PRINTZ, Wilhelm Georg-Friedrich Jakob. Karlsruhe 9.8.1887 — Halle 23.2.1941. German Indologist. Librarian in Halle. Son of merchant Wilhelm Printz and Margarete Jung. After school in Karlsruhe and Mannheim started 1905 study of modern languages at Leipzig, but soon moved to Indology (Windisch). In 1907 continued under Kielhorn at Göttingen, then at Berlin (Pischel, Lüders), where he also studied IE (Schulze) and Celtic (Zimmer). Ph.D. 1910 Berlin (Lüders). Started now library work, cataloguing G. Oppert’s Indian books in Hamburg. After front service in WW I he returned to Hamburg in 1918. In 1919 habilitation at Frankfurt, began teaching in 1920. From 1924 Librarian of D.M.G. in Halle, where he also transferred his docentship (Umhabilitierung). From 1929 nichtbeamtete ao. Professor there. Since the early 1930s he was ill and, having his both legs paralyzed, taught at home, but also continued his library work in a wheelchair. Died quickly of pneumonia.
Printz gave most of his time to the library work rejecting his earlier scholarly plans such as a dictionary of dramatic Prākrits. In his dissertation, with a subject given by Pischel, he showed that the so-called bhāṣā-words were NIA. Later he was known of his learned bibliographies and reviews (also on Tocharian). A further interest was Arabic, around 1920 he found the Arabic original of the Picatrix. He never went to India, but in 1930 visited Oxford, London and Paris.
Publications: Diss. Bhāṣā-Wörter in Nīlakaṇṭha’s Bhāratabhāvadīpa und in anderen Sanskrit-Kommentaren. 44 p. Gütersloh 1910, also in KZ 44, 1911, 69-109.
– Translated into German: Meillet, Einführung in die vergleichende Grammatik der indogermanischen Sprachen. 330 p. Lp. 1909.
– Hab.diss. Bhāsa’s Prākrit. 47 p. Frankfurt 1921 (manuscript 1919).
– “Buddha’s Geburt”, ZDMG 1925; “Helena und Sītā”, Festgabe Jacobi 1926, 103-113; “Indische Notizen”, ZII 5, 1927, 93-97; “Rāma und Śambūka”, ZII 5, 1927, 241-246; “Eine sonderbare Bhagavadgītā-Ausgabe”, ZDMG 83, 1929, 256-261; “Gilgamesch und Alexander”, ZDMG 85, 1931, 196-206; “‘Heiliger Königsmord’ in Indien?”, ZDMG 86, 1933, 80-93; “Garuḍa und der ägyptische Greif”, ZDMG 86, 1933, 111f.
– Indological and IE lemmas in Der grosse Brockhaus 1928ff., new ed. 1939ff.
– “Nhd. Weib, Skr. kálatram, Urdū ‘aurat u.a.”, IF 50, 1932, 132-135; “Neue Singhalesische Lautregel”, BSOS 8:2-3, 1936 (Grierson Vol.), 701f.; “Anglo-indisch cheroot ‘Zigarre’”, ZDMG 86, 1933, 199f.
– “Theodor Zachariae”, ZDMG 88, 1934, 338-340.
– A number of reviews in Idg. Jb. 1925ff., in ZDMG 1924ff., and in Ethnol. Anzeiger 1924ff.; lists of new books at D.M.G. library in ZDMG 1924ff.
Sources: Vita in diss.; J. Fück, ZDMG 95, 1941, 157-164, with bibliography; *Heydrich, Ethnol. Anzeiger 1944, 429f.; Stache-Rosen 1990, 211f.; German Wikipedia briefly; photo in Rau 117, another in Sardesai.
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