberger

Main research interests
His research was concerned with Proto-Indo-European, the Anatolian and Indo-Aryan languages (Sanskrit, Middle Indian), Iranian (Old Persian, Avestic, Middle Iranian), Greek, Latin and the other languages of ancient Italy, as well as Germanic, especially Gothic.


Biography
Mittelberger studied Indo-European linguistics, classical philology and Indology (Sanskrit) at the University of Vienna. In 1962 he completed his studies with a doctorate in Indo-European linguistics. From 1957 to 1962 Mittelberger was an assistant at the Institute of Indology in Vienna. In 1963 he became a research assistant in Indo-European linguistics and Hittite language at the Institut voor Osterse Talen at Utrecht University. From 1964 to 1971 he was an assistant and private lecturer at the Institute for Linguistics at the University of Würzburg, where he habilitated in Comparative Indo-European Linguistics in 1969. He was then appointed to the chair of Comparative Indo-European Linguistics at the University of Graz in 1971. At the same time, he was also director of the Institute for Translator and Interpreter Training in Graz from 1973 to 1988.

1963–1968: Heinz Kronasser

1963 to 1968 Chair

Main research interests
Hittite language

Biography
Kronasser studied at the University of Vienna and received his doctorate in Graz in 1937. A year later he passed the examination for the teaching profession in Latin and Greek and was employed at the II Staatsgymnasium in Graz. During the Second World War he was sent to the army and worked for an intelligence unit. Afterwards he resumed his work as a grammar school teacher. In 1952 Kronasser habilitated and was confirmed as a private lecturer on 16 August 1952. A year later he was appointed to the chair of linguistics at the University of Vienna. In 1960 he was elected a corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and in 1962 a full member. In 1963, Kronasser accepted an appointment to the Indo-Germanic chair at the University of Würzburg and became a corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Germany.
 

Publications

1956 Vergleichende Laut- und Formenlehre des Hethitischen. Heidelberg: Winter.

1963 Die Umsiedelung der Schwarzen Gottheit. Das hethitische Ritual Kub XXIX 4 (des Ulippi). Wien/Köln/Weimar: Böhlau.

1966 Etymologie der hethitischen Sprache. Mehrbändiges Werk. Wiesbaden : Harrassowitz.

1968 Handbuch der Semasiologie. Kurze Einführung in die Geschichte, Problematik und Terminologie der Bedeutungslehre. Heidelberg: Winter.

1979 Einführung in die Sprachgeschichte. In: Wilhelm Gemoll: Griechisch-Deutsches Schul- und Handwörterbuch. 9. Auflage, durchgesehen und erweitert von Karl Vretska. München/Wien 1979.

 

1962–1965: Wolfgang Meid

Private lecturer 1962–1963, university professor 1963–1965.

Main research interests
Celtic languages; culture of the Indo-Europeans

Biography
Meid studied comparative linguistics, classical philology and Indology at the universities of Frankfurt am Main and Tübingen. He received his doctorate in Tübingen in 1955. After teaching at the Universities of Dublin and Würzburg, he became professor at the University of Innsbruck in 1965 and emeritus professor there in 1999.
Meid was editor and publisher of the series "Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Kulturwissenschaft" and "Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft" as well as co-editor of Archaeolingua (Budapest) and author of 30 monographs and over 130 articles in journals and anthologies.
 

Publications

1955 Personalia mit -no-Suffix. Studien zu den mittels -no- gebildeten westindogermanischen Führer- und Herrscherbezeichnungen, Götternamen und verwandten Personalia. Dissertation, Universität Tübingen

1963 Die indogermanischen Grundlagen der altirischen absoluten und konjunkten Verbalflexion. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden. (zugl. Habilitationsschrift, Universität Würzburg).

1971 Das germanische Praeteritum. Indogermanische Grundlagen und Entfaltung im Germanischen (Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft; 3). Universität, Innsbruck

 

19591961: Manfred Mayrhofer

Chair from 1959–1961.

Main research interests
Ancient Indian; especially known for his Etymological Dictionary of Ancient Indo-Aryan.

Biography
Mayrhofer worked at the University of Würzburg from 1953, initially as a guest lecturer, from 1958 as an associate professor, and from 1959 as a full professor. From 1962 to 1966 he taught as a full professor in Saarbrücken, from 1966 until his retirement in 1990 as a full professor at the University of Vienna.

Publications

1966 Die Indo-Arier im alten Vorderasien. O. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden.

1974 Die Arier im Vorderen Orient, ein Mythos? Mit einem bibliographischen Supplement. Verlag der Österr. Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien.

