Obituary for Professor Frank Shaw

Frank Shaw, Emeritus Professor of Mediaeval German at the University of 
Bristol, died suddenly and unexpectedly on 5th March 2011.  Professor Shaw, 
born on 19th September 1928, attended Farnworth Grammar School from 
1939-1946; then read French and German at the University of Manchester, 
taking his B.A. in 1950 and M.A. by thesis on Courtly Vocabulary in the 
Works of Heinrich von Veldeke in 1951.  After two years in the Intelligence 
Corps between 1951 and 1953, spent mainly in Vienna taking delighted 
advantage of the city's opera houses and theatres, in 1954 Professor Shaw 
took up a British Council scholarship at the University of Münster to 
undertake research into aspects of German etymology; then spent eleven 
years (1956-1967) as English Lektor at the University of Bonn, where he did 
his doctorate on Die Darstellung des Gefühls in der Kaiserchronik under 
Professor Karl Stackmann.  He took up his post in the German Department at 
Bristol in 1967; was made Senior Lecturer in 1980; Reader in 1984; and 
given a Personal Chair in 1993. Professor Shaw retired in 1994, whereupon 
he was made a Senior Research Fellow; from 1995-1998 he was also Visiting 
Lecturer in the History of the German Language at the University of 
Cambridge.  Professor Shaw is survived by his wife, Professor Gisela Shaw, 
and his three children, Oscar, Pip and Irene.

Professor Shaw's expertise lay in the language and literature of mediaeval 
Germany, which he taught with great success at Bristol, building up the 
Department's reputation for Mediaeval Studies and consolidating a 
formidable international reputation as a scholar in the process.  In 
Bristol he established a lively interdisciplinary Mediaeval Society; and 
for younger colleagues in the German Department and Faculty of Arts he was 
a benign, interested and encouraging presence, always willing to share his 
considerable knowledge but never patronizing.  In 1980 he was a founding 
member of the Bristol Anglo-German Society, which he served as President 
from 1992 onwards.  From 1982 he was Treasurer and Trustee of the Bristol 
Scheme Trust, a charity founded by the Bristol Anglo-German Society to help 
young people to live and work in Germany.  In 2001 Professor Shaw was 
awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz for his work in furthering good relations 
between Germany and the United Kingdom.

Professor Shaw's research focussed on historical chronicles, a field of 
study in which he was an internationally recognized expert.  He was a 
gifted manuscript scholar and editor, publishing Karl der Große und die 
schottischen Heiligen nach der Handschrift Harley 3971 (DTM 71) in 1981; 
and numerous articles on mediaeval chronicles (inter alia 'Kaiserchronik 
und Eneide' (1970/71); 'Karl der Große und die schottischen Heiligen' 
(1976); 'Die Darstellung Karls des Großen in der Weltchronik Heinrichs von 
München' (1981); 'Alba Iulia I.115:  Fragment einer universalhistorischen 
Augsburger Stadtchronik' (1986); 'Die "Parzival"-Zitate bei Heinrich von 
München' (1989); 'Mittelhochdeutsche Weltchroniken – 
Geschichtsschreibung oder Literatur?' (1990); 'Willehalm as history in 
Heinrich von München's Weltchronik' (2002); and contributions to the 
Encyclopaedia of the Medieval Chronicle (2010).  He continued researching 
long after retirement; indeed, his eightieth birthday was marked by the 
publication of the crowning achievement of a life of meticulous 
scholarship, an edition with Professor Kurt Gärtner of Trier of the 
lengthy and complex fourteenth-century Weltchronik (Neue Ee) by Heinrich 
von München (DTM 88).  However, his was no narrow mind.  On the contrary, 
his interests ranged widely and he published articles on topics as diverse 
as 'Die Ginoverentführung in Hartmanns Iwein' (1975); 'Liebe als 
Teufelswerk in der deutschen und lateinischen Chronistik des Mittelalters' 
(1987); 'The Good Old Days of the Babenberg Dukes' (1991); 'Hans Sachs as a 
Character in Wagner's Meistersinger' (1995); 'Wozu Grammatik?' (1995); 
'Friedrich II as the "Last Emperor"' (2001); 'Garrick in Bristol' (2002); 
'Silvester II, moving statues and the noonday demon' (2003); chronometry; 
and Dracula.  A regular attender at the Anglo-German Medieval Colloquium, 
in 1993 he, together with Professors Kurt Gärtner (Trier) and Ingrid 
Kasten (Berlin), hosted the thirteenth meeting at Bristol; its topic 
'Spannungen und Konflikte menschlichen Zusammenlebens in der deutschen 
Literatur des Mittelalters'.

Professor Shaw was a brilliant lecturer of great verve and presence. 
Whilst he excelled at scholarly papers, impressing through his painstaking 
scholarship and ability to fuse detail and close reading into a broader, 
illuminating whole, he also possessed an eye for unusual, even quirky, 
topics (such as the Scottish-German anarchist thinker John Henry Mackay) 
and a gift for rendering any subject accessible to wider audiences. 
Whatever the occasion, his talks were invariably stimulating, entertaining 
and informative, delivered with obvious enthusiasm for his topic and 
inspiring equal enthusiasm in his audience.  Students loved him and 
responded to his deep love of mediaeval German language and literature.  In 
particular, his History of the Language lectures (in which he baffled and 
then hooked them by introducing Old High German via Japanese) were 
enormously popular.

Above all, Frank Shaw was a rare individual who lit up an occasion by his 
mere presence:  benign, generous, loyal, supportive, courteous, enduringly 
curious and intellectually open, great fun to be with, totally committed to 
his field, a model of distinguished scholarship and possessed of immense 
and unswerving integrity.  He will be very sorely missed.

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KA Simon, German
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