Introduction
Adolf Holtzmann (2 May 1810, Karlsruhe – 3 July 1870, Heidelberg) was a German professor and philologist. His name is associated with a Proto-Germanic sound law known as Holtzmann's Law.
He studied theology at the universities of Halle and Berlin, where he was a student of Friedrich Schleiermacher. He later studied philology at the University of Munich, where his influences included Johann Andreas Schmeller. Holtzmann also attended classes in Paris given by Eugène Burnouf, and beginning in 1837, spent a number of years working as a tutor to members of Baden royalty. From 1852 he was a professor of German literature and Sanskrit at the University of Heidelberg, and a notable philologist of his day.
Holtzmann was the father-in-law of Albrecht Kossel, German biochemist and 1910 Nobel laureate, by his marriage to Holtzmann's daughter, Luise, in 1886.
Selected works
- Über den griechischen Ursprung des indischen Tierkreises, 1841 – On the Greek origin of the Indian zodiac.
- Über den Umlaut : zwei Abhandlungen, 1843 – About the umlaut : two treatises.
- Über den Ablaut, 1844 – About the ablaut.
- Beiträge zur Erklärung der persischen Keilinschriften, 1845 – Contributions to explain Persian cuneiform inscriptions.
- Indische sagen, (2 volumes) 1846 – Indian legends.
- Untersuchungen über das Nibelungenlied, 1854 – Studies involving the "Nibelungenlied".
- Kelten und Germanen. Eine historische Untersuchung, 1855 – Celtic and German, an historical study.
- Der grosse Wolfdieterich, 1865 – Wolfdietrich.
- Altdeutsche Grammatik, umfassend die gotische, altnordische, altsächsische Sprache, 1870-75 (with Alfred Holder) – Old Germanic grammar; spanning Gothic, Old Nordic and Old Saxon language.
- Germanische alterthümer. Mit text, übersetzung und erklärung von Tacitus Germania, 1873 – Germanic antiquities with text, translation and explanation of Tacitus' "Germania".
- Deutsche Mythologie, 1874 (with Alfred Holder) – German mythology.