JACOBSOHN, Hermann. Lüneburg 30.8.1879 — Marburg a.d. Lahn 27.4.1933. German Linguist (Iranian, IE and Greek Scholar). Professor in Marburg. Son of Moritz J., a banker, and Betty Heinemann. After school in Lüneburg from 1899 studies at Freiburg Br., Berlin and Göttingen. Ph.D. 1904 Munich. In 1904-11 Assistant in Thesaurus linguae Latinae in Munich. From 1908 PD at Munich, from 1911 ao. Professor at Marburg and from 1919 ord. there for IE Linguistics (also taught Finno-Ugrian). In 1915-18 in army as interpreter of Russian war prisoners, As a Jew he had to give up his chair and depressed committed suicide jumping before a train. Married Margarethe Flemming (1880–1954, a Lutheran Christian), his son Helmuth J. (1906–1994) was an Egyptologist, also another son and two daughters.
According to Meillet Jacobsohn was among the best comparativists of the Berlin School. His Arier und Ugrofinnen was a fundamental work, though later superseded by Collinder and Joki. In the WW I he served as interpreter and learned Estonian, Karelian and Russian from war prisoners.
Publications: Much on Greek and Latin, beginning with diss. Quaestiones Plautinae metricae et grammaticae. 54 p. Göttingen 1904.
– Arier und Ugrofinnen. 8+262 p. Göttingen 1922; articles on Indo-Iranian and Uralic contacts, KZ 1927, 1928.
– “Σκυθικά”, KZ 54, 1927, 254-286 & 55, 1928, 33-35; “Zum Mitteliranischen”, KZ 56, 1929, 127-130; “Zahlensystem und Gliederung der idg. Sprachen”, KZ 54, 1927, 76-99 (cf. Fs. Wackernagel).
Sources: *J. Gulya, Lex. gramm. 1996, 468f.; *H. Lommel, Idg. Jb. 19, 1935, 335-340 with bibliography; Meillet, BSL 34, 1933, xxivf.; *R. Verroen et al. (ed.), Leben Sie? Die Geschichte der deutsch-jüdischen Familie Jacobsohn. Marburg 2000; D.G.K. 1926, 1931; German Wikipedia with photo; photo in Idg. Jb. 18, 1934.
Last Updated on 5 months by Admin
