Viktor Falkenhahn

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Viktor Falkenhahn (born February 11, 1903 in Kattenhof , Pomerania , † April 16, 1987 in Berlin ) was a German literary and linguist - polonist , Balticist , interlinguist and university professor. He taught at the Humboldt University in Berlin and from 1964 was co-editor of the Zeitschrift für Slawistik.

Consequential friendship with Wilhelm Storost-Vydūnas (1868–1953)

Viktor Falkenhahn, the son of the teacher Paul Falkenhahn, learned Lithuanian as a teenager in 1919 in Tilsit (since 1946 Sowetsk, Kaliningrad) , where the Falkenhahns had lived since 1917. The father had borrowed his textbook Lithuanian Guide to learn the beginnings of the Lithuanian language from his friend and later very well-known Lithuanian poet, thinker, philosopher and cultural worker Wilhelm Storost-Vydūnas (1868–1953) . When he returned the book, Viktor Falkenhahn met the author. Falkenhahn became a friend, student and collaborator of Vydūnas.

The philosopher and literary scholar Vacys Bagdonavičius (* 1941) characterizes the effect of this relationship in his contribution Vydūna and his work in the context of German-Lithuanian relations as follows:

Viktor Falkenhahn took over Vydunas' humanistic worldview, the view of people and the relationships between different cultures, including the German-Lithuanian one. The acquaintance with Vydūnas was probably decisive for Falkenhahn to embark on the path of a Balticist and Slavist, that in this way he made significant contributions to Polish and Lithuanian linguistics and to their cultures in general. "

Falkenhahn supported Vydūnas by proofreading his works and when the libraries and archives refused to use their holdings for the Lithuanian Vydūnas, Falkenhahn made excerpts for him so that his book Seven Hundred Years of German-Lithuanian Relations could appear in Tilsit in 1932.

The friendship lasted until the death of Vydūnas. From Detmold , where Vydūnas lived after the Second World War , he sent his new philosophical essays to Falkenhahn in Hamburg and Berlin , and in his will he bequeathed the last copies of the books he had saved in the chaos of war to Viktor Falkenhahn.

The radio journalist and publicist Leonas Stepanauskas (* 1925) reports in his essay Wilhelm Storost-Vydūnas about a visit to Viktor Falkenhahn in his Treptow apartment in 1963 in the last years of his life der DDR ”and Stepanauskas now heard about Falkenhahn's correspondence with Vydūnas. Falkenhahn's third wife, Eva-Marie, gave him the correspondence (1946–1953) to be forwarded to the Lithuanian Literature Archive . Stepanauskas adds: "Later I saw Viktor Falkenhahn bravely stand up for Vydūnas, both in the Berlin circle of Balticists and in Lithuania , as a guest, as a scientific capacity from the GDR ..."

For the book Vydunas and German Culture. New perspectives on the 150th birthday of the Prussian-Lithuanian bridge builder and 100th anniversary of Lithuania's declaration of independence , Falkenhahn wrote down some memories of Vydunas in his introductory speech.

Studies, habilitation, scientific work in Königsberg (today Kaliningrad )

Viktor Falkenhahn studied theology , Slavic , Baltic, Oriental , Hebrew , Indology and Egyptology studies at the Albertus University in Königsberg (Albertina) from 1931 . In 1935 he received a professorship for Lithuanian at this university. He received his doctorate in 1939 on the subject: "The translator of the Lithuanian Bible Johannes Bretke and his helpers". The work was published in book form in 1941 and is still considered fundamental today.

Falkenhahn also held courses on Baltic linguistic and literary topics.

In 1938 Falkenhahn was a member of the expert commission for renaming places in East Prussia .

At the outbreak of World War II he was in Estonia , where he studied dialect and sought to research linguistic relationships between Finno- Ugrians , Baltic and Slavs .

In 1942 he was called up for military service and was only able to continue his scientific work after 1945.

Scientific career after 1945

In 1946 Falkenhahn became an assistant at the Institute for Comparative Linguistics at the University of Hamburg , which was headed by the Balticist E. Fraenkel. In 1947 he took up his work at the Slavic Institute of the Humboldt University (head: Max Vasmer) in Berlin. He was entrusted with editing for Polish, and from 1948 for Polish and Lithuanian.

