 He was son of a village-teacher who served as a young man in the German army in Flanders and could not return to his home city for that.During World War II his pan-Celticist ideology was co-opted to support the German war effort, as did pro-Polish and pro-Czech ideology on the side of the allies.After studying in Bonn (1918–), Weisgerber taught as a professor of general and comparative linguistics at Rostock University (1927–), Marburg University (1938–) and Bonn University (1942–).