Hans Conon von der Gabelentz

Hans Conon von der Gabelentz (13 October 1807 – 3 September 1874) was a German linguistic researcher and authority on the Manchu language. He was prime minister of the Duchy of Saxe-Altenburg from 1848 to 1849.

Born at Altenburg, Hans Conon von der Gabelentz studied finance, law and oriental languages at Leipzig University and the University of Göttingen. He entered the civil service in Saxe-Altenburg in 1830 and was promoted to parliamentary and government councillor in 1831. As the Landmarschall (Country Marshal) in the Grand Duchy of Weimar since 1847, he was present at the preliminary parliament for Frankfurt and then became one of the 17 intermediary agents for the Saxon Duchies.

Later, he was interim parliamentary envoy until the dissolution of the parliament in July 1848. At the end of November, 1848, he was named Prime Minister of the Duchy of Altenburg and resigned in August 1849. In 1850, he went to the parliament in Erfurt as a member of the Staatenhaus. In 1851, the Landschaft of Saxe-Altenburg elected him President. Gabelentz died on 3 September 1874 at his family home at Lemnitz, near Triptis. His son Georg von der Gabelentz also became a famous sinologist.

The fruits of his many years of study are his Eléments de la grammaire mandchoue (Altenburg 1833). In the Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes (Journal for Oriental Study), which he co-founded. He provided essays about Mongolian and then with Julius Loebe published a new critical edition of Ulfilas' Gothic translation of the Bible, together with grammar, a Greek-Gothic dictionary and a Latin translation (Leipzig 1843, two volumes).

He later devoted himself to the Finnish language family, as Germany was working on rational principles for the German language at that time. He published a Mordvin grammar in Vol. 2 of his Journal, Vergleichung der beiden tscheremissischen Dialekte (Comparison of the Two Mari Dialects) in Vol. 4, and Grundzüge der syrjänischen Grammatik (Essentials of Permic Grammar) soon afterwards (Altenburg 1841).

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