Wahrig, Gerhard

Lexicographer

Born: 10.05.1923 in Burgstädt (Saxony)

died: 02.09.1978 in Wiesbaden

Wahrig studied modern philology and philosophy in Leipzig from 1946-49. When he received his doctorate in 1953, he was already in the middle of his professional career. From 1951, he worked as an editor for Meyers Lexikon at the Bibliographisches Institut in Leipzig. After completing his doctorate, he worked there as editor-in-chief until 1959.

Under his aegis, various lexicons were produced, including a German-English dictionary (1956). Wahrig moved to West Germany in 1959 and became head of the Lexicon Institute at Bertelsmann-Verlag in Gütersloh in 1960, then scientific director at Franz-Steiner-Verlag, which was still based in Wiesbaden at the time. At the same time, he worked as editor of the work "Das große deutsche Wörterbuch" (the "Wahrig"), first published in 1966, and published the "dtv-Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache" in 1978.

From 1969, Wahrig, who was a member of the main board of the German Language Society, was a lecturer at the Institute for General and Applied Linguistics at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz. He habilitated there in 1972 and was awarded a professorship.