Friedrich Braun or Fyodor Aleksandrovich Braun (20 July 1862 – 14 June 1942) was a

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

scholar who provided philological and mythological backing for the

Normanist theory Anti-Normanism is a movement of historical revisionism in opposition to the mainstream narrative of the Viking Age in Eastern Europe, and concerns the origin of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and their historic predecessor, Kievan Rus'. At the centre ...

. Braun came to study Scandinavian and Germanic epics on the advice of

Alexander Veselovsky Alexander Nikolayevich Veselovsky (russian: Алекса́ндр Никола́евич Весело́вский) ( in Moscow – in St. Petersburg) was a leading Russian literary theorist who laid the groundwork for comparative literary studi ...

. He graduated from

St. Petersburg University Saint Petersburg State University (SPBU; russian: Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the ...

in 1885 (with a gold medal for his thesis on ''

Beowulf ''Beowulf'' (; ang, Bēowulf ) is an Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and most often translated works of Old English literature. The ...

'') and was a lecturer at the

Bestuzhev Courses The Bestuzhev Courses (russian: Бестужевские курсы) in Saint Petersburg were the largest and most prominent women's higher education institution in Imperial Russia. The institute opened its doors in 1878. It was named after Konst ...

. He was appointed dean of the university's department of history and philology in 1905. His major writings, including an 1899 monograph on the relations between the

Goths The Goths ( got, 𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌸𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌰, translit=''Gutþiuda''; la, Gothi, grc-gre, Γότθοι, Gótthoi) were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Europe ...

and Ancient

Slavs Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout northern Eurasia, main ...

, concern the history of Germanic peoples in Eastern Europe. In 1920 Professor Braun was sent on a business trip to Germany, where he decided to remain. He joined the staff of the

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 ...

in 1922 and published a paper in support of the

Japhetic theory In linguistics, the Japhetic theory of Soviet Union, Soviet linguist Nicholas Marr, Nikolay Yakovlevich Marr (1864–1934) postulated that the Kartvelian languages of the Caucasus area are related to the Semitic languages of the Middle East. ...

. He retired from teaching 10 years later.Dictionary of Russian emigres
/ref> Elena Rydzevskaya and

Viktor Zhirmunsky The name Victor or Viktor may refer to: * Victor (name), including a list of people with the given name, mononym, or surname Arts and entertainment Film * ''Victor'' (1951 film), a French drama film * ''Victor'' (1993 film), a French shor ...

were among his disciples. In 1933 Braun signed the ''

Vow of allegiance of the Professors of the German Universities and High-Schools to Adolf Hitler and the National Socialistic State Bekenntnis der Professoren an den Universitäten und Hochschulen zu Adolf Hitler und dem nationalsozialistischen Staat officially translated into English as the Vow of allegiance of the Professors of the German Universities and High-Schools to Ad ...

''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Braun, Fyodor Germanists Philologists from the Russian Empire German philologists Germanic studies scholars Mythographers 1862 births 1942 deaths Saint Petersburg State University alumni Academic staff of Saint Petersburg State University Emigrants from the Russian Empire to Germany