Christian Winkler (Germanist)

Christian Winkler (born March 18, 1904 in Dresden ; † August 25, 1988 in Marburg ) was a German specialist in German studies and speech educator as well as co-founder of speech studies .

Life

Winkler's father was a doctor and died in the First World War. His older brother was Friedrich Winkler (1890–1972), professor of hygiene at the University Hospital Halle (Saale). After graduating from secondary school in Dresden, Winkler completed an apprenticeship in bookselling in Jena. 1926–1930 he devoted himself to studying German, philosophy and art history in Cologne, Berlin, Würzburg, Munich and Erlangen. In 1930 he did his doctorate with Franz Saran at the University of Erlangen with the dissertation “Elements of speech. The history of their theory in Germany 1750-1850 ”. In 1932 he passed the language trainer examination with Erich Drach in Berlin. In the same year he joined the German Committee for Speech Science and Speech Education (DAfSuS), which later became the German Society for Speech Science and Speech Education (DGSS).

After working as a lecturer for speech training at the teachers' seminar and the University of Basel , he became lecturer for speech at the University of Göttingen in 1935 . In 1937 he joined the NSDAP . In 1943, the philosophy faculty of the University of Leipzig appointed him as a regular professor for speech and language maintenance. At the same time, however, he was called up for military service. After being a prisoner of war and working as a lens grinder, discharge from the Göttingen Chamber of Justice followed in 1949 .

From 1950 to 1959 he held a teaching position for speech training at the University of Marburg . Since linguistics was not considered a scientific subject in Marburg, he was denied his habilitation . Nevertheless, numerous publications brought him great recognition in the specialist public. In 1959 he was appointed Academic Councilor at the University of Marburg, later promoted to Academic Senior Councilor. In 1969 he retired.

From 1950 he was a member of the board, from 1954 to 1959 first chairman of the German committee for speech and speech training . This was renamed in 1964 in the German Society for Speech and Speech Education (DGSS), whose scientific advisory board Winkler belonged from its establishment in 1965. The DGSS made him an honorary member in 1984. In addition, from 1953 Winkler was a member of the advisory committee of the dictionary of German pronunciation founded by Theodor Siebs , and was co-editor of the 19th edition (1969). He also worked on the 2nd to 4th edition of the Duden grammar (1959, 1973 and 1984).

His son is the media scientist Hartmut Winkler (* 1953).

Focus

In 1954, Winkler published the first comprehensive literature study on speaking and spoken language ("German Speech Studies and Speech Training"). It is based on Karl Bühler's theory of language as well as on de Saussure, Cassirer and Humboldt. In 1969 it appeared in a revised version.

As early as the thirties, Winkler was making use of modern sound recordings (records, later tapes) and developed methods for their analysis. His empirical studies focused on the phenomena of spoken language, in particular pauses and pitch movements, and their syntactic and pragmatic function ("Reading as language lessons", "The sound shape of the sentence", "Studies on cadence formation"), the language acquisition of children ("Two picture books von Hartmut ”) and the sound of literary texts (“ spoken poetry ”). At a time when statistical methods were hardly introduced in German linguistics, Winkler (at the suggestion of his brother) made plausibility assessments.

Winkler always combined his scientific work with educational goals. His handbook on spoken language (“German Speech Studies…”) includes a pedagogical appendix (“… and speech training”). “Reading as a language lesson”, on the other hand, is largely an empirical study of the sound forms of spoken language. In the 19th edition of the “Siebs”, he mainly created the pronunciation dictionary. The booklet “Lautreines Deutsch” served entirely for speech training at the time.

Fonts

• Elements of speech. The history of their theory in Germany from 1750 to 1850. Niemeyer, Halle (Saale) 1931. Reprint: Sendet-Reprint, Tübingen 1975.
• Speech technology for German-speaking Swiss. Bern, 1934.
• Reading as a language lesson . 3rd edition, Henn, Ratingen 1962 [1940].
• Pure German. Exercise materials for basic training in speaking. 6th edition, Westermann, Braunschweig 1969 [1950]
• (with Erika Essen ) German speech and speech training. 2nd edition, Schwann, Düsseldorf 1969 [1954].
• Spoken poetry. Text interpretation and spoken instructions. Düsseldorf, Schwann 1958.
• The sound form of the sentence. In: Duden. Grammar of contemporary German. 2nd edition, Bibliographisches Institut, Mannheim 1959, pp. 599–627.
• Two picture books by Hartmut. In: Westermanns Pedagogical Contributions , Volume 13 (1961), pp. 85-99. Also in: Hermann Helmers (Ed.): To the language of the child. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1969, pp. 326–352.
• (Ed. With Helmut de Boor , Hugo Moser ) Siebs - German pronunciation . Pure and moderate high accents with pronunciation dictionary. 19th edition, de Gruyter, Berlin 1969.
• Investigations on the formation of cadence in German speech. Hueber, Ismaning 1979.

literature

• Hellmut Geißner : Christian Winkler 1904–1988 (with a complete bibliography). In: Eberhard Ockel (Ed.): Hands-free talking and lectures. Christian Winkler in memory. Scriptor, Frankfurt 1989, ISBN 3-589-20887-2 , pp. 11-20.
• Hellmut Geißner: Ways and aberrations of speech training. People who started in their subject before 1945 and what they wrote. Röhrig, St. Ingbert 1997, ISBN 3-86110-116-5 . Entry Winkler, Christian , pp. 477-514
• Wilhelm L. Höffe , Jörg Jesch (Ed.): Speech science and communication. Festschrift for Prof. Dr. Christian Winkler. Aloys Henn Verlag, Ratingen 1972.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Hans-Martin Hüppi: Prof. Dr. Christian Winkler †. In: Sprachspiegel , Volume 45 (1989), p. 25.
2. ↑ medicine.uni-halle.de
3. ↑ Entry on Friedrich Winkler in the Catalogus Professorum Halensis (accessed on July 28, 2015)
4. ↑ ^{a b} Prof. Dr. phil Christian Winkler Professor Catalog of the University of Leipzig
5. ↑ Hellmut Geißner: Ways and wrong ways of speech training. People who started in their subject before 1945 and what they wrote. Röhrig, St. Ingbert 1997.
6. ↑ University of Paderborn Institute for Media Studies Staff ( Memento of the original from September 1, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Hartmut Winkler Open Desk