The New International Encyclopædia/Pfeiffer, Franz

PFEIFFER, pfīf′fẽr, Franz (1815-68). A Germanic scholar. He was born at Bettlach, Switzerland, studied at Munich, became royal librarian at Stuttgart in 1846, and in 1857 was made professor of German literature in the University of Vienna. He was one of the most important Germanists of recent times. He founded the review Germania, and the series Deutsche Klassiker des Mittelalters, for which he edited Walther von der Vogelweide (6th ed. 1880). His more valuable works are: Der Dichter des Nibelungenlieds (1862), Freie Forschung (1867), and, among many editions, Barlaam und Josaphat (1843). Die deutschen Mystiker des 14. Jahrhunderts (1845-47), and an edition of the Deutsche Ordenschronik of Jeroschin (1854).