Heinrich Baumgartner

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Heinrich "Henri" Emil Baumgartner (born July 16, 1889 in Biel ; † February 21, 1944 in Bern ) was a Swiss university lecturer and linguist and co-founder of the language atlas of German-speaking Switzerland .

Life

Baumgartner grew up as the eldest son of an early widowed mother in the bilingual city of Biel. In addition to studying German in Bern and then in Zurich , where he did his doctorate under Albert Bachmann , he also trained as a Bernese secondary school teacher.

Baumgartner was first a secondary school teacher in Wohlen in Aargau , later a high school teacher in Biel. In 1933 he was appointed to succeed Otto von Greyerz at the University of Bern and in 1942 he was appointed professor of German language , literature and folklore . At that time it was the only full professorship of this kind in Switzerland. At the same time, he was president of the Bern teaching college and German expert for the Matura at all grammar schools in the canton of Bern .

Together with Gottfried Bohnenblust , Rudolf Hotzenköcherle and Walter Henzen , Baumgartner founded the “Academic Society of Swiss Germanists” in 1940 (today the “Swiss Academic Society for German Studies”).

At the age of not quite 55, Baumgartner succumbed to an embolism as a result of pneumonia . Successor at the teacher training school (1944) and - after the first successor, Walter Henzen, took over the full professorship for Germanic philology - also at the University of Bern (1946 as associate professor, 1951 as professor) Paul Zinsli .

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School, teaching and research

Baumgartner showed great commitment both to the school system and to research. In succession to Otto von Greyerz, he published a number of exemplary textbooks for German lessons, which he personally introduced to teachers in dozens of introductory courses.

At the university he was able to expand the field of linguistics and literary studies to include folklore. Almost without exception his publications belonged to the field of linguistics; his habilitation thesis on the Bern Reformation Theater , which he was tackling , remained unfinished because of numerous new tasks.

His dissertation on the dialects of the Bernese Seeland already showed an interest in the connection between language and social stratification. In the book «Stadtmundart. Stadt- und Landmundart »he was able to pursue this problem further with broader material and refined methods - the connection between sociological and geographical points of view was something entirely new at the time.

His most important work should have been the Linguistic Atlas of German-speaking Switzerland founded in 1935 together with Rudolf Hotzenköcherle ; Baumgartner was involved in the test recordings from 1939 to 1940 and from 1940 head of the recordings in the canton of Bern. However, his unexpected death brought his contribution to an early end.

Publications (selection)

  • The dialects of the Bernese Seeland . Frauenfeld 1922 (contributions to the Swiss German grammar XIV).
  • The relationship of the German-speaking Bieler to his dialect, to the written language and to French. In: Bieler Jahrbuch 1, 1927, pp. 61–88.
  • Bilingual education. Experiences and observations in Luxembourg. In: Bieler Jahrbuch 5, 1932, pp. 70–91.
  • A bilingual high school? In: Bieler Jahrbuch 5, 1932, pp. 92-102.
  • Our pronunciation of written German. Bern 1932.
  • Becoming a special language . In: Swiss Archives for Folklore 32, 1933, pp. 129–148 [in the edition as a special print titled Die Schi-Sprache. Becoming a special language ].
  • Simon Gfeller. Extended version of the lecture that was given at the Simon Gfeller celebration on the occasion of his 70th birthday in the Burgerratssaal in Bern. Bern [1938].
  • German language school for primary schools in the canton of Bern. Bern 1939 [reprinted several times].
  • Town dialect. Urban and rural dialect. Contributions to Bernese dialect geography. Bern 1940 (Writings of the Literary Society Bern 3).
  • German language school for the secondary schools and the Progymnasien in the Canton of Bern. Bern 1943 [reprinted several times].
  • from 1935 collaboration on the language atlas of German-speaking Switzerland .

literature

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