Dietrich Kralik

Dietrich Kralik was born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary on 15 August 1884. He was a member of the Kralik von Meyrswalden [de] family of Bohemian nobility, the son of philosopher Richard von Kralik [de] and brother of musician Heinrich von Kralik [de]. He earned his Ph.D. in Germanic philology at the University of Vienna under the supervision of Rudolf Much.

Kralik served as a professor at the University of Würzburg from 1923 to 1924. In 1924, he was appointed a professor at the University of Vienna. He was Dean of the Faculty for Philosophy at the University of Vienna from 1934 to 1935. Kralik became a Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in 1935, where he served as Head of the Dictionary Commission and Secretary of the Philosophical-Historical Class. He was a known expert on the Nibelungenlied.

A member of the Nazi Party, Kralik was dismissed from the University of Vienna after the end of World War II. He was rehabilitated in 1949 and subsequently reappointed as a professor at the university, later becoming Head of the Institute for Germanic Studies. Kralik retired from his university duties in 1955 and was appointed an honorary professor. He was succeeded by Otto Höfler as Head of the Institute for Germanic Studies. Kralik died in Vienna on 27 December 1959 and is buried at the Döbling Cemetery.