“The new beginning of Polish studies is inextricably linked with the work of Viktor Falkenhahn, not only in Berlin.” Krawielicki and Lehmann emphasize in the 1988 Nekrolog .

In 1951 the Chair of Polish Studies was established at the Humboldt University in Berlin and Falkenhahn was given the professorship with a teaching assignment for Polish language and literature, in 1953 he was given the professorship with a full teaching assignment for Polish language and literature and in 1959 the professorship with a full teaching assignment for Polish language and literature as well as Baltic studies, with which this field of science was upgraded.

He held this teaching position until his retirement in 1968.

In 1957 he completed his habilitation with a thesis on “The Polish Verbal Rection and its History”.

"As a university professor, Viktor Falkenhahn played a decisive role in the training of a new generation of Polonists and Baltists, ..." said Krawielicki and Lehmann in the Nekrolog.

He was co-author of a textbook on the Polish language in two parts . and a grammar of the Polish language. The World Cat bibliographic database lists 27 editions of the grammar of the Polish language between 1957 and 1964 and even more editions of its textbooks of the Polish language in 2 parts between 1951 and 1969.

Falkenhahn also became a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for Slavic Studies at the State Secretariat for Higher Education and was a member of the National Committee of Slavists of the GDR . He was chairman of the Commission on Baltic-Slavic Relations . For decades he was a member of the International Commission for the Study of Baltic-Slavic Relations at the International Committee of Slavists .

As chairman of the Baltic Society of the GDR, he worked for the dissemination of knowledge about the culture of the Baltic peoples.

Falkenhahn published his first smaller scientific articles in Lithuanian journals as early as 1934. Many articles appeared in specialist journals in the GDR, Poland , Lithuania and elsewhere. His reports were also in demand.

"As a linguist, he primarily discussed linguistic-historical problems, dealt with the ancient Slavic linguistic community and repeatedly examined verbal correction in Polish." But also "Relict words of Slavic on the soil of the GDR, Polish-Lithuanian relations, questions of the economic history of Polonistics and linguistics in general ” interested him. As a "literary scholar, Falkenhahn dealt intensively with Mickiewicz and with literary-linguistic problems."

Painting and literature

In the Maironis Museum (Lithuanian Maironio lietuvių literatūros muziejus) in Kaunas , the central literary museum of Lithuania, there is not only Viktor Falkenhahn's correspondence with Wilhelm Storost-Vydūnas. In Kaunas there are also pictures that Falkenhahn painted and donated to the museum. The blog Prof. Dr. V. Falkenhahn presents some of them, as well as reading samples from a novella that he has written.

A volume with 142 Lithuanian fairy tales from all ethnographic regions of Lithuania, translated by Viktor Falkenhahn, was published by Akademie-Verlag in 1978 . There was a second edition in 1982 and a third in 1987 (see: Publications).

Interlinguistics / Esperantology

In the last two decades of his life, Viktor Falkenhahn was particularly committed to scientific research on the international Esperanto language , its respect in scientific circles and the acceptance of the disciplines of interlinguistics and Esperanto among linguists.

Falkenhahn was a member of the Central Esperanto Working Group in the German Cultural Association from 1968 to 1981 (from 1974 the GDR Cultural Association). After founding the Esperanto Association in the Kulturbund (GDREA) in 1981, he was a member of the central board until 1987. Through articles in the magazine der esperantist and lectures at conferences, circle leader seminars and Esperanto district meetings, he contributed to increasing the professional level. Tapes with his lectures also circulated. He presented a method of comparing the learning units when learning Esperanto and learning German, with which he demonstrated that learning Esperanto was much easier.

Viktor Falkenhahn was co-founder in 1970 and chairman of the Interlinguistics / Esperantology department in the Kulturbund from 1970 to 1981 . After him, the linguist Georg Friedrich Meier (1919–1992) headed the specialist group from 1981 to 1986 and the Slavist and lexicographer at the Central Institute for Linguistics of the Academy of Sciences Ronald Lötzsch (1931–2018) from 1987 to 1990.

