Elisabeth Karg-Gasterstädt

Klara Elisabeth Karg-Gasterstädt (born 9 February 1886 in Gröditz; died 24 August 1964 in Leipzig) was a German medievalist, professor of German philology at the University of Leipzig and head of the effort to publish the Old High German Dictionary.

Biography Karg-Gasterstädt was the daughter of Karl Gasterstädt, a factory director from Swabia, and his wife, Sophie, née Schönleber. Klara attended a teachers' college in Stuttgart from 1909 to 1912, and after graduation she was allowed to teach middle and higher grades. From there she went on to work as a substitute teacher at the Königin-Katharina-Stift, and then became a full-time teacher at the Prieser Higher Girls' School. She started work on her habilitation thesis for a postdoctoral degree but she abandoned that effort for reasons of time and health.

She married the German philologist and folklorist professor Fritz Karg in 1922, but 1933, she was forced to leave her position at the university because of a ban on double incomes for married couples. she was named head of the Old High German Dictionary and contributed to the author's lexicon, Die deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters (The German Literature of the Middle Ages).

On the occasion of her 75th birthday, the apolitical scholar was honored with the Patriotic Order of Merit of the German Democratic Republic in silver.

Until her death on 24 August 1964 in Leipzig, Karg-Gasterstädt continued her efforts to improve the Old High German Dictionary.

Selected works

Karg-Gasterstädt, Elisabeth. On the origins of Parzival. M. Niemeyer, Halle / Saale 1925. Frings, Theodor, and Elisabeth Karg-Gasterstädt. Eduard Sievers, born in Lippoldsberg ad Weser on 25 November 1850, died in Leipzig on 30 March 1932. Teubner, 1933. Karg-Gasterstädt, Elisabeth. "FROM THE WORKSHOP OF THE OLD GERMAN DICTIONARY." Contributions to the History of German Language and Literature (PBB) 1938.62 (1938): 55-59. Karg-Gasterstädt, Elisabeth. "TO THE GLOSSES OF REICHENAUER MANUSCRIPT Rc (CARLSR. AUG. CCXX)." Contributions to the History of German Language and Literature (PBB) 1938.62 (1938): 454-456. Karg-Gasterstädt, Elisabeth "ADDENDUMS TO THE OLD HIGH GERMAN GLOSSEN." Contributions to the history of the German language and literature (PBB) 1940.64 (1940): 263-271. Frings, Theodor, Rudolf Große, Elisabeth Karg-Gasterstädt, Elias von Steinmeyer, and Siegfried Blum. Old High German dictionary. Akademie-Verlag, 1952. Karg-Gasterstädt, Elisabeth. "Old High German thing — New High German thing." The story of a word, Berlin (1958). Karg-Gasterstädt, Elisabeth. "Eberhard Gottlieb Graff." New German biography, published by the historical commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences (1964): 730-731. Karg-Gasterstädt, Elisabeth. Old High German dictionary: on the basis of the collections left by Elias von Steinmeyer on behalf of the Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig. Vol. 2. Akademie-Verlag, 1997.