Karl Verner
Still during his studies, he was given a scholarship that gave him the opportunity to study Kashubian, which is a dialect of Polish. He could go to the Dantzig area. Being truly devoted to linguistics, he spent a lot of time with the local people, listening to their accent (accentology was one of Verner’s lifelong fascinations) and then noting his observations about it. There is an anecdote linked to his devoted linguistic research. As he spoke to so many people, the local police thought he might be a foreign spy. So he had to go to the police station to testify. Since his passport was only in languages that nobody at the police station understood, Verner had to interpret for himself. When he showed the police a letter from a German professor proving he was a linguist, he was finally free to go.