Maximilian Kaluza (born 22 September 1856 in
Ratibor,
Upper Silesia
Upper Silesia ( pl, Górny Śląsk; szl, Gůrny Ślůnsk, Gōrny Ślōnsk; cs, Horní Slezsko; german: Oberschlesien; Silesian German: ; la, Silesia Superior) is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, located ...
; died 1 December 1921 in
Königsberg
Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was named ...
,
East Prussia
East Prussia ; german: Ostpreißen, label=Low Prussian; pl, Prusy Wschodnie; lt, Rytų Prūsija was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 187 ...
) was a German scholar of English philology.
Life
Maximilian Kaluza studied from 1873 to 1877 at the
Matthias Gymnasium in
Wroclaw and was awarded his Ph.D. with a dissertation on the relationship of the Middle English alliterative poem ''
William of Palerne
''Guillaume de Palerme'' ("William of Palerne") is a French romance poem, later translated into English where it is also known as ''William and the Werewolf''. The French verse romance was composed , commissioned by Countess Yolande (who is gene ...
'' to its French models on 12 January 1881. After passing the ''
Staatsexamen
The ("state examination" or "exam by state"; pl.: ''Staatsexamina'') is a German government licensing examination that future physicians, dentists, teachers, pharmacists, food chemists, psychotherapists and jurists (i.e., lawyers, judges, public ...
'' in December 1881, he was a probationary candidate and assistant teacher at the Gymnasium in
Racibórz
Racibórz (german: Ratibor, cz, Ratiboř, szl, Racibōrz) is a city in Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland. It is the administrative seat of Racibórz County.
With Opole, Racibórz is one of the historic capitals of Upper Silesia, being t ...
from 1882 to 1884, and from 1884 to 1887 a high school teacher in
Opole
Opole (; german: Oppeln ; szl, Ôpole) ;
* Silesian:
** Silesian PLS alphabet: ''Ôpole''
** Steuer's Silesian alphabet: ''Uopole''
* Silesian German: ''Uppeln''
* Czech: ''Opolí''
* Latin: ''Oppelia'', ''Oppolia'', ''Opulia'' is a city loc ...
.
On 17 May 1887 Kaluza 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 the
Albertus-Universität Königsberg with a text about the manuscript transmission of the Middle English poem ''
Libeaus Desconus
''Libeaus Desconus'' is a 14th-century Middle English version of the popular " Fair Unknown" story. Its author is thought to be Thomas Chestre. The story matter displays strong parallels to that of Renaut de Beaujeu's ''Le Bel Inconnu''; both ver ...
'', becoming a professor of English language and literature. From July 1894 he was at the university as an adjunct professor and director of the English Seminar and after June 1902 a full professor. He retired in the summer of 1921.
Among Kaluza's research was an observation on the metrical characteristics of unstressed vowels in the
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
poem ''
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 ...
'', on which the name '
Kaluza's law' was later bestowed, apparently by
R. D. Fulk.
[Eric Weiskott, 'A Semantic Replacement for Kaluza's Law in ''Beowulf''', ''English Studies'', 93.8 (2012), 891-96 (fn. 1) .] The significance of Kaluza's observations for the dating of ''Beowulf'' has been extensively debated.
His son
Theodor Kaluza
Theodor Franz Eduard Kaluza (; 9 November 1885 – 19 January 1954) was a German mathematician and physicist known for the Kaluza–Klein theory, involving field equations in five-dimensional space-time. His idea that fundamental forces can be ...
(1885-1954) was a German physicist and his grandson Theodor Kaluza (1910-1994) a mathematician.
Selected publications
* ''
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 w ...
und der Rosenroman. Eine literargeschichtliche Studie''. E. Felber Verlag, Berlin 1893.
* ''Der altenglische Vers. Eine metrische Untersuchung''. E. Felber, Berlin 1894.
* with
Gustav Thurau, ''
. Ein Lebensbild'', in ''Zeitschrift für französischen und englischen Unterricht'', 3 (1904), , 385–432 (also a
separate printing by Weidmann, Berlin 1904.
* ''Historische Grammatik der englischen Sprache'', 2 vols. E. Felber, Berlin 1906.
* ''Englische Metrik in historischer Entwicklung''. E. Felber, Berlin 1909.
* ''Geoffrey-Chaucer-Handbuch für Studierende. Ausgewählte Texte mit Einleitung, einem Abriss von Chaucers Versbau und Sprache und einem Wörterverzeichnis''. Tauchnitz, Leipzig 1919.
* ''Chaucer-Handbuch für Studierende. Ausgewählte Texte mit Einleitugen und einem Wörterverzeichnis'', 4th edn. B. Tauchnitz, Leipzig 1944.
* with Arthur C. Dunstan, ''Englische Phonetik mit Lesestücken''. Vereinigung wissenschaftlichen Verleger, Leipzig 1921.
* ''Geschichte der englischen Sprache''. Literatur-Agentur Danowski, Zürich 2007. (Reprint)
Sources
*
Christian Tilitzki, ''Die Albertus-Universität Königsberg – ihre Geschichte von der Reichsgründung bis zum Untergang der Provinz Ostpreußen (1871–1945)'', vol. 1 (1871–1918), Akademie Verlag 2012, , p. 559.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaluza, Max
1856 births
1921 deaths
19th-century philologists
20th-century German non-fiction writers
20th-century philologists
Linguists from Germany
German philologists
German male non-fiction writers
People from Racibórz