William Foerste

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William Foerste (* 3. December 1911 in New York ; † 27. September 1967 in Münster ) was a German germanistischer Dialektologe , linguist and medievalist . He was professor and full professor for German and Germanic philology at the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster.

Foerste's teaching focuses were German and Dutch philology, lexicology , dialectology and dialect geography, name research and ethnology . His research areas extended over the entire history of the Low German idioms to the etymology of the German language and the history and geography of words.

Life

Foerste was born into a north German merchant family, his parents, Gustav (1876–1942) and Dora, geb. Westenberg (1881–1970), stayed briefly in New York, where Foerste was born. When he was still a child, the family returned to the vicinity of Hamburg . Foerste grew up in Moisburg and ended his school career in 1932 when he graduated from a secondary school in Buxtehude .

From 1932 to 1938 Foerste studied German, English and Dutch philology with Agathe Lasch in Hamburg . In 1935 he attended the summer semester in Marburg with Walther Mitzka in relation to the local dialect research and the special research center for the German Language Atlas . The Hamburg professor for German studies Conrad Borchling directs Foerste's interests in East Frisian Low German, which was Foerste's research focus throughout his life. In 1937 Foerste completed his doctorate with Borchling with a thesis on the influence of Dutch on the vocabulary of the younger East Frisian Low German. During his student days in Hamburg he worked on the “Middle Low German Dictionary” and expanded his field of study to include Low German and Frisian ethnology. In 1939 he was offered a position as a lecturer at the University of Helsinki , which Foerste was unable to take on due to the war and training. In 1941 he accepted a call from the University of Münster for the newly established Extraordinariat for Low German Philology, which he held until 1944. In 1943 , despite the circumstances of military service (first as a radio operator in the air defense until 1942, then air news) and the workload of the establishment of the chair, he completed his habilitation with a thesis on political propaganda in the Low German language of the 17th and 18th centuries. After the end of the war, from 1946 onwards, he was an associate professor for Low German Philology and Folklore in Münster until 1951. In 1950 he became a lecturer at Lund University and from 1951 to 1961 a full professor of Low German Philology in Münster. In 1961 he was given the chair of German Philology in Münster and, from 1963, the chair of Jost Trier's emeritus for German Philology.

Foerste was the founder of several scientific institutions for Low German Philology and in Münster especially the "Low German Word Atlas" and as the editor of the series of Low German Studies . From 1946 until 1967 he was a member and chairman of the Folklore Commission of the Westphalia-Lippe Regional Association , also head of the Westphalian Dictionary Archive from 1946 and chairman of the LWL's "Commission for Dialect and Name Research in Westphalia" from 1955 to 1967. In October 1960 Foerste was also elected a full member of the Historical Commission for Westphalia .

Foerste's academic students are Johannes Rathofer (1925–1998) and Willy Sanders .

In 1933 Foerste joined the SA in Moisburg as a storm man . Although or probably because he witnessed the circumstances of the expulsion of his Jewish academic teacher Agathe Lasch from the teaching post in Hamburg and because of his foreign contacts, he kept his distance from the Nazi system and ideology. Because of the expulsion of Lasch, he had to submit his dissertation to Borchling's successor. His great-uncle Heinrich Conrad Bierwirth , professor of German studies at Harvard University , persuaded him to move to an American university around 1935, but ultimately he stayed in Germany, especially because of the family circumstances of his future wife. In 1937 he became a member of the NSDAP .

Foerste had been married to Lotte, nee Freude (1911–1999), since 1939, their son Ulrich is professor of civil law and civil procedural law at the University of Osnabrück . His life was devoted entirely to his research and teaching, which he pursued with determination, so that he hardly took part in professional association conferences, such as the German Association of German Studies , and focused very much on his direct work areas. Foerste gave lectures at events in the Westphalian-Low German and Frisian-Dutch context. William Foerste succumbed to cancer in a short time and with rapid progress.

Fonts

  • The influence of Dutch on the vocabulary of the younger Low German dialects in East Frisia , Hamburg 1938.
  • Studies on the Westphalian language of the 9th century , Marburg 1950.
  • Otfrid's literary relationship with Heliand , 1950.
  • The word geographical structure of Westphalian , 1958.
  • Festschrift for Jost Trier on his 70th birthday , Cologne 1964.
  • The Germanic tribal names on -varii , 1969.

literature

Obituaries

Festschrift

  • Dietrich Hofmann , Willy Sanders (ed.): Commemorative publication for William Foerste . Böhlau, Cologne 1970.
  • Dietrich Hofmann: The scientific work of William Foerste In: Ders. Commemorative book for William Foerste . Pp. 1-7.
  • Marieluise Dusch: Directory of the writings of William Foerste . In: memorial for William Foerste . Pp. 543-552.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Commemorating William Foerste , FAZ , September 28, 2017
personal data
SURNAME Foerste, William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German dialectologist, linguist and medievalist
DATE OF BIRTH December 3, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH September 27, 1967
Place of death Muenster