Ewald Flügel (May 8, 1863, in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

, Kingdom ofSaxony, - November 14, 1914,

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish language, Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree kno ...

) was one of the international pioneers of the study of

Old Old or OLD may refer to: Places *Old, Baranya, Hungary *Old, Northamptonshire, England *Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD) *OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, Mai ...

and

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...

Literature and Language and one of the founding professors of English Studies at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

Biography

Flügel, whose father (Karl Alfred Felix Flügel, 1820–1904) and grandfather (

Johann Gottfried Flügel Johann Gottfried Flügel (22 November 1788 – 24 June 1855) was a German lexicographer. Biography He was born at Barby, near Magdeburg. He started his career as a merchant's clerk. In 1810, he emigrated to the United States, where he engaged in b ...

, 1788–1855) were involved in lexicographic projects and the teaching of English, was educated at the famous Nicolai School in Leipzig. He attended

Leipzig University Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December ...

and received his doctoral degree with a dissertation on

Thomas Carlyle Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher. A leading writer of the Victorian era, he exerted a profound influence on 19th-century art, literature and philosophy. Born in Ecclefechan, Dum ...

in 1885, his postdoctoral degree with a study of

Philip Sidney Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek language, Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philip ...

in 1888. From 1888 to 1892 he taught as "Privatdozent" (associate professor without tenure) at Leipzig and became coeditor (with

Gustav Schirmer Gustav, Gustaf or Gustave may refer to: * Gustav (name), a male given name of Old Swedish origin Art, entertainment, and media * ''Primeval'' (film), a 2007 American horror film * ''Gustav'' (film series), a Hungarian series of animated short car ...

) of '' Anglia'', Germany's second academic journal dedicated to the study of English. Because he was unable to find the coveted professorship at Leipzig, he accepted a position at the newly founded

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

in 1892, where he taught until his death in 1914. Together with Bernhard ten Brink,

Julius Zupitza Julius Zupitza (4 January 1844 in Kerpen, Upper Silesia – 6 July 1895 in Berlin) was a German philologist and one of the founders of English philology in Germany. Biography Zupitza was the son of Major Andreas Zupitza and his wife, Adelhei ...

, John Koch, and

Eugen Kölbing Eugen Kölbing (1846-1899) was a German philologist, a specialist in the study of Nordic, English, and French language and literature and comparative linguistics and literature. Academic career Eugen Kölbing studied Philosophy, Classical Philolo ...

he counts among the most entrepreneurial founding scholars of

English Studies English studies (usually called simply English) is an academic discipline taught in primary, secondary, and post-secondary education in English-speaking countries; it is not to be confused with English taught as a foreign language, which ...

Research and Scholarship

While still in Leipzig, Flügel was approached by

Frederick James Furnivall Frederick James Furnivall (4 February 1825 – 2 July 1910) was an English philologist, best known as one of the co-creators of the ''New English Dictionary''. He founded a number of learned societies on early English literature and made pione ...

, the founder of the

Chaucer Society Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He wa ...

, to take on the task of establishing a

concordance Concordance may refer to: * Agreement (linguistics), a form of cross-reference between different parts of a sentence or phrase * Bible concordance, an alphabetical listing of terms in the Bible * Concordant coastline, in geology, where beds, or la ...

for the works of the medieval English poet,

Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He wa ...

. What he inherited from colleagues who had previously worked on this large lexicographic topic was "slips of all sizes, shapes, colors, weights and textures, from paper that was almost tissue-paper to paper that was almost tin. Every slip contained matter that had to be reconsidered, revised, and often added to or deleted." Flügel, for several years supported by a grant from the Carnegie Foundation, extended the already difficult project into a plan for a full-fledged dictionary of

. By 1908, he had collected a total of about 1,120,000 Chaucer slips and, realizing the enormous nature of the venue, began publishing the first letters of the dictionary in installments. Despite his work ethic and the support from a number of colleagues in Germany, France, Britain, and the U.S., he had to realize that his project would be impossible to finish. After his death, two American colleagues, John Tatlock and Arthur Kennedy, would finalize the originally planned Chaucer Concordance. Flügel's work became the foundation of the ''Middle English Dictionary'', which

Hans Kurath Hans Kurath (13 December 1891 – 2 January 1992) was an American linguist of Austrian origin. He was full professor for English and Linguistics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. The many varieties of regional English that he encountered d ...

and Sherman M. Kuhn edited in the 1950s and 1960s: "No mere description can do justice to the dignity and amplitude of this work of scholarship, if it could have been completed and published. It would have set a new high-water mark for lexicography .. and it anticipated the prophecy of the editors of the ''Oxford'' ''Dictionary'' that further progress in the field must be with the specialized vocabularies of certain subjects, authors, and periods." In addition to his work on Chaucer, his monograph on Carlyle, and his edition of Sidney, he published a host of essays and reviews, some of which were republished by his son, Felix Flügel, in 1930. He also contributed the section on North American literature to Richard Wülcker's ''Geschichte der englischen Literatur'' (2nd. ed., 1907) and compiled an anthology, ''Neuenglisches Lesebuch'' (1895). In 1901-02 he was president of the western branch of the American Philological Association.

Political Activity

Flügel shared with many of his fellow expatriates from

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

in the late nineteenth- and early twentieth century an enthusiasm about transplanting what they considered German ideas and ideals into the New World. In several speeches to

German-American German Americans (german: Deutschamerikaner, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. With an estimated size of approximately 43 million in 2019, German Americans are the largest of the self-reported ancestry groups by the Unite ...

audiences, Flügel not only recommended the cultivation of German heritage in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, but declared that, "statistically speaking, in a matter of 50 years German immigrants will have become the ancestors of the larger half of this country" and that "In Germankind the world once more its weal may find" ("Es mag am Deutschen Wesen/Einmal noch die Welt genesen.")

Richard Utz Richard Utz (born 1961) is a German-born medievalist who has spent much of his career in North America. He specializes in medieval studies, and served as President of the International Society for the Study of Medievalism (2009–2020). Biography ...

, ''Chaucer and the Discourse of German Philology'' (Turnhout: Brepols, 2002), p. 129. The original German speech, "Rede, gehalten am Deutschen Tag in San Francisco (4. Oktober 1903)," was published in ''Ewald Flügel. Ausgewählte Aufsätze und Reden'', pp. 339-49, here p. 341.

Select Works

* "Carlyles religiöse und sittliche Entwicklung und Weltanschauung" (doctoral dissertation, Leipzig, 1887). Translated by Jessica Gilbert Tyler as ''Thomas Carlyle's Moral and Religious Development'' (New York: Holbrook, 1891). * "Sir Philip Sidney's ''Astrophel and Stella'' und ''Defence of Poesie''. Nach den ältesten Ausgaben mit einer Einleitung über Sidney's Leben und Werk" (postgraduate submission, Halle, 1888) * "Roger Bacon's Stellung in der Geschichte der Philosophie." ''Philosophische Studien'' 19 (1902), 164-91. * "Henry Bradshaw: Librarian and Scholar." ''Library Journal'' 29 (1904), 409-13. * “Die nordamerikanische Litteratur” (“North American literature”) in Richard Wülcker, ''Geschichte der englischen Literatur'' (2nd. ed., 1907) * "Frederick James Furnivall (1825-1910)." ''Anglia Beiblatt'' 33 (1910), 527-29.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Flugel, Ewald 1863 births 1914 deaths German philologists Chaucer scholars Emigrants from the German Empire to the United States Stanford University faculty