Carl Anton Joseph Maria Dominikus Baumstark (4 August 1872 in

Konstanz Konstanz (, , locally: ; also written as Constance in English) is a university city with approximately 83,000 inhabitants located at the western end of Lake Constance in the south of Germany. The city houses the University of Konstanz and was th ...

– 31 May 1948 in

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

) was a German Orientalist,

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

and liturgist. His main area of study was Oriental liturgical history, its development and its influence on literature, culture and art. His grandfather, Anton Baumstark (1800–1876), was a noted

.NDB/ADB Deutsche Biographie
Baumstark, Carl Anton Joseph Maria Dominikus (biography) He studied classical and Oriental philology, obtaining his habilitation for both subjects in 1898 at

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

. In 1899, he relocated to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, where in 1901, he became an editor of the academic journal ''

Oriens Christianus ''Oriens Christianus'' (English: "Christian East") is an academic journal established in 1901 by Otto Harrassowitz with Asian and oriental studies as the major focus. It was edited by Anton Baumstark (1872-1948). The current editors-in-chief are ...

''. Later on, he worked for 15 years as an instructor at a Roman Catholic secondary school in Sasbach,

Baden Baden (; ) is a historical territory in South Germany, in earlier times on both sides of the Upper Rhine but since the Napoleonic Wars only East of the Rhine. History The margraves of Baden originated from the House of Zähringen. Baden i ...

.''On the Historical Development of the Liturgy''
by Anton Baumstark In 1921 he became an honorary professor in

, then served as a professor of

Semitic studies Semitic studies, or Semitology, is the academic field dedicated to the studies of Semitic languages and literatures and the history of the Semitic-speaking peoples. A person may be called a ''Semiticist'' or a ''Semitist'', both terms being equi ...

and comparative liturgal science at Nijmegen (from 1923), followed by a professorship of Arabic and

Islamic studies Islamic studies refers to the academic study of Islam, and generally to academic multidisciplinary "studies" programs—programs similar to others that focus on the history, texts and theologies of other religious traditions, such as Easter ...

at the

University of Utrecht Utrecht University (UU; nl, Universiteit Utrecht, formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrollme ...

(from 1926). From 1930 to 1935, he was a professor of Oriental studies at the

University of Münster The University of Münster (german: Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, WWU) is a public research university located in the city of Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. With more than 43,000 students and over 120 fields of stud ...

. He joined the Nazi party in 1932, but was sent into emeritate in 1935, apparently after being accused of homosexuality. He began doubting his Nazi affiliation in 1943, and in 1944 supported the cause of

Kilian Kirchhoff Padre Kilian Kirchhoff OFM (given name: Josef Kirchhoff; born 18 December 1892 in Rönkhausen; executed 24 April 1944 in Brandenburg-Görden Prison) was a Catholic priest, translator and dissident. He was executed by the Third Reich for critica ...

, who had been sentenced to death; Baumstark unsuccessfully asked for mercy.Ekkehard Ellinger: ''Deutsche Orientalistik zur Zeit des Nationalsozialismus 1933–1945''. Edingen-Neckarhausen: Deux-Mondes-Verlag, 2006, pp. 35-61.

Selected works

* ''Comparative liturgy'', revised by Bernard Botte; English edition by F.L. Cross. Westminster, Md.: Newman Press, 1958. * ''On the historical development of the liturgy'' (''Vom geschichtlichen Werden der Liturgie'', 1923); intr., transl. by Fritz West; foreword by Robert F. Taft. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press 2011. * ''Lucubrationes Syro-Graecae'', 1894 – Syriac-Greco lucubrations. * ''Syrisch-arabische Biographieen des Aristoteles. Syrische Kommentare zur Eisagoge des Porphyrios'', Leipzig: Teubner, 1900. * ''Die christlichen literaturen des Orients'', 1911 – Christian literature of the Orient. * ''Geschichte der syrischen Literatur: mit Ausschluss der christlich-palästinensischen Texte'', 1922 – History of Syriac literature: with the exclusion of the Christian-Palestinian texts.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baumstark, Carl Anton 1872 births 1948 deaths People from Konstanz German male non-fiction writers German orientalists German philologists Liturgists Nazi Party members Academic staff of Radboud University Nijmegen Academic staff of the University of Bonn Academic staff of the University of Münster Academic staff of Utrecht University