# William Witte
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{{about||the member of the U.S. House of Representatives|William Henry Witte}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
'''William Witte''' [FRSE](/source/FRSE) (18 February 1907 – 22 September 1992) was a 20th-century scholar of the German language and German literature, working in Britain.
In 1959, Wittw postulated that Schiller's "[Ode to Joy](/source/Ode_to_Joy)" was specifically rewritten in 1803 following influence on Schiller by the works of [Robert Burns](/source/Robert_Burns).[Scottish Herald 23 January 2016]
==Life==
thumb|Memorial to William Witte, Snow Kirk, Old Aberdeen
Witte was born in [Bratislava](/source/Bratislava) in Slovakia (then known as Pressburg) on 18 February 1907, the son of William G. J. Witte. His family travelled widely, and he was educated in [Poland](/source/Poland) and [Austria](/source/Austria) and then attended the [Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München](/source/Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit%C3%A4t_M%C3%BCnchen) in [Germany](/source/Germany). After a year at the [Friedrich Wilhelm University of Berlin](/source/Friedrich_Wilhelm_University_of_Berlin), he ended in the [University of Breslau](/source/University_of_Breslau) (then in Germany, now Wrocław in Poland) where he gained a doctorate in economics in 1930.[{{Cite web|url=https://www.rse.org.uk/fellow/william-witte/|title=Professor William Witte FRSE|date=June 28, 2019|website=The Royal Society of Edinburgh}}]
In 1931, he left mainland Europe to go to [Aberdeen University](/source/Aberdeen_University) in [Scotland](/source/Scotland) as an assistant lecturer in German. In 1936, he transferred to [Edinburgh University](/source/Edinburgh_University) in the same role for one year before returning to Aberdeen, with a PhD from Edinburgh. As a non-German German-speaker he survived the rigours of the [Second World War](/source/Second_World_War) and began to climb in position. He was appointed Professor of German in 1951. Most of his years in Aberdeen, he lived on Don Street close to the university.[{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/contributor/William-Witte/3242|title=William Witte|website=Encyclopedia Britannica}}]
The [University of London](/source/University_of_London) awarded him an honorary doctorate (DLitt) in 1966. In 1978, he was elected a Fellow of the [Royal Society of Edinburgh](/source/Royal_Society_of_Edinburgh). His proposers were [Thomas Malcolm Knox](/source/Thomas_Malcolm_Knox), [Fraser Noble](/source/Fraser_Noble), [Robert Cross](/source/Robert_Craigie_Cross) and [Anthony Elliot Ritchie](/source/Anthony_Elliot_Ritchie).[{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=978-0-902198-84-5|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|access-date=2019-09-09|archive-date=2016-03-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074135/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|url-status=dead}}]
He died on 22 September 1992.[{{cite web |url= http://www.rse.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/witte_william.pdf|title=Info |website=www.rse.org.uk |format=PDF|access-date=2021-10-31}}] He is memorialised in the [Snow Kirk](/source/Snow_Kirk) in [Old Aberdeen](/source/Old_Aberdeen).
==Publications==
*''Modern German Prose Usage'' (1937)
*''Schiller'' (1949)
*''Schiller and Burns'' (1959)
*''German Romance and German Romanticism'' (1963, republished 1975)
*''German Life and Letters'' (1977)
==Other awards and positions==
*Gold Medal from the Goethe Institute of Munich in 1971
*Cross of an Officer of Merit (First Class) from the [Federal Republic of Germany](/source/Federal_Republic_of_Germany) in 1974
*Queen's Jubilee Medal in 1977
*Chairman of the National Conference of University Teachers of German in Great Britain in Ireland in both 1970 and 1971
*Vice Chairman of the Society of British German Studies from 1982
==Family==
In 1937 he married Edith Mary Stenhouse Melvin, a linguist, and eldest daughter of the headmaster of [Turriff](/source/Turriff) Secondary School.[{{cite web |url= http://www.rse.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/witte_william.pdf|title=Info |website=www.rse.org.uk |format=PDF|access-date=2021-10-31}}]
==References==
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Category:1907 births
Category:1992 deaths
Category:Writers from Bratislava
Category:Academics of the University of Aberdeen
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Category:Slovak emigrants to the United Kingdom
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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [William Witte](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Witte) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Witte?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.