Herman Lommel (7 July 1885 – 5 October 1968), born Hermann Lommel, was a German
Indologist
Indology, also known as South Asian studies, is the academic study of the history and cultures, languages, and literature of the Indian subcontinent, and as such is a subset of Asian studies.
The term ''Indology'' (in German, ''Indologie'') is o ...
and
Iranologist
Iranian studies ( fa, ايرانشناسی '), also referred to as Iranology and Iranistics, is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the research and study of the civilization, history, literature, art and culture of Iranian peoples. It ...
who was Chair of
Indo-European Studies
Indo-European studies is a field of linguistics and an interdisciplinary field of study dealing with Indo-European languages, both current and extinct. The goal of those engaged in these studies is to amass information about the hypothetical pro ...
at the
Goethe University Frankfurt
Goethe University (german: link=no, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main) is a university located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was founded in 1914 as a citizens' university, which means it was founded and funded by the wealt ...
from 1917 to 1950.
Biography
Herman Lommel was born in
Erlangen
Erlangen (; East Franconian German, East Franconian: ''Erlang'', Bavarian language, Bavarian: ''Erlanga'') is a Middle Franconian city in Bavaria, Germany. It is the seat of the administrative district Erlangen-Höchstadt (former administrative d ...
, Germany on 7 July 1885, the son of physicist
Eugen von Lommel
Eugen Cornelius Joseph von Lommel (19 March 1837, Edenkoben – 19 June 1899, Munich) was a German physicist. He is notable for the Lommel polynomial, the Lommel function, the Lommel–Weber function, and the Lommel differential equation. He ...
(1837-1899). Since 1905, Lommel studied comparative philology,
Indology
Indology, also known as South Asian studies, is the academic study of the History of India, history and Culture of India, cultures, Languages of South Asia, languages, and Indian literature, literature of the Indian subcontinent, and as such is a ...
and
Iranian studies
Iranian studies ( fa, ايرانشناسی '), also referred to as Iranology and Iranistics, is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the research and study of the civilization, history, literature, art and culture of Iranian peoples. It ...
at the
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...
and the
University of Göttingen
The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...
under
Jacob Wackernagel
Jacob Wackernagel (11 December 1853 – 22 May 1938) was a Swiss linguist, Indo-Europeanist and scholar of Sanskrit. He was born in Basel, son of the philologist Wilhelm Wackernagel (1806–1869).
Biography
Jacob Wackernagel was born on 11 ...
(Indo-European),
Hermann Oldenberg
Hermann Oldenberg (31 October 1854 – 18 March 1920) was a German scholar of Indology, and Professor at Kiel (1898) and Göttingen (1908).
Work
Oldenberg was born in Hamburg. His 1881 study on Buddhism, entitled ''Buddha: Sein Leben, seine Lehr ...
(Indology) and
Friedrich Carl Andreas
Friedrich Carl Andreas (14 April 1846 in Batavia – 4 October 1930 in Göttingen) was an orientalist of German, Malay and Armenian parentage (descendant of the Bagratuni or Bagratid royal family (Armenian: Բագրատունի). He was t ...
(Iranian studies).
Lommel gained his
Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
at Göttingen in 1912 under the supervision of Wackernagel. He completed his
habilitation
Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...
at Göttingen in 1914, and subsequently lectured there. Lommel served in the
German Army
The German Army (, "army") is the land component of the armed forces of Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German ''Bundeswehr'' together with the ''Marine'' (German Navy) and the ''Luftwaf ...
during
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 ...
. From 1917 to 1950, Lommel was Chair of
Indo-European Studies
Indo-European studies is a field of linguistics and an interdisciplinary field of study dealing with Indo-European languages, both current and extinct. The goal of those engaged in these studies is to amass information about the hypothetical pro ...
at the
Goethe University Frankfurt
Goethe University (german: link=no, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main) is a university located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was founded in 1914 as a citizens' university, which means it was founded and funded by the wealt ...
. Lommel specialized in the study of
Indo-Iranian languages
The Indo-Iranian languages (also Indo-Iranic languages or Aryan languages) constitute the largest and southeasternmost extant branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family (with over 400 languages), predominantly spoken i ...
and cultures. He was the author of notable works on the
Avesta
The Avesta () is the primary collection of religious texts of Zoroastrianism, composed in the Avestan language.
The Avesta texts fall into several different categories, arranged either by dialect, or by usage. The principal text in the litu ...
,
Yasht
The Yashts are a collection of twenty-one hymns in the Younger Avestan language. Each of these hymns invokes a specific Zoroastrian divinity or concept. ''Yasht'' chapter and verse pointers are traditionally abbreviated as ''Yt.''
Overview
The wo ...
Rigveda
The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' ( ', from ' "praise" and ' "knowledge") is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canonical Hindu texts (''śruti'') known as the Vedas. Only one Sh ...
. His most important work, ''Die Religion Zarathustras'' (1930), provides a survey on
Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religions, Iranian religion and one of the world's History of religion, oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian peoples, Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a Dualism in cosmology, du ...
, and is still considered one of the best works available on the subject.
Lommel retired from Frankfurt in 1950. He died in
Prien am Chiemsee
Prien am Chiemsee (official: , High German [], Bavarian (local) dialect []) is a municipality in the Upper Bavarian Rosenheim (district), district of Rosenheim in Germany. The town is a certified Luftkurort, air and Sebastian Kneipp, Kneipp spa o ...
, Germany on 5 October 1968.
Selected works
* ''Studien über indogermanische Femininbildungen'', Ph.D. diss., Georg-August-Universität zu Göttingen, 1911, pub. Göttingen, 1912.
* “Untersuchungen über die Metrik des jüngeren Awesta,” ZII 1, 1922, pp. 185–245; 5, 1927, pp. 1–92.
* ''Die Yäšt’s des Awesta, übersetzt und eingeleitet'', Göttingen and Leipzig, 1927.
* ''Die Religion Zarathustras, nach dem Awesta dargestellt'', Tübingen, 1930; repr., Hildesheim, 1971.
* ''Grundfragen der Allgemeinen Sprachwissenschaft'', Berlin and Leipzig, 1931 (Lommel's tr. of Cours de linguistique générale, by Ferdinand de Saussure).
* “Gāthās des Zarathustra: Yasna 43-46, mit Benützung der Entwürfe von F. C. Andreas übersetzt und erklärt,” Nachrichten von der Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen. New Series, 1/3, 1934, pp. 67–119.
* “Gāthās des Zarathustra: Yasna 47-51, mit Benützung der Entwürfe von F. C. Andreas übersetzt und erklärt,” Nachrichten von der Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, New Series, 1/4, 1935a, pp. 121–69.
* ''Die alten Arier: von Art und Adel ihrer Götter'', Frankfurt, 1935b.
* “Yasna 29: Die Klage des Rindes,” ZII 10, 1935–36, pp. 96–115.
* “Yasna 32,” Wörter und Sachen 19, 1938, pp. 237–65.
* ''Der arische Kriegsgott'', Frankfurt, 1939.
* “Yasna 34,” ZVS 67, 1942, pp. 6–26.
* ''Gedichte des Rig-Veda: Auswahl und Übersetzung'', Munich, 1955.
* ''Altbrahmanische Legenden'', Zürich and Stuttgart, 1964.
* ''Die Gathas des Zarathustra'', ed. Bernfried Schlerath, Basel and Stuttgart, 1971.
* ''Kleine Schriften'', ed. Klaus L. Janert, Wiesbaden, 1978 (with Lommel's full bibliography on pp. VII-XIX).