Hermann Mittelberger

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Hermann Mittelberger (24 January 1935 (Klagenfurt) – 13 May 2004 (Treibach-Althofen)) was an Austrian Indo-Europeanist. After spending childhood and youth in Klagenfurt, Mittelberger studied Indo-European linguistics, classical philology, and Indology (Sanskrit) at the university of Vienna. In 1962, he finished his studies with a PhD in Indo-European linguistics and passed the final teachers' exam for Latin and Greek.

From 1957 until 1962, Mittelberger was an assistent at the Institute of Indology in Vienna. In 1963, he became a scientific clerk for Indo-European linguistics and the Hitthite language at the Institut voor Osterse Talen at the university of Utrecht.

From 1964 until 1971, he was assistent at the Institute of Linguistics at the university of Würzburg, where in 1969, he passed his habilitation for Comparative (Indo-European) linguistics.

From december 1971 onwards, Mittelberger was professor for Comparative (Indo-European) linguistics at the university of Graz, and from 1973-1988 also director of the Institute for translation studies ("Institutes für Übersetzer- und Dolmetscherausbildung").

His research centered around the proto-Indo-European language, the Indo-European languages of (old) Anatolia, Indic languages (Sanskrit, Middle Indic), Iranian (Old Persainh, Avestic, Middle Iranic), Greek (including Linear B), Latin and languages of old Italy, as well as Germanic with special interest in Gothic.

Mittelberger was a very knowledgeable scholar and earlier known as a brilliant Indo-Europeanist. In his last years, he was much less active, which turned out to be the effect of an unrecognized serious illness.