Wackernagel then spent a short time studying at Oxford, and then began lecturing as Privatdozent in Basel in 1876-1877 winter semester.

[1] In 1902 he was offered a chair of comparative philology in the University of Göttingen and was a Pro-Rector in 1912/13, but as a consequence of World War I he returned to Basel in 1915.

[8] Wackernagel read two courses in 1918-1919, while being a Rector, on "the elements of syntax with special reference to Greek, Latin and Germanic".

"First series" of lectures were published in 1920, it contained themes of "number, voice, tense, mood, and the non-finite forms of the verb".

The book was successful, and in 1924 the "second series" were published "on gender, nouns and adjectives, pronouns, the article, prepositions, and negation".