Otto Schlapp was born in Erfurt, in Thuringia, Germany, on 15 May 1859. Schlapp was educated first in his native town and then, at the age of twenty, at the University of Jena. In 1880, the second year of his studies, he came to Scotland to study English and Sanskrit at Edinburgh University. In 1881, Schlapp returned to Germany to continue his studies at Berlin, Leipzig, and Strasbourg universities. Later on, he obtained the degree of Dr.Philos from Kaiser-Wilhelms-Universitaet zu Strassburg (Strasbourg), with a thesis entitled Die Anfaenge von Kants Kritik des Geschmacks und des Genies, 1764 bis 1775: erster Teil einer Untersuchung ueber Kants Lehre vom Genie und die Entstehung der Kritik der Urteilskraft. Returning to Edinburgh in 1887, he taught German at George Watson's College, Edinburgh, and at Edinburgh Ladies' College until 1894. Schlapp became a Lecturer in German at Edinburgh University in 1894, and in 1920 he was appointed Reader. In 1926, Schlapp became Professor of German at the University. His publications include Bilder aus Sizilien (1885), Kants Lehre vom Genie und die Entstehung der 'Kritik der Urteilskraft' (1901), a revision and enlargement of Chamber's elementary German grammar (1904), and a revision and enlargement of Chambers's advanced German grammar (1905). Earlier in his life, in 1899, Schlapp gave up his German nationality, and he became a British subject in 1914. He retired through ill-health in 1929, and received an honorary Doctorate of Laws from his University in 1930. Professor Otto Schlapp died on 26 December 1939.