Wilhelm Czermak (Egyptologist)

Wilhelm Czermak (born September 10, 1889 in Vienna ; † March 13, 1953 ibid) was an Austrian Egyptologist , Africanist and university professor .

Life

Czermak came as the son of Medicine professor Wilhelm Czermak and grandson of psychiatrist Joseph Czermak and nephew of the physiologist Johann Nepomuk Czermak and painter Jaroslav Cermak from the family Czermak . He passed his matriculation examination at the Schottengymnasium in Vienna , then in 1907 he began to study oriental languages ​​at the University of Vienna . His teachers included Hermann Junker , Joseph von Karabacek and David Heinrich Müller . With the dissertation The nominal form Fûʿlûl in Altarabischen he was on July 11, 1911 to the Dr. phil. PhD . He then did voluntary military service and then from 1914 to 1918 military service in the First World War . In between he was a research assistant in the language studies of the Kordofān-Nubian dialect of the Academy of Sciences .

Czermak completed his habilitation in 1919 with the writing Kordofan-Nubische Studien . In 1925 he was appointed Associate Professor of African Studies at the University of Vienna. During this time his anti-Semitic involvement in various networks falls , for example in the “ Bear Cave ”, which prevented the appointment of Jewish and left-wing professors, and in the anti-Semitic secret society “ German Community ”. In addition, from 1927 to 1930 he was head of the Academic Legion , the military association of Viennese university students. In 1931 he rose as the successor to his teacher Hermann Junker to full professor of Egyptology and African studies and director of the institute of the same name. In October 1945 he became a full member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. In 1945/1946 he was Dean of the Philosophical Faculty and in 1952/1953 Rector of the University. In 1952/53 he was also President of the Austrian Rectors' Conference . He died in office at the university. He was buried at the Dornbacher Friedhof .

Czermak was a member of various learned societies, from 1939 a corresponding and from 1945 a real member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. He was also an honorary member of the KAV Bajuvaria Vienna .

Czermak is noted as number 5 (of 9) on the negative list of the Steindorff list , which was used to evaluate the behavior of German Egyptologists during the Nazi era in the German Reich.

Works (selection)

• The nominal form Fûʿlûl in Altarabischen , Vienna 1911 (dissertation).
• Kordofan-Nubian Studies , Vienna 1919 (habilitation thesis).
• On the language of the Ewe Negroes. A contribution to the science of the soul , Rauch, Innsbruck 1924.
• The rhythm of the Coptic language and its importance in speech formation , Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky, Vienna 1931.
• The sounds of the Egyptian language , 2 volumes, Vienna 1931–1934.

literature

• Felix Czeike : Historisches Lexikon Wien in 5 volumes , Volume 1, Kremayr + Scheriau, Vienna 2004, p. 603.
• Hans Pemmer : Important and interesting residents of Erdbergstrasse . In: Wiener Geschichtsblätter 21 (1966), p. 37.

Web links

• Wilhelm Czermak (Egyptologist) in the Vienna History Wiki of the City of Vienna
• Katharina Kniefacz: biography on the website of the University of Vienna (as of January 17, 2019)
• Erich Sommerauer: Wilhelm Czermak , personal lexicon at www.afrikanistik.at - The development of African studies in Austria (as of January 29, 2010).
• Entry about Wilhelm Czermak in Biolex, the web dictionary of the ÖCV, accessed on March 17, 2019

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Prague is sometimes given as the date of birth. The Vienna History Wiki refers to the personnel sheet of the University of Vienna. The article on afrikanistik.at also states Vienna.
2. ^ Klaus Taschwer : University of Vienna at the end of April 1945: The missed zero hour Der Standard , May 1, 2020.
3. ^ Grave site Wilhelm Czermak , Vienna, Dornbacher Friedhof, Group 16, No. 6.