Pietsch, Karl
Karl Pietsch (4.1.1860 Stettin – 1.4.1930 Stettin); Sohn eines preußischen Feldwebels, später Expedienten der „Neuen Stettiner Zeitung“
| Verf. | Frank-Rutger Hausmann |
Romanische Philologie, bes. Hispanistik
Herbst 1865 Vorschule d. Friedrich-Wilhelm Schule Stettin; 1879 Abitur; 1879-87 Stud. Neuere Sprachen Berlin (Adolf Tobler), Florenz (dort auch Privatlehrer in einer deutschen Familie), Halle a. S. (dort 1886 zunächst Militärdienst); 1887 Prom. (Hermann Suchier) ebd.; Privatlehrer d. Kinder von Enos M. Barton, Präs. d. Western Electric in Berlin; auf seinen Rat hin 1889 Emigration in die USA; 1890-96 Gehilfe Newberry Library Chicago; 1.7.1896-1900 Instructor, Assist. Prof. U Chicago; 1900 Studienjahr ÉPHÉ Paris; 1901 ao. Prof. Chicago; 1910 o. Prof.; 1925 em.; Rückkehr nach Deutschland.
Alexander Herman Schutz, The Romance of Daude de Pradas called Dels Auzels Cassadors, edited with introduction, summary, notes and glossary, Columbus, Ohio State University Press 1945 [dem Andenken von Karl Pietsch gewidmet].
„Aus meinem Leben“, Modern Philology 27, 1930, 388-394.
Beiträge zur Lehre vom altfranzösischen Relativum, Halle a. S. 1888 (Diss.); Preliminary Notes on Two Old Spanish Versions on the Disticha Catonis, Chicago 1902; Spanish Grail fragments: El Libro de Josep Abarimatia. La Estoria de Merlin. Lançarote, ed. from the unique ms., Chicago 1924-25.
„As a scholar Pietsch was pre-eminent as syntactician and text editor. Only the accident of departemental needs made him a Hispanist. On joining the Chicago staff he was better fitted to give instruction in French or Italian. Years were devoted to mastering this new subject before he began to publish, at a time when greater activity in this regard might have speeded his academic advancement. Having at last acquired a profound mastery of medieval Spanish, he continued in that field on account of the opportunities it offered for pioneer work. But he always approached Spanish studies from the viewpoint of a general Romance philologist. In these days of narrow specialization many philologists succeed in acquiring a rigid historical method only to exhibit weakness in the comparative approach to their subject. Pietsch’s method, like Tobler’s, was a happy blend of the historical and the comparative. It is the greatest of errors to consider his scholarship narrow. Karl Pietsch was nearly, if not quite, the last in America of Romance philologists in the general sense“ (G.T. Nortup, Modern Philology, 1930, 386).
HSchA Nr. 08828-08832; Voretzsch, Das Romanische Seminar, 1926, 30; Modern Philology 27, Mai 1930, 385f. (P); Ehrenpromotion Yakov Malkiel 1983, Berlin 1984, 83-84.
