Gyula Germanus
| Gyula Germanus | |
|---|---|
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| Born |
November 6, 1884 Budapest, Hungary |
| Died | November 7, 1979 (aged 95) Budapest, Hungary |
| Resting place | Budapest, Farkasréti cemetery |
| Nationality | Hungarian |
| Known for | Academic |
Gyula Germanus (6 November 1884 in Budapest – 7 November 1979 in Budapest), alias Julius Abdulkerim Germanus, was a professor of oriental studies, a Hungarian writer and Islamologist, member of the Hungarian Parliament and member of multiple Arabic academies of science, who made significant contributions to the study of the Arabic language, history of language and cultural history. He was a follower of the famous orientalist, Sir Ármin Vámbéry and became a scholar of world repute.
Germanus was a language professor at the Hungarian Royal Eastern Academy from 1912, and a teacher of Turkish and Arabic from 1915. During World War I he made several secret missions to Turkey. In 1915 he was there as member of the Turkish Red Crescent and also joined the battle at the Dardanelles.
Julius Germanus was born in Budapest on 6 November 1884 into a middle-class family. Both of his grandfathers were soldiers in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848-49. His father, Alexander Germanus (1852–1940), was leather merchant and shoemaker; his mother, Rosalia Zobel, was of Zipszer German origin. Julius had a brother, Francis and a sister, Johanna.
Young Julius did not do well in the early years of high school and sometimes got very low marks. Despite that he graduated with brilliant results in 1902. His mother spoke German more than Hungarian. Despite this, Hungarian became his mother tongue. Maybe this confusion led him to studying languages, and accompanied with his great strength of mind, to multilingualism as well: just after finishing high school he sat for exams in Greek and Latin, both widespread in the intellectual class in the region, at that time. Beside reading classical and foreign languages and writing books on history, literature and the history of music became his other spare time activities. Germanus devoured historical books in the original French and German. His own first work entitled, The Artillery Lieutenant (A tüzérhadnagy), which discussed the siege of Strasbourg in the year 1870-71, carried off the first prize of 20 Hungarian Crowns.
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