Maximilian Lambertz

Born:	07-27-1882
Faculty:	Protestant Theological School
Category:	Expelled student

Maximilian LAMBERTZ, born on July 27th, 1882 in Vienna/Austria, died on August 26th, 1963 in Merkkleeberg near Leipzig/Germany/GDR (in 1938 entitled residency ('heimatberechtigt') for Vienna/Austria, Citizenship: Austria), was the son of Gottfried Lambertz (highschool professor, deceased) and lived in Viennas 13th district, Auhofstraße 35/3. He had studied Comparative Science of Languages and Ancient Philology at the University of Vienna from 1900 to 1905, graduated at the Philosophical School on December 26th, 1906 with the academic degree 'Dr. phil.' (dissertation: Ueber die griechischen Sklavennamen') and later became a well-known Albanologist.
He received a State Fellowship, travelled to Italy and Greece and got in contact with the Albanian language. After his return he became high school teacher in Vienna – intercepted by his work on the ‘Thesaurus Linguae Latinae’ in Munich between 1907 and 1911. Back in Vienna he continued teaching, but also published a school and reading book for Albanian (Vienna 1913). In 1916 he participated in an expedition of the Balkan Commission of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Vienna to North and Central Albania and dedicated himself to the local dialect and folklore. He returned to Albania during World War I, serving for the Austrian-Hungarian Army. He was assigned with the direction of the Albanian school system and became the first foreign member of the Albanian Literary Commission, set by the Austrian-Hungarian administration to establish an Albanian normative language for use in schools. Besides he also revised the newspaper 'Posta e Shypnisë' (Albanian Post) from 1916 until 1918. After the war Lambertz returned to Austria, restarted teaching and wrote books and articles about various aspects of Albanian culture and folklore.

Under the Austro-Fascist regime he was dismissed from his teaching position after the prohibition of the Social Democratic Party.
Lambertz began to study protestant theology at the University of Vienna in 1935 and was enrolled finally in spring term 1938 at the Protestant-Theological School in the 3rd year of his studies. His doctoral thesis ('Dissertation') "Die Berichte ueber die Kindheit Jesu" was accepted on September 17th, 1938, but he was not allowed to graduate for racist reasons, because his mother was a descendent of a Jewish family – probably also because the content orientation of the thesis was not welcomed by the Nazis. Nevertheless he worked as an unpaid lecturer fort Latin, Greek and Hebrew at the same Protestant-Theological School from fall term 1938/39 until fall term 1939/40.
In 1939 Lambertz moved to Munich/Germany, where he worked again on the ‘Thesaurus Linguae Latinae’ until 1942. In 1943 he moved to Leipzig, where he taught French and Italian at the language school and contributed on the 'Realenzyklopädie der Altertumswissenschaften' (Pauly-Wissowa).

In June 1945, he was – after becoming a member of the Communist Party – appointed director of the language school in Leipzig and in October 1946 full professor for Comparative Linguistics and until 1949 dean of the newly founded School of Education at the Karl-Marx-University. He was also head of the Indo-Germanic department until his retirement in 1957.
Lambertz visited Albania in June 1954 and in 1957. He refused to break up his connections to Albania, even after the break in close political relations between Albania and the Warsaw Pact

He died on August 26th, 1963, and was buried at the cemetery in Vienna 19th district.

From 1982 to 1984 there was a discussion at the Protestant-Theological School of the University of Vienna to award Maximilian Lambertz the honorary doctorate posthumously, but the application was withdrawn.
Lit.: information from Dr. Christine Kanzler, Vienna, 2011; Oesterreichisches Biographisches Lexikon; Robert ELSIE, Early Photography in Albania – Maximilian Lambertz.