Timms, Edward, 1937-2018

Edward Timms, the pre-eminent authority on the Austrian satirist Karl Kraus, did much to shape the sub-disciplines of Austrian studies and German-Jewish studies. His many publications include a magisterial two-volume study of Kraus’s work, life and milieu (1986, 2005). As a University Lecturer at Cambridge and Fellow of Gonville & Caius College, he co-founded the yearbook Austrian Studies. Having moved to the University of Sussex as Professor of German, he founded the Centre for German-Jewish Studies. His marriage to Saime Göksu gave him an intense interest in Turkey; together they wrote a biography of the poet Nazım Hikmet. Among much else, he had a talent for engaging with people and for promoting collaborative enterprises. He received many honours from Austria and Britain.

Posted to Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the British Academy, XVIII