1977 Die avestischen Namen. IPNB I/1. Verlag der Österr. Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien.

1979 Die altiranischen Namen. Verlag der Österr. Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien.

1981 Nach hundert Jahren. Ferdinand de Saussures Frühwerk und seine Rezeption durch die heutige Indogermanistik. Carl Winter Universitätsverlag, Heidelberg.

1992/1998/2001 Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindoarischen (EWAia). I–III. Carl Winter Universitätsverlag, Heidelberg . ISBN 3-533-03826-2.

2004 Die Hauptprobleme der indogermanischen Lautlehre seit Bechtel. Verlag der Österr. Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien.

2005 Die Fortsetzung der indogermanischen Laryngale im Indo-Iranischen. Verlag der Österr. Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien.

2009 Indogermanistik: Über Darstellungen und Einführungen von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart. Verlag der Österr. Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien.
 

1952–1958: Alfons Nehring

Main research interests
Problems of general linguistics (sentence theory), ethnology and religious studies; critical examination of modern linguistics, especially after confrontation with theories of American structuralism.

Biography
Alfons Nehring studied philology at the Universities of Breslau and Berlin. He received his doctorate in 1915 and his habilitation in 1923. From 1930 to 1933 he held a professorship for comparative linguistics at the University of Würzburg. When the National Socialists came to power, he was forced to resign and emigrated to the USA (for detailed information, see the entry on Nehring in the project Verfolgung und Auswanderung deutschsprachiger Sprachforscher 1933-1945). There he taught at Marquette University in Milwaukee from 1938 to 1943. He then received an appointment at Fordham University from 1943 to 1952. In New York he was a founding member of the Council for a Democratic Germany. In 1952 he was reappointed to his old post in Würzburg and returned to Germany. He remained in Würzburg until his retirement in 1958.

 

Publikationen (Auswahl)

1890-1967 Studien zur Theorie des Nebensatzes Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. Göttingen.

1950 The problem of the linguistic sign. Munksgaard. Copenhagen.

1961 Zur "Realität" des Urindogermanischen. Offprint - Amsterdam: North-Holland Publ. Co., S. 357 - 368.

1962 Strukturalismus und Sprachgeschichte. Sonderdruck - Innsbruck: Sprachwiss. Inst. der Leopold-Franzens-Univ. Innsbruck, S. 21 - 30.

1963 Sprachzeichen und Sprechakte. Winter Univ. Verlag. Heidelberg. S. 227.

 

1948–1951: Anton Scherer

Biography
Anton Scherer was among the first students to resume his studies at the LMU Munich after the Second World War. He completed his doctorate under Ferdinand Sommer and in 1947 received the first Venia Legendi of the post-war years, awarded by the Indo-Germanic Linguistics Seminar. In 1948, he became a full professor at the University of Würzburg, before being appointed to the University of Heidelberg in 1951, where he remained a full professor until his retirement in 1969.

Publications

1956 Grundfragen der Sprachwissenschaft. Quelle & Meyer. Heidelberg.

1975 Handbuch der lateinischen Syntax. Indogermanische Bibliothek. 1. Reihe: Lehr- und Handbücher. Carl Winter. Heidelberg.

 

1947–1973: Anne Heiermeier

Main research interests
Celtic languages, Indo-European etymologies and roots

Biography
Anne Heiermeier was head of the Institute of Celtic and Irish Studies from 1947–1973, which was later merged with the Chair of Comparative Linguistics (then Seminar for Comparative Linguistics).
 

Publications

1955/1956 Indogermanische Etymologien des Keltischen. Würzburg.

1979 Lat. combrētum. University Press. Dublin.

1980  Die indogermanisch orientierte ursprachliche Konzeption Kŭendhro-, Kŭondhro-, Kŭondhnā : Eine etymolog. u. lexikograph. Studie zu d. Praktiken indogerman. WurzelKonstruktionen. Dublin.

 

1934–1947: Hans Krahe

Main research interests
Germanic Etymologies

Biography
Krahe was associate professor of comparative linguistics at the University of Würzburg from 1934 and full professor from 1946. From 1947 to 1950 he was professor at the University of Heidelberg and finally, from 1950 until his death, professor of comparative linguistics and Slavic studies and head of the Indological and Slavic Seminar at the University of Tübingen. He had been a member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities since 1948.

