Klaus Bochmann

Klaus Bochmann (born June 8, 1939 in Dresden ) is a German Romance scholar and sociolinguist.

Klaus Bochmann 2019

Scientific career

After studying Romance studies (1957 to 1962) with the subjects French, Latin, Spanish and Romanian at the Universities of Leipzig and Bucharest, Klaus Bochmann received his doctorate with the dissertation Contribution to the definition of the worldview by Nicolae Bălcescu (April 1967). The Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg became aware of the young Romanist and offered him a teaching position. In 1969 he followed a call to lecturer in applied linguistics at the newly founded section of linguistics and literary studies in Halle.

In 1972 he moved back to the Karl Marx University in Leipzig, where he accepted a position as a lecturer in Romanian Studies and at the same time was entrusted with the management of the Romance Linguistics department. With his habilitation on The Political-Social Vocabulary of Romanian 1821 to 1850 (1976) he laid the foundation for research into the history of concepts relating to Romanian. In 1978 he was appointed full professor for Romanian language at the University of Leipzig, but at the same time taught and researched in the areas of comparative Romance, French and Italian linguistics, with special emphasis on the history of language, sociolinguistics and language policy, etc. a. regarding minority languages ​​in Romania. He led numerous research projects, organized a large number of international conferences, supervised more than 35 dissertations (including by doctoral students from Cuba, Ethiopia and Moldova) and post-doctoral theses and was co-editor (1988-90 editor) of the articles on Romance philology and the university's linguistic reports Leipzig.

From 1993 to 2005 he headed the France Center and the Québec Study Center he founded at the University of Leipzig. After his appointment to Leipzig, the internationalization of teaching and research took a prime position in his activities. Despite the difficult conditions under which Romance Studies was practiced in the GDR, he succeeded in establishing systematic scientific relationships with specialist colleagues in France (Rouen, Lyon, Aix-en-Provence) as well as in Italy, Spain and Portugal, with whom he was from 1976 organized scientific colloquia on sociolinguistics in Leipzig every two or three years. Together with linguists, historians and literary scholars from the University of Bucharest, he established a research project on the political and social history of Romanian concepts in the 18th and 19th centuries, which was worked on between 1975 and 1987. In 1981 he succeeded, together with Umberto Carpi (Pisa), in signing the first and only university contract between Italy and the GDR (Pisa-Leipzig), which was renewed after the political change.

After his new appointment to the chair for Romance linguistics in Leipzig (1993), he played a key role in the development of a bilateral French-German course with the University of Lyon II and the organization of the Leipzig French Summer University, which functioned with considerable success until 2009. Between 2001 and 2004 he represented the University of Leipzig at the Franco-German University . He was also committed to the development of the ERASMUS programs between Leipzig and Bari, Bergamo, Lecce in Italy, Lyon, Aix-en-Provence and Metz in France as well as with Bucharest and Klausenburg / Cluj. A high point of his editorial work was the translation of Antonio Gramsci's prison notebooks (10 volumes, Hamburg 1993-2001) into German , which he led together with Wolfgang F. Haug and Peter Jehle , after he had already read writings by Gramsci, Pirandello, Pavese, Calvino, Caragiale, Barbu and other Italian and Romanian authors and z. T. translated. On his initiative, Xosé Neira Vilas ' Memories of a Farm Boy was published in Germany, the first Galegic / Galician book (with extensive afterword by Bochmann). With around 25 book publications and around 200 scientific articles in German, French, Italian, Romanian, English as well as lectures in all Romance countries in Europe, but also in Russia, Hungary, Poland, as well as in Cuba and Canada, he has a wide international reputation, especially in acquired the sociolinguistics of the Romance languages.

With the help of the Volkswagen Foundation, between 1997 and 2005 he carried out three Romanian-sociolinguistic research projects over several years with the Republic of Moldova , which had gained independence in 1990 and which had not had any noteworthy international academic ties, in cooperation with linguists from the Ukraine (Chernivtsi, Kiev) and Romania ( Iaşi). From these relationships the idea of ​​founding the Moldova Institute arose , which was founded in December 2005 with the active participation of Vasile Dumbrava and several professors from all over Germany.

Activity at the Moldova-Institut Leipzig e. V. (since 2005)

