Albert Höfer (Linguist)

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Albert Hoefer in 1849

Albert Karl Gustav Hoefer (born October 2, 1812 in Greifswald ; † January 9, 1883 ibid) was a German linguist and Indo-Europeanist .

Life

Albert Hoefer, son of the City Court director Carl Andreas Hoefer (1781-1853) and Christiane Sophie Waldeck († 1834), a sister-in-law of the mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauß , studied linguistics as well as classical and oriental at the universities of Greifswald, Göttingen and Berlin from 1832 Indian and German philology . In particular, Johann Gottfried Ludwig Kosegarten , Karl Otfried Müller , August Boeckh , Jacob Grimm , Franz Bopp and others had a significant influence on his further career. Franz Bopp dedicated his dissertation “ de Prakrita dialecto ” to Hoefer, with which he obtained his doctorate on April 29, 1837. During his studies in 1832 he became a member of the Old Greifswald Burschenschaft / Arminia as a comment boy .

On August 1, 1840, Albert Hoefer completed his habilitation in Berlin and was then appointed as an associate professor for the subjects of oriental languages, comparative linguistics, and old German philology at the University of Greifswald . But only six months later, with the support of the government, Hoefer went to London and Oxford for 18 months , where he broadened and deepened his knowledge of Sanskrit and prakrit , primarily through cooperation with the East India House . With the support of Alexander von Humboldt and Christian Karl Josias von Bunsen and thanks to Hoefer's connections in London, King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia was later able to buy Sir Robert Chambers' valuable Sanskrit manuscripts for the royal library in Berlin, which was then published by Hoefer himself were evaluated, revised and cataloged in Berlin.

As Hoefer's hopes of becoming the successor of the sick Franz Bopp in Berlin were not fulfilled, he returned to Greifswald in 1844, where he was promoted to full professor on May 15, 1847. Here he taught uninterruptedly until he was released on November 30, 1880 due to illness and requested at his own request. In addition, he had been a member of the scientific examination committee for almost twenty years. Sick and withdrawn and only devoting himself to his Low German studies, Hoefer died on January 9, 1883.

Albert Hoefer, descending from an old family of scholars, to which his brother and novelist Edmund Hoefer and their common ancestor and pastor Johann Cyriacus Höfer belong, was unmarried and remained childless.

Writing

Albert Hoefer was a tireless publicist of numerous of his own writings, but also a translator of Indian literature and poetry and was considered one of the main exponents of Indian philology in his time. In addition, in 1847 he founded the “Journal for the Science of Language”, which was discontinued in 1853 due to the financial difficulties of his publisher.

Since his youth, he was also interested in the Low German dialects, which he had already learned to know and speak at home, as well as in Low German folklore. To this end, he initially wanted to publish a " Pommersches Idiotikon " in 1838 as a revised new edition of the " Platt-German dictionary according to the old and new Pomeranian and Rügische dialect " by Johann Carl Dähnert , but Kosegarten came up with his " general dictionary of Low German or Low German, older and more recent times "before. He then limited himself to publications of his Low German research. However, like his work on the “ Origin and Development of Low German Songs ”, the “ Monuments of Low German Language and Literature ” and others, these should not bring the hoped-for success. Despite all the recognition that he had received during his professional career, this led to great disappointment and bitterness for him.

Publications (selection)

  • De Prakrita dialecto (Berlin 1836); the
  • Contributions to the etymology and comparative grammar of the main languages ​​of the Indo-European tribe (Berlin 1839);
  • From the infinitive, especially in Sanskrit (Berlin 1840);
  • Indian poems, in German replicas (Leipzig 1844, 2 vols.);
  • The old sailor , after Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Berlin 1844);
  • Journal for the Science of Language (Berlin, later Greifswald, 1845–54, 4 vols.);
  • Sanskrit reading book (Berlin 1849);
  • Monuments of Low German language and literature (Greifswald 1850–51, 2 vols.) - Digitized in the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania digital library
  • Ernst Moritz Arndt and the University of Greifswald (Berlin 1863);
  • Via Altvile in the Sachsenspiegel (Hall 1870).

See also

Literature and Sources

predecessor Office successor
Ottokar von Feilitzsch Rector of the University of Greifswald
1860 		Eduard Baumstark
personal data
SURNAME Hofer, Albert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hoefer, Albert Karl Gustav
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German linguist
DATE OF BIRTH October 2, 1812
PLACE OF BIRTH Greifswald
DATE OF DEATH January 9, 1883
Place of death Greifswald