The specialist group encouraged scientific studies, fundamental publications, specialist articles and correct lexical entries on interlinguistics and developed a key bibliography. Its members gave numerous lectures in front of various bodies.

The 2-3-day interlinguistics seminars organized once a year by the specialist group in the Baltic Sea resort of Ahrenshoop / Darß (once in Zempin / Usedom ), which had the character of linguistic specialist colloquia, achieved a specific effectiveness . A total of 9 thematic seminars took place from 1979 to 1988 with a total of around 300 participants, primarily linguists, but also teachers and some natural scientists. A total of 170 lectures were offered.

Participating academics gained an insight into interlinguistics and Esperantology through lectures by interlinguists and Esperantologists, as well as through exhibited specialist literature, and often afterwards provided lectures on interlinguistic issues at their universities, the supervision of university papers and publications.

The secretary of the department was Detlev Blanke (1941-2016) from 1970 to 1990 , who did his doctorate with Viktor Falkenhahn in 1976 with a comparative-linguistic thesis on word formation in German and Esperanto.

In 1991 the Society for Interlinguistics was founded in Berlin , which took up the main goals of the Interlinguistics / Esperantology department and continues to realize them.

Personal

Viktor Falkenhahn was married four times and had five children.

Awards

Publications (selection)

The bibliographic database World Cat lists a total of 146 publications in 4 languages ​​of 38 works by Falkenhahn.

  • Viktor Falkenhahn: The translator of the Lithuanian Bible Johannes Bretke and his helpers. In: Contributions to the cultural and church history of Old Prussia. (= Writings of the Albertus University: Humanities series. Volume 31). Ost-Europa-Verlag, Königsberg et al. 1941.
  • Viktor Falkenhahn, Walter Zielke, Alice Stern: Textbook of the Polish language = Jezyk polski / part: 1, Polish, German, Verlag Volk u. Wissen, Berlin et al. 1951.
  • Viktor Falkenhahn: The Polish Verbal Rection and its History. Humboldt University, habilitation dissertation, Berlin 1957
  • Viktor Falkenhahn, Walter Zielke: Grammar of the Polish language. People and Knowledge, Berlin 1957.
  • Viktor Falkenhahn: On the problem of the "Homeric" in "Pan Tadeusz" by Adam Mickiewicz. 1958.
  • Viktor Falkenhahn, Walter Zielke, Alice Stern: Textbook of the Polish language = Jezyk polski / Part 2, Polish, German, Verlag Volk u. Wissen, Berlin et al. 1960.
  • Viktor Falkenhahn: Linguistic considerations on the role and structure of Esperanto (Lingvosciencaj konsideroj pri la rolo kajstructo de Esperanto). In: the esperantist. 4, No. 18/19, Deutscher Kulturbund, Berlin 1968, pp. 3-11, 17-18. (bilingual)
  • Viktor Falkenhahn: On the question of a world auxiliary language. A comparison of the learning units in German and Esperanto. In: the esperantist. 9, No. 59/60, Deutscher Kulturbund, Berlin 1973, pp. 10-18.
  • Bronislava Kerbelyte (ed.): Lithuanian folk tales. Translated by Viktor Falkenhahn. 2., corr. Edition. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1982.
  • Viktor Falkenhahn: Introduction to the second edition - W. Storost-Vydūnas: Seven hundred years of German-Lithuanian relations. Memories and views of a German. In: Wilhelm Storost-Vydunas: Seven Hundred Years of German-Lithuanian Relations. Cultural and historical presentations. Chicago 1982, pp. 479-486. (expanded reprint of the Tilsit 1932 edition)

