Julius Pokorny (1887–1970) was born in Prague and studied at Vienna university. He was a scholar of Gaelic, and supported the Irish nationalist cause from 1908. From 1920 to 1935, he held the chair of Celtic philology in Berlin, before the Nazis discovered that he, in spite of being a German nationalist, was of Jewish descent.
He emigrated to Switzerland in 1943, where he taught in Zurich and Berne. After the war, he held a honorary professorship at Munich university. He is the author of the Indogermanisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (1959), still widely used today.
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Last updated: 08-25-2005 19:10:20
