Wolfgang Klein

Timeline

1. 1965–1970

   Studies at Saarbrücken

   He studies German and Romance Philology and Philosophy at Universität Saarbrücken from 1965 to 1970.

2. 1970–1980

   Sentence parsing and early posts

   He completes a Ph.D. at Saarbrücken in 1970 with a thesis on sentence parsing, then works there on a computational linguistics project through 1972. In 1972, he becomes associate professor in the University of Heidelberg's German Department, and in 1976 he becomes full professor in the University of Frankfurt's German Department.

3. July 1980

   A Max Planck co-directorship

   In July 1980, he becomes a scientific member of the Max Planck Society and a co-director of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics.

4. 1986

   A chapter on language acquisition

   He publishes the chapter “Some forms of language acquisition, some fundamental facts, some focal issues, some well-known theories” in Second Language Acquisition. The chapter addresses the distinction between first- and second-language learning.

5. February 2015

   Retiring from Language Acquisition

   In February 2015, he retires as Director of the Language Acquisition Department at the institute.

6. 2018

   A Wilhelm von Humboldt Award

   He receives the DGfS Wilhelm von Humboldt Award for lifetime achievement in linguistics in 2018.

7. 2019

   Leading digital German lexicography

   In 2019, he is the overall coordinator of the Center for Digital Lexicography of the German Language and leads its Digital Dictionary of the German Language (DWDS) project.

8. As of October 2026

   Director Emeritus at Max Planck

   He is Director Emeritus and Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen.