Lorenz Diefenbach

Lorenz Diefenbach
Born	Georg Anton Lorenz Diefenbach (1806-07-19)19 July 1806 Ostheim,Hesse-Darmstadt,Holy Roman Empire
Died	28 March 1883(1883-03-28)(aged 76) Darmstadt,Hesse,German Empire
Nationality	German
Occupation(s)	philologist,lexicographer,novelist, pastor and librarian

Georg Anton Lorenz Diefenbach(19 July 1806,Ostheim,Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt– 28 March 1883,Darmstadt) was a Germanphilologistandlexicographer,as well as a novelist associated with theGerman Nationalist movement.By career he was a pastor, like his father, and a librarian.

Biography

He was 12 years pastor and librarian atSolms-Laubach.In 1848, he settled atFrankfurt,where in 1865 he was appointed second librarian to the city.

In the twentieth century, Diefenbach became best known through his popular novelDie Wahrheit macht frei,a subsection of which,Arbeit macht frei,was later adopted as a slogan by various German and Austrian institutions, and most notoriously by theNazis.The novel was published in Bremen in 1873 (following a preprint in a Viennese newspaper the previous year). The main hero is a gambler and fraudster who, through regular employment, succeeds in regaining the path of virtue.

Diefenbach’s most enduring legacy lies in his numerous academic writings on philology and comparative linguistics, notably his studies in Latin,German dialectsandCeltic languages.His lexicographical works, in particular his Latin–Germanglossariesare still cited in scholarship today. Much of the content of hisGlossarium Latino-Germanicumwas incorporated into revised editions of theGlossarium ad scriptores mediae et infimae latinitatisofCharles du Fresne, sieur du Cange.He also wrote poetry.

He became a member of thePrussian Academy of Sciencesand was a friend ofJacob Grimm.

Selected works

• Celtica. Sprachliche Documente zur Geschichte der Kelten(Stuttgart 1839–40), 2 vols.
• Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache: Lexicon comparativum linguarum indogermanicarum.(Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der germanischen Sprachen: und ihrer sämtlichen Stammverwandten mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der romanischen, lithauisch-slavischen und keltischen Sprachen und mit Zuziehung der finnischen Familie) (Frankfurt am Main 1851), 2 vols.
• Glossarium Latino-Germanicum mediae et infimae aetatis(Frankfurt am Main 1857; repr. Darmstadt 1997)
• Novum glossarium latino-germanicum:mediae et infimae aetatis; Beiträge zur wissenschaftlichen Kunde der neulateinischen und der germanischen Sprachen(Frankfurt am Main 1867; repr. Aalen 1964)
• Arbeit macht frei:Erzählung von Lorenz Diefenbach (1873)

Further reading

• Ernst Schwarz (1957),"Diefenbach, Lorenz",Neue Deutsche Biographie(in German), vol. 3, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 640–641
• Jürgen Storost, "Lorenz Diefenbach. Sein Beitrag zur Entwicklung der romanischen Sprachwissenschaft". In: Jürgen Storost, "In memoriam Vladimiro Macchi. Aspekte der Wissenschaftsgeschichte. Ausgewählte Sujets" (Bonn 2008), pp. 169–193
• "Diefenbach, Lorenz".Encyclopedia Americana.1920.