Ernst Alfred Philippson

Ernst Alfred Philippson
Born	(1900-04-06)6 April 1900 Mönchengladbach, Germany
Died	9 August 1993(1993-08-09) (aged 93) Urbana, Illinois
Nationality	American
Academic background
Alma mater	University of Cologne
Doctoral advisor	Friedrich von der Leyen
Academic work
Discipline	Germanic philology
Institutions	University of Michigan University of Cologne University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
Notable students	Elmer H. Antonsen
Main interests	Germanic religion

Ernst Alfred Philippson (6 April 1900 – 9 August 1993) was an American philologist who specialized in Germanic studies.

Biography

Ernst Alfred Philippson was born in Mönchengladbach, Germany on 6 April 1900 to a prominent Jewish family. He was the son of the dentist Ernst Moritz Philippson (1871-1924) and Johanna Mühlinghaus (1878-1945). He was the cousin of the distinguished geographer Alfred Philippson, and the husband of Margarete Josephine Hecker (1903-1989).

Since 1918, Philippson studied German, English and history at the universities of Bonn, Munich and Cologne. He received his Ph.D. in German philology at Cologne in 1924 under the supervision of Friedrich von der Leyen with a thesis on fairy tales: Der Märchentypus von König Drosselbart. He completed his habilitation in 1928 under the supervision of Herbert Schöffler with a thesis on Anglo-Saxon paganism: Germanisches Heidentum bei den Angelsachsen.

Starting in 1928, Philippson became a lecturer in English philology at the University of Cologne. He emigrated to the United States in September 1933, because of anti-Jewish policies being implemented at universities in Germany. His Ph.D. from University of Cologne was rescinded on the orders of Joseph Goebbels. Philippson subsequently served as assistant professor of German at the University of Michigan. During World War II he taught German in the United States Army.

Philippson transferred to the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in 1947, where he served as Associate Professor (1947-1951) and Professor (1951-1968) of Germanic Philology. Philippson specialized in the study of German and English literature, and Germanic religion, and taught Old High German literature through to the period of 17th century literature. Elmer H. Antonsen, one of his students, replaced him upon his retirement at the University of Illinois. Philippson was deeply involved with the Journal of English and Germanic Philology, where he served as Editor (1953-1957) and Co-editor (1957-1971). He was a member of several learned societies, including American Association of Teachers of German, the Modern Language Association and the Linguistic Society of America.

Philippson retired in 1968, but continued to lecture at Columbia University after his retirement. In 1972 the University of Cologne honored Philippson with another doctorate upon the 50th anniversary of obtaining that degree which the Nazi regime had taken away from him. This was the first time in history that a doctorate was re-awarded among any of the German universities. He died in Urbana, Illinois on 9 August 1993.

Selected works

• Der Märchentypus von König Drosselbart (Greifswald 1923)
• Der Germanische Mütter- und Matronenkult am Niederrhein. In: Germanic Review Bd. 19, 1944, S. 81–142.
• Germanisches Heidentum bei den Angelsachsen (Leipzig, B. Tauchnitz, 1929. Nachdruck: New York, Johnson Reprint Corp., 1966)
• Die Genealogie der Götter in germanischer Religion, Mythologie und Theologie (Urbana, PLMA, 1953)

Sources

• Johanna Philippson: The Philippsons, a German-Jewish Family 1775–1933. In: Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook 7 (1962), 95–118.
• Christoph König (Hrsg.), unter Mitarbeit von Birgit Wägenbaur u. a.: Internationales Germanistenlexikon 1800–1950. Band 2: H–Q. De Gruyter, Berlin/New York 2003, ISBN 3-11-015485-4, pp. 1405–1406. (in German)
• James M. McGlathery: German and Scandinavian at Illinois: a History, Urbana: University of Illinois Pr., 1990, pp. 64-65.