Helmut Birkhan

Helmut Birkhan (born 1 February 1938) is an Austrian philologist who is Professor Emeritus of Old High German Language and Literature and the former managing director of the Institute for Germanic Studies at the University of Vienna.

Having studied at Vienna under Otto Höfler, Birkhan specializes in Celtic, Germanic, and Indo-European studies, particularly the study of Celtic-Germanic contacts, Germanic linguistics and Medieval German literature from an interdisciplinary perspective, on which he has published numerous influential works. He has taught generations of students at Vienna, as is well known as a popularizer of scholarship for the broader Austrian public, particularly young people. Birkhan has tutored many influential scholars, including Hermann Reichert, Rudolf Simek, , Melitta Adamson, and Alfred Ebenbauer, and continues to teach, write and research.

Early life and education Helmut Birkhan was born in Vienna, Austria on 1 February 1938, the son of Josef Birkhan, a civil engineer, and Maria Müller. After graduating from gymnasium in Vienna, Birkhan studied philosophy, psychology, classical philology and Germanistics at the University of Vienna, and eventually specialized in Germanicstics, particularly Ancient Germanistics. Birkhan received his PhD in 1962 under the supervision of Otto Höfler, with the dissertation Die Verwandlung in der Volkserzählung. Along with Otto Gschwantler, Peter Wiesinger and Erika Kartschoke and other future prominent scholars, Birkhan belonged to a circle of Höfler's favourite students who called themselves the Drachenrunde. Höfler, who is named in Max Weinreich's Hitler's Professors, and Höfler's questionable stances to Nazi ideology, may have had undue influence on the field in post-war Austria. The Drachenrunde teacher's degree of influence on young Germanistik research after WWII, a sensitive topic, has however, been discussed. He has also dedicated himself towards making scholarship available to the broader public, notably appearing as a druid on the children's television program on the Österreichischer Rundfunk. Many scholars of prominence have gained their degrees under the supervision of Birkhan, including Hermann Reichert, Rudolf Simek, Manfred Kern, , Melitta Adamson, Sang Bea Pack, and Alfred Ebenbauer.

Helmut Birkhan (in sunglasses) with Peter Wiesinger (on Birkhan's right) and other friends from the University of Vienna during an excursion to the Danube in 1960. The circle of friends pictured were students of Otto Höfler, and affectionately called themselves the Drachenrunde.

Birkhan has been a visiting professor at several universities, including the universities of Picardy Jules Verne (1980), Amsterdam (1993–1994) and Antwerp (1994–1995). Birkhan has received many awards for his scholarship, and was in 1990 made an Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau (1990). He his a member of several distinguished learned societies, including the Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde (1991), Austrian Academy of Sciences (1994), the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters (2002) and the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (2005). He has had two festschrift's published in his honor, Ir Sult Sprechen Willekomen (1998), which was edited by Christa Agnes Tuczay, and Kulturphilologie. (2015), which was edited by his former students Manfred Kern and Florian Kragl.

Birkhan retired from the University of Vienna as professor emeritus in October 2006, but continues to teach and research there, and has continued to publish.

Research Birkhans research centers on Old High and Middle High German literature, Germanic linguistics, Indo-European linguistics, Celtic studies and Arthurian literature. He also researches archaeology, religious history, fairy tales, alchemy and psychoanalysis. Birkhan cultivates interdisciplinary research, and has cooperated extensively with historians, philosophers and other scholars. He sees Celtic and Germanic studies as primarily a study of culture.

Birkhan is also known for his translations of works from various languages, including Middle Welsh and Middle High German works. Birkhan is the author of hundreds of scholarly books and articles in German, English and other languages. He is also the works of numerous works intended for popular audiences, some of them of humorous nature. Many of Birkhan's research projects have been carried out at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, such as the (supervised together with Hermann Reichert and Robert Nedoma), and Motif-Index of German Secular Narratives from the Beginning to 1400 (together with Christa Tuczay and others), which was published in seven volumes.

Awards 1990: Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau 1992: 2000: 2006: Silbernes Komturkreuz für Verdienste um das Land Niederösterreich

Festschrifts Ir sult sprechen willekomen. Grenzenlose Mediävistik. Fs. f. H. Birkhan zum 60. Geburtstag, hg. Christa Tuczay, Ulrike Hirhager, Karin Lichtblau, Peter Lang Bern – Berlin – Frankfurt a.M. ...1998, 863S Kulturphilologie. Vorträge des Festcolloquiums zum 75. Geburtstag von Helmut Birkhan, hg. Manfred Kern - Florian Kragl (= Philologica germanica 37), Fassbaender Wien 2015,

Memberships 1991: Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde 1994: Austrian Academy of Sciences 2002: Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters 2005: Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities

Personal life Birkhan married Ingvild Birkhan (née Bach), a prominent philologist and philosopher, in 1965. Helmut and Ingvild have two daughters, Barbara Rhiannon Xochitl and (born Ines Obilot Papalotl). Ines is a distinguished author, dancer and choreographer. Their daughters were given Nahuatl names, as Helmut and Ingvild have a great interest for the Aztecs. Birkhan's hobbies include botany, photography, music (including classical music, jazz and folk music), cooking, dancing, mountain sports, skiing and sailing.