Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur
DisciplineGerman studies
LanguageGerman
Edited byJürgen Wolf
Publication details
Former name(s)
Zeitschrift für deutsches Alterthum
History1841–present
Publisher
S. Hirzel Verlag (Germany)
FrequencyQuarterly
Standard abbreviations
ISO 4Z. Dtsch. Altert. Dtsch. Lit.
Indexing
ISSN0044-2518
LCCNsn85004980
JSTOR00442518
OCLC no.645345094
Links

The Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur (commonly abbreviated ZfdA) is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal in the field of German studies with emphasis on the older periods. It was established in 1841 and is the oldest periodical in early Germanic studies still publishing.

History

The journal was established in 1841 by Moriz Haupt as the Zeitschrift für deutsches Alterthum (older spelling) with the objective of applying the same rigour to the philology and textual criticism of medieval German texts as was already current with Greek and Latin.[1]

With volume 13 (1867) the Zeitschrift für deutsches Alterthum began a new series (German: Neue Folge).[2] In 1876, with volume 19 (New Series 7) its name was changed to the present Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur and a supplement, the Anzeiger, began publication as a journal of reviews;[3] this sometimes overshadowed the parent journal.[4]

The journal has appeared in quarterly issues since 1931. It was originally published by the Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, first in Leipzig, from 1856 in Berlin. With the third issue of volume 82 (1948/50), Franz Steiner Verlag took over publication.[5] The current publisher is S. Hirzel Verlag.

Since volume 140 (2011) the editor-in-chief has been Jürgen Wolf (University of Marburg).[6]

Editors

Editorial philosophy

Haupt wrote a statement of purpose in the first issue in which he set out the journal's range: "the literature, language, customs, legal history [and] belief of German antiquity".[11] The major focus from the beginning was publishing editions of Old and Middle High German works, which were presented for the most part for an academic readership, without explanatory material.[1] The journal "quickly became the most important academic forum for the 'Berlin school'".[12] In reaction to the narrowness of its approach, a quarterly named Germania was founded by Franz Pfeiffer in 1856, with the objective of reflecting the broader approach of Jacob Grimm and of classical philology and of therefore laying a greater emphasis on articles than editions. The foundation of the Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie in 1868 was also a reaction to the ZfdA's restricted focus, in its case intended to supplement it.[1] For at least a century, this emphasis on philology and relatively few changes of editor left the Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur largely untouched by changes in opinion in the field. Until the end of World War II, the editor was traditionally the Chairman of the Faculty of Germanistik at the University of Berlin. It was a relatively impersonal publication, sometimes accused of arrogance, and did not even include death notices for many decades.[13]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Uwe Meves, "Die Entstehung und frühe Entwicklung der Germanischen Philologie", in History of the language sciences: an international handbook on the evolution of the study of language from the beginning to the present/Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaften: ein internationales Handbuch zur Entwicklung der Sprachforschung von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart/Histoire des sciences du langage: manuel international sur l'évolution de l'étude du langage des origines à nos jours, ed. Sylvain Auroux et al., Volume 2, Handbücher zur Sprache- und Kommunikationswissenschaft 18.2, Berlin: de Gruyter, 2001, ISBN 9783110167351, pp. 1286–93, p. 1260(in German)
  2. 1 2 Kurt Ruh, "Kleine Chronik der Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur", Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur 100 (1971) 163–65, p. 163 (in German)
  3. ↑ Franz Josef Worstbrock, "Mitteilung des Herausgebers", Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur 119 (1990) 1–3, p. 1 (in German)
  4. 1 2 Ruh, "Chronik", p. 164.
  5. 1 2 Ruh, "Chronik", p. 165.
  6. 1 2 Joachim Heinzle, "Mitteilung des Herausgebers", Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur 139 (2010), p. 417 (in German) (pdf)
  7. ↑ According to Mirko Nottscheid and Hans H. Müller with Myriam Richter, eds., Wilhelm Scherer, Briefe und Dokumente aus den Jahren 1853 bis 1886, Marbacher Wissenschaftsgeschichte 5, Göttingen: Wallstein, 2005, ISBN 9783892448266, p. 177 (in German), Wilhelm Scherer became editor in 1872.
  8. ↑ Ruh, "Chronik", pp. 164–65.
  9. ↑ Kurt Ruh, "Mitteilung des Herausgebers", Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur 114 (1985) 289 (in German)
  10. ↑ Franz Josef Worstbrock, "Mitteilung des Herausgebers, Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur 126 (1997) 494 (in German)
  11. ↑ "die literatur, die sprache, die sitten, die rechtsalterthümer, der glauben der deutschen vorzeit": cited in Kurt Ruh, "Zum hundertsten Jahrgang der Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur", Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur 100 (1971) 1–3, p. 1 (in German)
  12. ↑ Nottscheid, Müller and Richter: "... die schnell zum wichtigsten wissenschaftlichen Forum der 'Berliner Schule' avancierte".
  13. ↑ Ruh, "Zum hundertsten Jahrgang", p. 3.
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