Emil Krebs

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Emil Krebs
University of Berlin
OccupationSinologist

Emil Krebs (15 November 1867 – 31 March 1930) was a German

sinologist. He was reportedly able to speak and write 68 languages and studied 120 other languages.[1][2]

Life

Early life

Born in

University of Breslau
for the summer semester. At that point he already spoke twelve languages.

The following semester Krebs enrolled as a law student at the

Oriental seminar department captivated Krebs, who had concluded he wished to make the study of foreign languages the primary objective of his education. He turned first to the study of Mandarin Chinese, because it was regarded by many to be the most difficult language to learn. He began Chinese courses in 1887, and on 24 July 1890 he passed the interpreter's
examination in Chinese at the seminar for eastern languages of Berlin University with "good" marks. Within two years, Emil Krebs had absorbed Chinese to such an extent that he had attained the level of a well-educated native.

Despite his passion for learning foreign languages, he did not neglect his legal studies and passed the first State examination (equivalent to today's

Court of Appeal. Soon afterwards he began studying Turkish at the Seminar for Oriental Languages at Berlin University. On 30 September 1893, Krebs was sent to Peking (Beijing) as an aspirant
interpreter.

Stay in China

On 5 December 1893, Krebs arrived in Beijing where he worked and lived until the cessation of diplomatic relations between

Tibetan. As a result, he also educated Chinese officials about other languages in their country, and purportedly once translated a letter sent by Mongolian rebels for the Chinese authorities.[3]

While in China, Krebs devoted his time to the study of different languages, and had a greater interest in this than in doing his job, often sleeping during the day due to staying up at night studying languages. He would study different languages in strict rotation, assigning one for each day of the week. He maintained a library, organized by language and language group, and wrote a summary which he regularly reviewed for every book. He only sought out social interaction when he could use one of his languages. Krebs could learn a language very fast. A German attaché in China, Werner Otto von Hentig, related how one day, he had heard two strangers speaking a language he did not recognize. After inquiring and learning that it was Armenian, he learned it in nine weeks.[3]

On 15 February 1912, Krebs was given the title of Legationsrat. On 5 February 1913, he married Mande Heyne in the German imperial consulate in Shanghai. She was the eldest daughter of the Senior Privy Councillor Glasewald. In February and March 1914, he was attached to the envoy of Haxthausen during its official travel to central and south China. Finally, on 8 August 1914, civil powers were transferred to the legation. Since he was in informed circles of Beijing as an always welcome guest, it was decided that the Chinese empress should receive updates more frequently than interlocutors.

In 1917, after the cessation of diplomatic relations between Germany and China due to World War I, Krebs returned to Germany by way of the United States.[3]

Return to Berlin

On 23 May 1917, he returned to Berlin and on 8 September was transferred due to the dissolution of the legation in Peking, which became effective on 1 January 1918. He was then appointed to temporary service with the intelligence office for the Orient (November/December 1917), where he was assigned to the coding service of the Foreign Office until after the First World War. Between 1921 and 1923 he also worked in the translating and interpreting service. During this time, he also plunged himself into language study.[3]

In March 1930, Krebs died at his home in the

Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf
.

Legacy

Krebs's private library of over 3,500 volumes and writings in approximately 120 languages is stored in the

Tibetan, Turkish, and Urdu
.

His writings and books of language studies prove that he learned foreign languages not only through his native

Zuberoan. Besides German, Krebs predominantly spoke English, French, Russian, Chinese, Greek, Italian, Turkish, Latin, Spanish, and Arabic for learning and improving his knowledge of a new language. He passed official government language tests in Chinese, Turkish, Japanese, and Finnish. Sixty-one different translations of the New Testament
provided additional aid in his studies.

Works

Krebs produced an extended translation of the Chinese Shade Plays by Wilhelm Grube (Munich: 1915).

See also

References

  1. ^ Cecile und Oskar Vogt Archiv, Düsseldorf, Interview Dr. Zwirner/Mande Krebs im Hirnforschungszentrum Berlin-Buch 1930; Nachruf Prof. Dr. Eduard Erkes, Litterae Orientales 1931, S. 13 und 14
  2. ^ "Speaking multiple languages". qbi.uq.edu.au. 2017-07-03. Retrieved 2023-11-11.
  3. ^ a b c d "King of the Hyperpolyglots". 10 January 2012.

External links

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