Karl Helm

Karl Helm (full name Karl Hermann Georg Helm, born 19 May 1871 in Karlsruhe, died 9 September 1960 in Marburg) was a German medievalist, Germanist and religious studies scholar.

Karl Helm towards the end of his life

He studied German philology in Heidelberg and Freiburg, earning his doctorate in 1895 with a study on 16th-century poetry. His habilitation was on the literature surrounding the Teutonic Order, published 1899 in Giessen. After teaching in Giesen, Würzburg and Frankfurt, he received tenure in Marburg as professor for early Germanic philology (Altgermanistik) in 1921, where he remained until his retirement in 1936, and continued to hold lectures as professor emeritus until 1958.

Helm adhered to a national conservative ideology throughout his life, expressing sympathy for the German National People's Party (without however becoming a regular member). He was a member of the Militant League for German Culture from 1933, but he never became a member of the Nazi party. In November 1933 Helm signed the Vow of allegiance of the Professors of the German Universities and High-Schools to Adolf Hitler and the National Socialistic State.

Helm took over editorship of the Althochdeutsche Grammatik, Althochdeutsches Lesebuch and Gotische Grammatik from Wilhelm Braune, all standard works in Germanic studies. His own research focussed on Middle High German, Old High German, Germanic folklore and religion.