Dr. Koloman Brenner is a Hungarian linguist of German ethnicity, Germanist, and Associate Professor, recognized as one of the leading figures of German Studies in Hungary. His research areas include German phonetics and phonology, German and comparative dialectology, as well as issues of minority languages and multilingualism. He defended his PhD dissertation in 2002 at the Doctoral School of German Studies, Faculty of Humanities, Eötvös Loránd University, with the highest distinction summa cum laude.

He began his academic and research career at the Institute of German Studies, where he worked as Assistant Professor between 2000 and 2007, and has been Associate Professor since 2007. From 2006 to 2011 he served as Dean’s Commissioner, between 2011 and 2015 as Vice-Dean for Strategic Affairs of the Faculty of Humanities, and between 2014 and 2017 as Deputy Director of the Institute of German Studies. In addition, from 2012 to 2016 he was a member of the Senate of Eötvös Loránd University. He has also taught and conducted research as a visiting scholar at German and Austrian universities, including Greifswald, Bonn, Vienna, Tübingen, Marburg, and Regensburg.

He is a member of the Linguistics Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, as well as several academic associations, including the Hungarian Association of Germanists, the International Society for Dialectology of German, and the Scientific Advisory Board of the Research Centre for German in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe at the University of Regensburg. He is also a member of the editorial board of Wiener Sprachblätter and of the international online journal Intralinea.

Selected publications:


• Das Schulwesen der deutschen Volksgruppe in Ungarn (1994)

• Vergleichende Analyse der Plosive einer ungarndeutschen ostdonaubairischen Mundart und der normierten deutschen Hochlautung (1998)

• Abriß einer deutschen Phonetik: Handbuch für das Germanistikstudium mit deutsch-ungarischen Materialien (co-author, 1999)

• Die sprachliche Situation der deutschen Minderheit in West-Ungarn (2002)

• Plosives of the German dialects in Western Hungary (2004)

• Plosive der deutschen Dialekte in West-Ungarn: Eine kontrastive akustische Analyse (2004)

• Deutsche Phonetik. Eine Einführung (co-author, 2006)

• Ungarndeutscher Sprachatlas (co-author, 2008)

• Übungsbuch zur Phonetik der deutschen Sprache (co-author, 2014)

• Mi befolyásolja a német nyelvjárások használatát az elektronikus médiában? (2016)

• Deutsche Minderheit(en) und Institutionen (2018)

His academic work has been recognized not only within the Hungarian scholarly community but also internationally, with publications appearing in Hungarian, German, and English. His teaching and leadership activities have consistently served the cultural and academic representation of the German minority in Hungary. As a member of the Committee on Culture, Education and Media of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, he acted as rapporteur on issues of academic freedom and university autonomy.