Publications

1925 Die alten balkanillyrischen geographischen Namen. Carl Winter, Heidelberg.

1929 Lexikon altillyrischer Personennamen. Carl Winter, Heidelberg.

1950 Das Venetische. seine Stellung im Kreise der verwandten Sprachen. Carl Winter, Heidelberg.

1963 Germanische Sprachwissenschaft. I. Einleitung und Lautlehre. de Gruyter, Berlin.

1966 Indogermanische Sprachwissenschaft. I. Einleitung und Lautlehre. de Gruyter, Berlin.

1967 Germanische Sprachwissenschaft. II. Formenlehre. de Gruyter, Berlin.

1969 Indogermanische Sprachwissenschaft. III. Wortbildungslehre. de Gruyter, Berlin.

 

1930–1933: Alfons Nehring

Main research interests
Problems of general linguistics (sentence theory), ethnology and religious studies

Biography
Alfons A. Nehring studied philology at the Universities of Breslau and Berlin. He received his doctorate in 1915 and his habilitation in 1923. From 1930 to 1933 he held a professorship for comparative linguistics at the University of Würzburg. Due to the Nazi takeover, he was forced to resign and emigrated to the USA (for detailed information, see the entry on Nehring in the project Verfolgung und Auswanderung deutschsprachiger Sprachforscher 1933–1945). He later returned to the University of Würzburg.

1920–1929: Wilhelm Havers

Main research interests
Indo-European case syntax

Biography
In 1899 Havers began studying philology and linguistics in Tübingen, Munich and Münster. In 1903 Havers passed the state examination in classical philology at the University of Münster. Havers continued his studies at the University of Leipzig from 1903 to 1905. On 13 December 1905, he received his doctorate with a dissertation on Das Pronomen der Jener-Deixis im Griechischen. On 18 December 1909, Havers habilitated at the University of Strasbourg with studies on the case syntax of Indo-European languages. He taught in Strasbourg and Leipzig as a private lecturer from 1909 to 1915. In 1915 he was appointed to the University of Bern for Indo-Germanic linguistics and classical philology. From 1920 to 1929 Havers held the post of professor at the University of Würzburg. He then moved to the University of Breslau, and finally to Vienna in 1937, where he worked until his retirement in 1953. During National Socialism, his Catholic religiosity made him "a contact point for students [...] who stood in religious opposition to the regime in Vienna after 1938" (cf. the entry on Havers in the project Verfolgung und Auswanderung deutschsprachiger Sprachforscher 1933–1945).

Publications

1911 Untersuchungen zur Kasussyntax der indogermanischen Sprachen. Trübner, Straßburg [De Gruyter].

1928 Die Unterscheidung von Bedingungen und Triebkräften beim Studium der menschlichen Rede. Carl Winter, Heidelberg (Sonderdruck aus: Germanisch-Romanische Monatsschrift, Jg. 16, S. 13–31.

1931 Handbuch der erklärenden Syntax. Ein Versuch zur Erforschung der Bedingungen und Triebkräfte in Syntax und Stilistik. Carl Winter, Heidelberg.

1946 Neuere Literatur zum Sprachtabu (Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, Philosophisch-Historische Klasse, Sitzungsberichte, 223. Band, 5. Abhandlung). Rohrer, Wien.

1947 Zur Entstehung eines sogenannten sakralen u-Elementes in den indogermanischen Sprachen. Wien (Sonderdruck aus: Anzeiger der Philosophisch-Historischen Klasse der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Nr. 15, S. 139–165.

 

1872–1920: Julius Jolly

Main research interests
His research interests included Indian law and Indian medicine.

Biography
Jolly first studied comparative linguistics in Munich, later Iranian studies and Sanskrit in Berlin and Leipzig. In 1871 he received his doctorate in Munich with a thesis on "Die Moduslehre in den altiranische Dialekten". In 1872, Jolly habilitated at the Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg and, in the summer semester of 1873, began teaching Sanskrit as a private lecturer. In 1886 he was appointed professor of Sanskrit and comparative linguistics. After his retirement in 1920, he continued teaching until 1928.

Publications

1872. Ein Kapitel vergleichender Syntax : der Conjunctiv und Optativ und die Nebensätze im Zend und Altpersischen in Vergleich mit dem Sanskrit und Griechischen. München.

1873. Geschichte des Infinitivs im Indogermanischen. München.

1880. The Institutes of Vishnu. New York. 

1901. Medicin. In: Bühler, G. / Kielhorn, F. Grundriss der indo-arischen Philologie und Altertumskunde. 3. Bd. 10. Heft. Strassburg.