literature

  • R. Krawielicki, U. Lehmann: Nekrolog In memoriam Viktor Falkenhahn. In: Journal for Slavic Studies. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1988, 1,151
  • Viktor Falkenhahn. In: Journal for Slavic Studies. Issue 1, Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1974, pp. 142–143.
  • Alois Hermann: Viktor Falkenhahn's services to the development of Polish and Baltic studies. In:: Scientific journal of the Humboldt University of Berlin: Social and Linguistic Series Volume 12, pp. 107–109.
  • Jan Conrad: Review of “ Helmut Wilhelm Schaller: History of Slavic and Baltic Philology at the University of Königsberg. Peter Lang , Frankfurt am Main et al. 2009, ISBN 978-3-631-57701-1 “In: Archivum Lithuanicum. 17, 2015, ISSN  1392-737X , pp. 351-364.
  • Detlev Blanke: Interlingvistoj el Berlin. Viktor Falkenhahn. In: Fritz Wollenberg (Red.): Esperanto. Language and culture in Berlin. Jubilee book 1903–2003. Mondial, New York / Berlin 2006, pp. 222-223.
  • Wilhelm Storost-Vydūnas: Seven hundred years of German-Lithuanian relations. Rûta-Verlag, Tilsit 1932
  • Vacys Bagdonavičius: Vydūnas and his work in connection with German-Lithuanian relations. In: Vacys Bagdonavičius, Aušra Marišiūtė-Linartienė, Britta Storost, Miroslaw Danys (eds.): Vydunas and German culture. New perspectives on the 150th birthday of the Prussian-Lithuanian bridge builder and 100th anniversary of the Lithuanian declaration of independence. (= History - Research and Science. Volume 58). 2nd, expanded edition. LIT-Verlag Dr. W. Hopf, Berlin 2018, pp. 11–24.
  • Leonas Stepanauskas: Wilhelm Storost-Vydūnas in the last years of his life. In: Vacys Bagdonavičius, Aušra Marišiūtė-Linartienė, Britta Storost, Miroslaw Danys (eds.): Vydunas and German culture. New perspectives on the 150th birthday of the Prussian-Lithuanian bridge builder and 100th anniversary of the Lithuanian declaration of independence. (= History - Research and Science. Volume 58). 2nd, expanded edition. LIT-Verlag Dr. W. Hopf, Berlin 2018, pp. 75–76.
  • Detlev Blanke: Georg Friedrich Meier (1919–1992) and his role in the development of interlinguistics in the GDR. In: Sabine Fiedler (Ed.): The role of personalities in the history of planned languages . Contributions to the 19th annual conference of the Society for Interlinguistics eV, 27. – 29. November 2009 in Berlin. (= Supplement. 17). Berlin 2010.

