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Biographical
Data on Dr. Rainer L. Hempel
Dr.
Rainer L. Hempel was born in Wurzen, Germany, as the youngest of four
children of Wilhelm Hempel, a diploma engineer, and Erna Hempel (
née Lamprecht). His father died in a Soviet KGB camp in 1947
and his family fled to West Berlin in 1953, eventually settling near
Stolberg, close the Dutch/Belgian border, where he attended secondary
school (Gymnasium) until the age of 17. In 1958 his family decided
to emigrate to Canada. He continued his education in High School in
Winnipeg and later at the Universities of Manitoba and British Columbia
where he graduated with a B.A. in 1965 (mathematics and German), an
M.A. in 1968 and a Ph.D. in German literature in 1973. Before accepting
a permanent teaching position at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick,
Canada, he taught at the University of British Columbia, Trent University
in Ontario, and the University of Alberta.. Although he published
in the field of literature (on Adalbert Stifter), he also became interested
in German-Canadian Studies, in particular the early settlers along
the Petitcodiac River in New Brunswick, such as the Steeves (Stieff),
Lutes (Lutz), Trites (Treitz), Wortman(n), Somers (Sommer), Ricker,
Copple (Koppel), and Jones (Schanz ?) families, which arrived there
in 1766 via Pennsylvania. His membership in the Society of German-American
Studies and the Gesellschaft für Kanada Studien brought him to
the United States and Germany on many occasions to deliver lectures
on his research on these early German settlers. He has published on
the subjects of early German immigration, language acquisition, acculturation,
and assimilation in the German-Canadian Yearbook and the Yearbook
of German-American Studies among others. His book New Voices on the
Shores: Early Pennsylvania German Settlements in New Brunswick was
printed at the University of Toronto Press and published in the fall
of 2000 by the German-Canadian Historical Association. Dr. Hempel
has been teaching German language, literature, and history at Mount
Allison University for 30 years. He resides in Sackville, N.B. with
his wife and family.
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