Friedrich Ranke (21 September 1882 - 11 October 1950) was a German

medievalist The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often vo ...

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

folklorist Folklore studies, less often known as folkloristics, and occasionally tradition studies or folk life studies in the United Kingdom, is the branch of anthropology devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currenc ...

. His

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...

textbook ''Altnordisches Elementarbuch'' remains a standard, and all literature concerning

Gottfried von Strassburg Gottfried von Strassburg (died c. 1210) is the author of the Middle High German courtly romance ', an adaptation of the 12th-century ''Tristan and Iseult'' legend. Gottfried's work is regarded, alongside the ''Nibelungenlied'' and Wolfram von Esc ...

s ''Tristan und Isold'' uses Ranke's line numbering for references to the text.

Biography

Born in

Lübeck Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the stat ...

as one of three sons of the theologian Leopold Friedrich Ranke and his wife Julie (von Bever) (1850–1924) he was a brother of the

Egyptologist Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious ...

s Hermann und Otto Ranke (1880–1917). Graduating from the Katharineum at Lübeck, he studied German, English and Nordic philology at the universities of

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

(1902/03),

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

(1903/05) and

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

(1905/07). In Munich he studied with the pioneering folklorist

Friedrich von der Leyen Friedrich von der Leyen (19 August 1873 – 6 June 1966) was a German philologist who specialized in Germanic studies. Biography Friedrich von der Leyen was born in Bremen, Germany on 19 August 1873, and belonged to the House of Leyen. He was th ...

. In Berlin he made his publishing debut with ''Sprache und Stil im Wälschen Gast des Thomasin von Circlaria'' ("Language and style in 'The Romansh Guest' by

Thomasin von Zirclaere Thomasin von Zirclaere, also called Thomasîn von Zerclaere or Tommasino Di Cerclaria (c. 1186 – c. 1235) was an Italian Middle High German lyric poet. The epic poem ''Der Wälsche Gast'' (original: ''Der welhische gast'', "The Romance stranger" ...

"). His term at the

University of Strassburg The University of Strasbourg (french: Université de Strasbourg, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers. The French university traces its history to the ea ...

produced his work of German folktales, ''Der Erloser in der Wiege; ein Beitrag zur Deutschen Volkssagenforschung'' ("The Redeemer in the cradle: a contribution towards German folktale research", 1911). From 1912 Ranke was occupied as a tutor in Göttingen, After returning from his service at the front in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

he was appointed assistant professor there in German philology, and then in 1921 full professor in German philology at the

University of Königsberg The University of Königsberg (german: Albertus-Universität Königsberg) was the university of Königsberg in East Prussia. It was founded in 1544 as the world's second Protestant academy (after the University of Marburg) by Duke Albert of Prussi ...

; in 1930 he occupied the same position at the

University of Breslau A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

, whence, silenced by the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

s in 1937, he removed to the

University of Basel The University of Basel (Latin: ''Universitas Basiliensis'', German: ''Universität Basel'') is a university in Basel, Switzerland. Founded on 4 April 1460, it is Switzerland's oldest university and among the world's oldest surviving universit ...

, Switzerland, as professor of German philology, where he remained until his death.

Selected publications

*''Die deutschen Volkssagen''. Munich 1910 (Deutsches Sagenbuch; 4). *''Der Erlöser in der Wiege: ein Beitrag zur deutschen Volkssagenforschung''. Munich 1911. *''Tristan und Isold''. Munich 1925 (Bücher des Mittelalters; 3), Berlin 1930, etc.; Ranke's corrected second edition (1949) is still the standard modern critical edition of

's text. *''Die Allegorie der Minnegrotte in Gottfrieds Tristan''. Berlin 1925 (Königsberger Gelehrte Gesellschaft/Geisteswissenschaftliche Klasse: Schriften der Königsberger Gelehrten Gesellschaft, Geisteswissenschaftliche Klasse; 2,2). Volkssagenforschung. Vorträge u. Aufsätze. Breslau 1935 (Deutschkundliche Arbeiten/A; 4). *''Altnordisches Elementarbuch. Schrifttum, Sprache, Texte mit Übersetzung und Wörterbuch''. Berlin 1937 *''Gott, Welt und Humanität in der deutschen Dichtung des Mittelalters''. Basel 1952. His articles were assembled and reprinted as ''Kleinere Schriften''. Bern/Munich 1971 (in series ''Bibliotheca Germanica'' 12). *''Die Überlieferung von Gottfrieds Tristan''. Darmstadt 1974. There are detailed accounts of Ranke, by Hartmut Freytag in Alken Bruns, ed.''Lübecker Lebensläufe'', (Neumünster: Karl Wachholtz Verlag) 1993, , S. 317-320; and by Rolf-Wilhelm Brednich in ''Enzyklopädie des Märchens'' vol 11 (2004), pp203–207.

Biography

Selected publications

See also