Hans Vermeer

Vermeer is best known for establishing skopos theory, but published widely on a variety of topics in linguistics, translation and interpreting. He authored more than 80 articles, chapters and books. In 2012, a special issue of mTm was published to commemorate his work and life. In addition to his achievements in academia, Hans Vermeer was a translator for Portuguese, French and Basque, and worked as an interpreter for Portuguese.

Vermeer was Professor of Linguistics at the University of Mainz in Germersheim and held a chair in Translation Studies at Heidelberg University. After his retirement, he became a visiting professor at national and international universities. In his final years, he returned to the universities of Mainz and Heidelberg. On 17 January 2010, just before his death, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Mainz.

Prof. Dr. h.c. Hans Josef Vermeer (24 September 1930 – 4 February 2010), was a German linguist and translation scholar.

Hans Vermeer was born in Iserlohn in 1930. In 1950 he completed his secondary education in the same town. That same year, he took up an undergraduate degree in English and Spanish translation at Heidelberg University, which he completed in 1952. In 1953, after spending some time in Portugal at the University of Lisbon, he obtained an undergraduate degree in Portuguese translation as well. A year later, he received his graduate degree in Portuguese translation and interpreting. From 1954 to 1962 he taught Portuguese at the Department of Translation and Interpreting at Heidelberg University. In 1962, he was awarded a PhD degree from Heidelberg University for his dissertation on adjectival and verbal color terms in Indo-European languages and the issue of their translation. From 1962 to 1964, he taught languages of South Asia such as Urdu and Hindi at the Department of Modern Languages in Heidelberg. In 1968 he achieved Habilitation by completing a postdoctoral thesis on the structure of Central South Asian languages, contributing to the sprachbund issue. From 1968 to 1970, he worked as an assistant professor at the Department of Linguistics at Heidelberg University. In 1970, he transferred to the University of Mainz, Faculty of Translation and Interpreting Studies, Linguistics and Cultural Studies, where he would hold the Chair of General and Applied Linguistics until 1983. From 1984 to 1992, he was Chair Professor of General Translation Studies with Special Reference to Portuguese at Heidelberg University. In 1992, he retired from his chair but continued teaching. He was also appointed visiting professor at a number of universities: University of Innsbruck (1999-2002), Boğaziçi University in Istanbul (2002-2003) and Okan University, also located in Istanbul (2004-2007). He returned to the Faculty of Translation and Interpreting Studies, Linguistics and Cultural Studies at the University of Mainz as a visiting professor in 2008.