Lazar Gulkowitsch: Schriften zur begriffsgeschichtlichen Methode 1934–1940/41
[Lazar Gulkovich: Writings on the Conceptual Historical Method 1934-1940/41]

The first monograph that explicitly addresses the conceptual historical method was written by the Jewish philologist Lazar Gulkovich (1898–1941). Following his expulsion from the University of Leipzig, he held a unique chair for Jewish Studies in Tartu, Estonia from 1934 onwards. In 1937, he published his nowadays almost forgotten study Zur Grundlegung einer begriffsgeschichtlichen Methode in der Sprachwissenschaft (On the Foundations of a Conceptual Historical Method in Linguistics). Here, he demonstrates how only a thorough exploration of the history of concepts, a history which moves within phases of latency and explication, allows for an adequate understanding of cultural phenomena in their historical development. The edition presents this monograph as well as nine others, partially unpublished writings by Gulkovich (some in excerpts) in which he explicated the conceptual historical method on the topic of hassidism or hassid. All texts have been thoroughly introduced and annotated.