Web link

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Vacys Bagdonavičius: Vydūnas and his work in the context of German-Lithuanian relations. In: Vacys Bagdonavičius, Aušra Marišiūtė-Linartienė, Britta Storost, Miroslaw Danys (eds.): Vydunas and German culture. New perspectives on the 150th birthday of the Prussian-Lithuanian bridge builder and 100th anniversary of the Lithuanian declaration of independence. In: History - Research and Science. Volume 58, LIT-Verlag Dr. W. Hopf, 2nd expanded edition, Berlin 2018, p. 23.
  2. ^ Wilhelm Storost-Vydūnas: Seven hundred years of German-Lithuanian relations. Rûta-Verlag, Tilsit 1932.
  3. ↑ Vacys Bagdonavičius: Vydūnas and his work in the context of German-Lithuanian relations. In: Vacys Bagdonavičius, Aušra Marišiūtė-Linartienė, Britta Storost, Miroslaw Danys (eds.): Vydunas and German culture. New perspectives on the 150th birthday of the Prussian-Lithuanian bridge builder and 100th anniversary of the Lithuanian declaration of independence. In: History - Research and Science. Volume 58, LIT-Verlag Dr. W. Hopf, 2nd expanded edition, Berlin 2018, p. 23.
  4. ↑ Leonas Stepanauskas: Wilhelm Storost-Vydūnas in his last years. In: Vacys Bagdonavičius, Aušra Marišiūtė-Linartienė, Britta Storost, Miroslaw Danys (eds.): Vydunas and German culture. New perspectives on the 150th birthday of the Prussian-Lithuanian bridge builder and 100th anniversary of the Lithuanian declaration of independence. In: History - Research and Science. Volume 58, LIT-Verlag Dr. W. Hopf, 2nd expanded edition, Berlin 2018, pp. 75–76.
  5. ↑ Viktor Falkenhahn: introductory word to the second edition - W. Storost-Vydūnas: Seven Hundred Years of German-Lithuanian Relations. Memories and views of a German. In: Wilhelm Storost-Vydunas: Seven Hundred Years of German-Lithuanian Relations. Cultural and historical presentations. Chicago 1982 (expanded reprint of Tilsit 1932 edition), pp. 479-486.
  6. ↑ Viktor Falkenhahn: The translator of the Lithuanian Bible Johannes Bretke and his helpers. In: Contributions to the cultural and church history of Old Prussia, writings of the Albertus University: Geisteswissenschaftliche Reihe. Volume 31, Ost-Europa-Verlag, Königsberg et al. 1941, 487 pp.
  7. ↑ Jan Conrad (Humboldt University of Berlin): Review by Helmut Wilhelm Schaller: History of Slavic and Baltic Philology at the University of Königsberg, Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 2009, ISBN 978-3-631-57701-1 , p. 359
  8. ^ R. Krawielicki, U. Lehmann: Nekrolog In memoriam Viktor Falkenhahn. In: Journal for Slavic Studies, Akademie-Verlag, Berlin, 1988, 1.151
  9. ↑ Viktor Falkenhahn. In: Zeitschrift für Slawistik, Issue 1, pp. 142–143, Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1974.
  10. ^ Viktor Falkenhahn: The Polish verbal reference and its history. Humboldt University, habilitation dissertation, Berlin 1957.
  11. ^ R. Krawielicki, U. Lehmann: Nekrolog In memoriam Viktor Falkenhahn. In: Journal for Slavic Studies, Akademie-Verlag, Berlin, 1988, 1.151
  12. ↑ Viktor Falkenhahn, Walter Zielke, Alice Stern: Textbook of the Polish language = Jezyk polski / part: 1, Polish, German, Verlag Volk u. Knowledge, Berlin [u. a.] 1951, 266 S Viktor Falkenhahn, Walter Zielke, Alice Stern: Textbook of the Polish language = Jezyk polski / Part 2, Polish, German, Verlag Volk u. Knowledge, Berlin [u. a.] 1960, 243 pp.
  13. ^ Viktor Falkenhahn, Walter Zielke: Grammar of the Polish language, people and knowledge, Berlin 1957, 256 pp
  14. ↑ Viktor Falkenhahn. In: Zeitschrift für Slawistik, Issue 1, pp. 142–143, Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1974.
  15. ^ R. Krawielicki, U. Lehmann: Nekrolog In memoriam Viktor Falkenhahn. In: Journal for Slavic Studies, Akademie-Verlag, Berlin, 1988, 1.151
  16. ↑ Viktor Falkenhahn: Linguistic considerations on the role and structure of Esperanto (Lingvosciencaj konsideroj pri la rolo kajstructo de Esperanto). In: the esperantist. 4, No. 18/19, pp. 3-11, 17-18 (bilingual), Deutscher Kulturbund, Berlin 1968
  17. ↑ Viktor Falkenhahn: On the question of a world auxiliary language. A comparison of the learning units in German and Esperanto. In: the esperantist. 9, No. 59/60, pp. 10-18, Deutscher Kulturbund, Berlin 1973.
  18. ↑ Detlev Blanke: Georg Friedrich Meier (1919–1992) and his role in the development of interlinguistics in the GDR. . In: Supplement 17 "The role of personalities in the history of planned languages". Contributions to the 19th annual conference of the Society for Interlinguistics eV, 27. – 29. November 2009 in Berlin. Edited by Sabine Fiedler. Berlin 2010.
  19. ↑ Leonas Stepanauskas: Wilhelm Storost-Vydūnas in his last years. In: Vacys Bagdonavičius, Aušra Marišiūtė-Linartienė, Britta Storost, Miroslaw Danys (eds.): Vydunas and German culture. New perspectives on the 150th birthday of the Prussian-Lithuanian bridge builder and 100th anniversary of the Lithuanian declaration of independence. In: History - Research and Science. Volume 58, LIT-Verlag Dr. W. Hopf, 2nd expanded edition, Berlin 2018, pp. 75–76.
personal data
SURNAME Falcon cock, Viktor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German literary scholar, linguist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH February 11, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Kattenhof , Pomerania
DATE OF DEATH April 16, 1987
Place of death Berlin