In his capacity as chairman of the Moldova Institute Leipzig, Klaus Bochmann initiated a large number of projects that bring the institute's founding mission to life. His wide range of interests is also reflected in the diversity of the project focuses. The subjects of human and minority rights that are important for the development of the Republic of Moldova, support for the development of civil society, dealing with the consequences of labor migration, solving the Transnistrian conflict, improving medical care and, last but not least, dealing with the Moldovan past are the focus of his work Attention is paid to curricular modernization at the Moldovan universities to ensure sustainable development. In the course of his work, long-term and successful partnerships with universities in the Republic of Moldova have been established, which enable the country to be closely connected to Europe. In addition to the organization of meetings, conferences and other forums for scientific exchange, the summer school in Moldova and Ukraine, which has been held annually by the MIL since 2009, is of particular importance for the success of its work. German students and doctoral students regularly have the opportunity to deal with issues that affect Moldovan society on site, to learn more about Moldovan culture and to get in touch with their Moldovan fellow students. Since the events of the MIL also take place in Germany and are always open to the public, there is also the opportunity for German interested parties to find out more about the small country in Southeast Europe. Of course, the institute headed by Prof. Bochmann also supports initiatives by other institutions, such as the mobile exhibition project "MOLDOVAmobil", which was able to stop in Leipzig in 2010 with the support of the MIL. His work is documented through numerous publications, especially in the series "Publications of the Moldova Institute Leipzig" in the Leipzig University Press (6 volumes so far) and in the form of exhibitions. The MIL is represented by Prof. Bochmann on the Board of Trustees of the German-Moldovan Forum at the Bundestag; It is linked by a cooperation agreement with the University of Leipzig on the one hand and with five Moldovan universities on the other hand and also cooperates with the Moldovan Academy of Sciences, with which it has already held several events and which has appointed him to the scientific editorial board of the Moldovan Encyclopedia. The diverse Moldova-related initiatives have prompted the current interim president of the Republic of Moldova, Mihai Ghimpu, to honor Prof. Bochmann in 2009 with the Eminescu Medal, the country's highest award for culture and science. In 2008 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Alba Iulia (Romania). Another followed in 2013 by the University of Iaşi (Romania).

Others

Bochmann is currently working in the coordination group for the “Histoire sociale des langues de France” project (headed by Georg Kremnitz, Vienna). He is also a full member of the Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig and chairman of its linguistic commission as well as an honorary member of the institutes for linguistics of the Romanian Academy in Bucharest and Iaşi. In addition to his work at the MIL, Bochmann, in his role as a liaison professor of the Hans-Böckler-Foundation, continues to help create equal opportunities for disadvantaged young people and to promote the acquisition of a high school diploma, a university degree or a doctorate.

Publications (selection)

• Republic of Moldova. A manual. Republica Moldova . Leipzig, 2012.
• Vademecum contemporary history Moldova: a guide to archives, research institutions, libraries, associations, museums and sites of memory . Leipzig, 2010.
• History of political-social terms in Romania and Moldova . Leipzig, 2010.
• Introduction to Romanian language and literary history . Bonn, 2010.
• Linguistic individuation in multilingual regions of Eastern Europe . Volume 2: Ukraine. Leipzig, 2009.
• Dimitrie Cantemir: Prince of Moldova, scholar, actor in European cultural history . Leipzig, 2008.
• Linguistic individuation in multilingual regions of Eastern Europe . Volume 1: Republic of Moldova. Leipzig, 2007.
• The regional in Romanian culture . Leipzig, 2005.
• Spoken Romanian in Ukraine: sociolinguistic relationships and linguistic structures . Leipzig, 2004.
• Limba română vorbită în Moldova istorică ., 1. Leipzig, 2002.
• Prison Notebooks: Complete Critical Edition . 10 vols. Hamburg, 1991-2002.
• Limba română vorbită în Moldova istorică , 2 texts. Leipzig, 2000.
• Lively Philology: Studies in sociolinguistics, social theory and the history of science in Romance studies . Leipzig, 1999.
• Romance studies between commitment and refusal . Oldenburg, 1991.
• Sociolinguistics of Romance Languages . Leipzig, 1991.
• Regional and national languages ​​in France, Italy and Spain . Leipzig, 1989.
• Leipzig Romance Contributions: Materials from Romance Colloquia, which were held in 1987 at the Karl Marx University in Leipzig . Leipzig, 1988.
• Grammar of the Romanian language of the present . Leipzig, 1987.
• Properties and linguistic analysis of political texts . Leipzig, 1986.
• The analysis of political texts: theoretical and methodological questions ; Minutes of the colloquium from October 14 to 16, 1980. Leipzig, 1981.
• Sociolinguistic Aspects of the Romanian Language : An Edited Volume. Leipzig, 1980.
• The political and social vocabulary of Romanian from 1821 to 1850 . Leipzig, 1979.
• Contributions to the history of the political and social vocabulary of the Romanian language , [1], materials from a colloquium of the Romance Linguistics Department of the Theoretical and Applied Linguistics Section of the Karl Marx University Leipzig, June 25, 1975. Leipzig, 1977.
• Contribution to the definition of the political and social world view of the Romanian revolutionary democrat Nicolae Bálcescu . Diss. Leipzig, 1967.

Web links

• Literature by and about Klaus Bochmann in the catalog of the German National Library
• Literature by and about Klaus Bochmann in the SUDOC catalog (Association of French University Libraries)
• Klaus Bochmann, professors at the University of Leipzig 1945–1993 , accessed on November 18, 2017