Sigmund Feist (Mainz, 12 June 1865 - Copenhagen, 23 March 1943) was a German Jewish pedagogue and historical linguist. He was the author of the Germanic substrate hypothesis as well as a number of important works concerning Jewish ethnic and racial identity. Feist served as the director of the Jewish Reichenheim Orphanage in Berlin from 1906 to 1935. In 1907 he became a member of the Gesellschaft der Freunde society.
Feist emigrated to Denmark in 1939 where he died four years later.
Correspondence with Jewish soldiers during WWIEdit
As director of the Reichenheim Orphanage, Feist established and maintained close relationships with his wards, 77 of whom corresponded with him during their time of service in the First World War. The correspondence consists of 745 letters which Feist received between the years 1914 and 1918, and offers a glimpse into the lives of Jewish soldiers who served in World War I.
Several of the soldiers who wrote the letters later went on to attain notoriety in academic circles, an example being Hermann Teuchert.
Works in historical linguisticsEdit
- Einführung in das Gotische (1922)
- Etymologisches Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache (1923)
- Vergleichende Wörterbuch der Gotischen Sprache mit Einschluss des Krimgotischen und sonstiger zerstreuter Überreste des Gotischen (1923)
- Indogermanen und Germanen (1924)
- Germanen und Kelten in der antiken Überlieferung (1925)
Works in Jewish history and ethnicityEdit
- Bibliography for Wulfila database: Feist, Sigmund. Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der Gotischen Sprache Mit Einschluss des Krimgotischen und sonstiger zerstreuter Überreste des Gotischen. Dritte neubearbeitete und vermehrte Auflage E. J. Brill Leiden 1939
- An Analysis of * z loss in West Germanic
- "Studying the Jew"
- Listed in The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics
- An Analysis of * z loss in West Germanic at google.com
- The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics Electronic Index at www1.elsevier.com
- U. Maas, Verfolgung und Auswanderung deutschsprachiger Sprachforscher 1933 - 1945, Vol. 1, Tübingen 2010, s. v. Feist, Si(e)gmund Samuel
- Otto's encyclopedia
- List of some available works
- Review of Feldpostbriefe jüdischer Soldaten 1914 –1918 by Prof. Dr. Jürg Riecke (German)
- Review of Feldpostbriefe jüdischer Soldaten 1914 –1918 by Thea Koberstein (German)