Rudolf Thurneysen

(Eduard) Rudolf Thurneysen was a Swiss linguist, who only ever taught outside his birth-country. He was born on March 14th, 1875, in Basle. After attending the Gymnasium (comparable to a Grammar School) and the Paedagogicum (Approved School), he studied Romance Studies in Basel (1875-76).
He spent two years at the University of Leipzig from the autumn of 1876 to the summer of 1878 and also spent the Winter Term of 1889 in Berlin. Among his many teachers in the field of Celtic Studies were H. Zimmer (*1851 Kastellaun, †1910 Hahnenklee/Harz) and E. Windisch (*1844 Dresden, †1918 Dresden).

On August 8th, 1879, Thurneysen got his PhD with magna cum laude in the subjects Comparative Grammar, Latin and Sanskrit. He then lived in Paris from November 1879 to August 1880, where he extended his studies in Celtic languages under Henri Gaidoz (*1842, †1932). On May 4th, 1882, Thurneysen then became a Professor with his habilitation in Jena, followed by a lectureship as a Adj. Professor for Romance and Celtic Philology. On July 31st, 1884, he then was then made extraordinary (non-tenured) professor for the above subjects in Jena. An offer from Freiburg (Breisgau) followed, because the chair for Comparative Linguistics became vacant as a consequence of Karl Brugmann's (*1849 Wiesbaden, †1919 Leipzig) departure to Leipzig. Thurneysen held this chair for about 25 years.
An excellent library for Celtic and Indo-European Studies in Freiburg bears witness to his occupation there. In 1904, he became the Head of the University of Freiburg. One of his students from the time (1905-1906) was Osbom Bergin (*1873 Cork, †1950), for example.

Thurneysen's occupation as a lecturer also led him to Ireland to the School of Irish Learning.
In November 1908, Thurneysen turned down a call to Munich to the Indo-European (Linguistic) Seminar, but in October 1912, he accepted an offer at the University of Bonn as an extraordinary professor for Indo-European Linguistics and head of the Linguistic Department. He took up this position on April 1st, 1913. In 1922, he became the Dean of Bonn University. One year before, he became co-editor of Julius Pokorny for the Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie and held down that work until 1938.

After approximately eleven years, he retired... on September 30th, 1923. His successor was Ferdinand Sommer (*1875 Trier, †1962).Yet even as a Professor Emeritus, R. Thurneysen remained active in the field of Celtic literatures, philologies and especially of Irish Law. For his achievements in the field of Irish Law he received the Dr. stud. celt. Of the National University of Ireland in Dublin in 1925, as well as the honorary doctor title of the Faculty of Law of the University of Berlin. In 1929, he was honoured with the Dr. litt. celt. H.c. of the University College Belfast.

Rudolf Thurneysen died August 8th, 1940, in Bonn.

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