Walther Killy was a German literary scholar who specialised in poetry, especially that of Friedrich Holderlin and Georg Trakl.
10 Facts About Walther Killy
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Walther Killy became known as editor of literary encyclopedias, the Killy Literaturlexikon and the Deutsche Biographische Enzyklopadie.
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Walther Killy studied German, and wrote his doctoral thesis Die Uberlieferung der Gedichte Holderlins, about the tradition of poems by Friedrich Holderlin, with Julius Petersen in 1940.
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When Walther Killy returned from being a prisoner of war in Colorado, he received his doctorate from the Eberhard-Karls-Universitat Tubingen on 19 March 1948 with a dissertation entitled Bild und Mythe in Holderlin's Poems.
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In 1955, Walther Killy was appointed professor for German Studies at the FU.
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Walther Killy was a visiting scholar at the University of California and at Harvard University in 1969.
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Walther Killy was a member of the Braunschweigische Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft 1979.
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Walther Killy was awarded the Niedersachsenpreis for journalism in 1983, and the Sigmund Freud Prize for academic prose in 1990.
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Part of the Walther Killy Library is one of the most valuable Paul Celan collections in Europe with many dedicatory copies, and a copy of the 1698 first edition of Poetische Walder by Christian Gryphius.
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Walther Killy was editor of many compendia and anthologies as well as initiator and organiser of encyclopaedias, including Bertelsmann's Literaturlexikon, known as "Der Walther Killy".