Klaus See

Klaus von See (10 August 1927 – 30 August 2013) was a German philologist who specialized in Germanic studies.

Biography Klaus von See was born in the village of Altendorf, Brome, Germany on 10 August 1927. He studied history, German and Scandinavian philology at the University of Hamburg, receiving his doctorate there under the supervision of historian Hermann Aubin in 1953. After completing his legal studies, von See became greatly interested in Germanic and Scandinavian philology, and in 1957 he took up a position as an assistant at the Germanic Seminar at the University of Hamburg.

von See habilitated at the University of Kiel in 1962 with the thesis Altnordische Rechtswörter. Philologische Studien zur Rechtsauffassung und Rechtsgesinnung der Germanen, which examined terminology in early Germanic law, particularly Medieval Scandinavian law. His thesis was supervised by Hans Kuhn. The same year, von See was appointed Professor of Germanic Philology at the Goethe University Frankfurt. Here von See expanded the Nordic Department of the German Seminar, and 1976 he created an Institute for Scandinavian Studies under his leadership.

von See specialized in the study of Old Norse literature. He was the author of several works on Old Norse literature and Germanic studies. von See was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Order of the Falcon, a Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog, and an Honorary Life Member of the Viking Society for Northern Research.

von See retired from the Goethe University Frankfurt in 1995. He died in Frankfurt on 30 August 2013.