Otto Schlapp (1859-1939)
Otto Schlapp (1859-1939) was Professor of German at Edinburgh University from 1926 to 1929.
Early Years
Schlapp was born in Erfurt, in Thuringia, Germany, on 15 May 1859. He was educated first in his native town and then, at the age of twenty, at the University of Jena. In 1880, the second year of his studies, he came to Scotland to study English and Sanskrit at Edinburgh University. He returned to Germany the following year to continue his studies at Berlin, Leipzig, and Strasbourg universities. Later on, he obtained the degree of Dr. Philos from Kaiser-Wilhelms-Universitaet zu Strassburg (Strasbourg), with a thesis entitled Die Anfaenge von Kants Kritik des Geschmacks und des Genies, 1764 bis 1775: Erster Teil einer Untersuchung ueber Kants Lehre vom Genie und die Entstehung der Kritik der Urteilskraft.
Schlapp and Edinburgh
Returning to Edinburgh in 1887, Schlapp taught German at George Watson's College, Edinburgh, and at Edinburgh Ladies' College until 1894. Schlapp became a Lecturer in German at Edinburgh University in 1894, and in 1920 he was appointed Reader. In 1926, Schlapp became Professor of German at the University. His publications include Bilder aus Sizilien (1885), Kants Lehre vom Genie und die Entstehung der 'Kritik der Urteilskraft' (1901), a revision and enlargement of Chamber's elementary German grammar (1904), and a revision and enlargement of Chambers's advanced German grammar (1905). Earlier in his life, in 1899, Schlapp gave up his German nationality, and he became a British subject in 1914. He retired through ill-health in 1929, and received an honorary Doctorate of Laws from his University in 1930. Professor Otto Schlapp died on 26 December 1939.
Scope and content
appointed Lecturer in German at Edinburgh University in 1896, subsequently becoming the first Professor of German in 1926. His son Robert Schlapp (1899-1991) lectured in Applied Mathematics and Mathematical Physics at Edinburgh University.
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Gen.2187 - The papers of Professor Otto Schlapp include: class certificates, session 1880-81, for Rhetoric and English Literature, and Sanskrit and Comparative Philology; a medal, session 1880-81, for Sanskrit; LL.D diploma dated 1930; letters, tributes and a decorated formal address on retirement, 11 July 1929; a copy of Schlapp's thesis; a copy of his letter of application to the Chair along with testimonials and other documents; an address on the place of modern languages in examinations for bursaries to Scottish universities, 1900; certificates of renunciation of German citizenship and of British naturalisation; invitations and photographs; cuttings relating to Scott and Carlyle medallions; and, etchings of the University etc.
E2012.01 - In 1972, Professor Otto Schlapp presented an album entitled Chips from Storm's Workshop by C. F. Allan to the Gibson Library (formerly a University class library). The album is dated May 1925. The album contain's photographic copies including an autograph letter from Theodor Storm to his father-in-law, and facsimiles of manuscript pages of various works.
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