Werner August Josef Betz (1 September 1912 – 13 July 1980) was a German philologist who was Chair of
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
**Ge ...
and
Nordic Philology
Scandinavian studies is an interdisciplinary academic field of area studies, mainly in the United States and Germany, that primarily focuses on the Scandinavian languages (also known as North Germanic languages) and cultural studies pertaining to ...
at
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
Biography
Werner Betz was born in
Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...
, Germany on 1 September 1912. He gained a
PhD in 1936 with a dissertation on
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
influence on
Germanic. From 1937 to 1940, with a grant from the
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
The German Research Foundation (german: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft ; DFG ) is a German research funding organization, which functions as a self-governing institution for the promotion of science and research in the Federal Republic of Germ ...
, Betz was a research assistant of
Theodor Frings. He served in the
Kriegsmarine during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. After the war, Betz became Chair of
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
**Ge ...
and
Nordic Philology
Scandinavian studies is an interdisciplinary academic field of area studies, mainly in the United States and Germany, that primarily focuses on the Scandinavian languages (also known as North Germanic languages) and cultural studies pertaining to ...
at
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. He died in
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...
on 13 July 1980.
Betz was considered an
expert on
Germanic Antiquity. His writings on
Germanic mythology
Germanic mythology consists of the body of myths native to the Germanic peoples, including Norse mythology, Anglo-Saxon mythology, and Continental Germanic mythology. It was a key element of Germanic paganism.
Origins
As the Germanic langu ...
were influenced by the theories of
Georges Dumézil.
Selected works
* ''Der Einfluss des Lateinischen auf den althochdeutschen Sprachschatz. 1: Der Abrogans'', 1936
* ''Deutsch und Lateinisch: die Lehnbildungen der althochdeutschen Benediktinerregel'', 1949
* (Publisher and Contributor) ''Taylor Starck: Festschrift ;
.. presented to Professor emeritus Taylor Starck by his friends, colleagues, and pupils on the occasion of his seventy-fifth birthday october fifteenth, nineteen hundred and sixty-four', 1964
See also
*
Otto Höfler
Otto Eduard Gotfried Ernst Höfler (10 May 1901 – 25 August 1987) was an Austrian philologist who specialized in Germanic studies. A student of Rudolf Much, Höfler was Professor and Chair of German Language and Old German Literature at the Uni ...
*
Jost Trier
*
Wolfgang Krause
Wolfgang Krause (18 September 1895, Steglitz – 14 August 1970, Göttingen) was a German philologist and linguist. A professor at the University of Göttingen for many years, Krause specialized in comparative linguistics, and was an authority on ...
References
Sources
* Christina Bürger: ''Betz, Werner.'' In:
Christoph König (ed.): ''
Internationales Germanistenlexikon 1800–1950.'' Vol. 1: ''A–G.'' De Gruyter, Berlin/New York 2003
eprint 2011 , pp. 169–170
*
External links
*
Werner Betzin the
OPAC
The online public access catalog (OPAC), now frequently synonymous with ''library catalog'', is an online database of materials held by a library or group of libraries. Online catalogs have largely replaced the analog card catalogs previously ...
of
Regesta Imperii
Papal regesta are the copies, generally entered in special registry volumes, of the papal letters and official documents that are kept in the papal archives. The name is also used to indicate subsequent publications containing such documents, in c ...
1912 births
1980 deaths
Kriegsmarine personnel
Academic staff of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
Writers from Frankfurt
German philologists
Germanists
Germanic studies scholars
Old Norse studies scholars
Scandinavian studies scholars
20th-century philologists
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