Alois Brandl

Alois Brandl (Innsbruck, 21 June, 1855 – Berlin, 5 February, 1940) was a philologist specialized in early-modern and modern English. He was a Shakespeare scholar and wrote a number of influential books and articles on Shakespeare's works and times.

Alois Brandl studied in Vienna (where he received his Ph.D. and became Privatdozent), Berlin, and London. After he held positions at the universities of Prague, Göttingen, and Strasbourg he became in 1895 professor in English Studies at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Berlin. Together with Julius Zupitza he founded the institute of Amerikanistik und Anglistik (American and English Studies). In 1914 Brandl undersigned the Manifesto of the 93.

He retired in 1923. During World War I he was involved in phonographic recordings of the different pronunciations of English prisoners of war. From 1903 until 1921 Brandl was president of the German Shakespeare Society. He had the honorary title Geheimer Regierungsrat (Privy Government Councillor) and became in 1904 a member of the Königlich Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften [Royal Prussian Academy of Arts and Sciences].