Interviews with German anthropologists - Video Portal for the History of German Anthropology post 1945

Prof. Dr. Friedrich Kussmaul (1920 - 2009) was born in Bondorf in 1920. He grew up in rural South Germany, where his father and relatives worked as farmers. Being a young man when World War II began, he did several attempts to start his studies. Therefore Kussmaul moved to Göttingen and took courses in Geography and Anthropology, where Hans Plischke was among his teachers.

In 1941 Kussmaul had to join the German Army and eventually became a Prisoner of War. In late 1945 he was disbanded and continued his studies in Tübingen in 1946. He graduated in 1953, with a thesis on the meaning of horses in the Mongolian Culture.

After his graduation Kussmaul took up a position at the renowned Linden-Museum in Stuttgart, where his anthropological and historical knowledge contributed to the museums profile. Throughout the following years Kussmaul not only established departments for different World Regions (e.g.Asia) but also took care of the ethnographic collection. Moreover Kussmaul did several field researches, e.g. 1962 in Afghanistan.

In 1971 Kussmaul became the head chairman of the Linden-Museum, where he worked until his retirement in 1986, after the successful renewal of the Linden-Museum. Moreover he was the editor-in-chief of the anthropological journal »Tribus« for several years.