The New International Encyclopædia/Massmann, Hans Ferdinand

MASSMANN, mäs'mȧn, Hans Ferdinand (1797-1874). A German philologist, well known for his studies in Old German language and literature. Born in Berlin, he studied there, and, after serving in the War of Liberation, in Jena, where his radical ideas and ‘demagogic’ sympathies brought him into difficulties with the authorities. In 1826 he became a teacher at the Royal Gymnastic Institute at Munich, and afterwards was chosen professor of Old German at the university. At Berlin, whither he had gone in 1842 to introduce gymnastics in the Prussian service, he received another chair in Teutonic philology. Massmann's writings include editions of Deutsche Gedichte des 12. Jahrhunderts (1837-42); Kaiserchronik (1849-53); of the works of the Gothic Bishop Ulfilas (1855-56), and of Tacitus's Germania (1847); and Geschichte des mittelalterlichen Schachspiels (1839) and Litteratur der Totentänze (1840).