Ferdinand Kittel

Ferdinand Kittel ( born April 7, 1832 in Resterhafe, Ostfriesland, † December 18, 1903 in Tübingen) was a missionary of the Basel Mission, which has rendered great service to the South Indian Kannada language through linguistic work. His monument is on the " Mahatma Gandhi Road " in Bangalore.

Between the ages 17 and 21 years Kittel attended the seminar of the Basel Mission. In 1853 he was sent to India. He worked intensively than other missionaries with the language and culture of the local population. This resulted in the creation of the Kannada dictionary. It appeared in 1894 with about 30,000 entries. In 1903, the grammar of the Kannada language has been published. In addition, Kittel devoted especially the curricular lessons.

From 1860 to 1864 Kittel was married to the coming of Tübingen Pauline Eyth that had been supplied to him by the Basel Mission to India; the couple had two sons. Pauline died in 1864, after she had spent many years in the service and for the family. 1866 learned coat at home leave Pauline's eleven years younger sister Julie Wilhelmine, whom he married a year later, took to India and with whom he had two sons and two daughters.

The Faculty of the Eberhard -Karls- University Tübingen gave Ferdinand Kittel 1896, the honorary doctorate.

In Dharwad, a district of the Indian state of Karnataka, Kittel Cardinal impact area, a Christian college was named after him, the " Kittel Science College ".

Literature on Ferdinand Kittel

• Wendt, Reinhard [Ed ]: An Indian to the Indians: on the initial failure and the posthumous success of the missionary Ferdinand Kittel (1832-1903), ersch 2006.