23 Facts About Kuno Meyer

Kuno Meyer was a German scholar, distinguished in the field of Celtic philology and literature.

Kuno Meyer's pro-German stance at the start of World War I in the United States was a source of controversy.

Kuno Meyer's brother was the distinguished classical scholar, Eduard Meyer.

Kuno Meyer founded and edited four journals devoted to Celtic Studies, published numerous texts and translations of Old and Middle Irish romances and sagas, and wrote prolifically, his topics ranging to name origins and ancient law.

Kuno Meyer spent two years in Edinburgh, Scotland, as a teenager learning English.

Kuno Meyer received his doctorate for his thesis Eine irische Version der Alexandersage, on an Irish version of the Alexander Romance, in 1884.

Kuno Meyer then took up the post of lecturer in Teutonic languages at the new University College, Liverpool, the precursor of the University of Liverpool, which was established three years earlier.

Kuno Meyer held this post for three years, delivering his first lectures in 1904.

Kuno Meyer was among those who called for the establishment of a permanent lectureship in Celtic Studies at Glasgow.

Kuno Meyer continued to publish on Old Irish and more general topics on the Celtic languages, as well as producing textbooks for German.

Kuno Meyer co-founded Archiv fur celtische Lexicographie in 1898 with Whitley Stokes, producing 3 volumes from 1900 to 1907.

In 1903, Kuno Meyer founded the School of Irish Learning in Dublin, and the next year created its journal Eriu of which he was the editor.

At the outbreak of the First World War, Kuno Meyer left Europe for the United States of America, where he lectured at Columbia University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and elsewhere.

Kuno Meyer resigned as Director of the School of Irish Learning and editor of Eriu.

Kuno Meyer nevertheless accepted candidacy for the post of exchange professor at Harvard, at the recommendation of German professors there.

However, when the April 1915 issue of The Harvard Advocate awarded first prize to an anti-German satirical poem "Gott mit Uns" written by an undergraduate, Kuno Meyer sent the university a letter of protest, rebuking the faculty members who served as judges for failure to exercise neutrality.

Kuno Meyer declined his candidacy for the exchange professorship in the letter.

Kuno Meyer was injured in a railway collision in 1915 and met 27-year-old Florence Lewis while he was recovering in a California hospital.

Posthumously, in 1920, Kuno Meyer's name was restored, both by Dublin and Cork, in their Rolls of Honorary Freemen.

Kuno Meyer was regranted the Freedom of the City of Cork, as follows: "Re-elected 14th May, 1920, and order of Council of the 8th January, 1915, expunging his name from the roll rescinded".

Also in 1920, Kuno Meyer was described by his acquaintance Douglas Hyde, Celtic philologist and later president of the Republic of Ireland, as "one of the most lovable men who ever existed, and himself undoubtedly in love with Ireland".

Cosgrave wrote in a letter that Kuno Meyer was recognized as "the greatest Celtic authority since the death of Whitley Stokes" and that he has "done more for Irish scholarship and Irish national glory than any other living man".

Kuno Meyer is among those credited with playing a crucial role in fostering native Irish Celtists in the initial phases of Eriu and the School of Irish Learning, and when the editorship over Eriu later passed to the succeeding generation of Irish scholars, tantamount to the fulfilment of the "primary intention of Kuno Meyer and his associates".