Breul , Karl Hermann , 1860-1932 , Professor of German, University of Cambridge

Breul , Karl Hermann , 1860-1932 , Professor of German, University of Cambridge

Karl Hermann Breul was born in Hannover, 1860 and educated at Lyceum II Gymnasium, where the headmaster, W Weidasch was a Schiller scholar who believed in the compulsory teaching of foreign languages. Accordingly Breul was obliged to study Greek, Latin, French and English, and volunteered to take classes in Hebrew. His principal tutor was Adolf Ley, former French and German tutor to Lord Kitchener.

In 1878 Breul left school to enter Tübingen University. He continued to study during his military service, working on South German dialects, particularly Swabian. At Tübingen he attended the lectures of Christoph Sigwart (1830-1904) and Karl Reinhold von Köstlin (1819-1894) in philosophy and literature. In 1879 he left Tübingen for Strassbourg and spent a semester studying English and French philology under Ten Brink, Boehmer and Eduard Koshwitz (1851-1904). In the winter of that year he left for Berlin and the Friedrich Wilhelm Universität, where he remained until taking his doctorate in 1883, with a thesis on an Old English epic Sir Gowther', and a lengthy treatise on comparative literature connected with the legend ofRobert le Diable'. His tutors at Berlin included Julius Zupitza (1844-1895), Adolf Tobler (1835-1920), Karl Müllenhoff (1818-1884) and Wilhelm Scherer.

In 1884, after briefly teaching in German secondary schools, Breul left Berlin for Paris to further his studies of French and romance languages and literatures. He studied under Gaston Bruno Paulin Paris (1839-1903) and Paul Meyer (1840-1917). During this time he translated Tobler's book on French versification into French, with the assistance of his friend, Léopold Sudre (b 1855).

In 1884 Breul was appointed the first lecturer in Germanic language and literature at Cambridge University, five years later he was appointed a Reader. In 1886 he was elected a Fellow of King's College and in 1896 he was awarded a Litt.D. In 1897 he was one of the co-founders of the `Modern Language Quarterly'. In 1902 he was offered a Professorship at the University of London, but refused it. In 1910 he was appointed the first Schröder Professor of German at Cambridge. He was President of the English Goethe Society, and represented it at the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the Wiener Goethe-Verein in 1928.

Breul's research and publications reflect the broad base of his education and interests. However, over and above that, Breul sought to promote the higher study of German philology and literature in the United Kingdom, and to develop and strengthen the knowledge and understanding of each other's language and culture between Germany and Britain. He founded the Honours School in German at Cambridge, and was largely instrumental in re-shaping the study of German in other British universities. Many of the best modern language teaching posts in Britain were held by Breul's former students. He wrote and lectures on the training and qualification of modern language teachers, which he regarded as a high priority for British secondary schools.

Publications: (Trans. with L Sudre) A Tobler Le Vers français ancien et moderne (1885); Sir Gowther. Ein Englische Romanze aus dem XV Jahrhunert (1886); A Handy Bibiographical Guide to the Study of German Language and Literature for the Use of Students and Teachers of German (1895); Die Originisation des höhren Schuhlwesens in Grossbritannien (1897); The Teaching of Modern Foreign Languages in Secondary Schools (1898); Betrachtungen und Vorschläbetreffend die Gründung eines Reichsinstituts für Lehrer des Englischen in London (1900); Cassell's New German Dictionary, (2nd ed, 1906); (Trans) Deutschland im XIX Jahrhundert (1913); Students' Life and Work in the University of Cambridge [1908]; numerous articles in European and America learned journals. He also edited seven volumes in the Cambridge University Pitt Press series: Lessing and Gellert: Fabeln und Erzählungen (1887); Benedix: Dr Wespe (1888); Hauff: Das Bild des Kaisers (1889); Schiller: Wilhelm Tell (1890); Schiller: Geschichte des dreissigjähren Buch III (1892); Schiller: Wallenstein (1894, 1896), Goethe: Iphigenie auf Tauris (1899) and Die Braut von Messina, oder, Die feindlichen Brüder: ein Trauerspiel mit Chören / Schiller (1913).