Bruno Kress

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Bruno Kress (born February 11, 1907 in Selz in Alsace ; † October 15, 1997 in Greifswald ) was a German philologist , university professor and translator .

Life

Bruno Kress attended grammar school in Berlin and then studied German and Nordic philology at the universities of Berlin and Reykjavík . He came to Iceland in 1932 as an exchange student. In 1935 he was in Berlin to defend his doctoral thesis, but shortly afterwards returned to Iceland, where he married in 1936. In March 1934, during his stay in Iceland, he became a member of the NSDAP with membership number 3401317. At the same time, he worked for the National Socialist Research Association German Ahnenerbe . In 1938 he got a job as a German teacher in Reykjavík. In 1939 his daughter, who later became professor Helga Kress, was born. In July 1940 Bruno Kress was imprisoned in British internment camps for four years . However, during this time he was able to communicate with the Ahnenerbe chairman Wolfram Sievers .

Kress joined the SED after the war . From 1945 to 1956 he worked as a teacher at various village schools in Northwest Mecklenburg .

From 1956 Kress worked at the Nordic Institute of the Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University Greifswald , initially in the field of the newer Icelandic language, literature and culture. From 1963 until his retirement in 1972 he was professor for Old Norse and Icelandic languages, literature and culture. In 1957 he took over the management of the Nordic Institute on a provisional basis and in the same year definitively. Since he did not sufficiently fulfill the SED's mandate to redesign the institute according to the needs of the party, he was replaced by Rudolf Agricola in 1963 .

Kress' publications became standard works of German and international Icelandic studies. He wrote The Lute of Modern Icelandic (1937), The Sound and Forms of Icelandic (1967) and finally his Icelandic Grammar (1982). In addition, he was particularly active as a translator of the works of the Nobel laureate Halldór Laxness .

In his honor, the Ernst Moritz Arndt University in Greifswald dedicated a series of lectures named after him.

Works

  • The sounds of modern Icelandic, Berlin 1937
  • Icelandic phonetic plate, Berlin 1938
  • Sound and form theory of Icelandic, Greifswald 1962
  • Icelandic grammar, Leipzig 1982

Editing

  • 27 Icelandic storytellers, Berlin 1980

Translations

  • Halldór Laxness : Am Gletscher, Göttingen 1989
  • Halldór Laxness: Gerpla, Berlin [u. a.] 1977
  • Halldór Laxness: The happy warriors, Göttingen 1991
  • Halldór Laxness: The litany of the gifts of God, Berlin [u. a.] 1979
  • Halldór Laxness: Pastoral care on the glacier, Berlin [u. a.] 1974
  • Halldór Laxness: His own master, Berlin [u. a.] 1968
  • Halldór Laxness: Paradise found again, Berlin [u. a.] 1971
  • Halldór Stefánsson : On Iceland's coasts, Berlin [u. a.] 1975
  • Icelandic stories, Berlin 1963
  • Ólafur Jóhann Sigurðsson : Dragons and Wrens, Berlin [u. a.] 1989
  • Ólafur Jóhann Sigurðsson: Magic and will-o'-the-wisps, Berlin [u. a.] 1987
  • Tryggvi Emilsson : Being poor is expensive, Berlin [u. a.] 1985

Honors

literature

  • Árbók Háskóla Íslands: Háskólaárið 1932-1933. Reykjavík 1934.
  • Hans Reddemann : Bruno Kress. In: The old cemetery. Greifswald 2004, ISBN 3-00-014790-X , p. 28.
  • Þór Whitehead : Ófriður í aðsigi. Almenna bókafélagið, Reykjavík 1980.
  • Hannes H. Gissurarson: A Surprise Encounter: The Jewess who became an Icelander and the Nazi who became a Communist. In Totalitarianism in Europe - Three Case Studies. Brussels 2018. online.
  • Kristinn Ármannsson u. a .: Saga Reykjavíkurskóla I. Bókaútgáfa Menningarsjóðs, Reykjavík 1975.
  • Höskuldur Þráinsson (ed.): Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði. 19/20. Íslenska málfræðafélagið, Reykjavík 1997–1998.
  • Höskuldur Þráinsson (ed.): Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði 5. Íslenska málfræðafélagið, Reykjavík 1983.
  • Alexander Muschik: In the service of the ›workers and peasants‹. The development of Nordic studies in the GDR. In: nordeuropaforum 2/2004, pp. 27–42. on-line.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Árbók Háskóla Íslands: Háskólaárið 1932–1933, p. 15.
  2. ↑ Höskuldur Þráinsson: Íslenskt mál 1997-1998 , who published an obituary for Bruno Kress there. All personal information in the obituary comes from the daughter Helga Kress.
  3. ↑ Þór Whitehead: Ófriður í aðsigi .
  4. ↑ Kress' letters from 1942 ( Memento of December 8, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) (Word file; German, English; 40 kB)
  5. ↑ Olaf Kappelt : Denazification in the Soviet Zone and the role and influence of former National Socialists in the GDR as a sociological phenomenon . Kovač, Hamburg 1997, p. 98.
  6. ↑ Alexander Muschik: In the service of the ›workers and peasants‹. The development of Nordic studies in the GDR. In: nordeuropaforum 2/2004, pp. 27–42, here: 35 u. 40.
  7. ^ Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald: Philosophical Faculty. Retrieved October 1, 2011 ( Memento March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Kress, Bruno
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German philologist
DATE OF BIRTH February 11, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Selz , Alsace
DATE OF DEATH October 15, 1997
Place of death Greifswald