oa JOHANNES FRANCK

Johannes Franck

A career in the margins

Johannes Franck (1854-1914) was the first professor extraordinarius(1886) and in 1912 a professor of Dutch and Low German in the German empire. In this article I describe his career largely until 1886 by embedding him within the scientific community of his time. Subsequently, I show how anti-Semitism prevented him from becoming a professor of German studies and discuss the policy of appointments in Prussia. To conclude, I argue that these aspects and the difference in scientific cultures between the Netherlands and the German Empire was partly responsible for the fact that he had a marginal position in between two scientific communities.